The Resourceful Guitarist aims to help make you a resourceful guitarist by giving you easy access to free resources, pieces, and information that isn't easily available but can have powerful impacts on your playing. I also aim to promote guitar music that is obscure today, but in my opinion deserves much greater attention and recognition. This is stuff that you could easily spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars on - scores, method books, recordings, lessons, etc. But the materials here are all public domain and thus are free! The work I do is to search thoroughly for exceptional resources and promote them via writing, recordings, and videos.
I am truly passionate about this cause, so I keep this service free to you and have no ads. I pour many hours each day into this - in researching, practicing, recording, producing videos, making booklets, translating, and writing.
If you find value in what I do and would like to donate to this cause, then please consider becoming a patron and giving a recurring donation each month. These funds will assist me in website maintenance, video production, audio recordings, access to libraries, and more! Ultimately, you will be part of the mission to spread these old guitar treasures to people around the world. You will help to expand the guitar's cultural borders and ensure that its important history doesn't lay dormant.
Each donation amount comes with a special reward, all of which are constantly updated as new material is released!
What do I see as the ultimate vision as a result of this blog?
- University/College departments dedicated to 19th century performance practice
- An annual music festival dedicated to 19th century music and performance practice
- Professional studio recordings of the music found in this blog (Pratten, Chopin, Rung, Schulz, etc.)
- Collaborations with flutists, pianists, guitarists, violinists, and vocalists - there is so much great chamber music from the 19th century!
I am truly passionate about this cause, so I keep this service free to you and have no ads. I pour many hours each day into this - in researching, practicing, recording, producing videos, making booklets, translating, and writing.
If you find value in what I do and would like to donate to this cause, then please consider becoming a patron and giving a recurring donation each month. These funds will assist me in website maintenance, video production, audio recordings, access to libraries, and more! Ultimately, you will be part of the mission to spread these old guitar treasures to people around the world. You will help to expand the guitar's cultural borders and ensure that its important history doesn't lay dormant.
Each donation amount comes with a special reward, all of which are constantly updated as new material is released!
What do I see as the ultimate vision as a result of this blog?
- University/College departments dedicated to 19th century performance practice
- An annual music festival dedicated to 19th century music and performance practice
- Professional studio recordings of the music found in this blog (Pratten, Chopin, Rung, Schulz, etc.)
- Collaborations with flutists, pianists, guitarists, violinists, and vocalists - there is so much great chamber music from the 19th century!
Reward: Downloadable audio files of all my recordings
Reward: One Skype lesson per month, plus access to all books and recordings
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Reward: Unlimited access to all of my Ebooks and recordings
Reward: Unlimited access to all of my online courses, books, recordings, monthly Skype lesson, and a composition dedicated to you
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Current number of patrons: 9
Sidney Pratten's Guitar School (c. 1859)
I found this guitar method back when I was writing a paper for my Doctorate degree. I literally stumbled on it, and after skimming through I was astonished at the amount of great info that it contains. Catharina Josepha Pratten (1821 - 1895), a.k.a. Sidney Pratten was one of the most renowned guitarists of her day. She was a child prodigy, and was taught by her father Ferdinand Pelzer (who also wrote some method books, two of which you'll get in the coming weeks). Pratten was friends with Giulio Regondi, whom she played guitar duets with. She also often accompanied Regondi's Concertina playing... |
Ferdinand Pelzer's Instructions for the Spanish Guitar (1833)
This is a method book that I found recently, and like Pratten's method book, it's very fun to read through from cover to cover. Pelzer (1801 - 1860) was born in Mülheim, Germany. He moved to England in 1829, and eventually became the editor of the Giulianiad - an early guitar journal. Wikipedia says that Pelzer "wrote many short compositions and arrangements for solo guitar as well as guitar accompaniments to popular songs." However, I have found several substantial pieces that are highly virtuosic... |
Ferdinand Pelzer's 150 Exercises (1836)
I wanted to begin this week by describing why I believe 19th century method books are of immense value to us. Guitar method books of today tend to focus on technique of a purely mechanical nature. What you might have noticed about the previous 19th century method books is that they are full of musical exercises - scales, chords, arpeggios, etc... |
"Felix Horetzky went from Poland to Vienna where he performed with Giuliani and Diabelli and studied with Giuliani. The preface to opus 15 by Horetzky published in London says "I feel therefore that as I was so fortunate as to receive my musical education from so able a Teacher...". He had a successful concertizing and publishing career and spent most of his life in Edinburgh, Scotland...
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There are many books on Baroque music out there today, but I think that sometimes it's good to read the "classics". Forkel was Bach's official biographer, and wrote one of the most enlightening and informative books on Bach's life, music, and playing style. It is not like a modern book of today, where the author is looking backwards at information from a purely subjective viewpoint...
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A collection of gorgeous pieces by Henrik and Frederik Rung (1901)
Not too long ago I stumbled on a book of pieces (in two volumes) by father and son composers Henrik and Frederik Rung. The pieces are laid out in a somewhat progressive order in terms of difficulty. Many pieces have colorful and evocative titles. There are some truly gorgeous pieces in this book, and I hope you will add some to your repertoire! |
The first edition of Bach's Lute Suites for Guitar, by Franz Dagobert Bruger (1921)
This edition of the Bach lute suites was published in 1921, by the German Hans Dagobert Bruger. This man could be said to be responsible for the adaptation of Bach's Lute Suites on guitar... |
12 Etudes (or L'indispensable) by Leonard Schulz (1840)
There are certain composers that you know of today that were virtually unknown in previous times. You might be playing a piece or two by such composers. Here are just two examples: Agustin Barrios was at one point an extremely obscure composer. Today his works are a core part of the guitar's repertoire. J.S. Bach was not very well known in his lifetime and was more respected as an organist than composer. But today he is considered one of the greatest composers of western music. Today I want to share something very special with you. They are what I believe to be some of the most deserving pieces that warrant rediscovery on the guitar... |
Leonard Schulz (Vienna, 1814 - London, 1860) wrote a wide variety of pieces, from the Etudes posted last time, to long Fantasias, and short character pieces.
The Last Compositions (c. 1860) were commissioned by Mme. Sidney Pratten and it seems as though she edited the score also. I say this because there are many signs and symbols used that are found in Pratten's Guitar School. The frequent musical indications give us some clues in regards to 19th century performance practice. Things like vibrato, strumming, rubato, glissando, extreme dynamics, and more are indicated with great frequency. |
Mrs Joseph Kirkman's Improved Method For the Guitar (c. 1842)
Little is known about Mrs Joseph Kirkman. Her true name was Louisa Kirkman and perhaps she was the wife of German keyboard maker Jacob Kirkman (formerly Kirchmann), who immigrated to London in about 1740. What I can tell you is that Louisa must have been a fine guitarist and musician. Her method book is one of the finest I've encountered and contains some really wonderful exercises. |
Ferdinando Carulli's Second Suite a la Methode
Carulli is a popular name in the classical guitar world today, unlike many of the other names found in this blog. Carulli wrote a lot of music aimed at amateurs, but he also wrote music aimed at virtuosos a lot of which he probably composed for himself to play. This book contains a wonderful array of studies for working on (as the title suggests) arpeggios, modulations, thirds, sixths, octaves, tenths, ornaments, slurs and the positions of the fretboard. Plus one Grand Caprice on top of all that! |
The Interpretation of the Music of the 17th and 18th Centuries by Arnold Dolmetsch (1915)
Many classical guitarists play music from the 17th and 18th centuries, including works by Bach, Weiss, Vivaldi, Sor, Giuliani, etc. What many guitarists aren't aware of is the troves of information that musicians from these centuries left about how they interpreted their music... |
The Guitar Taught By a Simple Method by Dionisio Aguado (c. 1836)
Dionisio Aguado is considered as one of the greatest guitarists of the 19th century. Aguado composed a large body of works for the guitar and his 'New Guitar Method' is a popular book today. Although much of his writings were done in languages other than English, this method book is a rare exception. The book was published in London c. 1836. A large focus of this book is to improve the facility of reading notes on the guitar - something that I think many guitarists of today wish to improve! |
This short and enlightening book should be required reading for any classical guitarist! It divulges some fascinating details about Catharina (aka Mme. Sidney) Pratten's life, from the perspective of her close friend, Frank Mott Harrison (who published an English translation of Sor's Method for Guitar).
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Spanish Guitar Music: Two Volumes (1926)
I found these books while searching an online library and they're not books you can find easily! They each contain 15+ pieces by Spanish composers, including Arcas, Viñas and Broca, and were published in Berlin, 1926. Sor and Aguado are also included in the collections. While several of these pieces are quite well known today, the collection itself is I believe quite rare. I encourage you to check out the pieces, whether you are an amateur or professional guitarist. There's lots of variety in the length, character, type, difficulty, etc. of this wonderful selection of pieces. |
Schubert Lieder arranged for guitar by Diabelli (1819?)
When you think of beautiful songs, the first composer that comes to mind is often Franz Schubert. What guitarists of today might not be aware of is that some of Schubert's gorgeous lieder (art song) were transcribed for guitar during his lifetime... |