Melody and bass: playing in two voices

The classical guitar is a polyphonic instrument: it plays a melody and its bass at the same time. The “lessons” by Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani and Matteo Carcassi (early 19th century) were written precisely to teach this.

Reading two voices

In classical scores the melody has stems up and the bass stems down. In our simplified scores the two voices are merged into chords: a low note and a high note played together. The bass is played with the thumb, the melody with i, m or a.

M:3/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=84
K:C clef=treble-8
G | [Cc]2 e/c/ | [Ce]2 d | [F,c]2 A | [CG]2 G |]

Balancing the voices

• The melody must dominate: play it a little louder, possibly with rest strokes (see the classical technique chapter).
• The bass is softer but sustained: don't lift the fretting finger too early.
• Practise each voice alone (bass only, then melody only) before combining them.