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Selected Sites

David Raleigh Arnold

Music for Download at No Charge

“Download at no charge” does not mean copyright free. It is limited permission according to the owners.

Library Collections

These collections contain most of the important guitar music of the early 19th century and some later items. There are duets and methods as well as easy music and standard repertoire.

The Boije collection of the Royal Library of Sweden has complete copies of the Carcassi Method Op. 59, his etudes Op. 60, his caprices Op. 26, and the much more advanced Legnani Caprices Op. 20.

The Rischel collection of the Royal Danish Library is another great source of public domain guitar music. There is a copy of the Carulli Method there.

Jazz for Classical Guitar

Dave Oake’s site has jazz oriented solos for the classical guitarist.

John Hall has written a great essay on theory which bridges the gap between the traditional harmony text and the greater practical world by giving a clear exposition of “altered chords” or “chords of the sixth”.

Glossaries, Dictionaries, Theory Tutorials, etc.

This is a terrific music library, all out of copyright in the U. S.. Gehrken’s “Music Notation and Terminology” is an interesting university textbook which addresses basic notation, species counterpoint, and ‘the common practice period”’ (CPP), all in one book. I”’ve only skimmed some of it, not enough to make comparisons, but it makes me wonder whether the new books are any better. I doubt it. Of course pen and ink must give way to pencil and scanner, but much of even that part is still valid. Some of the rules now considered standard are not as standard as I once thought.

There is only one basic piano method on line for free download, so far, that I know of, but it was very popular in its day and it has much to recommend it. It is Op. 100c on a site dedicated to the author. [Sydney Smith Site] A unique feature is his use of fingering X1234 instead of today”’s 12345, which makes it more compatible with fingering for strings. It’s still a better idea, in my opinion.

The documentation for the LilyPond program contains a music glossary which is not entirely the product of native English speakers. That is a plus, since many languages are used to annotate music. Its main use is to look up terms which refer to notation in particular. It is not authoritative, but unfortunately there is no such thing as an authority on music notation, and there has never been one.

The Dolmetsch on line music dictionary is highly recommended. and also their super music theory tutorial site.

Dolmetsch linked to Wikipedia for the topic of musical accents. It is a total loss, completely wrong and far worse than nothing.

Equipment

History and How to Use a Metronome

This document has a grab bag of suggestions on proper use of a metronome. You will find some of the helpful hints somewhat off, (For example, the reason to speed up and then slow down is not to achieve relaxation but to avoid fatigue. You should use different tempos for other reasons too.) but these are generally good approaches to the metronome. Notice that the idea of practicing pure technique (scales, etc.) with a metronome is just not there. There are good reasons for that.

Now (2010) this site has been revised and stripped down, but it is still excellent.

Microphones

Acoustic Pickup Comparisons may help to select a microphone for recording guitar music. A steel strung guitar is used, and that is a good thing because steel strings demand more of a microphone than nonmetal strings. Notice that a cheap lapel mike can sound surprisingly good. An expensive system designed to enhance voice is useless for recording music.

Amps

5-15 watts, in a versatile amp, is plenty for guitar. If you need more, you can mike the amp, and your amp will serve as a monitor too. Let someone else haul the sound system.

Teacher Registry

This is a free teacher registry. That recommends it, but as in all of the other teacher registries, the information is supplied by the teachers, so it is a locator and not an endorsement.