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A lesson for classical guitar on feel vs logic in regards to right hand fingering choice. This is from my book: Right Hand Fingering for Classical Guitar: Concepts and Case Studies. This book aims to give students a basic criteria for justifying fingering choices and gaining confidence in deciding fingering for themselves. The combination of concepts and case studies offers a framework for approaching fingering in both logical and musical ways. Here’s the Youtube link if you want to watch it there.

This video covers Examples No.39-40 from the book (Page 27-28).

The post Right Hand Fingering Concepts: Feel vs Logic first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

Finnish lutenist Tuomas Kourula performs La petite Brunette by Robert de Visée (1655-1733) on theorbo via the Turku Early Music Society and their YouTube channel. Beautiful performance by Kourula with a excellent pacing which sets the mood so well. I also love the setting and the rock holding up the iPad at the end which seems to perfectly represent a lute player in the modern world. Here’s the YouTube description:

“We have a daughter with brown hair and I used to think of her when playing this beautiful, thoughtful piece by Robert de Visée. Later I learned that a “brunette” is actually a song form of French baroque music. The main source of brunettes calls them “Brunetes ou petits airs tendres”, which describes very well the piece I’m playing in this video: a small, tender song. This video was shot in an old, derelict tram paint shop – a place full of character in every sense: visual, aural and olfactory. You can hear the resonance of the room in the video, and there’s something symbolic and hopeful in the way some light finds it’s way through the cracks in the door.”

The post Tuomas Kourula Performs La petite Brunette by Robert de Visée first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

External classical guitar albums, editions, gear, products, and composition releases for 2026. Submit your content but beware that only one or two submissions a month will make the list. I can’t list every new thing people do so it’s a lottery and don’t expect anything. Be kind! Email: bradford@thisisclassicalguitar.com

Aaron Larget-Caplan

New Edition
Cider Meditation – SATB + Guitar, audio available, published by the American Composers Alliance.

New Edition
American Patriotic Songs Arranged for Guitar, published by the American Composers Alliance.

New Album
Guitar America 250 – Revolutionaries and Rockstars (Navona Records) • Traditional songs from the Civil to World Wars, Classical works by Bernstein, Berlin, Price (violin-guitar), Hovhaness, Cage, and new works by David Liptak, Ian Wiese, and Paul Simon and Eddie Van Halen. Album info and purchase options here.

The post 2026 New Releases for Classical Guitar first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

A lesson for classical guitar on Spot Fingering in regards to regulating specific right hand fingering to isolated spots while applying broad concepts for most of the repertoire. This is from my book: Right Hand Fingering for Classical Guitar: Concepts and Case Studies. This book aims to give students a basic criteria for justifying fingering choices and gaining confidence in deciding fingering for themselves. The combination of concepts and case studies offers a framework for approaching fingering in both logical and musical ways. Here’s the Youtube link if you want to watch it there.

This video covers Examples No.35-38 from the book (Page 24-26).

The post Right Hand Fingering Concepts: Spot Fingering first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

I was listening to a guitar video of Prelude, BWV999 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) which a popular work to play on lute or guitar (my vid and edition here). But I’ve heard it so much that I started listening to harpsichord performances of the work and stumbled on this one by Bruno Martins via his YouTube. The reworking at twice the tempo in the second half is quite fun and sounds surprisingly appropriate.

As he mentions “The Prelude in C minor, BWV 999 is one of Bach’s most direct and compact keyboard works, built on continuous motion and harmonic progression. Often associated with the lute repertoire, the piece occupies an ambiguous space between instrumental idioms while remaining firmly grounded in keyboard writing.”

One thing about this piece that I always use for teaching purposes is how the harmonic rhythm changes from long values (every two measures) to short values (every measure) throughout the work which really pushes and pulls the forward motion. Fun to see it in play with so many different performers.

Lute is my usual go-to for this and here is the great Evangelina Mascardi via her Youtube. I like the lilting rhythmic delivery here. This would be closer to the model I would imitate these days.

I also really like North’s balanced approach.

And below is me playing it from many years ago. I feel I take it a bit too metronomically, I think I was aiming for a pristine through-experience at the time. I would perform it today with much more flexibility and increased rhythmic pull to the downbeat and increased phrasing on smaller levels. That said, at the time I was listening to a ton of Andras Schiff play Bach on piano and was leaning in that direction.

A common driving forward-motion interpretation by Janos Sebestyen.

Anyway, just a small post about my thoughts and how they change over the years.

The post Prelude BWV999 on Keyboard, Lute, and Guitar first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

A lesson on voice separation in regards to deciding right hand fingering for on classical guitar. This is from my book: Right Hand Fingering for Classical Guitar: Concepts and Case Studies. This book aims to give students a basic criteria for justifying fingering choices and gaining confidence in deciding fingering for themselves. The combination of concepts and case studies offers a framework for approaching fingering in both logical and musical ways. Here’s the Youtube link if you want to watch it there.

This video covers Examples No.30-34 from the book (Page 21-23).

The post Right Hand Fingering Concepts: Voice Separation first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

Slovenian classical guitar Duo Aratik with Jure Cerkovnik & Aljaž Cvirn perform the Gigue from French Suite No. 5, BWV 816 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Recorded by Uros Baric and Baros Records. This comes via the Omni Foundation and their Youtube channel (go subscribe). Amazing ensemble playing by Duo Aratik with stunning rhythmic accuracy and motivic attention.

The post Duo Aratik Perform Gigue from French Suite, BWV 816 by Bach first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.