{"id":13123,"date":"2019-06-17T13:44:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T20:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=13123"},"modified":"2021-09-09T10:42:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T17:42:36","slug":"towards-the-holy-grail-a-short-history-of-guitar-methods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/towards-the-holy-grail-a-short-history-of-guitar-methods\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards the Holy Grail: A Short History of Guitar Methods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
BY GRAHAM WADE | FROM THE SUMMER 2019 ISSUE OF CLASSICAL GUITAR<\/a><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

The quest for the perfect guitar method <\/em>began in the 16th century with the vihuela books of Luis Mil\u00e1n, Luis de Narv\u00e1ez, and Alonso Mudarra (as well as a few others). Aided by progress in the art of printing, these players began the exploration of what academics now call \u201cmethodology,\u201d defined as \u201ca system of methods in various fields.\u201d They began the quest for the guitaristic Holy Grail, a system whereby a plucked chordophone such as the guitar could be learned by eager students of varying abilities. The early books, especially Mil\u00e1n\u2019s El Maestro <\/em>(ca. 1535), were not short of direct instruction, but fundamentally they were anthologies of appropriate pieces to be studied by learners in a reasonably progressive fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the field broadened whereby all kinds of methods were published. In particular we remember Gaspar Sanz and his Instruccion de m\u00fasica sobre la guitarra espa\u00f1ola<\/a> <\/em>(Zaragoza, 1674), but many other books of guitar music proliferated. Just skimming the surface, one should also mention Francesco Corbetta, Giovanni Battista\u00a0Granata, Robert de Vis\u00e9e, Lucas Ruiz de\u00a0Ribayaz, Ludovico Roncalli, Francesc Guerau, and Santiago de Murcia\u2014just a few of the hard-working gentlemen in the 17th century who immortalized their music in exquisite publications.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gaspar Sanz’ Instrucci\u00f3n de m\u00fasica sobre la guitarra espa\u00f1ola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From there, it is but a short hop to the early 19th century, where the methodology of the guitar expanded in a hundred varied flowerings. The great names of the age are etched on our fingers and in the hearts of most classical guitarists\u2014Ferdinando Carulli, Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, Dionisio Aguado, Luigi Legnani, Matteo Carcassi, and so on; maestros whose compositions often feature a multitude of studies both easy and difficult, and who were eager to advance the art of pedagogy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1953, I started lessons with a teacher who used the Carcassi method<\/a> (though fortunately he was not an adherent of Carcassi\u2019s right-hand technique, with little finger on the soundboard!). Such music lasts forever in the mind and remains perennially fresh. I have inflicted many of Carcassi\u2019s beginner pieces on succeeding generations of eager novices, hopefully contributing something of lasting value to their musical awareness and the development of their fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we progress forward historically, we come across the enigma of Francisco T\u00e1rrega, a great teacher by all accounts, but one who never systematized his methods within a single publication. The T\u00e1rrega gospel was brought into the glare of the 20th century by teachers such as Pascual Roch and Emilio Pujol, who published influential methods sufficient to keep students active for most of their apprenticeships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mario<\/a>
Mario Rodriguez Arenas’ La Escuela de la Guitarra<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another in the T\u00e1rrega tradition was Argentine guitarist-teacher Mario Rodr\u00edguez Arenas, whose seven-volume La Escuela de la Guitarra<\/a> <\/em>was published in 1923. Arenas stated that his primary aim was to \u201cfacilitate the study of the guitar, noble instrument of interpretation of the national poetry.\u201d\u00a0Arenas had not been guided by the concept of founding \u201ca national theory or a school,\u201d but rather attempted to \u201corganize all the lessons progressively in order to avoid the difficulties in the apprenticeship, which only provide discouragement.\u201d His work was \u201cbased on the school of the late and unforgettable Francisco T\u00e1rrega.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such was the extent of La Escuela <\/em>that a booklet accompanying the work set out the intended plan of study from the first year to the grade of profesor superior<\/em> seven years later. How many teachers and pupils elected to follow the seven-year course throughout all its details will never be known. What is certain is that to lose the booklet deprived you of precise navigation through the seven years of prescribed study. La Escuela <\/em>relied heavily in the latter stages on repertoire popular in the early 20th century\u2014T\u00e1rrega, Sor, and Aguado\u2014while the first year included Aguado, Carulli, Carcassi, Napol\u00e9on Coste, and Antonio Cano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional guitar method habitually follows a particular approach\u2014that of the anthology of progressive exercises, pieces, and studies, a Gradus ad Parnassum, <\/em>where the pupil is instructed what to play but not necessarily how to play it, whether technically or interpretively (that is left to the actual teacher). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example of this approach, again in ambitious terms, also from Argentina, is the extensive Method <\/em>of Julio Sagreras<\/a>, first published around 1922. Here, six volumes lead up to the seventh, the T\u00e9cnica Superior. <\/em>In the original preface, Sagreras addresses the teachers (Los Maestros)<\/em>,explaining how many students he has encountered in his 30 years of teaching began with first studies \u201cnot well-arranged in order of difficulty.\u201d He assures his public that his approach has \u201cbeen practiced with success with all the students who, knowing nothing, began their studies with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problems that arise with the use of the extended Gradus ad Parnassum <\/em>method, the complete range of instruction from the beginner to the advanced, are considerable. Roch and Arenas tend to select teaching material from a small area of guitar composition while Sagreras supplies many of his own exercises to add the spice of variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emilio Pujol Escuela’s Razonada de la Guitarra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most awe-inspiring Gradus ad Parnassum-<\/em>type of guitar method ever published was Emilio Pujol\u2019s<\/a> Escuela Razonada de la Guitarra <\/em>(1934), in four volumes with a preface by Manuel de Falla. Book One <\/em>gives a\u00a0history of the guitar, but the other three books take the pupil from the first lesson involving posture and position of right and left hands up to a detailed consideration of every nuance of guitar technique and a multiplicity of studies from Pujol himself. Naturally, many T\u00e1rrega exercises are included, as he is regarded as \u201cthe spiritual phoenix of the guitar\u201d on whose principles the book is founded.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laurindo Almeida\u2019s Guitar Tutor: An Up-to-Date Classic Guitar Method<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pujol\u2019s Escuela <\/em>is surely the greatest demonstration of methodology so far applied to the guitar. It remains of perpetual value, with progressive exercises ranging from the very simple to the virtuosic, covering in practical terms all necessary techniques in great detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second half of the 20th century, attempts were made to move away from traditional \u201cmethodology.\u201d In particular, the Spanish heritage\u2014with its reliance on the authority of a central personality, harking back to an even more august quasi-mythological personage (e.g., T\u00e1rrega)\u2014was replaced by a more pragmatic, flexible development of the pupil\u2019s potential talent. The desire to be comprehensive within a method was discarded, replaced by a less ambitious set of pedagogical objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the milestones of the new approach was Laurindo Almeida\u2019s Guitar Tutor: An Up-to-Date Classic Guitar Method<\/a> <\/em>(Belwin-Mills, 1957). The book was organized into three courses, covering explanation of a) the guitar\u2019s background, holding position, right and left hands, etc., b) keys, scales, and chords, and c) effects such as harmonics and tremolo. The rest of the publication included some of Almeida\u2019s solos.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almeida\u2019s Guitar Tutor <\/em>was one of the first serious publications to leave the purity of the traditional approach and delve into matters appropriate to players \u201cwho earn their living by studio employment in which a working knowledge of modern popular harmonic is basic.\u201d One aspect of this was that chord symbols, hitherto absent from guitar methods, are fully explained. Almeida\u2019s fusion of classical guitar principles with contemporary harmony opened up new territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1959, Aaron Shearer\u2019s Classic Guitar Technique<\/em><\/a> <\/em>was published in two volumes. Its title was unusual, as it implied concentration on the nuts and bolts of playing technique rather than the \u201cspiritual\u201d aspects of the guitarist\u2019s art that were so significant in the early ideological statements of the T\u00e1rrega tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shearer explained his method as \u201cthe result of a desire to present a basic and orderly approach to the development of classic guitar technique.\u201d In his opinion, students were missing \u201cthe development of a basic guitar technique,\u201d passing on to difficult pieces far more quickly than was prudent, and \u201cinstituting deeply engrained habits of frequent hesitation and creating great harm to themselves in terms of uncontrolled tension.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paramount in Shearer\u2019s work was \u201cthe cultivation of a deliberate and tranquil approach towards practice.\u201d The anxiety to play pieces was not considered productive during the period of building technique. The role of tension (and its opposite) in the formation of technique, as well as an adequate attitude to the problems of daily practice, were key concepts. The old adage \u201cpractice makes perfect\u201d was always misleading. The vicious circle of bad practicing leads to tension, which carries on to the build-up of more faults, which are again practiced into the system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few authors of contemporary guitar methods can be said to establish a \u201cschool,\u201d defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary as \u201cdisciples or imitators or followers of philosopher, artist, etc., band or succession of persons devoted to some cause or principle or agreeing in typical characteristics.\u201dThere is no \u201cschool\u201d of Segovia, nor of Presti, Bream, Williams, D\u00edaz, or Yepes. The powerful concept of the \u201cSchool of T\u00e1rrega\u201d has been dispelled by the wide diversity of techniques developed by leading players from the late 1940s onwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Uruguayan virtuoso and teacher Abel Carlevaro created his own Escuela de la Guitarra <\/a><\/em>through a book of that title and related publications containing exercises and analyses of technical problems. To do this, Carlevaro evolved a unique vocabulary that encompassed his entire physical and technical approach to the instrument.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abel Carlevaro’s Escuela de la Guitarra<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Between 1969 and 1974 he began introducing his concept of fijaci\u00f3n <\/em>(fixation) and \u201cdisplacement of the left hand on the fingerboard.\u201d In 1979, his book Escuela de la Guitarra <\/em>was published as a systematic attempt \u201cto answer the complex problems related to instrumental technique and the re-creative process of making music.\u201d The book is a dissertation exploring the basic premise that \u201ctechnique is in the final analysis a series of mental associations.\u201d Without correct assimilation of \u201cmental associations,\u201d technical problems will multiply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlevaro approached his primary concepts with infinite detail. The complexity of the language, resembling a personal type of jargon, may sometimes puzzle or repel. Yet he succeeded in bringing a new intelligence into the realm of technical studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us as guitarists stand on the shoulders of previous generations. Since the late 1970s, where are we now? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately the tradition of the ambitious, all-embracing method is still alive and vibrant. The most recent example of this is Stanley Yates\u2019s monumental Classical Guitar Technique from Foundation to Virtuosity, Parts 1 & 2<\/a> <\/em>(Classical Guitar Study Editions, 2016). Part 1<\/em> covers \u201cFoundation,\u201d Part 2<\/em> \u201cMastery and Virtuosity.\u201d Yates\u2019 book is indeed a phenomenal achievement, a worthy successor to the great methodological authors of the guitar. The richness of its pages must be experienced to be appreciated for, as Angelo Gilardino points out in a foreword, \u201cWith this work, Stanley Yates goes beyond the traditional concept of the guitar method or the guitar technique treatise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same breath it would be appropriate to mention another giant achievement, The Bible of Classical Guitar Technique<\/a> <\/em>by the German maestro Hubert K\u00e4ppel (AMA Verlag, 2016). In this huge compendium, technical formulae of every kind imaginable are woven together with appropriate textual comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the decades I have attempted to purchase just about every guitar method and technical manual published. I regret that not all of them can be highlighted in this article. The range is indeed massive and with the help of one method or another, or a mixture of approaches, many pupils who receive good personal teaching do achieve the progression from beginner to professional standard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mysterious processes of Gradus ad Parnassum, <\/em>that step-by-step journey which leads the guitar student from the first lesson to the heights of musical creativity, remain a challenge and a duty to thousands of enthusiastic pedagogues. There is always more to be done, more to be learned, more to be achieved. But with so many signposts on the way, surely the route of the pilgrimage has been made easier than ever before. What we have to do is discover the golden key to progress, whatever appeals or suits us best, and persevere to the utmost of our individual abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

______________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are studies from three of the methods mentioned above:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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