European Guitar Teachers Assosiation

Based in the U.K. the European Guitar Teachers Assosiation (EGTA) website is a fantastic resource for the classical guitarist. It has a fantastic array of articles written by professional guitarists, biographies of musicians, instrument advertisements and teacher resource listings. Primarily devoted to the development of guitar teaching in the U.K. this organization has already made a great contribution to the classical guitar community and will continue to do so.

The Delcamp Classical Guitar Forum

Delcamp Classical Guitar Forum

For those of you want to get in touch with other classical guitarists, this is the place. With multiple languages and literally hundreds of thousands of posts, the Delcamp forum is the most popular classical guitar forum on the internet. Run by a community of moderators who are incredibly on top of responding and maintaining the site, this forum is well maintained and has a very active community. In addition it has a gigantic collection of scores and midi files that is accessible to the forum members.

World Guitarist

World Guitarist

World Guitarist, run by Gunner Eisel is probably familiar to many of you. It has been a fountain of classical guitar news for many years and I am one of its regular visitors. The site offers an extensive collection of links to guitar related resources throughout the web but perhaps its most popular attribute is its news feed. Updated every few weeks, the news feed is a nice way to find out about new websites, competitions, luthiers and festivals.

Guitar Foundation of America

Guitar Foundation of America

The Guitar Foundation of America is most famous for its internationally recognized competition and festival that is an annual event in the United States as well as their publication Soundboard. Their website is largely dedicated to the festival and competition but it also hosts a large collection of links and resources for the classical guitarist. Among them are forums, educational resources and event calendars. The GFA website is a great resource for classical guitarists.

The Classical Guitar Blog

Classical Guitar Blog

Run by Chris Davis, the Classical Guitar Blog is a fun read and is perhaps the most regularly updated classical guitar site on the web. With daily posts and ‘tweets’ Chris delivers his ideas, opinions and internet knowledge with a good dose of personality.

The most impressive aspect of this site is the author’s dedication to bringing a constant stream of information to his readers. With a strong sense of community and sharing of opinions the CG blog is well worth visiting.

Douglas Niedt

Douglas Niedt

Douglas Niedt runs the guitar program at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri in Kansas City and his site contains a great ‘vault’ of tips about technique and performance. He obviously has a wealth of experience in education and this comes through with his well thought out and comprehensive articles that are delivered monthly to his subscribers. His site is largely dedicated to marketing his recordings and publications but you can read through his articles for free.

Guitar World

Guitar World

Guitar World is run by Mark Antony and is a site that exudes a passion for all things classical guitar. With a good selection of articles, links, interviews and opinions, this site has a very good assortment of goodies to sift through.

.

.

.

Guitar International

Guitar International

Guitar International is a brand new site that has burst onto the scence. While not specializing in classical guitar, it has a lot of high quility interviews and reviews. If you are interested in a range of guitar genres then this site might be right up your alley! If Guitar International continues to develop their site in its current fashion (ie. that of a charging bull) then it might just be a site you want to keep an eye on.

1. Get some nail glue and a tissue. Usually a tissue will have several layers so separate them until you have a single sheet of tissue paper.
2. Place a small amount of glue over the crack and let it dry
3. Place the tissue over the crack and wet the area with nail glue letting it dry. Don’t go overboard with the glue as nail glue and super glue deteriorate the nail over time so use it sparingly.
4. Repeat #3 so that there are three layers of glued tissue paper over the crack. Let the glue dry completely each time.

Take care! Nail glue and super glue will bond with skin very, very quickly. If this happens soak the skin in warm soapy water or better yet, use nail polish remover to dissolve the glue. Do not try to pull the skin apart, you will get hurt!

This process forms a very durable shell around the cracked nail and if you are careful with the nail it can last until the crack grows out. If need to take off the glue and tissue paper use nail polish remover. Put the nail polish remover on a cotton pad and place it over the glued area. The remover will dissolve the glue and with a little patience and gentle rubbing the area will be clean enough to start over.
Nails that wear down

A very simple but effective trick to stop nails wearing down from practicing is to put tape on them. You may have to experiment with different tape varieties as some work better than others depending on their glue and elasticity. I personally use brown packing tape.

Cut a small rectangle of tape and place the sticky side up underneath your nail. Then, fold it over the top of the nail and press it down. The tape may crease on the top of the nail but as long as it has a smooth surface along the playing edge of the nail you will be fine. You should still be able to get a good tone from your nails and they will last a lot longer!

Here is what you will need:

1 zip lock plastic bag

1 garden variety kitchen sponge

1 pin

1. Cut the sponge in half so it is about two inches square and wet it with water. Squeeze it out a few times so that the sponge is damp, you don’t want it soaking wet as water might get inside your guitar.

2. Put the sponge inside the zip-lock bag and poke some holes with a pin in the sides of the bag. Make sure the holes are not at the bottom of the bag because then excess water will have an escape route.

3. Zip up the bag and you’re done!

Suspend the bag in the sound hole by putting it in-between the strings. If you like you can tie a shoelace to the bag in case it falls inside the guitar but personally I have never had this problem. You can also keep one near your headstock.