Classical & Flamenco Guitar Lessons

The classical guitar is used mainly for classical, Latin and flamenco music, and is played with the fingers rather than a pick. It comes in two types — the concert classical and the flamenco.

My classical guitar lessons run from beginner to intermediate level, working through early music, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic and 20th- and 21st-century pieces. From there we can take the same technique into Latin styles — from traditional bossa nova to today’s Latin pop and rock. I also teach flamenco: a different way of plucking the strings that adds a whole extra set of techniques on top.

New to the classical guitar?

Classical guitar lessons for a complete beginner start slowly and deliberately. I’ll guide you through the early stages, introducing correct posture and technique and teaching you to read music from scratch — in an effective, lots-of-fun way. We also approach scales and arpeggios, seeing them in action within some simple pieces, before opening up the many directions you can take, guided by what you most want to play. More advanced technique and theory come in as they become relevant to the music in front of us.

Already play?

If you already play classical guitar, I can help you take it to the next level. Play electric or acoustic but never tried classical? No problem — I’ll teach you the sitting posture that becomes natural for the instrument, and the skills specific to it. Once your grounding is solid, we explore how to listen for the essence of the music and translate the notes on the page into something alive, because notes mean little if that essence never makes it into the playing.

Flamenco or concert — which guitar?

If you want to play flamenco, get a flamenco guitar; for classical, choose a concert classical. The two are built differently and that shapes their tone. There’s also a hybrid — the flamenco negra — worth a listen if you’re torn between the two.

A quick note on the steel-string acoustic

The steel-string acoustic guitar is a different instrument usually used in folk, country and pop/indie music. If that’s what you’re after, head to my acoustic guitar page.

Your first three months on the classical guitar

Month one is almost entirely posture and the right hand, because on a nylon-string everything downstream depends on them. Footstool or support, guitar on the left leg, the neck angled up; then tirando free stroke and apoyando rest stroke with i, m and a, thumb on the bass strings, and nails shaped and filed properly — a ten-minute job that changes your tone more than a new guitar would. Reading starts here too, from the open strings in first position.

Month two adds the left hand and the first real pieces. Position playing in first position, simple two-voice textures where thumb and fingers hold separate lines, slurs, and the first arpeggio patterns from the Giuliani studies. Beginners usually play their first recognisable piece in this window — a renaissance dance, a Carcassi or Sor study, or a simple Latin melody, depending on where you are pulling.

Month three opens the neck and, if it is what you came for, the flamenco door. Shifts into higher positions, scale fingerings across the strings, the half-barre, and dynamics and rest points that turn correct notes into phrasing. Flamenco students start rasgueado, golpe and the compas of a simple rumba or tangos alongside the classical work, since the two feed each other.

Where the level goes after that

From there we follow the repertoire chronologically or by taste, whichever motivates you: renaissance lute transcriptions and Sanz, baroque Bach and Weiss, the classical Sor, Giuliani and Carcassi studies, romantic Tarrega, then the twentieth century — Villa-Lobos, Brouwer, Barrios — and Latin repertoire from bossa nova through to modern Latin pop. Technique arrives as the music demands it: full barres, tremolo, natural and artificial harmonics, and picado and alzapua on the flamenco side.

Graded exams, if you want them

The classical guitar has the best-developed graded route of any instrument I teach. If you want that structure, we can work to the ABRSM, Trinity Guildhall or LCME classical guitar syllabi, whose set pieces make a ready-made repertoire plan. If you would rather just play, that is entirely fine — most of my classical students never enter for anything.

I’ve been learning guitar with Malcolm for more than a year, during which I have seen my skills improve massively. Lessons are always well structured around specific topics with a good balance of theory and practice.— Victor Fenes, classic & electric guitar student

Where lessons happen

In-studio in London SE16 — Rotherhithe, Canada Water and Surrey Quays — at your place anywhere within TfL Zone 3, including Bermondsey and Borough (SE1), Walworth (SE17), Deptford (SE8), New Cross and Peckham (SE14, SE15), Lewisham (SE13) and Canary Wharf (E14), or live online worldwide over Zoom/similar. When the weather’s kind, studio lessons can even move out to a private front-garden area. Get in touch and we’ll pick what fits you best. I teach music lessons right across South East London — see the areas I cover →.