Perhaps you’ve just bought a classical guitar? Or maybe you’ve been playing one for a while but are looking for some new songs to get your teeth into? Whatever your situation, I’ve got 10 songs that are perfect for classical guitar. You’re going to love playing these and they’ll really help you develop your technique as well. Bonus!
Some are relatively easy, and some are much harder. Some are traditional classical pieces and others are more contemporary. But they are all MADE for the classical guitar.
First up, here’s a quick run through of all the songs:
And in this video I teach you how to play each of the parts of the songs that I played in the previous video.
If those snippets sparked your interest, now you can take your pick and learn any of the songs in full from start to finish. In a couple of these lessons I’m using an acoustic guitar but you’d play the songs in exactly the same way on a classical guitar – and, truthfully, I think they sound much better that way! Conversely, they can all also be played on a steel strung acoustic if that’s what you prefer.
1. Für Elise (Beethoven)
Für Elise is one of Beethoven’s best-known pieces but was never actually published in his lifetime. It was in fact only discovered in 1867, a full forty years after his death.
This arrangement is targeted more towards the beginner level, but if you’re more advanced then don’t let that put you off – it still sounds amazing and is great fun to play!
2. Spanish Romance (Traditional)
Spanish Romance, or Romance de Amor, is a truly beautiful and timeless piece of solo guitar music. It’s one of the most popular classical pieces to learn and is perfect for players of an intermediate level and above. Once you get stuck into this one, I’m sure you’ll be playing it for years to come!
3. Etude in E Minor (Francisco Tárrega)
Etude in E Minor, or Estudio in E Minor, was written by Francisco Tárrega, one of the most important figures in the history of classical guitar. Although this song was written as an etude (a study), it is performed widely on stages around the world.
If you’ve previously learnt how to play Spanish Romance then you won’t struggle too much with this one as it’s very similar.
4. Lágrima (Francisco Tárrega)
Lágrima is one of Francisco Tárrega’s best-known songs and a hugely popular one for aspiring classical guitar players to learn. It’s not overly complicated but it is very delicate and hard to play with conviction, so just take it slow and enjoy the process of learning this truly beautiful piece.
5. Is There Anybody Out There? (Pink Floyd)
Is There Anybody Out There? is on Pink Floyd’s hugely successful album The Wall. It’s a beautiful, haunting song that’s fantastic for fingerstyle players to learn, especially if you’re justing getting into classical guitar and want to develop your fingerpicking technique.
6. Tears In Heaven (Eric Clapton)
This is one of Eric Clapton’s best-known and most loved songs, which he wrote whilst grieving the tragic death of his son. Tears in Heaven went on to win three grammy awards and remains a timeless and beautiful piece of music. The classical guitar makes it feel even more poignant.
7. Shape of My Heart (Sting)
This song has some pretty tricky chord grips so some fretting hand strength is certainly required to be able to play it cleanly. If you can master that then it’s an incredibly rewarding song to play and certainly one of my favourite Sting songs.
8. Heartbeats (José González)
Heartbeats was originally written by Swedish electronic duo The Knife in 2002. José González then covered the song in 2003 and completely changed the style to a gentle, more haunting fingerpicking piece. This one is deceptively tricky but so much fun once you’ve cracked it!
9. Classical Gas (Mason Williams)
Classical Gas was released in 1968 and is a 3 minute action-packed instrumental that holds nothing back – you barely have a second to breathe when playing it!
As you can imagine, this one is pretty tricky to play up to speed but slowed down it’s not so bad. Nevertheless, you really want to be at an intermediate level before having a go at it.
10. Cavatina (Stanley Myers)
This song was written by composer Stanley Myers in 1970 but was made really famous on the soundtrack for the classic film The Deer Hunter.
This is truly a beautiful and very moving song, quite challenging to play at times and certainly not one for beginners. I’d say it’s best suited to the intermediate player and above.
So there you go, 10 songs that are really fun to play and definitely made for classical guitar. I hope you enjoy learning how to play them!
If you would like to take your fingerpicking further then why not sign up to one of my fingerstyle guitar courses? At Six String Fingerpicking we have courses for total beginners right the way up to advanced players, so whatever level your fingerpicking is currently at there’s bound to be a course that’s right for you.
The really great thing is that you can try out any of my courses completely for free when you join my Newsletter. When you join, you also get early access to all of my lessons and 25% off all my TABs. Plus you get exclusive offers and weekly hints, tips and fingerstyle tricks, so why not join up?
Happy fingerpicking!
Author: Chris Murrin
Chris Murrin is a British guitar teacher who has dedicated his adult life to helping students master the guitar. A few years ago, in 2018, he founded Six String Fingerpicking so that he could help experienced and budding guitarists the world over to realise their fingerpicking goals.