MENC: The National Association for Music Education

Challenges Facing Guitar Education

Author(s): Eli Harrison
Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 97, No. 1 (September 2010), pp. 50-55
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of MENC: The National Association for Music
Education
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Sometimesreviled, ernmusicsuggests
sometimesrevered, withtraditional
theguitaroffers torical,and currentissueswillhelpstudents severalfingerings.
musiceducators andinstructors
thechance toteach
a widevariety
musicalstyles. The
© 2010 MENC:The National
Copyright
AssociationforMusic Education
DOI: 10.1177/0027432109334421
http://mej.sagepub.com
50
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byEliHarrison
Challenges
Facing
Guitar
Education
guitar is an extremely versatile
instru- fretboard to raisethe pitch;a guitarist told
ment.It can producecomplexchords to movetwofretshighermight playa lower
and arpeggiated texturesas readilyas tone.(As a parenthetical note,staffnotation
single-note melodies.In thetwentieth centu- transposesguitarmusicone octavehigher
ryalone,ithas appearedin a wide rangeof thanitsounds.ThehighE string on theguitar
genres;classical,jazz, blues,rock,and bossa is actually a majorthird abovemiddleC.)
novacomposea partiallist. Simpletonal melodiescan be difficult
The guitaris also a difficult instrument. on guitarforseveralreasons.First, theguitar
Inconsistencies acrossthe guitar'sstructural does nothavewhitefrets and blackfrets the
andnotational systems createan environment waya pianohas whitekeysand blackkeys.
inwhichguitarists struggleagainsttheinstru- Beginning guitaristsmustimmediately inter-
menttodeveloptheirownmusicalawareness. pretthedifferences betweenhalfstepsand
The roleoftheguitarin thecontext ofWest- wholesteps,unlikebeginning pianists,who
a lingeringincompatibilitycan relyon theconsecutive whitekeysofC
academicmusicianship. Care- major.Second,the six strings of theguitar
fulconsideration ofstructural,notational,his- createa condition whereone pitchcan have
further advancethestudyand
The verylow notesand theveryhigh
appreciation oftheguitar.
noteson theguitar haveonlyoneloca-
Structural Challenges tion and not too manyfingerings,but
of concert middleC, whichis inthemid-
physicaldimensions
createimmediate
of theguitarmight
obstacles.Youngstudents
dle register oftheinstrument, has five
locations andabout16different finger-
and manyadultsmayhave troublestretch- ings!. . . Theaveragenoteon theguitar
ingtheirfretboard handacrossmultiple frets. has2.8locations and9.2fingerings!1
Othersmaynotbe able to comfortably reach
thefrets farthest fromtheguitar's body,near Additionally, theintervalsbetweenthestrings
thehead.Left-handed mustrestring arenotidentical.
guitarists Moststringsarespacedbya
a guitarin reverseorderorfinda left-handed perfect fourth, buttheintervalbetweentheG
instrument. and B strings is a majorthird.Students who
As guitarists learnto producepitcheson approach thefretboard byvisualizingpatterns
thefretboard, theycaneasilyencounter direc- acrossallsixstrings atonce,especiallybyway
tionalreversals. Figure1 illustrates
a guitarin ofpentatonic scalesandchordcharts, maynot
standard tuning. The string positioned at the haveanytroublenavigating themajorthird.
vertical
top of the guitarproduces the lowest On the other hand, those who prefer seeing
pitches.The stringat thebottommakesthe the relativeintervals froma starting point
highestpitches.The frets oftheguitarfollow needto accountfora missing halfstepwhen
a similarphenomenon. Guitaristsdescendthe moving betweentheG andB strings.
EliHarrison
isaneducator
andperformer
intheSanFrancisco
BayArea.
Hecanbecontacted
ateli.ham'son.x@gmail.com.
Music EducatorsJournal September2010
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Thetuning oftheguitaroftenconflicts
withotherinstruments, especiallyB-flat 1
FIGURE
and E-flatinstruments,suchas theclari- oftheguitar,
andstring
and saxophone. The easiest
Basiclayout pitchesinstandard
tuning.
net,trumpet, (Illustrationauthor.)
feature by
songsforbeginning guitarists key
signatures withsharps:G, D, A, and E
major.Outsidethesekeys,commonchord
progressionsmaypose a technical chal-
lengebeyondtheskillofmostbeginners.
aredifficult
therefore,
Guitarists, toinclude
in otherwise accessibleeducationalset-
likeschoolorchestras
tings, andjazzbands.

Issues
Notation
Staff notation has provenitselfan indis-
pensable method of communicating
music.Unfortunately, therangeof pos-
sible fingerings gives less experienced
guitarists an extrasight-reading puzzle.
Violinand brassfamiliesshare similar
fingering concerns;however, theirlong-
standing roleinorchestral musicbrought
them into a comprehensive tradition
of staff-reading. Also,theyare less fre-
quentlyexpectedto producechordsor
harmony in a solo setting, a prominent
featureof the guitar.Guitarists have
developed additional forms of music
notation to approachthefretboard. FIGURE 2
Fingerstyle oftenuse staff
guitarists
notation withexpandedmarkings. Figure Staffnotation withguitarist markings. Excerpted from Francisco
2 is an excerpt ofsucha score,composed Tárrega, "AdagioinA,"inTheClassicGuitar Collection, vol.1
by Francisco Tárrega.Numbers by each (New York: Amsco, 1977), 93.
noteheadindicate whichfinger to use. A
number orletter witha circletellswhich
string will voice thegivenpitch.Italicized
lettersby each notehead showwhichfin-
ger will strum the p forthethumb,
string:
/fortheindexfinger, mforthemiddlefin-
ger,anda fortheringfinger. Stemspoint-
ing down also indicatea thumb stroke.
Evenwithadaptations, staffnotation
poses several challenges.Guitar typically staffnotation
stillemphasizespitchover strings to play.It resembles
staffnotation,
uses only the trebleclef,occasionally fretboard a must
clarity;guitarist translate buthassixlines each
symbolizing string on
requiring extended of
passages upper or the and to a
givenpitch fingering precise theguitar.Most modern tablatureis writ-
lowerledgerlinesfortheextreme lowand locationon thefretboard. tenwiththehighest-pitched stringat the
highranges of the guitar.Some chords Guitarists
across severalstyles will toplineand the string
lowest-pitched atthe
may even span across both lower and use tablature
notation.Tablature directly bottom. Instead of noteheads,numbers
upperledgerlines.Furthermore, adapted illustrates
whichcombination of fretsand showwhichfrets topress.A guitaristneed

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notunderstand staff notation tolearna song
fromtablature. Figure3 shows a simple FIGURE3
melody with staffand tablaturenotation. Staff notation withtablature. "MexicanHatDance."
Traditional,
Tablature has disadvantages. It does
notshowthemelody as an absoluteseries (Arrangement by author.)
ofpitches,nordoesitusetheletter names
ofnotes.Tablature does notclearlyindi-
caterhythms unlessitis accompanied by
another form ofnotation.
A fretboardchart, illustratedin
Figure4, is yetanothercommonform
of guitar notation.Fretboardcharts
usuallydepictsinglechordsindependent
oftimeand rhythm. Theycan also show
extendedpatterns, like arpeggiosand FIGURE5
FIGURE 4
pentatonic scales.A gridrepresents each Amovable chord shape;position
stringand a crosssectionof frets.Dots Examples offretboard charts. onthefretboard determines pitch.
indicatewheretoputone'sfingers. Num-
berson thesidetellwhichfinger to use,
theletterO standsforan openstring, and
an X meansto muteor skipthestring. If
thechordbelongsanywhere otherthan
the firstfrets,the chartwill includea
fretnumber as a reference point.
Fretboard chartsintroduce the idea
ofmovablechordshapes.Figure5 shows
thecomparison ofanA-flat majorseventh
chordanda C-sharp majorseventh chord.
Thestrings andfingerings areexactly the FIGURE6
same;thedifference is thestarting fret.A Thechord shapeofa voicing willchangewhenitstransposition crosses
whounderstands
guitarist movablechord between theGandBstrings.
shapescan easilytranspose manysongs
andchordprogressions.
Fretboard chartsalso showhow the
differentintervalofa majorthird between
theG andB strings affects chordshapes.
Allotherstrings lie a majorfourth apart,
so guitaristsmustchangethe fingering
ofa chordiftheytranspose itacrossthe
G and B strings. Figure6 illustrates this
phenomenon bycomparing threeidenti-
callyvoicedchords.Guitarists whotryto
readstaff notation mustnotonlytranslate guitarist is right-handed;left-handed
gui- Figure8 showshow thecarefulpresen-
pitchesand notes to locations on the fret- tarists
must make a mirrorimage. tationof multiple formsof notation can
board;theymustalso matchtheintervals Mostpublishers makefretboard charts diminish theirdifferences.
withinthewritten workto ideal shapes difficult to readby rotating themninety
acrossseveralstrings. degrees clockwise. Thisneedlesspractice HistoricalConsiderations
Thedrawbacks offretboard charts are placestheheadoftheguitaratthetopof
similartothoseoftablature: theabsolute thechartand thebridgeat thebottom, The modernsix-string guitarand itsstan-
pitchesare not explicitly and
given, rhyth- point a of view attainable if
only guitar- dard tuningcame intoexistenceonlyin
mic information is completely absent. istsheldtheirinstruments underthechin theearly1800s.It evolvedfroma rapidly
Also,fretboard chartsmustbe fairly large likea violin,depictedin Figure7. A fret- changing family of instrumentsincluding
to be legible.Theyare moreusefulas boardchartpresented ina horizontalori- thelute,vihuela, four-course
cittern, guitar,
a reference guidethanas a performance entation reproduces theguitarist's
visual and harp-guitar. Unlikethe saxophone's
notation.Fretboardchartsassume the imageof thefretboard moreaccurately. closesimilaritiesto theclarinet,
theguitar

52 Music EducatorsJournal September2010

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 of delightful originalpiecesand studies
FIGURE 7 for the instrument, butalso extendedthe
art of transcribing forthe guitarmusic
Afretboard chart with a vertical andtheimplied
orientation, perspective written for otherinstruments."4
oftheguitarist. Vertical fretboardchartsareneedlessly andincorrectly already He refinedthe motionsforstrumming
rotated ninety degrees clockwise. (PhotobyLauraHarrison.) and fingering, and he popularizedthe
use ofa footstool. His collaboration with
luthier Antonio Torresimproved thecon-
struction ofsix-stringguitars.
Theguitar becameestablished within
academiccommunities in thelasthalfof
the twentieth centurylargelythrough
theefforts ofSpanishguitarist and com-
poserAndrésSegovia."Hisachievement
. . . was not to preventthe guitarfrom
beinga folkloric instrument, butto allow
it to assumean extendeddestiny."5 An
admiredperformer froman earlyage,
hisitinerary quicklybrought himintothe
largerconcerthallsofEuropeand,even-
tually, theentireworld.He collaborated
withmanycomposers toexpandthegui-
tar'srepertoire, andhe encouraged music
schoolstoincludeguitarinstruction.
Academic guitar instructionstill
suchas Schubert and Paganini,enjoyed remains ina stateofinfancy. Asrecently as
FIGURE 8 theguitar,mostwriting featured the1950s,Londonguitarist JulianBream
Acomparison ofstaff, "was forbidden to take his instrument
theorchestraandthepiano;empha-
intothe [RoyalCollegeof Music]build-
tablature, andfretboard sis was uponincreaseof dynamic
ing."6 Scholars wholamentguitarists' rep-
notation whenthetopofthe rangeand colorin ensemble. The
utationas poormusicreadersultimately
imageconsistently represents guitar,whosetonewas muchless
illuminatea languagebarrierbetween
thehighest pitches. robust and projecting thanthatof
the musicalgeometry of the guitarand
the moderninstrument, was des- - a bar-
theconventions ofstaff notation
tinedto suffersomewhat thesame
rierreflected inthealternate notationsfor
fateas thedelicateclavichord and
written guitar music.
eventheharpsichord; thatis,itwas
nottreatedseriously by thegreat
composers of theseperiods.2
Contemporary Challenges
The guitarand itspredecessors had also In thelasthalfof thetwentieth century,
rock and roll was introducedto the
developeda negative connotation among
musicalscholarsthrough itsfrequent use masses.A fewaspiring guitar studentswill
inthefolkmusicoftroubadour, and know the Leo
composer Brouwer; many
gypsy,
flamenco cultures.Itwouldoftenaccom- morewillrecognize Jimi Hendrix. Popular
does notresemble itspredecessors.
Some panysingers anddancers ratherthanstand musicprovidesa wide-ranging, contem-
had as manyas twenty-one oth- aloneas an instrument
strings; ofsoloproficiency,porary repertoire,but itis not alwayseasy
ersused fourpairsof strings.Manyhad "lowering further the estimation of the to includeina formal environment.
theirown uniquetuning. Modernguitar- guitarin theeyesof thevastmajority of Some academic institutions auto-
istswho studythecompositions of Sanz, seriousmusicians."3 As a result,fewcom- matically equatepopular music with poor-
de Narvaéz,andDowlandusually learnan positions forguitarcamefroma timeof qualitymusic. RichardMiddletonand
from
adaptation an earlyinstrument. otherwisefruitful PeterManuel,writingforGroveMusic
musicianship.
As the modernguitarevolvedfrom definepopulargenresas
In thelatenineteenth century, Span- Online,
itscousins,Europeanmusicshifted from ish guitaristFranciscoTárregahelped typesof musicthatare consid-
the classical period to the romantic. improvethe prevailing attitudetoward ered to be of lower value and
Althoughsome prominentmusicians, guitar. "Henotonlycomposeda quantity complexitythan art music,and

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 notcompetewiththesonicdensity ofThe
Well-Tempered Clavierio validatea single
principleofharmonic theory.
If relevantpopularsongs did hold
a place in academicmusicinstruction,
intellectual
property laws could hinder
theirofficialdissemination as course
material.Aworkisprotected bycopyright
forseventy-five yearsfollowing thedeath
andinmanyinstances,
ofitscreator, com-
of
posers popularsongs are stillalive.
Musicpublishers haveaggressively fought
unauthorized reproduction fromcentral-
ized sources.In 2006,publishers ordered
theOnlineGuitar Archive,a collection of
amateurtranscriptions, to cease opera-
tions,claiming that
the availabilityof unauthorized
tabs hurtssheetmusicsales and
violates. . . copyrightholders'"[ex-
clusive]rightto make and dis-
tribute
arrangements, adaptations,
abridgements, of
or transcriptions
copyrighted musical works
The tablatures derivative
constitute
worksof theoriginalcopyrighted
works,whicharealsoprotected by
U.S.copyright law."8
A schoolthatwishedto formally include
a comprehensive selectionof popular
recordings andtranscriptionsinitscurric-
ulummight needtoobtaina licensefrom
everycopyright holderinvolved.
Popular music fromthe late twenti-
ethandearlytwenty-first centuries poses
sonicchallengesas well.Ifan ensemble
composedand arrangeda song collec-
tively,the guitarpartmightnot stand
alone as a completemusicalidea. Elec-
tronicanddigitalaudiomanipulation can
transform soundbeyonditstra-
a guitar's
ditionalrangeof expression; the guitar
mightsimply be a temporal trigger fora
technologicalsound effect.

to be readilyaccessibleto large thesong"Runto theWater"

instance, by
numbers uneducated
of musically pop/rock ensemble Live can introduce Considerations
rather
listeners thantoan élite.7 thefullcadence,piagaicadence,relative andSuggestions
majorandminorkeys,anddirectmodula-
amountof popular tion."HereComesMyGirl"byTomPetty
Whilea significant who wishesto flatten
An instructor the
withmoreatten- and theHeartbreakers
musichas beenwritten thedif-
illustrates learningcurveforstudentsfacesseveral
thantoartistry,
tiontomarketing issuinga ference between modal harmonyand choices.Tablaturemaybuilda student's
blanket
judgmentagainsttheentire
genre tonalharmony, alternatelyin the verse repertoire staff
including
quickly; notation
dismisses for
anypotential For
education. and the A
chorus. musical exampleneed will developa moreversatilemusician.

54 Music EducatorsJournal September2010

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Horizontalfretboard chartsmatchthe
guitarist's
point of view and providea SomeGuitar Resources forFurther Reading
consistentimagery across multiple meth- • Coelho,Victor Anand.Performance on Lute,Guitar,
and Vihuela:HistoricalPracticeand Modern
ods ofwritten notation, butvertical fret- Interpretation(Cambridge,UK: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1997).
boardchartsare standard in publishing. • d'A Jensen,Richard."The Guitarand ItalianSong." EarlyMusic 13, no. 3 (August1985):
Contemporary popular music maybe a 376-83.
student's to but • Goodrick,Mick. The AdvancingGuitarist: GuitarConceptsand Techniques(Third
inspiration studyguitar, Applying
a high-quality transcription might be Earth, 1987). Distributed
by Hal Leonard.
A • Live."RuntotheWater."TheDistancetoHere.MCA,1999.
expensiveorharmonically incomplete.
formalized classoflimited duration • Middleton, Richard,and PeterManuel."PopularMusic."GroveMusicOnline.
might
• Petty,Tom,and the Heartbreakers. "HereComes MyGirl."GreatestHits(MCA, 1993). (orig.
not provideenoughtimeto learnboth
thebasicsoftheguitarand a foundation DamntheTorpedoes.MCA,1979.)
• Sharpe, AlbertPercy. The Storyof the Spanish Guitar,4th ed. (London: CliftonEssex,
of Western harmonictheory.Neverthe-
1968).
less,thegulfbetweenguitarists andother
• Shearer,Aaron."The ClassicalGuitarGrowsUp." MusicEducatorsJournal
musicians neednotbe wide. 58, no. 2 (October
1971): 53, 64-65.
Schoolconductors andensemble lead- • Simon,Jason."WhyCopyright ShouldSave GuitarTablatures." ArizonaLaw Review50 (Sum-
ers can includeguitar-appropriate music
mer2008): 611-38.
whilesearching formaterial. Jazzguitar- • Summerfield, MauriceJ. The ClassicalGuitar:Its Evolution,Players,and Personalities Since
istDjango Reinhardt wroteandarranged a
1800, 5thed. (Blaydonon Tyne,UK: AshleyMark,2002).
largenumber ofsongsintheearly twentieth •
Tárrega,Francisco."AdagioinA." TheClassicGuitar vol.1 (NewYork:Amsco,1977).
Collection,
centuryfeaturing common orchestrainstru- •
Tuck,MaryLynn."TablatureNotationinthe Sixteenth Century."MusicEducatorsJournal 53,
ments,suchas upright bass,violin, andclar- no. 1 (September1996): 121-23.
inet.Although someofhismusicrequires • Turnbull,Harvey.The Guitar:Fromthe Renaissanceto the PresentDay (New York:Charles
quick motionand technicalproficiency, Schriber'sSons, 1974).
he had onlytwo functional fingers with • Tyler, James. "The Mandorein the 16thand 17thCenturies."EarlyMusic9, no. 1 (January
whichto travel thefretboard; manyofhis 1981): 22-31.
chordvoicings aremanageable byinterme- • Villa-Lobos,Heitor.CollectedWorksforSolo Guitar(New York:Amsco,1990).
diatestudents. Brazilian bossanovaartists • Wade, Graham.Segovia:A CelebrationoftheMan and His Music(London:Allison& Busby,
Antonio CarlosJobim andJoãoGilberto use 1983).
different
typesof movablechordshapes.
Theirmusiccan also includea simplejazz
arrangement withothermelodicor rhyth-
micinstruments. andharmonic theory moredirectly. A new 3. MauriceJosephSummerfield,The
instrument includes a new Classical Guitar:Its Evolution,Players,
Theguitarcan also becomea vehicle likely genre and PersonalitiesSince 1800, 5th ed.
forethnicstudies.Guitarsand guitarlike of music, thus the
expanding guitarist's (Blaydonon Tyne,UK: AshleyMark,
instruments accompanyCeltic songs, greater musical education. 2002), 16.
mariachisongsof Mexico,Spanishfla- Instructors and students alikeshould
4. Summerfield,The Classical Guitar,17.
menco,SouthAmerican folkmusic,and remember thatthe guitaris a relative
American blues.The guitaralso has sev- newcomer intheacademicworld.Itshis- 5. GrahamWade, Segovia: A Celebrationof
the Man and His Music (London: Allison
eralcousinsaroundtheworld,including toryand physicalcharacteristics prevent & Busby,1983), 115.
thebouzouki,oud, sitar,and shamisen. itseasy incorporation intosomeaspects
6. Wade, Segovia, 118.
Guitarists
oftheprevious centuries strove of Western musical scholarship. Creativ-
tofreetheirinstrument from itsautomatic ity, mindfulness, andpatiencewillensure 7. RichardMiddletonand PeterManuel,
"Popular Music," in GroveMusic Online,
associationwithfolkmusic;however, a thattheguitarcontinues to be an instru-
http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com
diversifyingpopulation in a commercial- mentofopportunity andproficiency. .opac.sfsu.edUiSO/subscriber/article/
ized societymaysee an opportunity for grove/music/43179 (accessed October
culturalpreservation whereyesterday's Notes 27, 2008).
scholarssawa lower-class stigma. 8. JasonSimon, "WhyCopyright Should
1. MickGoodrick,TheAdvancing
Last,guitariststhemselves maywish Save GuitarTablatures,"ArizonaLaw
Guitarist:ApplyingGuitarConceptsand Review50 (Summer2008): 613; Ross
to considera briefforayintoa second
Techniques(ThirdEarth,1987), 93. J. Charap,Attorney, Moses and Singer,
instrument. Mostinstruments do notuse 2. Aaron
Shearer,"The Classical Guitar LLP,to Olga.net,June9, 2006, available
multipleformsof specializednotation, GrowsUp," Music EducatorsJournal58, at http://www.olga.net (followlinks1-6
freeingtheguitarist tostudystaff notation no. 2 (October 1971): 53. to the imagefiles).

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