Songs for classical guitar

I took to learning guitar and am now at about a grade 1 level.

However, I would like to find some songs that a)I can work on slowly and learn and b) are not out of some the lesson books I have. These are more up the line of etudes and I need some variety.
I love latin guitar (not Flamenco, which is way beyond me at this point) as well classical and jazz. Ideally, free sheet music or tabs, which I’ll convert. I find that the books I have looked at have one song that I am interested in with a bunch of stuff I’ll never bother playing.

Any suggestions?

Some good sites to check out:

The Classical Guitar Homepage is a good site. They have some sheet music in .jpg form (I don’t understand it either. :wink: ) of several good songs. Check out the waltz by Carulli. It’s a very pretty tune. The first “classical” piece I learned to play.

There’s also this website: Classical Guitar Tabs. I haven’t really looked too closely at this site, but it has sheet music, tab, and midi’s of a whole bunch of great songs. Check out the beginner songs for a good mix. (Spanish) Romance is a definate standard for classical guitar. Play the first few notes and I’m sure you’ll recognize it.

If you’ve never heard it, bear in mind that the first note of each triplet should be stressed. So it goes BUM-bum-bum-BUM-bum-bum… etc.

Classical Gas by Mason Williams

Here’s a classical tablature page.

About 30 years ago or so, when I was in the same boat, I learned Zep’s Stairway to Heaven, got me lucky once or twice, helpful since I wasn’t playing an electric. Might be dated advice tho, heh.

Yeah, but he said he was a grade one player. :wink:

Greenback, you should check out the leo brouwer studies on picnurse’s second link. They’re a bit complicated, but you can play them slowly and then work your way up to speed. But they’re very pretty.

Thanks all. I will check out the sites.

I’m thrilled that what I am playing is starting sound like music as opposed to someone plucking guitar strings while having to think between each note.

The etudes are rarely more than a dozen bars so learning those are great for practice but don’t help when I actually want to play something.

“Here’s something I call - chromatic scale of the fourth string” just doesn’t have much of an appeal :slight_smile: