The Learning Zone
!0th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I'm revisiting some of my best older posts on learning guitar. This was originally posted 10 years ago. Here's a little piece for anyone who practices but doesn't seem to...
The Classical Guitarist With No Bad Habits
10th Year Anniversary Edition: I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Have you heard the legend of the guitarist with no bad habits? It goes like this: "there was this guy, who my friend used to go to school with, a monster guitarist, who'd...
Music Theory? Why Should I Care?
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I was never much of a music theory whiz. Music theory was required for music majors---lots of music theory---and it always felt like I was cramming a toolkit into my brain...
The True Instrument You Must Learn (according to Dr. Firgus-Fortuna Zelfrumzinger Bones)
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! When you learn to play an instrument like the classical guitar there's plenty to worry about. Your hand position.Your other hand position.Coordinating your hands (and your...
Learning Music Theory on the Guitar is Just Crazy
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I'm reading a book called Guitar Zero, by Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist who decided he was going to fulfill his dream of playing guitar at the age of 40, no matter...
How to Integrate Your Technique with Natural Musical Expressiveness: A Video Lesson on Villa-Lobos Etude 1
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! If you really want others to enjoy what you play, you need to be enjoying yourself. They call it self-expression, but how can you fully express yourself if you aren't...
Breaking Through The Technical Obsession Barrier
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Playing classical guitar is technically demanding. There are a lot of hurdles even if you want to play a relatively simple piece well enough for it to be satisfying. The...
Knocking “eye-to-hand coordination” Off Its Pedestal.
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I've been thinking about about the difference between what I say here on this blog, and how I actually teach most of the time. In a guitar lesson, we're working on...
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Archipelago for Solo Guitar
Archipelago is an adventure told mostly through music. There’s light narration in between movements while I retune the guitar for the unique musical ecosystem of each new island. As an experiment, I’m creating a series of drawings and paintings to illustrate the progress of our hero on his guitar-powered boat. It’s a work in progress. Stay tuned for further documentation of this journey! For more music, go here.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik for Solo Guitar
I have arranged all four movements of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik for guitar. To hear more movements, and to get all of the scores and tabs, click here.
Purchase Classical Guitar Arrangements and Compositions
Click here for the full Catalogue of Scores
| Title | Price | Further Info |
| Five Preludes | $6.50 | Instant Download of 7-page Pdf Score |
| Archipelago For Solo Guitar | – | coming soon |
| Island One: Milonga | $2.75- | (Archipelago, Movement 1) Instant Download of 3-page Pdf |
| Title | Price | Further Info |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | ||
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | ||
| Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Full) | 21 | Zip File Containing all 4 Movements: 1. Allegro (2015 Revision), 2. Romanze, 3. Menuetto 4. Rondo. 3 fully fingered Pdf versions of each movement: Score (13 Pages) TAB only (20 Pages) Score + TAB. (37 Pages) (Bonus Folder: 2013 Version of the Allegro with TAB) |
| Allegro | $7 | Revised 2015 Zip File with 3 Pdfs: 4-Page Fully Fingered Score 10-Page Fully Fingered Score with TAB 6-Page Fully Fingered TAB (Plus Bonus 2013 Version Score and TAB) |
| Romanze | $7 | Zip File with 3 Pdfs: 4-Page Fully Fingered Score 12-Page Fully Fingered Score with TAB 6-Page Fully Fingered TAB |
| Menuetto | $2 | Zip File with 3 Pdfs: 1-Page Fully Fingered Score 3-Page Fully Fingered Score with TAB 2-Page Fully Fingered TAB |
| Rondo | $7 | Zip File with 3 Pdfs: 4-Page Fully Fingered Score 12-Page Fully Fingered Score with TAB 6-Page Fully Fingered TAB |
| Gioachino Rossini | ||
| William Tell Overture (Finale) | $7 | Zip file with 3 pdfs (5 pages each): 1. Urtext Score 2. Fully Fingered Score 3. TAB Only Version |
Purchase Prints and Artworks
I am diving back into painting and illustrating after a long hiatus. Getting these new pieces finished has been slow going because of all the other stuff I’m doing, but I’m working at it!
Click here for a sampling of my drawings and paintings. You can click on any picture to see a more detailed version. If it’s for sale as a print, there will be a link to the print store where you can see the purchase options.
Jay Kauffman
Classical Guitarist
Composer
Teacher
Illustrator