All Classical Guitarists are connected by a common thread.

A real love for the instrument itself even if we don’t play it.

But when we do play, we also all have the intense hope that what comes out will be sublime, effortless and inspiring.

What “actually” comes out usually doesn’t quite live up to that model, but what we hear does. What the listener hears probably doesn’t.

If you have ever recorded yourself playing something, and then played it back, you know what I’m talking about.

So what we all strive for is to match our idealization with real playing and that becomes the motivation to mush forward with our pieces and pedagogy.

I’m always talking about “frame of mind” and the “Five Disciplines of Technique” because the two go hand in hand. I also believe in the theoretical ideal of mastering technique first before any music goes on the music stand.

I realize that this “ideal” concept, in reality, isn’t totally achievable but if our hope for effortless and inspired playing is an “ideal pursuit” and we endeavor towards it each time we pick up our Guitars, then why shouldn’t we endeavor to perfect our technique each time we pick up our Guitar.

One without the other is rather pointless, wouldn’t you say ?

How does one overcome the moving sands of trying to play effortlessly and musically plus find the time in the day to devote to technical mastery ?

The all too common, but incorrect, solution is putting our favorite piece of Guitar music on the

music stand and living vicariously through the composer’s notes but always falling short in being able to really play the piece.

The result ? Frustration and the inevitable putting of the guitar back in its case and going away with the thought, “Tomorrow will be a better day and my dream will come true when I try to play my favorite piece.”

Well, I say not good enough !

Here is how one should approach the problem.

By addressing the issues one at a time. Classical Guitar technique breaks down into five basic physical categories or Disciplines, as I call them.

The First Discipline: Playing one single string with one finger and only after that playing one single string with multiple fingers. No Left Hand yet.

This Discipline takes time to perform correctly and is the cornerstone of your technique. If you don’t master it the rest of what you’ll do will be… absolutely …pointless. If you can’t consistently stroke one string with one finger with loud volume and full round tone then you probably can’t get through ten measures of a piece of music without faltering.

The Second Discipline: The Right Hand alone playing multiple strings.

This Discipline is the next building block to technique and when perfected will eventually become what I call the backdrop to effortless playing. All the Left Hand work in the world won’t mean a thing without it.

The Third Discipline: The Left Hand alone on a single string.

This Discipline is the most deceptive, and counter intuitive one of all the disciplines. It’s the reason no one practices it but until you are completely aware of the micro movements of your Left Hand Fingers individually, the complex array of Left Hand fingerings contained in pieces of music will be nothing short of mind boggling.

The Fourth Discipline: The Left Hand alone on multiple strings.

Here is where the muscles really get a work out and endurance becomes a major factor so learning to exert only the pressure required to stop a fretted note is the secret to many aspects of playing, speed being the biggest one.

The Fifth Discipline: Both Hands playing on single strings and then multiple strings. No, not music yet.

This is what I call open play and believe it or not is where most Guitar Methods start you out. Can you imagine ? Trying to coordinate all these skills without learning them individually first ?

Remember that learning to play classical guitar by playing music will only ingrain bad habits that you’ll have to unlearn someday.

Usually when your lack of progress and frustration has reached its pinnacle.

Don’t let that happen to you!

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The Sakari Method for Classical Guitar
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