One of the most important abilities we need to master in order to play the classic guitar is the ability to keep our entire bodies relaxed while playing. A student at a master class at SMU in Dallas once asked the instructor "How do you know if you're relaxed enough?" the instructor responded "If you fall off the chair you know you were too relaxed". That got the appropriate chuckle from the audience, but the response was dead on. Playing the classical guitar is not "hard." As a matter of fact, the easier YOU MAKE IT, the quicker you will progress. It is all too often the case that most of the time spent in beginning lessons is just having the student get rid of tension.

Tension is the enemy! Not only will it keep you from progressing, but its presence is brutal to any audience. If you listen to a classical guitarist and you find yourself squirming in your chair, you can bet you're feeling the tension he's creating. We'll talk later about how to recognize tension and how to control it with relaxation - suffice to say that you'd be really surprised at how this ugly demon finds it's way into our playing. Once you've learned to identify tension, you'd also be surprised at how easy it is to eliminate...

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Free on-line Classical Guitar Lessons
www.classic-guitar.com/lesson_i.html The "Total Classical Guitar Method (tm)" is an on-line lesson program for beginning guitarists, and for guitarists who already play another style but want to learn how to play Classical Guitar. This web site is dedicated to the memory of Maestro Andres Segovia, the most influential Classical Guitarist of our century, in the hope that one day there may come along another guitarist possessed of his spirit.

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