Tenor and Classical Guitars

I’ve been doing an exercise to increase my left hand flexibility. Up to now I’ve been havin’ trouble reaching and holding some chords. It’s keeping me from playing Finger Style and forcing me to try and try and try to pick the C chord. I haven’t had time for Classical Guitar because I’m busy whackin’ away at the fretboard. Bah!
My guitar teacher wanted me to be able to span four frets with my four fingers. At first it was a challenge but over time the span got wider and wider. Mostly he had me playing scales and shuffles while keeping my fingers anchored on their assigned frets and nothing more. I've been doing that for a long time and at that festival I was at this last weekend I took one workshop where I noticed my span was far wider than the other people there. That wasn't always the case and I recognized the other students struggles because they were the same as mine last year.

I have also been working on strengthening the pinky finger by squeezing a ball. The pinky is the weak one when it gets four frets out. A lot of times it is just the pinky not holding its own that is making it hard for the rest of them.
 
For the right hand, my gutiar teacher recommends alternating i-a and m-a finger as part of the warmup; you'd alternate i-a on string 1, then string 2, etc. until string 6, then 5, 4, 3, etc. and repeat. Then switch to m-a finger. He mentioned that the pinky is used very seldomly so no need to incorporate it.

For the left hand, I like the spider walk. In fact, we're doing very similar exercises for this month in my online guitar class:

 
Thanks a lot, Clear. I’ll give ‘em a try tomorrow. They look like what I need.

Happy to help.
Here're the music for those exercises; they are played with rest strokes.
Don't get too discouraged if you don't sound good at frist; just surf over to delcamp and you can hear none of us sounded too good on these exercises ATM. But we still have half a month to practice them.

exercise7.jpg


exercise8.jpg
 
My guitar teacher wanted me to be able to span four frets with my four fingers. At first it was a challenge but over time the span got wider and wider. Mostly he had me playing scales and shuffles while keeping my fingers anchored on their assigned frets and nothing more. I've been doing that for a long time and at that festival I was at this last weekend I took one workshop where I noticed my span was far wider than the other people there. That wasn't always the case and I recognized the other students struggles because they were the same as mine last year.

I have also been working on strengthening the pinky finger by squeezing a ball. The pinky is the weak one when it gets four frets out. A lot of times it is just the pinky not holding its own that is making it hard for the rest of them.
Yeah, the spaces between the frets on my guitar are huge and difficult to reach, yet my hands aren’t particularly small. I can play most of the chords I need, but I can’t hold them for fingerstyle. Reaching the bass notes were kickin’ me too.

What’s a shuffle?

I could live without the guitar. I much prefer my mandolins and banjos.
 
Last edited:
Happy to help.
Here're the music for those exercises; they are played with rest strokes.
Don't get too discouraged if you don't sound good at frist; just surf over to delcamp and you can hear none of us sounded too good on these exercises ATM. But we still have half a month to practice them.

exercise7.jpg


exercise8.jpg
Clear, can I ask a question about the notation in exercise 8?
By playing the chromatic scale, I quickly understood the circled numbers (they tell you which string to fret), but I have no idea what the asterisks/flower/snowflakes/suns are meant to indicate. At first I thought it was also a warning to change strings, but the very last symbol has it on the open string, just before moving to the E string. It could just be a typo though.
Are either of these (the circled numbers and the asterisks) conventions in guitar books?
 
Clear, can I ask a question about the notation in exercise 8?
By playing the chromatic scale, I quickly understood the circled numbers (they tell you which string to fret), but I have no idea what the asterisks/flower/snowflakes/suns are meant to indicate.

The asterisks indicate muting the previous note. In these cases, the muting can be done, for example:
- by collapsing the left-hand pinky finger (to press 2 strings); or
- by touching the string with "i" finger (since we're only using the m-a fingers ATM); or
- by touching the string with "a" finger after playing its note; etc.

At first I thought it was also a warning to change strings, but the very last symbol has it on the open string, just before moving to the E string. It could just be a typo though.

I agree with you that it is a typo.

Are either of these (the circled numbers and the asterisks) conventions in guitar books?

I don't know if the asterisk is standard guitar notation for muting. (It is standard notation for piano pedal release; since I play the piano, I have no trouble extending it to guitar string mutes.)
 
The asterisks indicate muting the previous note. In these cases, the muting can be done, for example:
- by collapsing the left-hand pinky finger (to press 2 strings); or
- by touching the string with "i" finger (since we're only using the m-a fingers ATM); or
- by touching the string with "a" finger after playing its note; etc.



I agree with you that it is a typo.



I don't know if the asterisk is standard guitar notation for muting. (It is standard notation for piano pedal release; since I play the piano, I have no trouble extending it to guitar string mutes.)
Thanks so much for all of this information. You've greatly helped my understanding of the notation here!
 
Today, I spent some time listening to Marcin on guitar. Wow! Somethin’ else! I really think he’s great. Have you heard him? Wadaya think?
 
Today, I spent some time listening to Marcin on guitar. Wow! Somethin’ else! I really think he’s great. Have you heard him? Wadaya think?
It's something else alrighty! I like the combination of skills, great sounds. Thanks for the introduction to Marcin. I'll check out more of his work.

The first time I was exposed to this style of playing guitar was International Guitar Night probably 8 or so years ago. Mike Dawes didn't play classical music like this, but used a lot of these techniques.

Another guitarist from that performance who played totally differently to what I'd ever seen until then was Pino Forestiere. I just went to his website to see what he's been up to and he's got a new release where he uses a

LAB Guitar (19-string), tuned in 5 different tunings modified live during the performance.

19 strings! I'm trying to find an image but I'm on my mobile and the effort is currently eluding me.
 
I played my Blueridge TG tonight, mostly scales and chords, trying to get more comfortable with DGBE. I mostly enjoy playing in fifths, but it’s a new month and time for other tunings. I did pretty well, but it’s a lot bigger than a mandolin.

For some mysterious reason I’m having less trouble playing chords. Hallelujah! Maybe I’m finally catching on to them.
 
I started my new book “30 Easy Folk Tunes - Guitar Solos”. I’m playing scales now to get my fretboard memory back. I did fumble through half a song though. I’m using my Classical Guitar to keep from wasting it. It’s gonna be this and fingerstyle. This new attack is to try to play melody (which I can already do) along with the bass. I don’t like to play just melody.

Yesterday I played my Blueridge Tenor, and, today, the CG feels like a bass viol. I think what I’d like is a regular guitar with nylon strings, but I don’t got one of those. So, anyhow, I’m back in the battle with the CG.
 
Last edited:
I started my new book “30 Easy Folk Tunes - Guitar Solos”. I’m playing scales now to get my fretboard memory back. I did fumble through half a song though. I’m using my Classical Guitar to keep from wasting it. It’s gonna be this and fingerstyle. This new attack is to try to learn melody (which I can already do) along with the bass. I don’t like to play just melody.

Yesterday I played my Blueridge Tenor, and, today, the CG feels like a bass viol. I think what I’d like is a regular guitar with nylon strings, but I don’t got one of those. So, anyhow, I’m back in the battle with the CG.
Have you tried nylon folk strings on a regular guitar? Couple different companies make them with ball-ends specifically for acoustics. I haven't done a ton of digging but the ones I found were medium tension. Haven't tried them on one of my acoustics yet, but they worked pretty well on the electric I'm building that I got them for.
 
No I haven’t. I don’t give up stuff easily, so I’m still battling the CG. I do have some nylon guitar strings that someone gave me, but they’re still unused.

To be honest, I wouldn’t even bother with the darn guitar if I didn’t already have it. I’m an Irish Tenor banjo and mandolin man.
Have you tried nylon folk strings on a regular guitar? Couple different companies make them with ball-ends specifically for acoustics. I haven't done a ton of digging but the ones I found were medium tension. Haven't tried them on one of my acoustics yet, but they worked pretty well on the electric I'm building that I got them for.
 
Well, I’ve given the ol’ Classical Guitar another chance. I have a regular guitar book called “30 Easy Folk Guitar Solos“, and, for the past three days, I’ve been working on some solos with accompaniment and doin’ okay — to my great surprise. The book is pretty good. It has four different tunings, good tunes and not a lot of chords. I suppose it’s easy, but, ahhhh . . ., I dunno. I can play the melodies and the accompaniment, but I haven’t put them all together yet. I’ve picked another book too, if this one works out.

I was gonna trade my CG in for a regular acoustic one, but I changed my mind. I hate to give up on things. I’m not usually a quitter, but we’ll see . . .
 
Well, my new CG book came, and, though it’s cheaply made and a disappointment at first, I’m amazed to find that my CG playing is improving! The tunes are very easy, and it covers just what I need — melodies with bass accompaniment. The tunes get more difficult as the book goes on, so it’s still early days. I’m still playing very slowly, but I’m excited to be making any improvement at all with the darned CG.

The book’s author graduated from the same university that I did. That makes her book even better!
 
Well, I’m finally beginning to enjoy the CG. I’m getting closer and closer to playing a recognizable melody with a bass line. I‘m making lots of weird noises too, but few real errors. Anyway, I’m not angry or depressed when I’m through playing so far — Onward and Upward!
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom