FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Classical Guitar Technique

Question:
I've been playing guitar for about 18 years, but I'm not a classical guitarist. I understand that classical guitarists play with a different technique than the rest of us. I was wondering if someone could expound on the differences and talk about the advantages disadvantages.

Answer:
Not sure who the rest of you are .I play several styles of guitar and each has a number of differences in technique. Flamenco is a lot different from classical but similar enough to confuse me as a classical player for many years and a new student of flamenco. I'm using lots of rasgueados and picado and tapping the guitar which are all used in classical but not in the same way. I also played fingerstyle and fingerstyle jazz a bit prior to falling in love with the classical guitar sound and repertoire. I use a nonclassical technique in the sense that I play short nail or no nail, free stroke, and often rest my 3rd finger on the top of the instrument, with most work being done by finger and thumb and occasional one more finger. It's not a 'wrong' technique though it belongs to earlier instruments (especially those with doubled courses) and is not all that effective on a modern, nylon strung classical guitar. It is highly effective on an 18th century brass strung cittern ('guittar') and of course it survives almost unmodified for, er, b*njo. There are many things I couldn't play using this position. It's fine for most early lute stuff, some baroque, and some romantic period - and any song accompaniment. It would be useless to try a tremolo-based Spanish piece from this starting point though. I do try to master the thumb-resting, rest stroke based mainstream classical attack by practicing it occasionally but it doesn't sound like me any more, and I tend to go back to my own approach. It suits the Scottish and Irish tunes and songs I happen to be interested in.