Guitar tablature is fine, as long as we have music written that way. But if we want to read from “ordinary” scores or want to understand the rhythmic values of the notes, we have to learn how to read standard notation. This will be very important if we want to arrange our own guitar music. And we also have to understand a little bit of music theory: how scales are made and formed. We’ll also master the advanced technique of playing more than one melody part at the same time an integral part of classical guitar technique.

“Standard music notation” is more common. Believe it or not, notation is not hard to learn,and once mastered it will speed your learning of new music. Any system that has survived for centuries and is used to record all types of music must be a valuable one to learn!

music is written in standard notation for the guitar. We learn about the musical staff and how it differs from the one used for tablature. We see how notes are written on the staff and also above and below it, and we relate this to rising and falling pitch.Tones and half tones are discussed and related to the frets of the guitar. Then we put theory into practice and start actually playing from notation, with easy examples of notes on each string.

A full bar in guitar parlance is not a crowded tavern but a valuable technique that involves placing the left-hand first finger across all the strings. This facilitates the playing of full chords that can be moved as a pattern around the fingerboard.

Learning this new skill is an important step, since it distinguishes the experienced player from the novice. If done correctly, it is an easy and comfortable device; if done wrong, it can cramp the hand and offend the ear.In this chapter we learn to do it the right way.

We’ve seen in our previous study that the first finger of the left hand is sometimes used to cover more than one string, as in the F chord, where it is used for two strings. When the finger goes across all the strings this is known as a full bar. Somewhat illogically, anything less than a full bar is known as a half bar.

Beginners tend to find barring difficult until the left hand has acquired a degree of strength and control. However, if the bar is done correctly it is not necessary to use great strength. As with the half bar, it is far more important to find the right position for the finger so that all the notes can sound clearly with only moderate pressure.

Now that you have some playing experience under your belt, we can move ahead to some more interesting playing styles. This chapter covers the basics of playing individual notes,rather than just strumming chords. To learn to play melodies, we have to learn more sophisticated right-hand playing techniques.This chapter introduces two of the more common styles of playing individual notes: the rest stroke and the free stroke. By learning these techniques, you will be able to play notes cleanly and easily, with a full sound. These techniques will lay the basis for all of your future playing, so we will break down their components so you can quickly understand and master
them.

Up to now, most of what we have covered could be played with a pick, but we will be studying arpeggios that are much easier to play with the fingers. For the single-note melodies that follow, a pick could be used, but now is a good moment to learn the principal stroke used for melody lines on the finger-style and classical guitar, known as the rest stroke.

The rest stroke is the technique that produces the fullest sound from a single note. It is played by plucking the string in such a way that, when the movement is completed, the fingertip comes to rest on the adjacent stringhence the name.