A Wrap up of 2022: CCG Members Did Amazing Things - You can Too
2023 is your year to accomplish great things on guitar
This post wraps up the achievements that members of The Creative Classical Guitarist made in 2022.
Notice how these all feature the work of members, not instructors. It’s this that is a defining and distinguishing highlight of CCG, setting it apart from any other school or online platform. Members are doing amazing work and not just consuming content by instructors.
Come and join CCG and learn to use all the knowledge you learn to do amazing creative work and bring your playing to a whole new level.
A safe, joyful and prosperous New Year to you!
May 2023 bring you all you ever wanted and more for your guitar playing.
December: A gift of pieces for you
Here is a Christmas/New Year gift for you! This eBook was just created as a gift to you by CCG members. It showcases some of the creative work done in 2022.
Pieces to Enjoy!
Play through this collection of 11 pieces, composed by CCG members as a gift to you!
Below are the first and last pieces from the eBook - Trisha’s ‘Autumn Dance’ and David’s ‘Mazurca No.3’. David just composed his piece on Christmas Day!
Trisha’s ‘Autumn Dance’ comes with analysis, showing the chords and passing tones.
November: A Melody a Day
In November, we had a challenge to write a short melody each day of the month. The video below showcases members playing some excerpts and describing their process.
October: Fugues and Allemandes
We spent 3 months learning how to write Fugues and Allemandes. Daniel gave a livestream concert featuring a selection of Fugues and recorded some of the Allemandes.
Trisha’s Fugue
Yvonne’s Allemande
July: Modes and Improvisation
We had a guest give a wonderful workshop on improvisation and looked at compositional tools like modes and melodic development.
CCG member Jamal wrote a fantastic eBook!
It shows you how to learn all the main modes (Ionian, Dorian, etc.) with just 3 different finger patterns. He also gave an enlightening presentation on the topic.
June: Modulation and Harmonization
We looked at exercises and tools for modulation and harmonization, which are great to understand for both learning pieces and for composing.
The video below showcases some of the fantastic ‘plug and play’ harmonizations from various members. This is a method that allows you to quickly harmonize a melody by taking a chord template and adding it to the melody. This is like a drop and drag method, which works very quickly and effectively.
May: Making Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi tons of fun
In May, we studied the performance practice of 19th century guitarists. How were they approaching the performance style of their music? You’d probably be surprised!
One of the biggest takeaways can be summarized with this quote from Ferdinando Carulli:
“The right hand does not have a fixed position, because of the extent that you want to sweeten the sounds to imitate the harp and to do so you have to bring it closer to the soundhole. When you want to play loud you have to bring the hand closer to the bridge.”
--- Ferdinando Carulli, Complete Method For Guitar, Milan, 1811?, Page 4 (Trans. Nistico)
We explored ways that 19th century composers were imitating orchestral instruments. CCG member Ilay wrote a fantastic piece that showcases a lot of these effects!
Jan, Feb and March: Theory Fundamentals
For the first quarter, we studied theory fundamentals like triads, counterpoint and form. One of the highlights was seeing how members created their own exercises in order to truly understand these concepts:
Triads of the key exercises: By Julie
A guide for understanding and building chords: By Rachel
Pieces composed using 7th chords: By David and Ilay
There are now dozens of these types of little gems composed by members. One of the best ways to learn about theory is to use it in composition.
For the Children of Ukraine: Livestream and eBook
One of the all time highlights on CCG was the livestream fundraiser, performed by Daniel in March 2022. The program was made up of pieces written and dedicated to the Ukraine and the unfortunate situation they were in (and still are). It saw the largest displacement of children since World War Two. Ilay had composed a piece called ‘Hope’, which was dedicated to the children of Ukraine.
We raised $3000, which went to the Care and Relief for the Young (CRY) charity. They’ve been giving support to children around the world for 30 years and helped Ukrainian children with migration, education and housing.
You can purchase the eBook - all proceeds go to the Care and Relief for the Young charity.
The book was put together by member Tom Chalko and the cover artwork was made by member Gill Robinson.