Learning different genres on the guitar (ft. Francisco Chaves) — tonebase Tips
After our recent blog post describing 4 reasons all guitarists should give classical guitar a try, our friend and guitarist Francisco Chaves reached out with an idea to flip the switch and discuss all the reasons why CLASSICAL guitarists should learn other styles of guitar! Of course, we couldn’t agree more! Enjoy Francisco’s overview of everything the genres jazz, flamenco, funk, and folk can teach us.
The guitar is a fantastic instrument that allows you to play almost any style of music you want. From pop to jazz, country to heavy metal, the guitar plays an important role in so many different genres.
All of these types of music have amazing things to offer. In fact, many composers use “non-classical guitar” techniques in the repertoire, one example being Roland Dyens’ “Fuoco.” This being the case, what elements of each genre can we bring into our own playing?
Jazz
Being able to improvise is a skill that I find fundamental for any musician. You can enjoy more of your instrument and maybe even compose your own piece. Jazz players improvise all the time. Why not bring some more of that culture into the classical guitar?
➡️ Watch Frederic Hand’s lesson on his piece “Missing Her” which features a basic approach to improvisation.
Flamenco
This should be a no-brainer. As classical guitarists, we are constantly playing Spanish music.
To understand the “root,” the original material where composers took inspiration, I find it’s fundamental to learn the basics of flamenco. This includes the rasgueado technique, picado, the almost sul ponticello timbre, the strict rhythm.
Watch this video where Paco de Lucia talks about his approach to “Concierto de Aranjuez” and compares it to the classical guitarist mindset of prioritizing beautiful sound and “cleanliness” over rhythm.
➡️ Watch Kai Narezo’s introduction to Rasgueados for classical guitarists.
Funk
Strumming. There are so many ways to do it — learning rasgueados is just the tip of the iceberg. In funk, it is very common to mute the strings while strumming. This technique is very useful and makes it possible to strum 3, 4 or 5 string chords without “unwanted” notes ruining the picture.
As an example, Here is an excerpt from Ponce’s Sonatina Meridional (bars 13–15). He asks us to play violento which means “violent.” For me, this means to aggressively strum each of the chords, not arpeggiate the first chord like most classical guitarists do.
They do this because if they strum the first chord with all six strings, the open 1st string (E) will sound, destroying the melody. We can easily solve this problem by muting the 1st string with the left hand. Then, we can strum hard and play really violento.
➡️ Watch Marco Tamayo’s lesson on Sonatina Meridional to see this muted strumming technique in action.
Folk guitar rhythm
While pursuing my degree in classical guitar, I was practicing the famous Guitar Sonata by Alberto Ginastera. In the last movement, he uses a strumming technique influenced by Latin American folk music. I struggled for many months with that, spending hours in my room practicing.
Then, I started to listen to more Latin American folk music for inspiration. I still remember being in shock when I discovered young kids and guitar amateurs playing flawlessly and with “feeling” the same rhythm I was struggling with. I had to try to change my mindset, trying to approach it like an amateur musician would do, instead of focusing on the score. I even watched tutorials made by amateurs (!) to learn the original folk pattern, so I could play it more “authentic.”
➡️ Watch Joseph Palmer’s mini-lesson on this passage from the Ginastera Sonata.
This is just a very small sample of what you can learn from playing other styles of music. It is interesting to note that many innovators of the classical guitar world have a deep understanding of other genres of music. Some examples include Roland Dyens and jazz, Dusan Bogdanovic and Balkan music, Leo Brouwer and Cuban music, etc. This understanding allows you to enjoy more the instrument, to be a better guitarist and to contribute to the development of the guitar world.
About Francisco Chaves — http://fassislau.wixsite.com/franciscochaves
Francisco Chaves is a guitarist, composer, teacher, sound designer and producer based in Germany. He was born in Castro Verde, a tiny village in the south of Portugal and started there to study classical guitar. Later, he also found a second passion for composing with his first harmony lessons.
He completed simultaneously two bachelor degrees (Classical guitar and Composition) in the University of Évora (Portugal) under the guidance of Dejan Ivanovic (guitar), Pedro Amaral (composition) and Christopher Bochmann (composition), having received the “Scholar Prize”, for finishing both degrees with the highest grade. After that, he finished his master degree in Classical Guitar and graduated “cum laude” in the “Maastricht Conservatorium” (Netherlands) in the class of Carlo Marchione.
Currently, he teaches in several music schools in Germany. Besides that, he also teaches by Skype and works as a freelance musician, giving concerts around Europe and composing music for orchestras, ensembles and soloists. He also devotes his time composing music and making sound effects for video games and films.
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