Classical Guitar Notes

Randoms

Much to know and learn on the old classical guitar. Going to use this little section for documenting all the fun. What songs I would like to learn or have already been working on can be found in ClassicalGuitarRepertoire. After I get to a certain point I would like to get all the songs I know recorded here. Been checking out a lot of stuff on ClassicalGuitarBuilding so I will start that page. There is a new forum at http://www.digitalguitararchive.com/index.php that is brand new. Should keep an eye on it. Oasis is the name of that cool humidifier that stringsbymail has. Would like to try one or more of those some day.

Finding sheet music online

  • http://www.muslib.se/ebibliotek/boije/indexeng.htm - Cool public archive of old guitar music.
  • http://gallarda.narod.ru/ - This place has just about every piece of music I've gone to look for plus some of them are Segovia transcriptions which is cool in it's own right. Keep finding more and more resources online, so we should now have a ClassicalGuitarMusic page.
  • http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/ - Lots of original scores. Who's up for transcribing?

Jazz thoughts

Thinking if I ever start playing more serious jazz on the classical one of these http://www.godinguitars.com/godinwhatsnewp.htm might be just the ticket. Something to think about. There was a write-up on them in one of the recent GuitArt magazines. Sound like a really cool guitar.

Guitar Tone - Spruce v. Cedar

Where did I find this?
Question: I would appreciate some guidance on whether to choose cedar or spruce as a top wood. Jeannouel van Leeuwen, CuraÃ§ao, Netherlands Antilles--July 1998.
Answer: A full account of the difference between these woods is not easy to put into words, but let's give it a try. An important luthiery consideration when using these woods is that cedar is generally lower and density and has a little higher stiffness/weight ratio than spruce. Cedar typically produces a sound which is warm and "Spanish." Spruce is more likely to produce clarity and a larger tonal palette. Cedar guitars are usually louder up close, although some spruce guitars (but not all!) project better from a concert stage than might be expected in an up-close comparison with a cedar-top. Opinion varies as to why this might be so; it is my conviction that the primary physical variable is fullness in the overtone structure of the treble notes, e.g. the upper partials. (The human ear treats partials as additive, which can make a musical instrument sound louder than a decibel reading recorded electronically might suggest.)