Making Notes

Guitar tablature is fine, as long as we have music written that way. But if we want to read from “ordinary” scores or want to understand the rhythmic values of the notes, we have to learn how to read standard notation. This will be very important if we want to arrange our own guitar music. And we also have to understand a little bit of music theory: how scales are made and formed. We’ll also master the advanced technique of playing more than one melody part at the same time—an integral part of classical guitar technique.

1. How to Read Notes
• Why Learn Notation?
• The Music Staff
• Notes Above and Below the Staff
• Tones and Half Tones
• The Octave
• The Notes on the Staff
• The Notes on Each String


2. The Scale
• Sharps and Flats
• Accidentals
• Tunes from Notation
• “Plaisir d’Amour”
• “Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)”


3. Music in Multiple Voices
• Independent Voices
• “Andante” (Fernando Sor)
• “Bourée” (J. S. Bach)
• “Country Dance” (Frederick Noad)