Tatiana Stachak

Extra Class Guitar

Extra Class Guitar handbook is the continuation of the bestselling First Class Guitar. The book is addressed to children and teenagers. Technical issues concerning elementary teaching of guitar playing have been introduced in the book, i.e. legato, barré, tremolo, apoyando, embellishments, playing in different positions. Works contained within the 140 pages of the book are mostly the book's author's own compositions (including solo pieces, student-teacher duos, plus chamber works), supplemented with an ample collection of popular educational miniatures by guitar classics, as well as contemporary works of Romuald Twardowski and Marek Pasieczny, and numerous technical exercises, improvisations and scales. Some of the innovative solutions proposed by the book include introducing interesting effects, which are rarely used in children-aimed literature, such as: tamburo, pizzicato, Bartók pizzicato, natural and artificial harmonics, golpe (tapping the guitar body), playing behind the nut, étouffé. Another pioneering solution is the introduction to accompaniment and playing in chamber ensembles (to which one of the book's chapters is devoted).