TOP 10 Carcassi Arpeggios | Perfect Fingerstyle Workout

[FeodorBivol]

Hello guys, hope you’re all doing great!

In this tutorial I will show you my 10 favourite right hand arpeggio fingerstyle exercises from Matteo Carcassi’s “Complete Method for Guitar” book. Perfect for beginners, but anyone can benefit regardless of playing level!

In case you don’t know, Matteo Carcassi was an italian guitarist, composer and teacher who lived in the 19th century.

Carcassi wrote his "Complete Method for Guitar", first published in 1836. When I first started to play guitar, I used to practice lots of exercises and compositions from his method and I still like to practice them from time to time!

In the beginning of this book, Carcassi shows us 22 different arpeggio variations that we can use to work on our right hand technique (nowadays most known as fingerstyle).

In this video I decided to show you my 10 favourites! Let me know which one is your favourite and which one is the most challenging!

Thank you and have a nice day

[zdub]

Thanks for posting. Never had the patience to go through this method (just one reason why I am a lame classical guitarist.) If anyone wants to download the whole book, you can grab it from Univ of Rochester (and probably a bunch of other places): M. Carcassi's method for the guitar

[va3ux]

I became a 'finger picker' using those etudes, back in the 70's. For anyone with no right hand 'finger style' skills, these are a great way to get started.

[va3ux]

If I'm not mistaken, Joe Pass spent some time with the Carcassi method in his youth.

[FeodorBivol]

Thanks for posting. Never had the patience to go through this method (just one reason why I am a lame classical guitarist.) If anyone wants to download the whole book, you can grab it from Univ of Rochester (and probably a bunch of other places): M. Carcassi's method for the guitar

Thanks a lot! You don't actually need to practice the whole method, but there are definitely useful tools in this book!

I became a 'finger picker' using those etudes, back in the 70's. For anyone with no right hand 'finger style' skills, these are a great way to get started.

Yeah, and Carcassi also has many compositions that combine all those techniques in his method.

If I'm not mistaken, Joe Pass spent some time with the Carcassi method in his youth.

One more great reason to learn those patterns!

[ronjazz]

Christopher Berg (Mel Bay Pub.) has updated and expanded this type of study with more modern applications, but the Carcassi/Giulani RH studies are a great beginning. To get the most out of them, develop a longer chord progression so you won't get bored, and do each pattern at a comfortable tempo for 2-3 minutes, increasing the tempo slightly every day or two. Even better, download a metronome program that will increase the tempo automatically every 8 bars or every 16 bars, again, limiting your practice of a pattern to no more than 3 minutes. Start with p-i-m-a (day1), then p-a-m-i (day 2), then p-m-i-a, p-m-a-i, p-a-i-m, and p-i-a-m. That's 6 patterns, do one per day for 3 minutes. Day 7 do p-i-m-a-m-i, either in 3/4 time or in 2/4 time using triplets. Start all over again on Day one of the 2nd week with the metronome starting at a slightly higher speed. This will take 20 minutes a day, and in 6-8 weeks, you'll have the beginnings of very good control and speed of right-hand mastery.

The chord progression you use should include all 6 strings at various places, and can be in whatever key you like. For instance, a C chord on the middle 4 string, followed by a G7 on the middle 4 strings (B-F-G-D from 5th to 2nd strings), then perhaps a C7 of Bb-G-C-E on 5th 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings, etc. Even use jazz chords, as long as they contain 4 notes, at this stage, but try to make a musical progression of, say, 8 chords that create a nice cycle, it's more fun that using two cowboy chords repeatedly. Don't push or strain, strive for accuracy of attack and good tone. Don't twist your right hand, keep it relaxed, wrist slightly arched, but keeping the little finger in line with the outside of the arm.

Again, doing this right will bring amazing results for most players. Arpeggios are the best way to get warmed up without strain, save scales for later, when the arpeggios feel comfortable and natural, and if you do start scales, alternate i-m with the same principles you used for arpeggios, and look up the rest-stroke and free-stroke on line of in a good book like Berg or Shearer.