Hey all,
It’s been about two years since I last posted, but I’ve still been using Justin’s great app. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m still dealing with my wife’s medical issues (Stage 4 cancer and now Stage 4 kidney disease), but she’s a fighter and we’re keeping things at bay.
I’m currently at the intermediate level in Justin’s training, taking things slowly and continuing to learn. My love for classical guitar has always been there, and with my “boss’s” permission (), I recently purchased a classical guitar — a Cordoba C5 spruce top. It took me about three hours in the store, trying out different guitars until this one felt just right. About $390 later, it came home with me.
I’d really like to continue with Justin’s courses, but I want to shift my focus toward classical style since it changes everything — hand position, posture, picking technique, etc. I’d love to see Justin add a section dedicated to classical guitar. I’ve looked online for training similar to his style, but haven’t found anything that compares.
I’m treating classical like I’m starting over: learning to read music and build technique from the ground up. Does anyone here play classical guitar and have recommendations for a solid learning experience? I know there’s free material out there, but I don’t mind paying monthly for something well-structured. A lot of the sites I’ve seen feel scattered, with too many links and not enough guidance.
I used “The Classical Guitar Shed” which, although not Justin, is a kind teacher and community, not “classically” rigid very well organized. Allen has a fair bit of free stuff out there, so see if it is something you like.
“The Classical Guitar Corner” is also supposed to be good, but I haven’t tried that one. It seemed a little more staunch, for lack of a better term.
These courses will set you back the cost of your guitar yearly or so, I think. Plus or minus.
“This is classical guitar “ is free and well regarded. Possibly the most coherent free set of courses I know about.
Robert Lunn has a site with a bunch of lessons for $20. Less coherent a class I think. I like some of his piece lessons.
The DelCamp forum is an interesting resource. I browse it, but haven’t done the DelCamp program or and courses with them.
Hey There, I’m an advanced beginner classical guitarist and I have progressed well with Bradford Werner at https://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/. I think Justin’s site is wonderful for popular music education, but if you want to go classical - I have a Cordoba C9 ($1200) you can’t beat Bradford’s site! Good luck!
Ho Scott I join David in wishing you and your wife all the best.
I’m using the Method Books, video lessons and resources from the site Thisisclassicalguitar.com which starts from the very fundamentals and I think it’s very good. I’m also curios about The Classical Corner, but I can’t find time to check it out.
You’ll love the Classical Guitar!
Hey Sharon…welcome to JG Community…I also play Classical Guitar and learning from Bradford 'site and I have a Cordoba too! Mine is a C5 Iberia. Here on this Community I always felt free to share about both my Acoustic and Classical Guitar progress and it has always been appreciated. Have you already finished Method Book 2? I’m in the key of D but I feela bit stuck at the moment with Sight-Reading. Looking foward to hear more of you!
Since we are comparing classical guitars, I will weigh in with my K. Yiari CY140 but no Cordoba. I rehabilitated it from a decade in a hot attic, so it looks rough by plays like a dream.
I haven’t followed the Werner program, having spent time on the Classical Guitar Shed, but I dropped that recently due to cost vs time spent. Plus a return to less classical pieces. I will have to get set up on his website, I need a little direction again. Well, I always do, I just ignore it from time to time.
I was checking out The Classical Guitar Shed this weekend, it seems to be a complete package, but will still look at thisclassicalguitar.com site more as well. It almost seems completely free alot of books downloading etc. The only issue is feels all over the place, but thats just me because I have not look at it much. So far i love my Cordoba c5 I got this weekend hehe. Thanks all for your wishes on wife.
So we have the same guitar! I know, you wrote it before, but I needed to look into the hole to check the model because I didn’t remember it. I think she’s very elegant with all that gold on the tuning pegs side!
Nice Yairi! I have a steel string Yairi (a 1990 DY67), but my classical guitar is a Cordoba C9 Parlor.
As to the question about classical guitar resources, I’ll repeat the recommendation of This Is Classical Guitar; it’s a good place to start. The book, Pumping Nylon (Scott Tennant), is another worthwhile resource.
While there are some resources on the “start here” page, my more targeted recommendation would be to download the Classical Guitar Method Vol. 1 book. Scroll down on that download page for links to video lessons that go with the book.
Hello! First of all, I hope your guitar helps you through the tough times, I first bought mine to help me through some very tough times and it’s worked.
After finishing Justin’s beginner course I switched to Classical about 18 months ago. I play a 1970’s Yamaha G-60A given to me by a friend.
I started with a one off lesson “introduction to Classical Guitar” with a teacher when on holiday in Seville, Spain and loved it. The teacher kindly gave me some of her old books that she no longer used as she taught using online resources and I can highly recommend the book:
“The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method Volume 1”
to get you started. It’s quite old so you can get a second hand copy cheaply.
I self taught from the book for 6 months before switching to lessons and it helped me to learn to use standard notation by teaching a couple of notes at a time and incorporating them into simple musical pieces, then adding more notes until I had a pretty good grasp of the basics (although I had some hazy memories of learning basic music reading as a child which meant I wasn’t starting completely from scratch).
I then switched to lessons and am following the Trinity College London Classical Guitar graded system - even after having followed Justin’s course I found I had to start at Grade 1 to develop my music reading skills and adapt to the different style.
I found a local teacher but realised after a while that he was a generalist player used to teaching children and I needed a Classical specialist who could answer my specific questions. I ended up back with the teacher from Seville doing online lessons through a platform called LessonFace (US platform, international teachers) and my current teacher is excellent.
If you want a more Justin-like experience, I have considered Classical Guitar Corner https://www.classicalguitarcorner.com/ and they are very responsive if you have questions about the course and the material looks good (I get emails from them and some free content) and if I had a lower budget for lessons I would give them a go.
Hi Silvia! I’m still in method book 2. I suffered a hand injury and couldn’t play for quite a while. Then when I started back I felt stuck and frustrated, so I didn’t make much progress. I’m only in the A minor section, but I’m finally feeling like it’s coming back. Braford helped me through my crisis by suggesting that I practice & play some alternative pieces, so that’s what I did and it helped tremendously! He is a great teacher! I bought the C9, because I like the deep, dark resonance that the cedar top gives me. It’s been great to ‘meet’ you and I look forward to sharing more with you!
Sorry to read about your hand injury Sharon, just take your time and you’ll be back on track before you think! Ah…the key of Am was Romance by Kuffner! I loved that piece and indulged a few months on it because I wanted to play the accompainement part as well and that required so so much practice! There’s the video of me duetting with myself somewhere here in the avoyp section. I’m not much ahead of you in the book, what I really appreciate about being self-taught is that I can go at my own pace and I love it to be really slow. And I love to practice my acoustic too, which requires time and dedication as well…This is a very positive and joyful Community and making friends is pretty easy…I hope you’ll share with us some of your Classical playing…I also want to see and hear your beautiful C9!
Thank you for your caring words, Sylvia! I too love going at my own pace and we are advised to go very slowly, right? That way, eventually, it will all come together. I love being able to discuss our progress and that we are in the same book! That is so much fun for me. I am retired and fairly isolated much of the time. I don’t mind this, because I am a hermit type, but I missed not having anyone to compare notes with. I hope we can maintain our friendship and check in with our progress from time-to-time. My hand is essentially healed now, but I am slow getting back into my practice routine. I know, easy does it and slow and steady wins the race! Take care.
), I recently purchased a classical guitar — a Cordoba C5 spruce top. It took me about three hours in the store, trying out different guitars until this one felt just right. About $390 later, it came home with me.
