Carlevaro - General Discussion
This discussion group will be focused on the great Uruguayan Maestro, Abel Carlevaro. Maestro Carlevaro was the creator of an innovative School of Guitar and an important composer for the classical guitar. This Group will be an open forum where we can discuss his School of Guitar as well as explore some of his technical exercises, studies and composition.
Let us know what you would like this Group to discuss!
Suggested Study Guides
- Alfredo Escande: Understanding Abel Carlevaro
- Alfredo Escande: The Left Arm in the Carlevaro Technique!
- Alfredo Escande: Abel Carlevaro Library
- Abel Carlevaro's School of Guitar by Alfredo Escande (English subtitles)
- Abel Carlevaro: The Music of the Rio de la Plata
- Abel Carlevaro: Guitar MasterClass
- Abel Carlevaro: Buy compositions and technical books
- Gaelle Solal: Carlevaro Left Hand Technique Course
- Abel Carlevaro: School of Guitar PDF
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ToneBase Piano presented a workshop on Hanon's exercises for piano as a "complete" one-stop technique regimen resource for pianists playing at a novice to and advanced level. (Missing is applied keyboard harmony, but the focus is on the most common mechanical challenges often presented in piano repertoire.)
I am familiar with many technique books for guitar: "Pumping Nylon" by Tennant, "The Path to Virtuosity" by Iznaola, Berg's "Mastering Guitar Technique", "The Bible of Classical Guitar Technique" by Käpple, Yates's "Classical Guitar Technique from Foundation to Virtuosity", and the classics by Sor, Guiliani, Carcassi, among other materials. (In constrast, the "learn to play guitar" books that mix technique with learning how to read music are not mentioned here since I have experience playing music and am trying to learn the guitar, not the basics of musicianship.)
For me , finding an analog to the Hanon exercises, but for guitar has been a daunting task. Perhaps it is the inherently complicated mechanical aspects of guitar that make a simple recommendation difficult. Perhaps it is that the RH and LH are fundamentally different activities in guitar, so much more so than the piano, that make the prospect of finding a "daily routine" more challenging. It seems that there will be a manifold increase in the types of technical exercises required on guitar. Moreover, there is an intellectual challenge in determining what exercises are most relevant to advancing the goal of facilitating playing repertoire, rather than spending time on technical acrobatics for the sake of doing exercises. As a novice, is my impression somewhat correct, or can you help me reorient my way of thinking to more clearly think about guitar musicianship?
I hope this is a relevant contribution to this interesting discussion group, and don't want to distract from the main trust of the Carlevaro topic, but wanted to see how this composer/performer/pedagogue's works fit into the works mentioned, and how Carlevaro might serve the goals articulated above. I am working through the multitude of lessons on technique on ToneBase and studying them at and away from the guitar to make sense of how they might fit into developing a daily regimen. More directed at this discussion, would the Carlevaro (micro?) studies plus daily (3-note-per-string moveable pattern?) scales be a possible way to organize RH/LH and music-preparatory technique? In terms of LH skills, what do you recommend for multiple-octave arpeggios (as opposed to RH arpeggio work a la Guiliani), or is this not as musically relevant on the guitar as on the piano due to the layout of strings? How does harmony and chord practice factor into a daily practice, and does chord practice serve as a more effective use of time than hammering away on arpeggios (since a chord can be arpeggiated or played as a chord)? Is there a good guide to harmony most relevant to classical guitar in terms of learning to master LH shapes in all keys so that both the eye and the hand become expert at seeing the underlying chords in passages in music to aid in finger preparation?
How would one begin to develop a program for oneself without getting discouraged by the multitude of tasks to master?