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NOTE: GuitarPrinciples now offers an indispensable, note by note guide to this book! See our Online Classical/Fingerstyle Course! This method, which is now about 50 years old, is still my choice when it comes to training beginning classical guitarists. The reason is very simple: unlike so many methods that are trying to entertain or impress you with lovely little pieces you will struggle with and play badly, this method is actually interested in giving you the essential techniques you need as a classical guitarist. This is especially true of the right hand. Shearer, in this book, has made a very fine attempt to break down right hand technique and present it in an orderly, step by step fashion, giving the fingers a much better chance of "getting it" as they go along. For instance, free stroke is broken down, presented at first very simply on two strings, and later, progressively developed to include thumb movements, free stroke on the same string (tremelo), and then 2 notes together, then 3, then 4. Integration of the thumb with fingers for striking full chords is also treated separately. Right hand formulas for fingers rest stroke/thumb free, and how to play melodies rest stroke with one finger while other fingers are doing free stroke are also treated in and orderly fashion. The left hand is given a good course of development as well, as all the basic finger formulas for thirds and sixths and tenths are given. All techniques are learned by studying very pleasing little "etudes" of the authors composition. Now the bad news! As good as it is, like all method books out there, this method book is seriously deficient in everything you really need to know in order to develop properly as a guitarist. Like all other methods, it has the student beginning to use the left hand at the first fret, which is the most difficult part of the neck to play in, and impossible for a beginner to do without great tension and complete loss of proper form. Also, the right hand operations, even though orderly presented, will be done wrong by most people, with unknown tension and bad form. I have seen many people who learned with this book, I have never personally seen anyone who played the material well (unless I was teaching them). Of course, anyone lucky enough to have a great teacher guide them through this book will be okay, the teacher will supply all that is missing, and make sure the student does not fall into error. These teachers, however, are rare. Your best chance, as with all method books, is to study The Principles first. There, you are given everything you need to know in order to really benefit from the material in this Shearer method. The Foundation Exercises will prepare your left and right hands in the proper and essential form and tensionless functioning you must have BEFORE you begin any other material. That being said, I still think Classical Guitar Technique Vol 1 by Aaron Shearer is your best introduction to the intricacies of classical guitar technique. |
