The Classical Guitar Companion

Book excerpt: The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of guitar exercises, etudes, and pieces organized according to technique or musical texture. Expert author Christopher Berg, a veteran guitar instructor, bring together perspectives as an active performing artist and as a teacher who has trained hundreds of guitarists to encourages students to work based on their own strengths and weaknesses. The book opens with "Learning the Fingerboard", a large section devoted to establishing a thorough knowledge of the guitar fingerboard through a systematic and rigorous study of scales and fingerboard harmony, which will lead to ease and fluency in sight-reading and will reduce the time needed to learn a repertoire piece. The following sections "Scales and Scale Studies", "Repeated Notes", "Slurs", "Harmony", "Arpeggios", "Melody with Accompaniment", "Counterpoint" and "Florid or Virtuoso Studies" each contain text and examples that connect material to fingering practices of composers and practice strategies to open a path to interpretive freedom in performance. The Classical Guitar Companion will serve as a helpful companion for many years of guitar study.