John Morgan's Twangin with Guiliani

John Morgan
playtheguitar.com

Don't worry; this lesson has nothing to do with Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. However, Mauro Giuliani (1780 - 1829) was one of the most celebrated guitarists of his day. He toured extensively and greatly improved the guitar's status as a serious concert instrument. He also composed many pieces including, three concerti for guitar and orchestra, many vocal compositions and a number of solo guitar pieces. He even gigged with Ludwig von Beethoven!

Giuliani was also a great teacher. Much of the material he wrote for his students is available today including his "120 Right Hand Studies." While all120 variations may not be relevant to every fingerstylist, working on several of the basic patterns will certainly help develop a solid right hand technique.

In his "120 Right Hand Studies," Giuliani keeps the fretting just interesting enough to prevent anyone within earshot from chasing the guitarist out of the house. He does this by alternating between a C major chord to a G7. When adapting these right hand studies to the twanger we don't have the advantage of chord changes so make sure that anyone in the same room understands that you are laying a foundation for feats of musical mastery.

Before We Get Started

In classical guitar notation the fingers of the right hand are identified by their Spanish names:
p - pulgar/thumb
i - indicio/index
m - medio/middle
a - anular/ring

Time

These studies are in 4/4 time. Practice them at a tempo that allows you to play every note smoothly and evenly. As you improve, speed up.

Why practice a lot of different picking patterns? The goal of finger style playing is not to learn patterns. It's to get your fingers to do what you want them to do.

I have had a number of students who, before coming to me, learned one picking pattern and played it exclusively for years. They feel so "locked in" that fingerpicking isn't a joy, it's a trap. Once they learn a few new patterns they are able to break out of the rut and return the excitement to their playing. By learning a variety of patterns you will be able to flow from one to another in a way that best fits the music. Let's begin with the thumb and two fingers:

The Two-Finger Pinch - The most basic right hand technique simply involves your thumb, index finger and middle finger (p, i, m). Let you thumb rest on the A string; index finger on the B string and middle finger on the E string. Now pinch - apply even pressure with each finger. Play this study as four, quarter-note chords. (Count: 1, 2, 3, 4, playing all three notes at the same time.) Your index and middle fingers will stay on the B and E strings respectively for each pinch. Your thumb will move from the A to the D to the G strings then back to the D string. Each pinch gets one beat. Play and repeat (an infinite number of times!).

Two-Finger Forward Roll - Use the same three fingers: thumb, index and middle (p, i, m). This time instead of playing all three notes at once, play them as triplet's - three successive notes played on each beat. As with the pinch, your index finger will only pluck the B string and your middle finger will only pluck the E string. Your thumb will move from the A to the D to the G strings then back to the D string. The picking pattern is p, i, m. (repeat, repeat, repeat).

Two-Finger Reverse Roll - This is the same as the front roll except the picking pattern is reversed: p, m, i.

Thumb and Three Fingers - Now let's get the Ring finger into the game.

Three Finger Pinch - Rest your thumb on the A string, your index finger on the G, index finger on B and ring finger on the E. As with the Two-Finger pinch this is played as four quarter-note chords. This time when you pinch alternate your thumb between the A and the D strings.

Three-Finger Forward Roll - Think of this as four sixteenth notes (Count: 1- e - & - a, 2- e - & - a, etc.; or use a four syllable word like Mis-sis-sip-pi to help keep the count smooth and even) The fingering patter is p, i, m, a (with your thumb alternating between the A string and the D strings.)

Three-Finger Reverse Roll - same fingers, same strings, same count, new picking pattern: p, a, m, i.

Three-Finger Inside-Out Roll - same fingers, same strings, same count, new picking pattern: p, m, a, i.

Well, we've covered a few of the basics but there are over a hundred more that our friend Mauro wrote down. If you want to explore further I recommend Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant or Solo Guitar Playing by Frederick Noad . Both books contain all of Giuliani's Right Hand Studies and a ton of additional information about classical technique.

Happy twanging,
John
playtheguitar.com