Reading Classical guitar notation. AAAGH

Mutant_Fruit

I am sitting my leaving cert next june, and am taking music as a subject. I took up guitar back in transition year (about 2 years ago). I'm now being told i really should be graded when i go into my leaving cert, and i should be at least grade 6 standard.

So now i'm taking a grade 6 exam, probably in early march/late february. The problem is i can't read classical guitar sheet music.

I know how to read the stave, as i played piano for a few years. However beside each note there is a number. This i can;t fully figure out what it means.

So far i've decided it can either mean the finger i'm supposed to use (very doubtful) or its referring to the octave of the note i'm supposed to play. e.g. an "A" note with a 3 beside it means i play the 3rd occurance of A on the guitars neck. BUT, this makes no sense, as the numbers that appear are between 0 and 4.

Could anyone help me with this? I've posted a fuzzy picture of what i mean.

The first 3 numbers (going from top to bottem are 2 3 1.

Antisocialiser

time signatures?

K!LL!@N

The numbers beside the notes are fingering guides.

0 = open string
1 = index finger
2 = middle finger
3 = third finger
4 = little finger

If you see C followed by a roman numeral e.g. C IV. That means barre the 4th fret.

Just out of curiosity, have you sat any other guitar grades yet?
Starting off at 6 is pretty ambitious. There are only 8 after all. When i started i went straight to grade 3. Admittedly that was pretty easy. I can't tell you about the other grades cos i lost interest a few months after i got grade 3.
Also, you don't need to be grade 6 standard for the leaving cert.
Good luck with it anyway.

Killian

Mutant_Fruit

i knw it sounds rather ambitious, but i was listening to one of the grade 6 pieces a few days ago, and it seemed within my ability to play.

Also, i was told by my new Music teacher that if i amn't graded, i run the risk of deing downmarked by the examiner for my performance, also being graded would help my summer job as a guitar teacher for next summer.

K!LL!@N

There's nothing wrong with being ambitious, as long as you know what you're letting yourself in for.

I don't know why your teacher is telling you, you need to be graded though. A friend of mine got an A in honours music and he wasn't graded. He played electric guitar for his music practical, as far as i know. Also my brother got a B in honours music and he played guitar and sang. He wasn't graded either.

So i'd say it'd be safe to assume that if you can play to a grade 6 level, without actually having grade 6, you'll do pretty well.

Killian

Mutant_Fruit

One last question, what did your friend and brother play on guitar? I can't sing a note I'd be looking for some pieces that are good to play, and show off my skill .

So far i've chosen "Hideaway" and "Steppin' Out" by John Mayalland "Blackbird" by the beatles.

K!LL!@N

I can't remember off the top of my head.
I'll see if i can find out.

Killian

-ADREN-

Yea im not sure there is such a huge deal with being graded before hand.. its majorly marked out of performance, how you play with the instrument, and how well you come across with the instrument (as in not shy and awkward, more relaxed and confident) Quite obviously this isnt an excuse for you to get up and play Twinkle Twinkle, a certain amout of skill is required, but im sure your already able to manage that.

An example would be a friend of mine playing the backing guitar to 'Ride On' quite a simple Chord Progression, whilst his friend sang. His friend was being marked on his singing, and my friend being marked on his acompaning. Walked away with very high marks in his Pre's and a B1 in the overall music LC result.

There are several ways of being marked on the LC music, for instance if you were to play 6 Guitar Pieces solo, the skill level required would be much higher than if you were with a group playing the backing chords or the accompaniment.

My advice is if you dont think you are capable of playing 6 very good solo pieces on guitar, look around and see if you can be marked as part of a group. Or you could do Music Tech and 1 instrument at 4 pieces rather than 6. Music tech being easy if your already familiar with Piano and Comuters.

Regards,
-Coz.

p.s Run some of these thoughts by your music teacher, and also being graded is not that important for your LC (Playing something along the lines of 'Classical Gas' and 'Stairway to Heaven' performed well, will let you walk away with an A in the LC music practical), but if you were thinking of guitar as your Primary instrument for after secondary school, like for going into College to do a BMus or BA Music, grading would be a good bit more important.

Mutant_Fruit

I'll be talking to my guitar teacher later today, but i'm also looking for songs that other people have played for leaving cert. Neither mr or him know what exactly would be deemed a "suitable level for a few years playing" which is the requirment for leaving cert. So if people could throw up the songs that they know were played by a solo person (or group) let me know.

-ADREN-

As I mentioned above 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Classical Gas' played and performed well, will let you walk away with an A in the Practical. You will need 4 more though like those, the ones you mentioned earlier are good choices also.

alfonso*

as far as our music teacher told us grades arent essential

tho i find having done upto grade 6 that it makes the course alot easier

this isnt really an ideal time to start learning to read music if you got your practical in a few months and the work in other subjects gonna start piling in so if i where you id just ask your guitar teacher or a friend to tab out a suitable piece and possibly record it so you could imitate it


personally i dunno what pieces to do as we where told we would only get 12 mins even if we did 8 pieces which seems crazy.my plan was to do 4 classical and 4 electric pieces tho im not so sure on what electric pieces as stairway = 8 mins so possibly black dog or all along the watchtower

any ideas towards this would be appreciated

oddlyaromatic

The following sentence will help you out:

Leaving Cert music is a piece of piss.

I started playing guitar in September of fifth year, the following September I decided to start doing music as a Leaving subject. I had no knowledge of theory. I got grinds, one hour a week, missing six weeks when my teacher had an operation. I had a few practical lessons too. My pieces were Michelle and Blackbird by the Beatles, and one of my own songs. I also did music technology, which means you only need three songs, or so I thought. But I was asked for a fourth, so after getting over the shock I played End of a Century by Blur. I don't know if I was marked on it or not, my teacher was appalled that they had thrown that in. The sight-reading (if you take the chords option I think it's easier), I didn't even know about till a week before the practical. I sang myself, and I was bad back then, really bad, but I asked to be marked only on my playing.

I got a B1 in the end. I'm not gifted, I just had an interest. The exam is just easy, and from how you sound you will sail through it. Don't overstrech yourself, a well-performed piece you're sure of will do you more good than playing a nice acoustic Rondo Alla Turka (which is so much fun) that you can't play. I've never done any grade exams (though I've read Technical Development...), and I'm studying music in college now.

So relax, the only thing to worry about is the listening paper. They put S Club 7 on mine. S Club!!!

alfonso*

off the topic,do you find music in collage intresting/whats the entrance exam like,been thinking of doing it myself

oddlyaromatic

S Club titting 7!

Rage aside, I'm liking music in college. I'm doing a BA in UCD so I didn't do an entrance exam. There was an assessment though, on the first day, to determine whether you should be in the intensive class or the advanced class. It had a few aspects, mainly adding harmony to a Soprano line, listening to and identifying intervals, and a few key signatures. But it wasn't graded, it was just to see what you knew. I ****ed it up but still got into the advanced class.

It breaks down in first year into Harmony, History and an hour a week on Trad. The history is pretty gruelling, our lecturer likes to ramble a bit and tends to tell us lots of things in latin, so I'm not sure how that will pan out. The harmony class is getting more complex everytime, at the moment it's more of the groundwork than anything else, but it's getting hardcore, rules for voice-leading and so forth.

Not sure how the practical side is yet, haven't had any word. I'm not having as much trouble keeping up as I thought I would though, which is cool. If you've done Leaving Cert music it's a good start (I took a year out to go a bit further before I went to college, but that was because I didn't even have a classical guitar and wanted to get used to one and the things you can do with it (more defined harmonics, for example). It's a challenge, but it's worth it.