A Beginner's Guide to the Classical Guitar

World-renowned Brazilian classical guitar virtuoso Carlos Barbosa-Lima has written: "Jeffrey Goodman's excellent book, "A Beginner's Guide to the Classical Guitar," is very well conceived, covering all the multiple aspects of guitar technique. Exercises are built in a progressive way, having a wide variety of musical styles through various centuries. It includes pieces by guitarist/composers such as Fernando Sor and Dionisio Aquado as well as transcriptions by J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel and Rameau. The book also contains an appropriate introduction to flamenco technique that can be applied to classical playing. Utilizing Mr. Goodman's method as presented here, students will attain a broad musical reach, cultivating the multiple possibilities of the guitar with its rich polyphonic and colorful resources. I highly recommended this method and approach not only to all beginning classical guitar students, but also to pedagogues of the classical guitar as an excellent teaching tool and resource." Carlos Barbosa-Lima Baltimore, MD 2016 A Beginner's Guide to the Classical Guitar is a complete "stand-alone" instruction resource for the first year or two of classical guitar study, and includes basic presentations of fundamentals of music, music and guitar notation, right and left hand technique, as well as an extensive repertoire section that contains music organized by both key and level of difficulty. Along with traditional beginner's musical fare, a refreshingly wide range of music is also offered to the novice guitarist: from melodies of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, and Beethoven, to ancient Greek, Tibetan, and Chinese music. In addition, this book is the central hub that, along with multimedia teaching materials, will open many new opportunities for the guitarist. The multimedia resources include a central information depot at the Shelter of Clear Light website, viewable scores with live playback at ScoreExchange.com, a CD and 77 audio recordings of much of the repertoire at iTunes, as well as more than 40 instructional videos on YouTube.
About the Author: Jeffrey Goodman is an award winning composer, classical guitarist and teacher currently living in Los Angeles, California. Upon its release, his "Hands of the Angels" CD of original guitar compositions was rated as the #1 Top CD on "PayPlay.fm" in the classical-programmatic genre. He is also the author of A Beginner's Guide to the Classical Guitar, of which one online reviewer wrote, "Mr. Goodman has created the ultimate introduction to the classical guitar." Among his compositions are Sextet for Winds and Strings, a Song Cycle for Soprano and Tenor, String Quartet #1 and numerous works for classical guitar. He has also composed and performed music for radio and feature films. He taught classical guitar for many years at the University of California at Los Angeles, and during 2009 was a guest professor of music at Santa Monica College. He received his Master of Arts degree from Occidental College, where he studied composition and theory with Richard Grayson and Robert Gross. His guitar studies were with Theodore Norman. As a performer he has performed at colleges and universities throughout the United States, and his European tours have included appearances at the American Embassy in Vienna, the Vienna Conservatory, and the Salzburg music festival. Recitals in Wales and England included a solo recital of 20th Century works for B.B.C. Radio.