Dylan Berman Mark Delpriora Guitar Pedagogy 12 December 2012

In classical guitar, there are two techniques that distinguish an amazing player from an average player, and those techniques are scales and arpeggios. In my opinion, these techniques should be practiced entirely through exercises and studies as opposed to being learned through music as Suzuki suggests. Arpeggios are one of the most common and utilized techniques in the classical guitar repertoire and should be practiced with a metronome to ensure the evenness of each note. The most difficult aspect initially is overcoming endurance. Typically, players can play four-note arpeggio burst, p-i-m-a or a-m-i-p, rather well, but when it comes to repeating the burst and sustaining it, the arpeggio becomes sloppy in tone and rhythm. A player should practice these as relaxed as possible (using open strings) at a slow tempo; then when they feel comfortable, they should play them as quick as possible but only at a tempo that they can execute the arpeggio perfectly. For this particular arpeggio, if the student appears to be getting bored with open strings, a teacher should supply them with the B section of Villa-Lobos's Prelude no. 4 and tell them to use both fingerings p-i-m-a and p-a-m-i with the exact same procedure as was

aforementioned with open strings. The teacher must be sure that the student's fingers while playing this technique are not moving individually (pluck and return) in motion but sympathetically in motion. This technique will give the student much less resistance and tension in the hand and will help them play in a more relaxed fashion. All arpeggios should be played with various amounts of accents and rhythm. Other helpful examples to help develop arpeggios would be Etude no. 1 by Villa-Lobos, Etude no. 6 by Brouwer, and Etude no. 19 by Carcassi. The most important part of left hand arpeggios oddly enough are right hand arpeggios. Because we have already covered that seventy percent of your job is done (but keep in mind that coming up with a solid right hand fingering is most important.) This is true because the left hand will be stationing for at least a few notes at a time so the difficulty of this technique is found in shifting. Of course playing it slow and speeding it up and playing it at different rhythms is a great idea, but in my opinion all of the focus should be spent on the one shift because in classical guitar repertoire that's usually as many shifts as your'e going to have to make. The execution of this is almost entirely based on muscle memory as it is with all fast pieces. So the player should play the chord shapes involved in the arpeggio back and forth, so the shapes of the arpeggio will be engrained in their brain, with a focus on not flexing

their bicep. After their is comfortable a player must work on the quickness of the shift, using a dotted rhythm for the shift from the first chord shape to the second. Once this becomes easy then the right hand fingerings can be brought back. A couple good examples for this Etudes no. 20 and no. 22 by Carcassi. Once the played becomes very advanced technique then Etude. no 2 by Villa-Lobos can be introduced. For classical guitarists, the no. 1 reference for using 3 octave scales or those fingered by the legend that is Andre Segovia. Although these scales are vital in developing technique, I believe they ask beginner students to study to many techniques at one time. It's synonymous with teaching a student calculus before teaching them algebra, geometry, and trig; it doesn't make the slightest ounce of sense. So what I propose is: one octave scales on the treble strings. To reduce the monotony of such difficult drilling, the student could practice the variations of one particular starting on any note, given that the scale is in the same particular key. Ex. playing an E major scale beginning on "a", the second fret, or beginning on "d#", the eighth fret. Practicing scales strictly on the treble strings will reduce the amount of damage that the nails are forced to endure on the bass string. Also, one scale octaves will allow the student to only have to deal with one string crossing at a time, and to learn how to move their arm back and forth across the

guitar to get a better understanding of right hand shifting. These scales should be practiced slowly and once this becomes comfortable then the student may begin playing them with all the different rhythmic variations possible. The teacher must focus on the student's ability on playing legato, ensuring that the right hand plucks at the exact moment the left finger hits the string. Another technique that could make the legato more beautiful is vibrato. V vibrato, is one of those techniques that is extremely subjective. Some people like when a vibrato is really intense and when a vibrato is really subtle, but no matter what your preference is, the player's ability to do both given what the music calls for is important. A great way to master the control of the vibrato is with the aid of a metronome. Moving from the shoulder, the student should wiggle their home side to side at quarter notes, then eighth notes, then of course sixteenth notes, moving with little motion for a subtle vibrato and with larger amount of motion for an intense vibrato. Of course, guitar players want to learn how to shred, and this is learned through scale bursts. First, the student should practice playing just TWO notes consecutively as fast as possible, only on the first string. Once they can do this, then they should throw in another note, then another, and etc. Once four note bursts become comfortable, then they can extrapolate this technique to the octave

scale as I talked about earlier on the treble strings. This will teach the student how to move their right arm and overcome the pest that is string crossing. Once they can do four note bursts, then they can continue to add another, only at a rate so that everything can be played perfectly. Once students appear to be really comfortable playing one octave scales at a pretty good speed, then they may practice the three octave Segovia Scales, and put all of the different techniques together. I believe that scales should be practiced strictly using exercises as oppose to being developd through music. There is just too much going on in playing a scale, and to then throw music on top of it I think is just too much focus on too many things.

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