ISBN 9781619117143.

This is the flagship book in Mel Bay's Achieving Guitar Artistry series. Herein you will find an extensive collection of linear pieces with interesting melodic content. Frequent performance of these etudes will not only enhance technique, but offer the guitarist a wonderful opportunity to improve tone, touch and lyrical phrasing.We suggest playing each etude at a slow tempo at first, the goal being to achieve a clear and beautiful tone on every note. The next objective is to develop a sense of lyrical completeness to each musical phrase. Make the phrases sing! Once you have achieved the desired quality of tone and expression, increase the tempo to work on the technique.Mel Bay's Guitar Journals - Mastering the Fingerboard: The Reading Book (MB20903) would make an ideal supplement to Linear Guitar Etudes as it presents etudes in all keys and positions.The pieces in Linear Guitar Etudes are multi-positional. That is, the player will be required to move from position to position on the fingerboard. The music is presented in standard notation only, with left-hand fingering included on the more complex passages, and circled numbers to indicate the strings where certainnotes and passages are to be played.These etudes sound good on both nylon and steel-string guitars, and will be a valuable addition to the music library of any guitarist, enhancing their abilities regardless of the style of music played.

A hard-hitting Flamenco guitar arrangement for Fandango de Huelva based on standard traditional themes. The Fandango de Huelva is a relatively fast and rhythmically strict Fandango compared to Fandangos from other regions in Andalusia (Granada, Ronda, M�laga, Almer�a) that are often slower and without a steady rhythm (sans mesure). Rhythmically, Fandango de Huelva consists of a repetition of a six beat phrase, that Flamencos refer to as a comp�s, with accents on the third and fifth beats (1 2 3 4 5 6). This is notated in the score as a repeated sequence of 4/4 and 2/4 measures with the first beat of the comp�s falling on the third beat of the first 4/4 measure. The first accented beat in the comp�s falls on the first beat of the following 2/4 measure and the second accented beat falls on the first beat of the 4/4 measure following. This asymmetrical distribution of accents in the phrase gives the Fandango a kind of choppy almost stop-and-go flow. Note the number of holds that occur in the melodic passages. These are signs of a feature of the Fandango that is used much more in the slower versions where the singer or guitarist can vary the rhythmic flow at will. The melodic passages in the piece are based on traditional songs for Fandango de Huelva, much as Brahms? Hungarian Dances were based on traditional romani melodies from Hungary. The piece ends with a so-called Macho, a finale, in Verdiales, a fast Fandango rhythm from the region of Malaga. The Verdiales runs in standard 3/4 measures.I learned the Fandango de Huelva rhythm in my studies with Juan Gonz�lez ?Triguito? in Madrid in the late 1960?s. I gathered further rhythmic and melodic material working with other Flamenco guitarists and singers, especially in El Mes�n de la Guitarra just off the Plaza Mayor, during my years in Spain.The Fandango de Huelva is a fast and lively style (palo) of Flamenco with lots of good old-fashioned strumming (rasgueados) together with long continuous melodic passages. There is quite a bit of tapping on the face of guitar (golpes) in combination with the strumming and left hand legatos. Some passages are played with the thumb in alzap�a, meaning that the thumb strikes in triplets down, up, and down again in rapid sequence in combination with glopes. The alzap�a and tapping really add to the gitano-andalusian flavour of the piece. The last measures of the finale in abanico (fanning) rasqueado style are a powerful sendoff. Audiences have always enjoyed the positive spirit and energy that the Fandango de Huelva radiates.

An arrangement of traditional themes for the Flamenco style Siguiriyas for solo Flamenco guitar based on material I gathered in my studies in Flamenco guitar in Madrid in the late 1960s. I call the piece Llamas Negras (Black Flames) as the dance for Siguiriyas is often performed by a woman dancer (bailaora) dressed in a long flowing black dress, her hands twirling above her head likes flames. Such were the performances I witnessed at the Flamenco tablao La Zambra where my guitar maestro Juan Gonz�lez ?Triguito? played. Siguiriyas is the most tragic of all the serious (jondo) styles of Flamenco for guitar. The piece moves therefore at a moderately slow pace, although there are passages where the tempo increases for dramatic effect. The piece is in the Phrygian modal of D minor and notated in standard 6/8 time. Siguiriyas embodies par excellence what Manuel de Falla called the ?sonidos negros? or black sounds in Flamenco!

An arrangement of the Flamenco style (palo) Tientos for solo acoustic guitar. The piece is based on traditional themes for the Tientos that I have expanded and elaborated on to weave together a self-contained composition that lies somewhere between Brahms? Hungarian Dances and Dvorak?s Slavic Dances. The composition is inspired by my studies with Juan Gonz�lez ?Triguito? in Madrid in the late 1960s. The Tientos belongs to the Tango family of Flamenco styles and is a slow majestic Flamenco rhythm that can reach great emotional depth in the hands of skilled guitarists. The Tientos is notated in standard 4/4 measures that although seemly simple can be deceptively complex because of the nearly inexhaustible possibilities for rhythmic variation. Lots of tapping can be found in the notation together with melody and chords, but also alone at rests which I leave in the notation. The tapping is perhaps a vestige of the African origin attributed to the Tango family of Flamenco palos. The arrangement ends with a finale (macho) that moves from the Tientos through a few bars of Tango to a finish in Rumba Gitana, the fastest and liveliest member of the Tango family.The Tientos is played in a Phrygian modal that moves from D minor through C and B-flat to A or A7. This variant of the so-called Andalusian cadence is typical for gitano Flamenco palos.The piece can be played by students of Flamenco guitar at the intermediate to advanced levels and contains many essential elements of serious (jondo) Flamenco guitar playing.