There is plenty of music sheet for classical guitar of various styles, directions and levels of difficulty. There is also enough methodical literature for all tastes. However, every year there are appearing new schools, methodical collections and exercises. That?s why the art of playing classical guitar is not standing still.

During my pedagogical activity rather often I faced the problem of searching or creating small exercises for a particular technique and solution of a particular problem. What didn?t suit me in the existing studies? First of all, the monotony of technical material (the accent only on the left hand technique of a performer, while the concentration of sound control is mostly in the right hand; a limited quantity of technical methods: arpeggios, chords, passagework technique). Secondly, it?s an amount of musical material. As a rule, the main efforts were aimed to memorize the text, which distracted from the very purpose of etudes, the work on a certain type of technical difficulties.
That is how the collection «Unusual Studies» appeared.
What is their «singularity»?
The collection is conditionally divided into several sections in the order of increasing the complexity of material, and it concludes with three «Concert Studies». They are distinguished by a more developed emotional atmosphere and rather high level of complexity and size. These studies require a certain level of preparation and can diversify a performer?s concert program. Nevertheless, they are only an addition to the basic material, which is focused primarily on the elementary and intermediate levels of training.
When it comes to the ?singularity?, focus is shifted to the right hand, with the detailed fingering of the right hand. The fingers «p» and «a» are introduced more actively, paying attention to the alignment of their sound, attack power. It is necessary to strive for full equality of all fingers of the right hand, using fingers «p» and «a» not only when playing bass and melody, but also in arpeggio, passaggio technique (in the middle of an arpeggio or passaggio).
- learning to use touches in a high contrast while playing: staccato/legato. This, in my opinion, is extremely necessary to already assimilate at the initial stage of training.
- active use of the alternation in the musical material of open and closed strings. Control over the strength of the sound of open strings, timbre ratio.
- using the high positions of the guitar?s fingerboard with open strings without excessive physical effort .
- rather small size of studies. This allows to concentrate directly on the technical difficulties, rather than on memorizing.

I hope that this collection will help you to achieve the desired result faster and more effectively, will bring not only methodical benefit, but also aesthetic pleasure.

ISBN 9781619119727.

Perhaps one of the most comprehensive books of its type on the market, this exhaustive and intelligent presentation of the myriad of scales and modes makes this a must have text for the guitarist who is interested in developing his skills of jazz improvisation. The highly acclaimed author/teacher and performer Vincent Bredice very carefully moves the student through all the common modes. Each mode is explored thoroughly by using chord and arpeggio studies in a variety of positions and/or inversions. This outstanding text is a wonderful resource for one's library as well as an excellent teaching and learning tool. Since a good musician must hear sounds quickly and accurately, in addition to enhancing one's technical and improvising ability, Jazz Guitar Scales and Modes, will help tremendously with ear training as well. The author emphasizes the importance of being able to play and understand modal scales in first position before moving them up the neck using pattern fingerings. Contains excellent studies lines.

German - English.

NOW IN ONE VOLUME! Since their first publication in 1992 the Microstudies of Abel Carlevaro have become firmly established among the most important sets of didactic studies for the guitar from the 20th century. Composed at the suggestion of Chanterelle, these studies, twenty in all, cover practically every aspect of guitar technique. Although they constitute an essential complement to Carlevaro's theoretical works, the Escuela de Guitarraand the legendary Cuadernos, his four volume series of technical exercises, they can be used on their own. The music is of the consistent high quality and originality we have to come to expect from Carlevaro and, as with many of his works, the essence of Tango and Milonga can be felt throughout the entire collection. These short yet compact miniatures, many of which are barely a minute in duration, are arranged in a progressive order of difficulty following the same time-honoured structure as used by Fernando Sor, Leo Brouwer and others. Until now the Microstudies were available in four separate volumes published between 1992-2000. The present new revised edition in one single volume offers great value for money and will put them within easy reach of guitarists and students everywhere.

Ernesto García de León's 20 Studies, Op. 50 is an ingenious collection thataddresses fundamental questions about how to develop and maintain guitar technique. It is designed toserve guitar teachers and students as well as performers and concert audiences. Since it explores notjust the technique of our instrument, but its musicaland expressive aspects as well, it makes daily technical work enjoyable, not tedious?even for someone only beginning to study the guitar.

For guitar teachers and students, 20 Studies canserve as a basic curriculum or it can complementother methods or other sets of studies. For performers, it provides a complete overview and tune-up ofthe guitar technique in one graded set of daily studies that can be played in less than half an hour. Thiswarm-up then provides the player delicious concertrepertoire?as the complete set, or in smaller groups,or in combinations with other music by ErnestoGarcía de León.

These musical exercises are also useful to rectify,reform or rehabilitate the guitar technique.

The materials out of which the twenty studies aredeveloped are first idiomatic patterns of the guitarand then the variety of musical styles so appealing toand characteristic of Ernesto García de León. For example, classic examples of the music of theCaribbean coastal basin in general and thecomposer's native state Veracruz in particular appearunvarnished in #12 (a rumba veracruzana) and #20(a son). The other studies blend elements of Mexicanmusic in general?songs of the revolution, nativedances, boleros, children's songs, and so forth?withelements of European classical music, Beatles, NewAge music, jazz and other musical styles, in a wayintended to appeal to the player and to the listener.

As the summary on pages 34 and 35 illustrates,the first sixteen studies explore basic formulas for theright hand. At the same time, they also address thefull range of left hand techniques?including balanceand positioning, independence of the fingers, longitudinal and transversal movements, shifts by substitution, by displacement, by jump, and by positions,barring, stretches and contractions, damping, pivoting, crossed movements, and movements with fixedfingers. The last four studies concern the slur.

Though each of the basic right- and left-hand formulas explored in the twenty studies is relativelysimple in itself, each is a building block of a solidtechnique. Mastery of the complete set of twentystudies?less than half an hour of music?integratesall the formulas and develops the technique to a levelat which an enormous range of the guitar repertoirebecomes available.

ISBN 9781619119666.

Sardinian flamenco guitar virtuoso, Dario Piga, delivers 18 intermediate to advanced exercises in this progressively arranged book addressing: arpegio, pulgar, picado, rasgueo, alzapua, and tremolo techniques. Dario himself studied in Spain with several prominent guitarists and singers, so is fluent with the authentic rhythms and techniques essential to effective flamenco guitar soloing and song and dance accompaniment. The pulgar (thumb) exercises in this volume will be of particular interest to flamenco aficionados as they explore various rhythms and chord inversions throughout the fretboard. Following his studies in Spain, Dario added jazz harmony to his lexicon of musical resources and frequently participates in the Time in Jazz festival in Sardinia. His affinity for jazz is also reflected in the appealing modern harmonies that occur in these studies. Two stunning Piga flamenco guitar solos provide a magnificent ending to this collection, written in standard notation and tablature. Includes access to online audio.

ISBN 9781619113558.

For decades, guitar students and teachers alike have struggled with the idea of left-handed individuals playing right-handed. Now that the idea of letting the dominant hand rule is widely accepted as the best course of action, here at last is a proven method for the left-handed guitarist! The world's premier method for learning modern plectrum style guitar, time-tested and proven successful in building the theoretic and technical foundation needed to play in any style. All seven grades of this method are written in standard notation only to encourage better sight reading. In Grade 1, the student guitarist will learn to play solos, duets, scales, and chords in the keys of C, A minor, G and E minor. Even in Grade 1, the student is already exposed to the chord/melody concept of guitar performance. A supplementary study book entitled Grade 1 Studies, two different play-along audio recordings (pop version and traditional), and video are available. The companion recordings feature Tommy Flint and William Bay playing in split-track format, with the solo parts performed on the right channel, and the accompaniment or second duet parts played on the left. The student can play along with the full recording, or tune out either channel and play the missing part. The Left-Handed Modern Guitar Method Grade 1 provides valuable enhancement to the world's most popular guitar method.

ISBN 9781619117266.

This book of triadic concepts is as much for the ears as it is for the hands. Playing harmonized scales in triadic form is very helpful for the progressing guitarist. By working through these exercises, the guitarist will learn the harmonic sound of each key and develop a strong sense of melodic and harmonic voice leading. These studies contain interesting melodic content and are very fun to play. The keys are presented in tonic major and tonic minor rather than tonic major and relative minor. This is the second book in Mel Bay's Achieving Guitar Artistry series and follows the initial Linear Etudes text. Readers should develop a routine of practicing one key per day for the best results. Mastery of this book will do much to enhance the guitarist's sense of voice leading, note reading and improvising.

ISBN 9781619119734.

Applicable to classic, flatpick or fingerstyle guitar, this excellent text relates scales and modes to chord construction, solo playing, and fretboard position a must for the advancing guitarist! Includes many outstanding original guitar studies to teach the guitarist how to apply the theoretical knowledge gained from under-standing, playing, and hearing the scales.

English.

This volume brings together what is known of Aguado's life, and gives full details about the publication of his music. It also includes the full text of Jose Romanillos' article "Dionisio Aguado - the man". Also included are the following two publications: The Coleccion de Estudios of 1820, which contains 46 studies and an explanatory text. Aguado's earliest known work, it is the fruit of his intensive study of the guitar in Spain. It was previously thought lost and has only recently come to light. The Nuevo Metodo de Guitarra, opus 6, which is a much simpler method than the elaborate one which Aguado had previously published. It consists of 70 pages, with short musical passages and explanatory text. This is Volume 1 of the Complete Works of Dionisio Aguado.

An Hour with the Guitar presents a careful selection of the most beautiful pieces of guitar literature. All the names familiar to every professional and amateur guitarist - Aguado, Carulli, Carcassi, Coste, Giuliani, Sor, and many more - are represented in this collection and ensure much stimulating variety. These pieces, with grades of difficulty progressing from very easy to moderately difficult, will give not only the beginner but also the advanced guitarist some valuable material for this teaching, entertainment and performance. Except for a few very beautiful studies, dry exercises habe been avoided in this book in the hope that every guitarist will use it for his hour of relaxation.