Guitar News

Classical guitarists SoloDuo (Lorenzo Micheli & Matteo Mela) perform Intermezzo Op. 118, No.2 by Johanes Brahms (1833-1897). Arranged for two guitars by Lorenzo Micheli. This comes via SoloDuo’s YouTube channel (go subscribe). Filmed in Geneva, Switzerland, Salle Caecilia, November 2025 by Lilium SoundArt. Beautiful performance by SoloDuo with gorgeous phrasing, melodic work and wonderful balance between the parts.

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Canadian classical guitarist Simon Farintosh has a new album of Christmas song arrangements in all 24 major & minor keys titled A Well-Tempered Christmas. Farintosh has completed such a creative and challenging project but also tastefully listenable as holiday album. With a span of influences from jazz, early music, and traditional Christmas fare, this is certainly one of the best holiday albums for classical guitar I’ve heard.  

A Well-Tempered Christmas: Listen on Spotify or Apple Music

Here’s a small note from Simon on the album:

“A Well-Tempered Christmas” is a collection of Christmas reharmonizations I made over the course of several years. The title is a nod to Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier,” a famous cycle of preludes & fugues in every key. Each arrangement is a sort of character piece, exploring a certain musical style, mood, or technique. A variety of styles are represented in these arrangements; numbers like “The Christmas Song,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and “My Favourite Things” have a clear jazz influence, echoing the whimsical chord melody arrangements of Joe Pass in his iconic album “Six String Santa.” While numbers such as “Silent Night” and “Greensleeves” feel cozy and familiar, others such as “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “O Come O Come Emmanuel” feel more dark and obscure, reflecting their Gregorian chant origins.

Video Performances

This comes via Simon’s YouTube channel (go subscribe). 

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Music Theory Lesson No.3a: The Staff and Introduction to Clefs. In this lesson we will learn about the staff and the idea of clefs as well as how we map out pitches and musical time on the staff. You can find all the lessons at the Music Theory Lessons page. Here’s the Youtube link if you want to watch it there.

The staff (plural staves)

Music notation is written on a staff. The staff has five lines and four spaces.

Notes and rhythms can be placed on the lines and spaces of the staff to indicate pitch and musical time.

Ledger lines can extend the range and pitch of the staff. In short, ledger lines create more lines and spaces to place notes on which extends the pitch range of the staff.

The staff is a visual grid that we use to orient musical time (horizontally) and the highness and lowness of pitch (vertically). Musical time on the staff reads from left to right based on what note or rest is indicated. Notes higher on the staff are higher in pitch. Notes lower on the staff are lower in pitch. Notes on ledger lines extend the pitch range of the staff

Line Notes – For a basic orientation, here are some notes on the lines of the staff. Notice that the notehead (the circular part) goes through the centre of the staff line.

Space Notes – Notice how the notehead is placed between the two lines in the space of the staff.

Notes on lines and spaces – Here are some notes on both lines and spaces in order.

Clef

The Clef is a symbol placed on the staff to show the range of the pitch and the exact pitch represented by each line and space on the staff.

Different instruments and voices produce pitches in different ranges. The cello plays notes in a low range. The flute plays notes in a high range. There are many clefs to indicate these ranges.

We’ll be focusing on just two clefs for the first little while: the treble clef and the bass clef.

The Treble Clef

The treble clef (also called the G clef) indicates the location of G on the 2nd line from the bottom. For example, a soprano voice or a flute produce notes in a high range and use the treble clef to indicate notes on the staff. This tells use that the range is generally high and it also tells us what pitch is assigned to each line and space of the staff. 

This image shows how the treble clef indicates G on the 2nd to bottom line.

Here is the note G occurring on the same line as above.

You can see in the below image, the musical alphabet works in order when we place notes on each line and space of the staff with G as a reference point. This is a C major scale.

The Bass Clef

The Bass clef (also called the F clef) indicates the location of F on the 4th line. For example, a lower bass voice or a cello produce notes in a low range and use the bass clef to indicate notes on the staff.

This image shows how the bass clef indicates F on the 4th line from the bottom.

Here is the note F occurring on the same line as above.

You can see in this image that the musical alphabet works in order when we place notes on each line and space of the staff with F as a reference point. This is a C Major scale.

You don’t have to remember any specifics for now.

The only thing to know for now is that the clef is placed on the staff to show the general range and the specific pitch represented by each line and space on the staff. 

You won’t have to worry about it while playing guitar because you’ll only be reading the treble clef and you will simply get to know it super well without thinking about this. 

Summary

The staff, in conjunction with a clef, allows musicians to know the range and specific pitch represented by each line and space on the staff as well as musical time and rhythms reading from left to right.

In future lessons we will look at pitch classes and the grand staff to understand how the different clefs form all the commonly used pitches in music.

Hope you found that helpful. Find more theory lessons on the Music Theory Lessons page. I’m offering these lessons free of charge but feel free to support the site here. If you need any clarification on this particular lesson please leave a comment below.

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Classical guitarist Meng Su performs Where the Echo Sings by Viet Cuong (b.1990). This comes via the Omni Foundation and their Youtube channel (go subscribe). Amazing performance with such clarity and control over the texture as well as excellent dynamic phrasing. Very effective composition in a unrelenting perpetual style that can be challenging for guitar but worked very well in the hands of Meng Su.

Here’s a small bio of the composer via their Youtube description:

Described as “alluring” and “stirring” by The New York Times, the “arresting” (Gramophone), “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle), and “exhilarating” (Chicago Tribune) music of Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been commissioned and performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Kronos Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Sō Percussion, PRISM Quartet, and Dallas Winds, among many others.

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