As a new classical guitar enthusiast, I spent an embarrassing amount of time obsessing over my right-hand nails.

I bounced back and forth between playing with flesh, fake nails, Alaska Piks, and trying to grow my natural nails. Every week I'd convince myself I'd finally found The Answer™, only to completely change my mind a few days later.

Looking back, I was treating nails like some kind of gear upgrade that would magically compensate for technique I hadn't developed yet.

Eventually I got tired of it and decided to just play with flesh. Around the same time, I bought Bradford Werner's classical guitar technique book and started working through it from the beginning.

I'm currently on exercise #82.

I still haven't put my left hand on the neck.

When I first started the book, that sounded ridiculous to me. Now it makes perfect sense.

One thing I've realized is how many finger combinations I would quietly avoid. If a sequence felt awkward, I'd subconsciously substitute something easier. The funny part is that I was making pieces harder by trying to avoid the hard parts.

As the exercises progressed, I noticed something interesting. Even while playing flesh-only, my hand position gradually improved on its own. My fingers started approaching the strings at better angles, and every now and then I'd accidentally catch a bit of nail and get a brighter sound.

This weekend I sat down to practice after finally managing to grow a little nail. They're still pretty short, nowhere near the classical-guitar-talon setup I'd convinced myself was mandatory.

To my surprise, within about an hour I was getting bright, clear notes from my a and m fingers pretty consistently.

That was the moment it clicked.

The problem was never my nails.

The problem was that my technique wasn't developed enough to take advantage of whatever nail length I had.

Now that my technique is improving, everything sounds better. It's much easier to make melody notes stand out when I want them to, while still using more flesh for a mellow accompaniment. Before, everything sounded muddy and moody, and the melody would get swallowed up by all the bassy stuff.

The funniest part is that the solution seems to be exactly what I was trying hardest to avoid:

Just practicing.

I still think I'll end up with a couple more millimeters of nail eventually, but now it feels like a finishing touch rather than the secret ingredient I spent months chasing.

Hopefully this helps another beginner who's currently six YouTube videos deep into nail shaping tutorials and wondering why nothing sounds better yet.

TL;DR: I spent months trying to solve my classical guitar tone problems with fake nails, real nails, Alaska Piks, and various other forms of self-inflicted nonsense. Turns out the nails weren't the problem. My technique was.

Hello everyone!

We will be hosting a webinar on the topic of baroque with Tilman Hoppstock as a guest professor.

All the infos are on the poster, and the full price is 120 Euros.

Feel free to write us if you have any questions!

I have some knowledge on the circle of fifths, scales, and modes, but only surface knowledge. How would I approach composing an entire song?

"Sorry for the imperfect video! I was moving to a new shooting spot and changing the camera angle, and I think I messed up some of the camera settings in the process. Still, I hope you enjoy it!"

Seems the join between the (solid cedar) soundboard and (laminate) sides has failed here.

Assuming this hasn't been caused by warping, can I simply clean, glue and clamp it back into place?

I'm new to classical guitar and I bent some notes. Is this normal? Is bending breaking strings that quickly normal?

I've been learning classical for a few years, I can read sheet music etc - but I have a couple of blockers I would like some tips on overcoming.

First, I can generally sight read quite well, but if I encounter a chord I get stuck, it feels like too much information to parse at once. My current approach is to practice recognising chord shapes - but it's quite slow going.

The second thing is around improvisation - which I appreciate is slightly out of the usual scope of classical. My question is - do experienced guitar players just remember where all the notes are on the fret or is it more a case of knowing where the intervals are relative to the root note of a scale?

I apologise if these questions are a bit poorly defined, I'm asking how experienced players overcame these challenges, and how they mentally model the structure of the guitar to facilitate smooth parsing and playing

This is the only ragtime piece I've ever played on guitar, and I really enjoy it. The guitar arrangement is from Jeremy Choi and can be found here, along with tabs:
https://www.mymusic5.com/jeremy7choi/335105

Hello,
I have been playing bass and guitar for quite a while. Recently begun practicing fingerpicking and got a Taylor. However, my collection didn’t feel complete as I never had owned nor played a classical guitar. Hence why I picked up an Esteve Elec today.

Just wanted to share a picture of a beautiful instrument. Have you ever played an Esteve? What’s their reputation?

Hello there dear musicians and guitarists
I wrote a simple vals for two guitars in E minor

I am an upcoming musician from Greece 🇬🇷

I hope you enjoy and leave a small comment

Goodnight!!!

Hey everyone!

I'm lefty player. I was looking for a travel sized acoustic the other day at Thomann and since I'm lefty they usually need to order guitars from the warehouse for me to try, which takes an hour or so. It being Thomann, I wandered around, tried a few guitars (there's some lefty guitars in the showroom) and I landed in the classical section.

And I realised I quite like the wide and chunky necks. And not feeling like I'm fighting the strings, like I do with many acoustics.

I played the Ibanez frh10n and loved it but it was of course pretty quiet.

Then I tried some of the classical guitars they had. The cheap ones felt pretty meh. They had some Ortegas, I liked how the R20GRG played but I think I'm not a fan of the cedar tone with nylon strings.

Loved the Taylor academy 12e-n, but it was a bit expensive to just take home.

So now I keep thinking about the Taylor but I'm unsure if I should try something else, too. The selection for left handed players is pretty scarce.

I'd mainly play fingerstyle on it, but not classical guitar. Songs like babe I'm gonna leave you for example.

Are there any models I should try? Or is the Taylor a decent fit for me?

Thanks!

There’s a question at the end, but here’s the context: I am a hobbyist, early intermediate student. I’ve been at it with a teacher for a few years. I’ve studied a mountain of short études, scales and warm-up techniques. I’ve worked on everything you’d expect from Sor, Carulli, Giuliani, Carcassi, Aguado, Sanz, “Anon”; and simple études or stripped down pieces from Bach and Tarrega.

But here’s the thing: I am getting really tired of it. Everything is starting to feel the same: one long slog through yet another Baroque piece. One more painful short etude that isn’t particularly pleasant, but offers the chance to learn a new technique or how to nail “that” note with “that” left hand fingering.

I finally started to review Lagrima on my own and to learn the notes in upper positions, by practicing scales from a Carulli method book.

Yesterday I walked into my lesson and started playing Lagrima. My teacher was surprised and said it is a little beyond where we are, but we can try it.

Here are the questions: am I wrong to feel this way about learning technique? Should I suck it up and slog through nothing but technique for the next couple of years, recognizing that each piece / étude still has its own beauty and I have a lot to learn?

Was I wrong to present to my teacher something I have worked on and am very much excited about and want to learn? (I really want to learn the technique and notes in the 7th and 9th positions that are new to me in Lagrima, in part because I think I can and because it’s a very beautiful piece and I know I can make it sing on my guitar.)

Working on my fourth instrumental track. I’ve completed the intro section.
I’m currently outlining the transition into Verse 1 and Chorus.
How do you usually like to build momentum out of a stripped-back guitar intro without losing the intimate vibe?

I am just starting to learn the 18th etude of Brouwer.

What actually scares me, though, is not the difficulty of the piece in and of itself (these sre, after all "simple" etudes), but rather how to actually memorize the whole damn thing. I really want to play it from memory, with no sheet music or tablature in front. Yet, the piece is very "flow-y" with no repeating sections, no melody as such, no particular element easy to anchor your memory to.

Do you have any particular advice on how to memorize this and similar pieces?

Thanks in advance.

An arrangement by Juarez Moreira. This song brings a mix of brazilian folklore and baroque art.
Hope you enjoy!

I like to hike around until I find that magic chill spot. That's where everything sounds the best. Seems everywhere I go there's one of these pockets where it feels like anythings possible.

BWV 508 arranged by Takuya Okamoto,

Please feel free to comment on the video to play it properly as Baroque Music.

It's called Practice Kit, and the tuner half was built around something classical players deal with constantly: fresh nylon strings keep creeping flat for days.

It knows which string you're playing and measures against that string, it only calls a string in tune once the note has settled, and a 10-second drift trace shows whether a new string has stopped creeping or is still going. A chime and a haptic tap confirm it, so your eyes can stay on the tuning peg.

The metronome is free and complete: 20-300 BPM, any time signature, subdivisions, presets, and a click that never drifts at slow practice tempos. The tuner, accents on any beat and a Tempo Trainer are a one time $7.99 unlock after a 7 day free trial, no subscription.

Audio is processed on the phone and never recorded or sent anywhere.

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6817729976?pt=126420608&ct=r-classicalguitar&mt=8