Getting Started on Guitar - CD included

General Objectives

Learning and developping the basic movements of both hands.
Learning to signt-read¹ on open strings and in first position. The rhythm pattern used are aiming at the development of a steady pulse. They do not include binary or ternary divisions for the student.
Practice with two or three guitars to develop a better sens of rhythm for the student, and a more congenial way to practice music.

The open strings allow the student, at first, to recognize by ear the low notes from the high notes. Progressively he will be able to associate the four constitutive elements of good sight-reading: pitch - name of the note - writing - instrumental rendering on each of the six strings.   

The work on open strings also allow to play “easy” pieces, without yet adding the challenges of playing the left hand (while working on it separately). Then, when the left hand is ready and that the sight-reading of open strings is assimilated, on each string we will add the four notes in the first position, giving the same importance to natural, sharp or flat notes. Our goal is to build good reading reflexes:

1- see the written note

2- know its name

3- position the finger immediately (without hesitation).

In general, the students process the altered notes in relation to the natural notes, which slows down the sight-reading reaction considerably.

This approach of sight-reading has the goal of structuring the musical thinking and the writing-guitar relation. Once the open strings are learned (music dictations are a good way to improve memorization) the student visualizes notes written above the open strings (in first position) and listen to sounds above the open strings. The objective of this exercise is to establish an unbreakable and instant link to the three elements cited above. To achieve this it is good practice to ask the student to sing the name of the notes and to think about the fret it is played on at the same time.

Claudio Camisassa