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Here is a small portion of my guitar library...

For those wanting to know a little bit of my background in guitar, I have to say after reading responses and emails over the years I think you might be a lot like me. Indeed, you might be surprised to know, I didn't start learning classical guitar until I was in my early twenties.

I used to play a little acoustic guitar, nothing very good or impressive, just strumming a few chords and stuff. One day a friend of mine, Danny, noticed me playing and mentioned he also played guitar and would bring it around to show me. Little did I know but I was in for the shock of my life!

A couple days later when he did bring his guitar over I must admit when I saw his little classical guitar I was feeling rather smug with mine. And then he began to play!

Oh...my...GOD!!! How did he get those sounds out of that instrument?

It “hit” me right in the middle of the chest and went straight to my heart. I just knew that THIS is what I wanted to do. This was the type of guitar I had been longing to play without even knowing it! I know that sounds crazy but I guess we’ve all heard of love at first sight, well this was love at first hearing.

In that one moment, that one instant, had decided a huge part of my life’s journey. But what was I to do? How would I start? Danny put me on the right track: it was the world of Segovia, Williams, Bream and the like. Yes, it was no use, I was smitten! I just had to get good at this.

But once I decided to really "go for it" and to try to become really good on the classical guitar, I realized I wasn't sure of how to get to a level of playing that I wanted to. Like you probably do, I eventually wanted to be able to play some of the more romantic, but difficult, pieces in the repertoire that I'd seen Andres Segovia, John Williams, Julian Bream and others playing but I wasn't sure if I could ever reach that level. I thought that at that, rather late, stage of my life to be starting guitar I would probably be glad if I got past the basics and could just enjoy it and perhaps impress my friends and family!

As you understand, the path often isn't easy. There are always time constraints from work and family. In stepped Danny again and put me onto a good teaching school, or so I thought! I suppose you've might have had the disinterested or untalented teacher; the boring and uninspiring lessons and the confusion of what and when to play.

I actually had a guitar teacher like that (my first "official" one) who rarely looked at what I was doing and just "barked" a few orders at me while he glanced out of the window at the people below in the street. I mean, the guy often didn’t even watch what I was doing and his arrogance annoyed me!

But being a beginner I didn't know if this was just the way they did things, but I soon started to feel a little ripped off. After several months of giving this guy the benefit of the doubt I decided I had had enough and left that particular guitar school. After all, I was the one footing the bill and I sure wasn't getting my money's worth! But I really wanted to do this. I had made my decision and I was going to see it through.

As luck would have it, I went to another guitar shop near where I lived. One of the better teachers from that other guitar school had also left because he didn't agree with their poor philosophy and practices either. Adam was one of those meticulous, lively, talented and interested teachers you rarely find. Most importantly, he knew just how and what was needed with each particular student to speed up their progress.

He especially drilled into to me the way to improve was in "incremental" steps, but did so in a way that I had regular challenges and hit "peaks and troughs." And he really trumpeted using the etudes and studies of the master guitarists and insisted that I practice and play them daily. I soon saw that this method followed the exact way we learn i.e. it can't be in a completely "linear" fashion where you're always required to go up a level and up a level. You need time to "digest" or consolidate what has been learnt and then go on to a new challenge.

It's more like a spiral, winding method of learning rather than just a steep incline. It certainly did work with me! I was able to consolidate my skills and feel like I was getting somewhere and then go on to the next new challenge that I was able to handle and achieve success at. Although he didn't get it 100% completely right, this method of using studies and etudes was great. I wanted more of that!

Then disaster struck! Unfortunately Adam was killed in a road accident and, as I had got to know him pretty well over the year or so I knew him, I was deeply shocked and affected for some time afterwards. For a while there I lost my desire to practice or even play the guitar but some months later the feeling, love and passion for the instrument came back even stronger.

Later on, because I was teacher trained and had studied music as my "Major" subject at college, I soon got a job teaching in a guitar school part-time while I did a little substitute teaching in elementary or what we call, Primary schools. This was while I was waiting for my full-time posting to come through. When it eventually did I decided to keep the part time job as well and so taught guitar on top of my full time job for a few years. I basically taught my students the same way I was taught and I was proud to get them to a level where they were getting A's in their guitar exams.

It would have been better if I'd had Adam's teaching syllabus. Even though it was incomplete it did "work wonders" as they say. When I became more aware of the internet in early 2001, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to take these skills to a wider audience where people were hungry to learn to play guitar, but might not have the opportunity or resources to do so.

So I started to build my site, piece by piece, bit by bit, page by page, year by year. It kept evolving until it's now at the top of most of the major search engines around the globe. I started putting up pieces and information that beginners to intermediate players would want to learn. I eventually wanted to create a really effective, more in-depth course, even better than Adam's, but wasn't sure if it would be possible.

It really did shock me as to how much time the web site building was taking and how difficult it was proving to be time-wise, although I was really enjoying helping people. But when the traffic started increasing to my site, via the free pages and videos, so did the requests for some sort of more in-depth course, just as I had originally planned. Phew! If I thought just putting the website together was a lot of work, then this really would be something.

Well, you know how we're all "time poor". To be honest, when the time came, I thought it might be beyond me to put something together that would be effective. I had taught face-to-face in the past and knew it worked, but would it work solely on the net? But the requests just kept coming! So gradually, I relented.

I then decided I was going to "buckle down" to create a course that was easy to use and help people to improve quickly. Moreover, I realized I had to create a method of developing classical guitar skills in a step by step fashion which included a mixture of the right pieces, scales and exercises just like I had done with Adam, but more so because people are basically learning it from the web without a face-to-face teacher.

So I went at it like a "mad scientist", analysing, arranging and re-arranging many, many pieces. I also knew from my teacher training that people learn best in a multi-sensory fashion which would also speed up their progress if they did an online course. It took me a long time, actually over 2 years, to arrange these pieces, written by some of the great classical guitar composers of the past, and level them in an order that would stimulate interest and develop ability as I've mentioned above.

Indeed, I think I have selected and arranged some of the best pieces from: Sor; Aguado; Carcassi; Carulli and Giuliani in a way that's going to let you develop your skills and all the while keep your interest and passion. And now I'm nearly ready to share this with you! I know you really want to improve your playing in a time effective manner but do so in a relaxed way on your own terms, so that you can develop at your own pace.

I believe this program will lead you step by step and develop your skills in a more rounded fashion and you won't have to go getting a little bit from here and a little bit from there, this book, that website, in a haphazard fashion. I mean, I have tried to literally lay it all out in front of you to do at your own pace. Well, that's basically my story of how my classical career has unfolded. It has been hard at times but we don't get anything worthwhile in life without a bit of hard work do we?

There’s literally something here for everyone even mildly interested in improving their classical-finger style skills in an efficient and effective way. And the great thing...everything’s laid out for you and you can work to your own timetable to suit yourself.

Enjoy and kind regards,
Trevor Maurice

Classical Guitar Sheet Music

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