Guitar News

External classical guitar albums, editions, gear, products, and composition releases for 2026. Submit your content but beware that only one or two submissions a month will make the list. I can’t list every new thing people do so it’s a lottery and don’t expect anything. Be kind! Email: bradford@thisisclassicalguitar.com

Aaron Larget-Caplan

New Edition
Cider Meditation – SATB + Guitar, audio available, published by the American Composers Alliance.

New Edition
American Patriotic Songs Arranged for Guitar, published by the American Composers Alliance.

New Album
Guitar America 250 – Revolutionaries and Rockstars (Navona Records) • Traditional songs from the Civil to World Wars, Classical works by Bernstein, Berlin, Price (violin-guitar), Hovhaness, Cage, and new works by David Liptak, Ian Wiese, and Paul Simon and Eddie Van Halen. Album info and purchase options here.

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A lesson for classical guitar on Spot Fingering in regards to regulating specific right hand fingering to isolated spots while applying broad concepts for most of the repertoire. This is from my book: Right Hand Fingering for Classical Guitar: Concepts and Case Studies. This book aims to give students a basic criteria for justifying fingering choices and gaining confidence in deciding fingering for themselves. The combination of concepts and case studies offers a framework for approaching fingering in both logical and musical ways. Here’s the Youtube link if you want to watch it there.

This video covers Examples No.35-38 from the book (Page 24-26).

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I was listening to a guitar video of Prelude, BWV999 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) which a popular work to play on lute or guitar (my vid and edition here). But I’ve heard it so much that I started listening to harpsichord performances of the work and stumbled on this one by Bruno Martins via his YouTube. The reworking at twice the tempo in the second half is quite fun and sounds surprisingly appropriate.

As he mentions “The Prelude in C minor, BWV 999 is one of Bach’s most direct and compact keyboard works, built on continuous motion and harmonic progression. Often associated with the lute repertoire, the piece occupies an ambiguous space between instrumental idioms while remaining firmly grounded in keyboard writing.”

One thing about this piece that I always use for teaching purposes is how the harmonic rhythm changes from long values (every two measures) to short values (every measure) throughout the work which really pushes and pulls the forward motion. Fun to see it in play with so many different performers.

Lute is my usual go-to for this and here is the great Evangelina Mascardi via her Youtube. I like the lilting rhythmic delivery here. This would be closer to the model I would imitate these days.

I also really like North’s balanced approach.

And below is me playing it from many years ago. I feel I take it a bit too metronomically, I think I was aiming for a pristine through-experience at the time. I would perform it today with much more flexibility and increased rhythmic pull to the downbeat and increased phrasing on smaller levels. That said, at the time I was listening to a ton of Andras Schiff play Bach on piano and was leaning in that direction.

A common driving forward-motion interpretation by Janos Sebestyen.

Anyway, just a small post about my thoughts and how they change over the years.

The post Prelude BWV999 on Keyboard, Lute, and Guitar first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

A lesson on voice separation in regards to deciding right hand fingering for on classical guitar. This is from my book: Right Hand Fingering for Classical Guitar: Concepts and Case Studies. This book aims to give students a basic criteria for justifying fingering choices and gaining confidence in deciding fingering for themselves. The combination of concepts and case studies offers a framework for approaching fingering in both logical and musical ways. Here’s the Youtube link if you want to watch it there.

This video covers Examples No.30-34 from the book (Page 21-23).

The post Right Hand Fingering Concepts: Voice Separation first appeared on This is Classical Guitar.

Slovenian classical guitar Duo Aratik with Jure Cerkovnik & Aljaž Cvirn perform the Gigue from French Suite No. 5, BWV 816 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Recorded by Uros Baric and Baros Records. This comes via the Omni Foundation and their Youtube channel (go subscribe). Amazing ensemble playing by Duo Aratik with stunning rhythmic accuracy and motivic attention.

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Evangelina Mascardi and Ariel Abramovich perform Contrapunto sobre tenor de la Baxa from Libro IV de Silva de Sirenas (Valladolid 1547) by Enríquez de Valderrábano (c.1500-1557). Performed on a vihuela baxa by Marcus Wesche and vihuela alto by Francisco Hervás. This comes via Abramovich’s excellent YouTube channel (go subscribe). Great to see two of my favourite players come together for a duet. Charming performance filled with a beautiful rhythmic delivery and the wonderful plucky sound of two vihuelas.

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