The guitar is a deceptively simple instrument. Andres Segovia, the great Spanish classical guitarist, once described it as the easiest instrument in the world to play badly. For many people, learning to play classical guitar is a frustrating and difficult experience. Why is it that so many people never progress beyond those first simple chords? After 30+ years of performing and teaching the guitar, I've concluded that too often the building is built before the foundation is laid. The purpose of this Total Classical Guitar Method is to offer an accurate, detailed, and complete course of study that will lay the proper foundation for a lifelong study of this incredible instrument. Although this method can be successfully learned without the assistance of a teacher, I recommend strongly that you find a qualified teacher once you understand the basics of the guitar. You would be appalled at how many self-proclaimed guitar teachers don't have a clue about what it takes to really play the guitar. By the end of the first few lessons in this method you'll be able to recognize when you've found a qualified teacher.
 

This method is called the Total Classical Guitar Method because it teaches each of the fundamentals of playing the classical guitar sequentially, before allowing the student to encounter the need to use any previously unlearned fundamental skill. Each new skill builds only on previously learned skills. Because the foundation is built one step at a time, the student is "totally" prepared for the next lesson before it is introduced.
 

I have designed this method to prevent bad habits from forming, therefore progress is always forward. To some people this may be initially frustrating. Some people will expect to be able to play the guitar after only a few lessons. I could teach you to strum a few chords and pick a simple but intricate sounding "picking pattern" in a single lesson. You'd come back and want to learn a few more chords and a few more picking patterns, then a few more, and on and on, until one day you'd came back and tell me you wanted to play music. At that point I'd have to undo everything you had already learned and then, after ten times the effort you put into learning how to play badly, you would be back at the starting point ready to begin again. What a waste of both of our time! Chances are good that you would put the guitar away and never try playing it again. Another big waste of talent and a loss of all the years of pleasure the guitar could have brought you and others who could have enjoyed listening to you play. Please be patient. You will learn a skill that will last a lifetime and it deserves a solid foundation.
 

The focus of this method will always be the art of making music. Although the details are grounded in the physical interaction between you and your instrument, I will continually stress the absolute necessity of mental focus on the music itself. Playing classical guitar is not an athletic event. I've "been there and done that". Practicing scales while watching Monday night football is not what this method is about. Fifteen minutes a day of truly focused practice is infinitely better than two hours of mindless finger exercises. If I can help you understand only one fact, that making music is the art of communicating, my efforts in writing this method will have been generously rewarded. Think of the times in your life when you have looked someone in the eye and focused your whole being on that other person. Music has the power to hold entire groups of listeners in that same intimate embrace. You can make that happen if you focus on communication as your personal musical goal. I hope that this Classical Guitar method will help you achieve that result in your own musical odyssey.