Guitar Level II Intermediate

Guitar Level II Intermediate

This material is a continuation of The Guitar Beginners Course. At thislevel the guitar student should feel comfortable with reading basic rhythmsand guitar chords. As in the fist lessons, all the material included here hasbeen chosen to teach the student very important technical and musicalaspects of the guitar technique. For a smooth transition to the material inthese lessons, the student is expected also to be very familiar with all thelessons studied in Level I. Here is a list:

Guitar Level I Course

Guitar Notation Symbols for the Right and Left Hand, frets and strings.Right and Left hand position.Symbols and techniques used for free and rest strokes.Notes on the music staff and all the notes on the guitar first positionDiatonic Scale and C Major Scale.Major, minor and Dominant chord forms with root on the 6th, 5th and 4th

strings.Ascending and descending arpeggios.

Lesson I

The following exercise is from the Guitar Method by Maestro Julio S.Sagreras (Argentina) It is common for the young student to find a piece likethis to be a simple three notes arpeggio.,but as we will soon see there ismuch to learn from this and the following etudes.

In these lessons, the student should pay attention to detail. Every symbolshould be noticed and taken in consideration. Remember, your teacher hastaken care to provide all fingerings for the right and left hands for a everypiece because this will help you learn well and faster. There are importantstudy notes, and also here for the first time chord symbols are provided aswell as harmonic analysis for each piece!

Ex I (Etude #40 Sagreras)

This piece is much more that a simple ascending three notes arpeggio. Is apolyphonic composition of two voices, a bass line ( notes with down stems)and a treble accompaniment. (stems pointing up) It is also very important tobe able to identify which voice carries the melody. The guitar is consideredby most a little orchestra, and as in any good orchestra balance between thevoices or instruments is very important. Here we have a bass melody withand arpeggio accompaniment. Care should be taken to bring out the bassmelody. This can be archived this by playing the bass (p finger) a little

louder but instead we will try bringing the im arpeggio to a second plane sothat the melody can be clearly heard. Bringing out a particular voice ormelody in a piece of music makes the music much more interesting.

We will use this etude to practice the planting of the pim R.H. fingers.Make sure to check that the pim fingers are planted or resting on the 5.4.3strings before playing the C with the p finger. You should do this plantingeach time like a loop. Please note that later we should also practice thisetude without planting, but planting helps teaching your fingers to be veryclose to the strings and ready to play. It also helps the right hand to be steadyand avoid the usual jumpiness of the right hand. Planting is the key toplaying accurately and fast.

The Roman numerals show the chord relationship to the key, the C: indicatesthat the piece is in the key of C Major. Also notice the different chordinversions that result from having notes of a chord to be on the bass line.(Read more about Chords and Chord Inversions in the Music FundamentalsCourse)

As you learn this etude pay attention to the following points:

Play as Legato as possible. All chords should be as connected as possibleavoiding any gaps specially in the melody. In order to play smoothly, fingersleft hand fingers (as well as the righthand fingers) should move as close tothe strings as possible. Take time to study and correct finger movementsof both hands every time you practice , and study one hand at a timefor a few minutes.

When playing open strings, the left -hand fingers should anticipate thechords or notes that follow.

Chose a speed or tempo that is comfortable for you. If you find yourselfstooping often, or going slower or faster at some point then the tempo is too

fast for you! It is much better and more musical to play at a slow tempo thatyou can keep. Use a metronome to practice and to keep track of gradualincrements to develop speed. Remember rhythm is the glue that keeps apiece together.

How to Practice

When studying a new piece, I generally ask the student to concentrate onone hand at a time. First you should study the left hand finger movements orchord position. Try practicing each measures three two five times and take amental picture of the chord forms and movements. Then, practice the righthand formula (which in the case of etude #40 is an ascending arpeggio pim )carefully very slowly until it becomes very natural and familiar to you. Afterthat, practice each measure also three to five times right and left hand. Makesure that each repeat has a purpose. Play slowly and analyze the results soyou can make adjustments and your playing becomes consistently good!Remember quality and not quantity is what counts.

Make note of any measures that need special attention, mark these and workon them first thing every day.

Ex 2 (Sagreras Etude #41)

This etude follows the same chord progression as in Ex 1. Apply the samepractice technique and practice the right hand formula for this etude.


It is important to remember the right hand planting in this etude for tworeasons, one technical and the other musical. Planting the ima helps yourfingers to be ready to play and also serves the musical purpose of muting the1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings as required by the quarter note rest on the first beat ofevery measure. Since each chord is played several times, you may want tomake it more interesting by changing dynamics. Try playing each repeatedchord softer creating an echo effect. You may try doing the same with therepeated notes of the bass melody.


I have reversed the order in which I present two you etudes 46 and 47 for areason. Etude 47 (chords) is the exactly the same chord progression of etude46 (arpeggios) It is a lot easier to learn an arpeggio piece after we arefamiliar with the chord progressions in the piece. This approach has made itpossible for my students to learn quite well a much complex etude(example Leo Brouwer Simple Etude #6 ) in a week or less period. Whilethe same piece took other students months of practice and the results wherestill very poor. We will study Sagreras #47 first and them we will practicethe right hand formula of Etude #46.


Lesson 2

By now, should be quite natural and comfortable for the student to playascending three notes and four notes arpeggios with and without preparation.Lets now apply what we learned in Lesson I to learn this beautiful piece byEduardo Martin (CUBA)

Ex 6 (E. Martin Piece I)

This piece is in the key of D minor, and it has a 4/4 time signature Noticethat bass notes have two stems one pointing down and one pointing up. Thisindicates that this notes belong to both voices the bass and the

accompaniment. It is easier to figure out the rhythm by using the upper voiceas a guide, and as you see you will be playing two eight notes per beat. It isimportant to remember that when having a longer value note on a voice andsmaller values on another this tells you that a voice is sustaining whileanother is in motion. The longer value note will be played in time where itbelongs and sustain while the other notes of the moving voice play wherethey are supposed to according to their value. For students it is a commonmistake to change the rhythm by holding or pausing on a longer note valueand not realizing that the longer value just indicates to sustain the noteagainst another voice (as in this piece).

Study Notes for Ex 6 (E. Martin Piece I)

Read the piece once two get a general idea of it.Use the one measure at a time approach as in Lesson 1. Divide the piece intotwo sections. The repeat sign makes it clear that the first part is just fourmeasures or one system.Study one hand at a time, the left hand movements first.Once the chord sequence is learned well add the right hand arpeggio.From the beginning try to establish a nice balance between the melody onthe bass and the arpeggio.Do not over play the base. You should aim for a melodious clean melody.Study carefully the transition from the 1st part to the 2nd. The LH finger 2should travel towards the G on 6th string III fret as the last note of thearpeggio is played. The last note of the arpeggio is an open E or open 1st

string. It is a very important guitar playing technique to use open strings tofacilitate shifting to other chords and positions, use it!

Ex 7(Sagreras Etude #59)

This is also an arpeggio etude but this time we will practice a four notesdescending arpeggio pami formula combined with a chord. You should try

playing it very slow first. This piece should be used to develop speed as itsounds quite good at very fast tempos. With practice it is possible to play itextremely fast in a very short time. Try planting the a finger as you play thebass. Never let the p finger to conflict (by moving to close to tstarting thestroke to close to ima or traveling to the inside of the hand towards the palmof the hand!)with the movements of the ima fingers.

Study Notes for Ex 7(Sagreras Etude #59)

This lesson will teach you about priority notes. It is always important to beaware of the order of importance of notes within a piece. Of course, all notesand rest are important but in order to maintain the flow of a piece certainnotes will need to be prepared in a particular order, this is what I call prioritynotes. Let’s study measure #5 carefully. So far, we have been playing the Eon the 4th string with the 2nd finger but in this piece we will need to use the1st finger in order to play with the 2nd finger the C sharp on the 2nd string IIfret. There is a tendency among students to place first any notes or groups ofnotes as a chord regardless of the order in which they will be played. Theyoften are not aware of the relationship between a right hand playing patternor formula with the placement of the left hand fingers. This approach most

often causes unnecessary hesitation and a feeling of not having enough timeto shift from chord to chord. Sometimes the student even feels the need tostop playing to place all the notes of the chord before continuing! We do notplay solo guitar by playing chords as blocks. We play the guitar much morelike a piano with complex bass and melody lines and accompaniment.Therefore if we want to make position and chord changes smooth we mostpay attention to detail and use every bit of time to allow for a transparenttransition.

On the fifth measure of this example, the priority notes of course are theones that will need to be played first, the open low A on the 5th string and theopen E on the 1st. Since we are playing a descending pami arpeggio thatmeans that these two notes will give us some time to then prepare the nextnote the 2nd finger on the C# and then the following note E 4th string 1st

finger. If you carefully follow these tactics your guitar playing will becomelike magic, as all transitions will be seamless

Lesson 3Ex 8 (Sagreras Etude # 42)

With this lesson we will practice melodic scale lines using rest strokes.Remember not to try to prepare all the notes of the left hand as when playingan arpeggio piece. As a general rule, when playing scales it is important tolift left hand fingers from the string that you are about to leave so they canbe ready to play on the next string. We also keep any fingers down on notes

that have been played if any other following notes are to be played on thesame string, as chances are that we may play that same note again. Veryoften the student’s fingers are all over the place when playing scales makingthe musical passage much more difficult as well as very choppy.

As always, you will get better results by a slowly and careful study of theim finger movements on a single string. Make sure the rest stroke iscomplete and consistent. If for example, the m finger plays the last note onthe 1st string the stoke should end with the m finger resting on the lowerstring (the 2nd string )and the i finger forward ready to play. As you do thiscareful practice, check also better tone quality.

Study Notes for Ex 8 (Sagreras Etude #42 )

I always ask my students to practice this piece in three stages.

First, play the bass notes only.

Second, go over the melodic line eight notes using the left hand only.

Third, now that you have a better understanding of what both hand aregoing to be doing, play each measure at a time with both hands makingsure that all fingerings are correct, this is most important! Whenplaying scales and crossing from one string to another, we always try toavoid reversed crossing of the right hand fingers. Because of the naturalfinger configuration and positioning of the fingers in the hand, if feels muchmore comfortable and secure to cross from a higher string to a lower using am,i sequence rather than a i,m sequence.


For this lesson you have been assigned two pieces. You are probably a bitworry because you feel that Ex8 may need some work and Ex9 is fivesystem long. I have chosen two pieces two teach you that you canaccomplish more if learn to practice more effectively. You will learn to lookat a piece of music in a different way and learn to recognize patters andsections that are repeated in a music composition. When you do this, thepiece suddenly seems smaller and easier to accomplish. Let’s begin.

The right hand formula I am sure is quite easy for you at this point and theleft-hand positions have also been used in the previous studies. You need tobe aware that the quarter note rests (muting) on the upper voice must beexecuted by resting the right hand im fingers on the two treble strings thatare still vibrating from playing the previous chord. You will mute the chordat the very instant that the p finger plays the bass note. Because you havegotten used to play the notes always after preparing, it may take some timeto just place the fingers on the string to mute and not play the notes. Mutingis a very important guitar technique because in music rest are as important asthe notes themselves.

I have notated this etude for you twice and added study marks on the secondversion of it.

Sagreras Etude #61

I have marked section A to show you that it repeats three times in the piece.It appears partially in section B with a little variation of two measuressection C. Then we find this four measures again in section D. It is usual inmusic to repeat just as it is in any conversation. Careful repetition withsubdle changes and variations makes a music composition much interestingand gives it unity. Also, it makes it for us much easier to learn.

So you can see now that if you learn to identify elements and sections thatrepeat in a piece the work becomes less. Then, practice those segments thatare different or may require a different technique as the last two measures ofthis Etude for example. The last C will be played once an sustained whileplaying G,E and then simultaneously the E and the C. Remember the Cbelow the C and E is sustained not played again.

Lesson 4Ex 10 (Sagreras Etude #65)

We are going to continue with this beautiful etude also by Julio Sagreras. Ithas a melody that is played with rest strokes of the a finger, an im arpeggioaccompaniment and a bass line that descents chromatically in the first fourmeasures. I have written the progression as half note chords for easier study.You should practice the chord sequence until you are able to play it asconnected as possible and then practice the etude in its original arpeggioform. Add some dynamics as well, you could try playing the chords in eachmeasure louder or may be mf the first chord and p the second. The exercisecan sound quite just as chords. Be creative, keep the beat and enjoy yourpractice.

Points to remember:Try to find and mark similar sections.Since the same note is repeated several times within the same measure, trynot playing the note exactly the same way.Pay attention to Sagreras Dynamic markings in this piece.In order to bring the melody (upper voice) out, remember the marked reststrokes of the a finger.

Slow down at the end with a ritardando to prepare the listener for the end ofthe piece and listen to the last note sustain.


This lesson introduces the slurs, ascending and descending. Slurs are veryimportant, we use them in melodic lines. Several notes as a chord may beused also simultaneously as a slur, and very often we use them whenplaying fast scale passages. When playing a descending slur, it is muchbetter and efficient technically to position the fingers of the left handinvolved in slur at the same time. Once the fingers are positioned, thespecified right hand finger will strike the first note (higher note). Then as thestring vibrates a finger of the left hand will pull with a movement sort ofsimilar to that of a right hand doing a free stroke to produce the lower note.It is not necessary to pull excessively fast or hard to produce a nice clearslur, but it is important that the finger holding the note the slur is going toremains secure in place. In the future it will be possible for you to play bothascending and descending slurs with just the left hand.

When I practice slurs, I usually play or strike both notes with my right handas in a scale form and the try to match the volume and balance when I playthem as slur. Very often a note of the slur may sound too weak or too loud,so finding the right balance, speed and playing strength takes diligence.

It is a good idea to isolate the different slur combinations found in the pieceand to play them all over the finger board on all the strings. Let’s write theslur formulas for Etude 77.a) 1,0 (finger 1 to open string)b) 3, 1c) 4,2

Start by practicing these formulas on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stings over severalpositions. Playing slurs may be a bit hard on your hands first so don’t overdoit and if it your fingers hurt that means you need a brake.

To play ascending slurs, you will play the first note and then hammer thesecond. You may find pieces that contain slurs of several notes where onenote is played and then the others will sound resulting from severalascending or descending slurs. Etude 78 is a little dance and a fun way topractice slurs. You may want to make your own practice slur formulas fromthis piece.


In this lesson, we will study Etude #84. It is a Romance like piece, with anarpeggio formula for the right hand. It uses notes in higher positions and itpresents the difficulty of bars. The Barra o Cejilla (represented by the singsC or B) is the technique of holding down two or more strings with a left-hand finger (usually finger 1).

We will use this piece to improve the way we practice and will brake it intoseveral sections. As you study the piece make note of each position youneed to be at and write it down on your music. The first stage of our study,will be practicing just the first measure to learn well the right-hand arpeggio.

a)

Practice this measure until you can play it as a loop smoothly. Also, makesure the to play the melody with a rest stroke of the a finger.\

Next, practice the transition from the first measure to the second because itis at this point that we shift positions (from the 1st to the 5th.position) Weneed to make sure the shift is smooth and we will be able to do that and feel

comfortable each time if we get ready as we play the E open string. I havemarked this for you in the example.

b)

In next stage will practice the Bar on the V fret. Playing cleanly6 all thenotes in a barr may l requite lots of patience and a bit of work. It is a goodidea to practice the bar first in higher positions as it usually requires lesseffort than in lower positions. Start your practice by pressing down onlythree strings, this is a half bar.. Play each string several times slowly andlisten for tone quality and buzzing. A very slow practice is required becauseyou need to get feedback from your playing and you also need to analyzewhat needs to be done in order to improve. Ideally, each repeat should bebetter than the previous, do not repeat mindlessly!. Make little adjustmentsand have the 1st finger as close as possible to the fret but not on top. Whenyou learn to play bars, you will find that only very little pressure is required

in order to press the strings. I like to think of it instead as resting the stringson the frets.

c)

Also at this time, we need to be aware of a common problem with piecesthat have short notes before a shift as they are played too short or not playedat all. The player is usually to worry about making it to the next position orplaying the next note and becomes careless . I found that the best way forme to execute the smoothest and most elegant shift is to listen carefully tothese short notes that happen just before. Keeping the beat and playing thecorrect rhythm gives us a better sense of timing and also assures us to haveenough time to shift. Practice these measures at a very slow tempo with ametronome and make it the most important point not to miss the last threenotes played by ami before shifting.

d)

With section d), we will practice shifting from the E on the XII fret (IXposition) to the B on VI position. As you play the B, prepare the E on the 5th

string by moving your 1st finger towards the E on the 5th string. Also, use theopen strings as marked to prepare the coming 1/2 bar on the next measure.There are three open notes before the bar, so plan ahead and the shift will beeasy.

e)

This shift from the IV position to the D# and F# on the first position is notvery easy as there are no open notes to give us some extra time. Again, listencarefully to the timing of the last three notes and make sure they come outclear. If you practice well section e), you will master it in a few minutes.

f)

Here the students usually block the open B and G as they get ready toposition the C on the 5th string. Practice for this section only6 those noteswithin the rectangle and try holding the 2nd finger on the G 1st string as longas possible as the 3rd finger gets ready traveling closer to the C on the 5th

string. Once you are able to arrive comfortably to the C, do a few repeatsconcentrating on preparing the following notes the C on the 2nd string and

the A on the 3rd string notes that will follow right after playing the C on the5th string.

f)

We will now practice the last section and we will need to prepare the listenerfor the end of the piece. To do this, we will add a little ritardando or rit.(slow down gradually) right when we play the first E of the descending bassline one measure before the last. Remember, you will need to slow downgradually and once you gain control and the rit feels just right it is possibleto change the ritardando’s beginning point a few beats before.

Now that we have quite a good idea about this piece, we are ready to play itfrom beginning to end. I hope these wonderful studies and our studyapproach of them will help you learn much faster I am also sure that theyhave giving you a solid foundation to continue learning more about theguitar from other Julio S. Sagreras etudes from the 2nd volume as well asfrom guitar etudes and pieces by other guitar composers. So here is thecomplete Etude # 84, have fun!

We will use the first three measures to practice the arpeggio formula andalso shifting smoothly to the 5th position

Documents

Guitar Level II Intermediate