Archives

As classical guitarists, and teachers of the instrument, we have become used to carrying around a mountain of books with us everywhere we go.  We have a book for scales, a book for arpeggios, a book for right hand technique and a book for the left.  We have countless collections of pieces by Sor, Carcassi, Bach and many more that we shuffle through every time we move on to a new piece or study.  But what if we didn’t need to have all of our practice material separated into this messy array of books? What if we could have all of the pieces and etudes we were working on in one book, and all of our technical material in another?  Well we can have all of this and more with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s classical guitar series published by Frederick Harris Music.

Most guitarists who grew up outside of Canada or Britain were probably not exposed to the Royal Conservatory of Music as they grew up studying the instrument.  For those who are unfamiliar with the RCM, it is a conservatory based out of Toronto (which is in turn based on the Royal College of Music in London), that has branch campuses in medium to large cities all over Canada.  The RCM, and its branches, provide instruction on every instrument and students progress through grades, Introductory through ARCT (Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, the conservatory’s highest certificate) .

The RCM guitar series is made up of three different books, the Repertoire and Studies/Etudes series, the Guitar Technique book and the Guitar Syllabus.  While many people will never take a RCM exam, this series can still be a valued resource for any student or teacher of classical guitar.  Within the books of the RCM guitar series one will find a vast number of pieces, etudes, scales and arpeggio fingerings as well as technical exercises, all organized according to their level of difficulty.  

Repertoire and Studies

The Repertoire and Studies series contains nine volumes, one for each grade from Introductory to Grade 8.  Repertoire for Grade 9 and above must be purchased by the student separately, though suggested editions and a list of anthologies are given in the Guitar Syllabus.  Each book contains two sections, Repertoire (which contains the pieces required for each grade) and the Studies section (which contains the studies required for each grade).  The Repertoire section of each book is then broken down into eras from which the student must choose one piece to perform on their exam.  An example of this is the Grade 8 Repertoire section which is divided into four sections, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic, and 20^th Century and Contemporary Music, from which the student chooses one piece from each section to perform. 

All of the volumes in the series give a wide variety of pieces to choose from in each section.  The pieces contained in each volume come from many of the great composers for guitar such as Villa-Lobos, Carcassi, Sor and Giuliani, as well as pieces that have been transcribed from other instruments such as the Lute, Harpsichord and Piano.  While there is a wide selection of pieces in each book, if the student or teacher would like to select different repertoire they can refer to the Guitar Syllabus, which has a list of alternate pieces that can be used for each section on the graded exams.

The Studies section of each book contains pieces that represent a diverse selection of right and left hand techniques.  As students much choose two studies to perform for each exam, it is recommended that they perform etudes of contrasting nature.  Due to the diverse nature of this section teachers will be able to select etudes that can address specific technical challenges for each student.  Far from being only technical exercises, these studies have been chosen because they also contain a high level of expression and musicality.  This will provide a unique challenge to students as the work on developing their technique while at the same time expressing themselves musically through the studies.