I just wanted to say — congratulations! 🎉

We’ve received your application to The Creative Classical Guitarist, and you’ve just taken one of the most important steps in your musical journey.

If you’ve ever felt:

- Stuck playing pieces without really understanding the music

- Unsure how to compose or improvise creatively

- Nervous performing in front of others

- Frustrated by sight reading or tricky rhythms

- Or simply wanting a more engaging and supportive musical community —

You’re in the right place.

At The Creative Classical Guitarist, you’ll learn to:

✅ Truly understand harmony and how music is built — so you can read, arrange, and compose with confidence

✅ Develop a reliable technique that makes playing effortless and musical

✅ Improvise freely and expressively, connecting heart and mind

✅ Become comfortable performing in front of others through recitals, feedback sessions, and group support

✅ And most importantly — grow inside a highly engaged and encouraging community of guitarists who lift each other up.

Many guitarists wait years hoping to develop these skills on their own — but you don’t have to wait any longer. Your application has already started that process.

👉 Next step: Book a time for a quick tour and overview of CCG - Click Here

Spots are limited for the next intake, and our live events and mentoring groups tend to fill quickly — so please don’t wait until it’s too late.

This could be the year you finally play, compose, and create with the understanding, confidence, and joy you’ve always wanted.

Welcome to a community where creativity, excellence, and faith meet.

I can’t wait to see what you’ll achieve.

Warmly,

Dr. Daniel Nistico

Founder — The Creative Classical Guitarist

FAQs

CCG is not for absolute beginners - some experience in reading notation is required.
For playing, a grade 3 level or above is suitable.
For theory, CCG does advance you through from the basics. We guide you through from triads, to modulation, to extended chords and more. Everything is made practical and relevant to the classical guitar.
CCG currently has a diverse range of students, including passionate amateurs, young prodigies, serious students and professional guitar teachers.
Some students honestly did have some doubts at first as to whether they could raise their skill levels to compose, perform and understand music. But they rose to the challenge and produced incredible pieces and have performed exceptionally.
As long as you love the guitar and have a desire to grow, CCG will be right for you.
This can vary, depending on your needs and abilities. If you want to participate in live events every week, or watch the replay recordings, then it may require 3-4 hours each week.
If you need a lighter approach, then you could read materials and complete tasks, which would probably require around 1-2 hours per week.
Yes, there are entire catch up months and everything is recorded and stored on CCG. You can also take things at your own pace through self study.
You get access to all courses and events when joining CCG. It also includes having your music published and recorded. You get a 90% commission for any sales of your pieces.
It’s definitely possible to join and still have lessons, which is something quite a few members do. If anything, CCG is a great supplement for lessons, which can help fuel your practice and gain more value during your lessons.
There are several courses that guide you through composing, including a beginner course. After that, you are encouraged to compose further by following the Foundations or Composition and Creativity program.
There are multiple sessions each week, which cater to different timezones. You can also submit tasks, questions, etc. anytime on the platform, which comes with an app too.

Composition Challenge

These videos and resources will enable you to compose an entire section (8 bars) relatively quickly.

Download Musescore, a free notation program: https://musescore.org/en

- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 7: Texturize

The simpl ified version could already be a lovely piece as it is, but we can enhance it further. Let’s look at the texture used in ‘Adelita’ first. The first few bars provide an illustration for what happens throughout - the chords are spread across each measure.
- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 6: Simplify

By deleting notes from the chords, we can make a much simpler and playable version of the piece. You can go as simple as you like, right down to just melody and bass line if you want - the choice is yours. A before and after of the first four bars are given below and then the whole piece simplified using a similar process.

Tip: Try to keep the same number of notes for each chord. So if your first chord contains three notes, then it would generally work well to keep the remaining chords at three notes also. Three can certainly be exceptions, especially at high points or places where you want extra emphasis.
- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 5: Harmonize

Harmonize your melody by adding chords from this resource:
Click Here
- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 4: Arpeggio Melody

This is a kind of melody where the motion outlines a the notes of a chord. In Adelita, this occurs in bar 4 over an E minor chord. That means you’ll want to use the notes of an E minor triad: E-G-B. You can use these notes in any order.
- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 3: Parallel Period

Compose a parallel period, which will make up your A section.

A parallel period is a type of phrase structure, that consists of a 4 bar question and 4 bar answer that mirror each other. Typically the first 2 bars of the question will be repeated for the first 2 bars of the answer. In this particular parallel period, the first 3 bars of the question are repeated in the answer.

Tip: Take your sequence and repeat it again in bars 5-8: simple!
- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 2: Sequence

A sequence is a melodic idea that's repeated up or down by step.

Take your melody from bar 1 and repeat it up or down a step in bar 2. Repeat the process again for bar 3. End the sequence in bar 4 with a long note, or with rests to give the melody a sense of breath.

Tip: Try using chord tones (notes of the chord) in each bar, especially on the 1st beat. For more on this, go to Outlining.
- Composition Challenge
• 28/4/23
Day 1: Plan

A good way to start the process of composing around this plan is to simply play through the chords as indicated by the diagrams at the top of the plan.

Do this in sequence with all repeats, which gives you a feel for the form and chord structure.
Download materials: click