Snohomish County Music SchoolI recently began teaching at Snohomish County Music School. The school is located in the town of Snohomish (in Snohomish County, Washington) and offers lessons for students…

The Secret Life of Trees: Suite for lead guitar and guitar quartet by Oleg Boyco was commissioned in 2022 by The Seattle Classic Guitar Society and the Seattle Guitar Orchestra.…

Alba nera by Roland Dyens (1955-2016) is written in ternary form, and ternary form is used for many other compositions in Les 100 des Roland Dyens. Alba nera is the…

I had the privilege of performing on a concert last night with Filipp Shabalov, Lucas Victor, and Stella Kosim in Lake Stevens, Washington. They are all accomplished musicians and I…

Chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) are standard repertoire for analysis by music students all over the world. For many composers, the study and enjoyment of Bach chorales is a…

Alba nera by Roland Dyens (1955-2016) is number 50 in the collection Les 100 des Roland Dyens, and the last composition in volume 1 of the two-volume set. It is…

In beginning music theory classes, students are usually taught to write their harmony assignments in chorale style (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and/or keyboard style. In addition, students are encouraged to…

In this post, I’ll focus on Opus 60, Number 5 by Fernando Sor as an example of a composition featuring parallel major and minor keys. Opus 60, Number 5 in…

Capricho Árabe is a popular classical guitar composition that has been performed and recorded by many guitarists. Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) composed it sometime in the 1880s, and it was first…

While seventh chords may seem complicated, they are only triads with one additional note. Before studying seventh chords in minor keys, it is best to have a solid understanding of…

There are a number of good reasons to practice scales, including minor scales. Scales can help a guitarist develop a solid instrumental technique, develop a beautiful tone, learn where notes…

Here is a short composition that I wrote this week called Winter Breeze. I wrote it when we were having snow and wintery weather, though nothing too extreme or dangerous.…

Here is a short composition for classical guitar that I wrote this week called Lundeen Creek. Lundeen Creek is a slow-moving creek that flows into Lake Stevens, and both are…

MuseScore 4 is a free open-source music notation program that I use when teaching students composition for classical guitar, and topics related to composition such as counterpoint and harmony. I send…

Open Music Theory Version 2 (https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/) and Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom (https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c/MusicTheory.html) are free online music theory textbooks that focus on topics typically covered in undergraduate music theory…

Paris-Ciné is the eighth composition in Les 100 des Roland Dyens by Roland Dyens (1955-2016), and it is also available as an individual composition. Paris-Ciné is an excellent example of…

Les 100 de Roland Dyens by Roland Dyens (1955-2016) is an excellent source of repertoire for beginning composers to study artistic applications of a number of compositional techniques. This post…

Roland Dyens (1955-2016) was an imaginative and creative classical guitarist and composer who studied composition with Désiré Dondeyne at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris alongside his guitar studies…

Adelita and Lagrima by Francisco Tarrega are excellent examples of short ternary form. Music in ternary form has a beginning section (A), followed by a contrasting section (B), and ends…

Adelita and Lagrima by Francisco Tarrega are popular compositions from the classical guitar repertoire that provide excellent examples of two different phrase structures for beginning composers: the period and the…

I occasionally refer to Fundamentals of Musical Composition by Arnold Schoenberg when teaching composition for guitar. It is a classic text for learning to compose that was first published in…