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Understanding basic notation

by John
(Chicago area, Illinois, U.S.A.)

Some background first: I'm starting out on teaching myself a little bit of very basic fingerstyle and I have almost no musical experience other than teaching myself non-classical acoustic guitar over the last twelve months.

I'm just now learning how to read music. I bought "Pumping Nylon" and Noad's "100 Graded Classical Guitar Studies" and I started looking through these and I am stumped. Please help!

I can't quite figure out the meaning of the numerical markings next to the individual notes. They look like they're finger markers for the left hand, e.g., 1 = Index finger, 2 = Middle finger, etc., but the notation isn't consistent. For example, in Study No. 1 in Noad's book (this is also Sor's Op. 60 No. 4), sometimes the staff shows a G with a zero next to it and sometimes with nothing next to it--and it's the same G, not different octaves. I don't understand what this means. If a zero means to play it open, then what does having no number next to it mean?? Also, I can't tell if these are arpeggios or not. Is there any way to learn to distinguish this?

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

A sincere (but older and neophyte) student,

John

Hi John,

You're right. The numerical markings are indeed the left hand fingers to be used (1 2 3 4). When you see "p i m a" they are the right hand fingers p=thumb, i=index finger, m=middle finger and a=annular or ring finger.

You're also right that the markings are often inconsistent. Actually, I don't think they put enough on for beginners and that's why you see much more on the music I arrange on this site i.e. to help beginners.

Additionally, you may want to learn the fret board more thoroughly as the "G" you mentioned might just be the G note on the 2nd string at the 8th fret for instance. That one is indeed the same pitch as the G note on the 1st string 3rd fret. It's also the same pitch as the 3rd string at the 12th fret.

I believe untill you learn the fret board you will always be confused about where notes reside and at what pitch they are. It's time well spent learning the fret board.

In terms of arpeggios they are "broken chords" which means the notes are played separately one after another (in varying right hand patterns) rather than strummed all together at the one time.

I wrote a page quite a while ago which you might want to look at on arpeggios. There's even a video on the page that highlights an arpeggio in action.

I hope this is of help.

Kind regards,
Trevor M.