Thread: Getting into Classical and Neoclassical on Pickstyle Guitar

Hi.

My name's Tyler, and after a few months over a year of playing guitar, I've become extremely interested in classical music. I used to play progressive rock and progressive metal, which carries all kinds of influences from acoustic, jazz fusion, etc.

I wanted to ask what musicians/composers would be good for me to listen to, in order to "kick-start" my classical studies. I've already listened to (and really like) Yngwie Malmsteen and his idol, Nicolo Paganini. Paganini's pieces are fun, fast, and challenging on guitar with a little drive and a Shawn Lane type reverb, and sound great.

I'm specifically looking for musicians and pieces that play well on pickstyle guitar, rather than the traditional fingerpicked classical guitar. Paganini works extremely well like this, especially *shred* type pieces like Caprice No 24.

I love writing my own music, and I just want to learn more about some songs easily translated to guitar, so I can learn more techniques for writing classical on guitar. Sorry if this is in the wrong thread.

Hopefully for my 15th birthday I'll get a 7-string guitar, opening up a whole world of possibilities.

Thanks!

If you're serious about classical guitar, I would say drop the electric guitar for awhile and get yourself a nice classical guitar, that is, if you don't own one already and get yourself a good classical guitar teacher.

Most of the literature for classical guitar is mostly written by Spanish composers.

Checkout these composers: Sor, Barrios, Tárrega, and Rodrigo.

Have a look at Robert Fripp's "Fracture".

Look up some current performers like Ana Vidovic on YouTube. You need to have the correct stance, seated with left foot elevated on a stand which you can buy cheap. You can get a classical guitar for not a whole lot of money. The neck is wider and the strings are further apart.

I played steel string as a teen and now classical. It is not that difficult of a transision. There is a great magazine called Classical Guitar that I subscribe to as well. Not to mention many books and DVD's to help.

Just watch some of the videos of true classical guitar on YouTube, you will be amazed how nice a guitar can sound when it is not playing rock n roll.

Thanks for all the helpful comments guys.

I don't play rock and roll, I play progressive, which is in some cases, a lot closer to classical than most other types of music.

I like a semi-acoustic progressive band called Opeth, and their singer is an amazing fingerpicker. I've learned lots of his parts, but they're all on steel string guitar. Will this be helpful starting out on a nylon string guitar? I've never played one before, so now at my net visit to the music shop I may be tempted to pick one up and try it.

Oh, I also bought the book Classical Studies
for Pickstyle Guitar for around seven dollars, which has lots of Bach and Paganini.

Thanks again guys. (If I do start classical guitar by the way, I will continue to persue my interests on electric, and probably write most of my pieces on that, unless I find some joy in nylon strings that I don't with my electric.)

It'd be very hard to find a good repertoire of classical guitar music to play using a pick, so I pose to you 3 options:

1: look hard and long (sounds like too much effort to me)
2: I've forgotten the 2nd option
3: try using cello pieces - they fit wonderfully onto guitar a lot of the time, and most of each piece is done on just one string, which is certainly a benefit for pick users

If you're not entirely sure what to listen to or play, try researching classical music chronologically and listening to the key composers for guitar and otherwise. If you're a few pieces in and haven't found the sound you're looking for, move on to the next era. I myself am a fan of Renaissance and Baroque (Dowland, Bach, Weiss) and the complete opposite end of the scale (Schoenberg, Berio). Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of guitar music for the latter. Anyway, I've blabbed on about that for too long. End mini-yet-unneccesary-rant.

Could I hear some of your demos?
Playing Paganini after less than 2 yrs would be impressive!