Online tools for learning Latin romantic ballads and boleros for guitar?

March 1, 2015 11:21 AM

I'm a big fan of classic Latin trio bands such as Los Panchos, Los Tres Ases, and Los Tres Reyes. I just purchased a guitar and my eventual goal is to be able to play in a style similar to the lead guitarists of these groups.

I'm a big fan of classic Latin trio bands such as Los Panchos, Los Tres Ases, and Los Tres Reyes. I just purchased a guitar and my eventual goal is to be able to play in a style similar to the lead guitarists of these groups. Seems like most guitar instruction is geared towards pop and rock oriented music. Can you point me to good resources for learning Latin guitar from the ground up? I'd like to start developing good habits from the start. What resources, preferably online, and either paid or unpaid, are available for me to learn this? Although my preference is for online lessons, I'd also be happy with book based instruction. Thanks.

posted by Captain Chesapeake to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

My thoughts as someone who only knows a bit of guitar, but has learned other instruments, and was at a gathering where guitarists were playing boleros just a few nights ago: 1) If you are just starting out *any* course that will teach you basic 1st position rhythm guitar chords will be fine to start. So a folk strumming course or a pop strumming course will teach you stuff to get going. I know you are thinking about lead playing, but basic chords are fundamental to understanding the fretboard. 2) The Latin musics seem to use nylon string guitars, which are also used in so-called Classical guitar style, much of the repertoire of which is in fact older Latin compositions. So seeking out a beginning Classical course would make sense. They all start in the 1st position too. Here is one. 3) There seem to be a lot of Latin guitar playing hints on youtube. Like this one. 4) There are books on Amazon for beginning Latin guitar. This one is in Spanish. 5) There is a site called guitarmasterclass.com which has Latin style instruction. There are probably others if you google around. This site of beginning Guitar lessons is all in Spanish. (It goes without saying that for this repertoire you should learn Spanish, if you haven't already. :) )

I hope that helps. Again, I'm not an expert, but if I were you, I would start with the Classical course I linked to, or some similar Classical course. Don't be in too much of a hurry to do anything flashy too soon. The skills will come. But yeah, old bolero groups and the like are really cool. Have fun!
posted by bertran at 11:07 PM on March 2, 2015

I just went and listened to some Los Tres Reyes. He's a really amazing lead player, indeed. My guess is that to play stuff like that -- after learning the fretboard -- you'll just be spending a lot of time with recordings and just figuring out yourself how to play it, like Jazz players do. It's not something that is taught really; you teach yourself by imitating and experimenting. The fingering technique doesn't look exactly like Classical guitar, but definitely closer to Classical than other styles. Maybe there is a more direct route, but I don't think learning some basic Classical technique would be wasted effort, knowing that you'll be going a slightly different direction further on down.
posted by bertran at 12:13 AM on March 3, 2015