How to Get Started with Classical Guitar: www.classicalguitarshed.com/beginner-classical-guitar/

Thank you to my teacher in college 30 years ago., Dr. Ming Fang for correcting all of these issues that I came with to his studio. I have carried all I have learned throughout my life with my guitar. Where ever you are now Dr., thank you.

I just started and this video is a game changer. Not everyone can afford private lessons. And the attention to detail is going to save me from so many mistakes!!!! I also have a very serious spine injury and ordered the guitar support. Best vid ever'

I am just starting the classical guitar (been playing acoustic steel-string for over 40 years), and this was of great value to create correct habits from the beginning. I am going to watch every one of Allen's videos. Thanks!

First time I grabbed a guitar it flew into space, so I know what you are saying

“Dont touch the top of the guitar” Me, who plays flamenco on my classical guitar, “too late” lmao

well after 3 months of playing guitar i can successfully tell you i've done none of these but i was holding the guitar upside-down

I am a self taught guitarist and now have to unlearn 2 years of pretty much all of these mistakes😅. Pray for me.

"Where is he bracing now? I don't know". All said with a straight face. Brilliant 😂 Another outstanding video. So many pearls so clearly and succinctly communicated, thank you.

"push through the note" i love it...this helped out a lot. thank you for this video.

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge .

I taught classic guitar at college level while in my early 20s. My teacher had noticed that I had a good sense of instruction. Your are able to tie in, real world scenarios to make your point. This promotes understanding and greater retention. Your presentation is also well produced.

Right on the nail! Have battled with all of these both personally, and helping other students. Thank you.

Incredibly helpful video, thank you! I just started about two and a half weeks ago, so I haven't fully developed bad habits yet, I've stopped bracing because of you, so thank you so much for that. However, bicycling is something I struggle to fix. Kind of a hard concept to identify. Perhaps the problem is I'm practicing on a steel string acoustic for now until I can buy a classical.

I'm self taught and after years of playing I have developed the bounce. I think it's mainly lack of practice on the classical guitar as I play other styles too. I'm hoping it will decrease as I practice more, it's very annoying and stopping me from playing pieces that I used to play easily. At least I'm aware of it now and that it's not just me. Thanks for highlighting it in this video.

Your information very helpful, and absolutely educational. Thanks

Bouncing, splayed finger, bicycler here. 🤣 thankfully, I am very new. 1 year of practice with no formal training. Just a book and some you tube. This is going to help me improve a lot. Thanks for the well delivered and very informative video. It was a pleasure to watch.

Thx for the videos. Insightful and funny at times. Keep up the good work.

Just starting out with classical guitar and this video is super helpful, thanks!

Really helpful stuff, and vindication for some of the things I've done naturally while playing. I'm a self-taught guitar player like many, and there is so much conflicting information. I taught myself to finger-pick and NEVER braced my hand against the guitar with my pinky. I've seen so many people do this and have even been told I was playing incorrectly, but it was incredibly uncomfortable to have any part of my hand touching the guitar because it completely immobilizes your pinky and also restricts your range of motion for your ring finger, which is vital to have.

THANK YOUUUUU!!!! Pretty good tips were these. They helped a lot.

Just recently stumbled upon your channel and just in time since I think I'm going to give playing the classical guitar a shot. Hope to learn much from your videos.

This lesson is so important. Very good video and instruction. Thank you .

Excellent video. This is really eye-opening!

I'm probably not the first one to mention this, but you're completely wrong about banjo technique. The reason the pinky and ring fingers anchor the right hand has nothing to do with dampening sound or weakness in "self-taught" players. The picking technique for a 5-string banjo is completely different from a classical guitar: if I were to use the same technique on a nylon string guitar as I do on my banjo I would rip the strings right off. The fingers are held perpendicular to the head (the drum head) and usually the more force the better. Also, you do not want freedom of movement: the emphasis in the right hand is on keeping the fingers together. The other reason to anchor the hand is to use different hand positions (closer to or further from the bridge) to achieve different tones, especially when playing up the neck. If your pinky and ring finger aren't touching the head there's no reference point for smoothly moving the right hand away from the bridge. Classical guitar and 5-string banjo technique evolved from different places independently. The players who pioneered modern bluegrass playing were banjo players first and did not adapt the technique from classical guitar playing. The reason the technique is different is because it's a different thing, not at all because it's a deficient version of classical guitar.

This is Excellent! Thanks for sharing. peace

Thanks for the info Allen! Very helpful, and it's a pleasure to watch you teach!

Big fan. I love your personality and so articulate, great knowledge and tips. Subscribed and watching all your videos this Saturday with my big ol' classical guitar on my lap. You are terrific.

Thanks for the great lesson.

Always, always great to review. Thanks

Great tips. Thanks a lot for sharing!

“bicycling”...awesome tip. I’m a beginner and glad I learned that now. Thanks

Thanks for the time you put into your videos. You are very patient in your approach to teaching. I've subscribed and look forward to watching the rest of you videos. Thanks again! John

Good stuff. Will definitely check out your other videos man. Subscribed.

Great lesson, Thank you!

Great considerations. A must for all guitar players!

This video was very helpful - thank you for the time you put into it.

Thanks for the good hints! Bouncing by bicycling is a serious mistake to check, which is unnoticed before. Hope I have it not.

this is a great informative video. thank you for posting

Thanks, very helpful. I feel like you've been watching me play. I've been guilty at time of all the errors you mentioned. Especially the bouncing.

awesome tips buddy! Thank you for such a great lesson:))

Thank you very much!. That was very informative.

I'm definitely a cycler, and a finger splayer. I remember looking at videos of how you're supposed to pluck the strings, but when I tried I would also hit the adjacent strings. So the bicycling was my solution. I guess I'll have another try at it. I would love a video on how to pluck properly while avoiding hitting other strings. The guitar strings are such a small space to work within, especially if you have fatter fingers!

Tanx a lot dear Allen .that was so intersting, extremly nice n useful👏👏👏🤗🤗🤗😍😍😍

Helpful! Thank you!

this is such an incredibly good video...thanks for posting it

Thanks a lot. I make pretty much all the mistakes. I'm trying really hard to get my wrist straight, but I bend it automatically as I'm used to it. I wish I had watched this video two years ago.

I mostly play fingerstyle and hawaiian slack key, and was told to use my pinky as a support to the guitar top to keep a good reference. However, getting told to do that repeatedly I was never able to do that. I just never got the hang of that. Now I want to learn some classical gutiar, I am positive it will help me with fingerstyle and slack key as well. Plus there are so many beautiful classical pieces to listen to. would be wonderful to play some of them. These videos are very informative, thank you

As a music education grad, it's so interesting to see the parallels and differences between good piano technique and that of classical guitar. Both strive for economy of motion. I just bought a student classical guitar for myself. Watching your videos reminds me that there is much I can learn to practice before I even play a note. I plan to take lessons but I will refer to your videos to allow me to ask intelligent questions of my future teacher(s). Special gratitude for offering all this for free--a sign of a dedicated player who shares for the love of the art and craft of music!

Super lesson thank you for the bicycling correction tip>

I found this really useful. Excellent tutorial. Thank you. Will check out your website

Love your teaching. Have a few questions: 1. I just started learning the guitar. I love classical guitar sounds, but I also love country, blues and even some rock licks. If I focus my attention on classical, will I still be able to play those other forms when I feel like it? 2. I just bought one of those rests for your leg, but without it, the guitar slides off my leg, I feel like I have to fight with the guitar to keep it on my lap, either with pressing it with my right arm (then it wants to squirt out away from me at the bottom), or holding on with my left hand (which makes it hard to move to a different location quickly), both violate my relaxation. Everyone (teacher) on KZfaq seems to hold it effortlessly and it doesn't go anywhere. I am a former bodybuilder/powerlifter and have highly developed legs (so they are roundish - not fat) nothing for the guitar to hang on or hang up on. So is there something really wrong with my physiology?? 3. I don't want to grow my fingernails, so is it ok to use metal fingertips or something? Anyway, I'm retired now and am devoting a lot of time to this and really want to be a good player.

I think you really did a fantastic job with this video. I'm self taught and your videos help me immensely.

This is great stuff, please continue making these, perhaps best practices with sight reading and making breakthroughs in sight reading and reading music.

it really is a simple as opening and closing hand...finally understanding that now, very cool

Brilliant - thank you.

Hi Allen. Thanks so much for the video. I am a self taught classical guitarists and I am always looking for some way to improve. My dad has played guitar all his life and so has my brother, but I am the only one that has really decided to play classical. I am 17 years old and have played guitar for some years and classical for about 1 1/2 years. While I thankfully don't have any of the problems mentioned here except I might "bicycle" a little, it has shown me what to watch out for and has greatly instructed me. Thanks again, you teach amazing!

thanks, good lesson

Great video!

Very illuminating indeed.

Thank you!!!

This is a very helpful video.

Thank you soo much

Hi Allen M.. Good job..I was self-taught and like rightly stated I realised the drawbacks in my playing Classical Guitar and some of them are applicable to me and I am changing my approach as mentioned and demonstrated in this video to rectify.. Thanks so much.. Please keep up this good job..warm cheers..siva..gtr.. India..👍😊🎶🎸

Good points..thanks much.

Started with a Yamaha classical, age 21. Now 72 and play classical, steel, 12 string and electric. Have been anchoring with my pinky, but now want to anchor with my forearm. Think this teaching will enhance playing in all genres.

What a trip! I was Just watching a video of a man repairing Willy Nelsons guitar "trigger" he kept talking about that hole. then you mentioned it here...

hey , really thanks for the tips , i started playing guitar by my self. never paid attention in right hand technics , bycicling and claw is something now on i'll paid attention!!!

HI! Thanks Shed, I made some mistakes, but i think now I got it and I will work on that. Great video!

Hello. It has been a while since you've done this vid. The "common errors" someplaces did and someplaces did not resonate with me. I do "spade my fingers" and didn't really realize it. But I spent hours following John Williams book that taught something that looks like 'bicycling' but emphasized a good "follow through". But you and my past instructors (and instructors in proxy like Fernando Sor) justified each other on parts of the need to worry about your wrist and tendons, practice, find a way to practice the exajerated motion. I second the person who asked for a video about nails and string care. Also, sometimes the "claw" pattern can be beautiful in and of itself (Jerry Reed or Chet Atkins) For those who are into fusion or a fusion of genre's like me, those two are where classic guitar and country guitar cross paths.

Excellent video, thank you.

Thank you very much for this - I am also self taught, and with the help of this video I have recognized I have 2 out of five bad habits: bicycling and splayed fingers. Which are in a way related to each other. I think the single most valuable tip you gave in this video is to teach ourselves to keep fingers together, touching each other. In a way, it is counter-intuitive. But when you go several steps back, you immediately see the point - progress in technique happens almost instantaneously. My guess is that in this way you achieve 2 positive outcomes: you limit the amount of movement of each finger so it is the best way how to achieve movement economizing, but also - this helps you with precision, because by touching other fingers you actually give each finger good reference point in the space. Do you think this is true? At the beginning, it is kind of uncomfortable to hold fingers close to each other as you explained - because it brings tension to whole hand. I understand that it is the temporarily correction (example of tree branch you mentioned) - but, as some other watcher asked you, do you think that using several rubber bands might help us achieve such habit without this tension in fingers? I tried it today, it looks silly ( pasteboard.co/JfxurkS.png ), but it seems to work very good.

You deserve more views my friend. very nice videos you have. congratulations for the work!

You're worth you're weight in gold. I studied classical guitar many many years ago I quit playing for 20 years. I'm bidding on a Ramirez guitar classical of course and I'm going to, I want to play The works of Sor. I am 68 years old. This is my bucket list. You're helping me recognize my bad habits

great lesson ... not only for students but for teachers too...

Brilliant! Really useful:thank you.

This was really beautiful!!

Initially I use my pinky as a reference point when finger picking. I don't really anymore, but it was a useful crutch

When you said "low ceiling on this", I really thought you were gonna tell some joke about smacking your hand on the ceiling due to bouncing it so much

Thanks again!

This was incredible! Can you recommend a video to watch as the first thing when getting into classical guitar? Thanks!

I WILL CONTINUE TOUCH THE GUITAR TOP THANK YOU VERY MUCH

I love classical guitar , and to be honest i'm guilty of some of these, thank you so much for taking the time to explain. Now off to practice , oh by the way I subscribed to your channel, keep these vids coming, very very helpful

Sir, do you have any videos on tone production? I think that is very important. It would be great if you had a video on that. You are an awesome teacher!

so nice!

I know I’m 8yrs behind but this is worth sharing. I got cured of pinky bracing when I had no choice but to play a Yamaha silent guitar for a few months. There is nowhere for the offending pinky brace, you just learn to float and it does make tone better.

Thanks...ALL helped me a bunch..

really helpful, thanks!

Dude, thank you!

I'm self taught! Thank You for the tips !!!

I really enjoyed your lesson. I am a middle aged engineer just starting my 3rd year of lessons. (Never too late to start.) I see I do about 3 of the 5 errors you pointed out am encouraged by your video to work on these. Do you have any videos on the thumb? I struggle controlling my thumb, especially playing tremolo. I tend to swing my thumb in a clockwise motion lifting about an inch off the strings. My teacher says to just stop doing that, but easier said than done. Thanks for sharing!

I have just started Classical Guitar and was surprisingly ok except the 'Bicycle'! That improved my sound in 2 seconds! Thanks!

Thank you! :)

Nice Video.

Thanks!

Thank you !!! I have learned to fix some bad habits !!! thank you You are a great instructor !!!

enjoyed the video. The hole in Willie Nelson's guitar is not from bracing. The hole is because he uses a pick. He says it himself in interviews.

This comment is about some misrepresentations of technique in reference to steel string plectrum playing and banjo pickers. Most teachers of flat picking recommend some kind of anchor to stabilize picking technique and tone. I have found that I use my palm on the edge of the bridge others use the pinkie, but most of the best flat-kickers/bluegrass pickers use some kind of anchor, things can happen very quickly in this genre. Banjo players, especially those playing Scruggs style with lots and lots of forward and reverse role and lots of syncopation use an anchor of some sort, almost always the pinkie, sometimes, nay almost always, very lightly and for different sounds and picking patterns it can be moved slightly, but is usually well anchored. Things on the Banjo happen very rapidly much of the time. Playing Classical Guitar is a w hole different world. I have taken up Classical Guitar at the age of 77. Sight reading has not been a problem as I have played Classical and Jazz piano since I was 4 years old. the stability of the right hand is not nearly the issue as it is in flat picking, but from time to time placement on or on the junction of bridge and top is helpful. There are so many techniques involving position of the right hand for tone color or use of tremolo techniques, playing harmonics and many other techniques in playing classical guitar, that your assertion that an anchor is more trouble than it is worth is correct. More important is left hand technique, placement of the thumb is very important for classical guitar. Players using a pick, finger picks, used in "Travis or Chet Atkins" styles of Finger Picking also wrap the thumb around for chording, the thumb is often used to fret bass strings, usually only for the "E" string in standard and sometimes with other tunings. This technique does not work on the 2 inch wide fretboards of classical guitars, unless of course, one has very long fingers. I rarely use the thumb when playing even the narrowest fret boards of steel string guitars. I have spent lots of time working on thumb placement on Classical Guitar even though my use of the thumb for fretting while flat picking is almost nonexistent. I would appreciate any tips on how to make Full Barre chords like F orF Sharp, or even for partial barre chords. I also would appreciate your recommendations on how to keep the thumb of my left hand stable. Flat pickers often will wrap the thumb around the neck even if the chord is not a full 6 string chord. I suspect that this is because of the often narrow fingerboards of steel string guitars intended to promote the use of the thumb rather than a barre. Sincerely Yours Don Denison

THANK YOU VERY MUCH GREAT LESSON

Willie Nelson's hole comes from the picking of his classical guitar (Trigger) . His band mates said you can see it come off in pieces like shrapnel when he is playing on stage. However willie stated in an interview he likes to put his fingers in it.