Classical Guitar

Posture
Classical guitar has a prescribed way of sitting, intended to maximise the player's potential by enabling the hands to work in the most efficient and effective manner. A footstool is used for the left foot in order to heighet the guitar and bring it into a more favourable position for playing. If you don't have a footstool, a pile of books will suffice in the meantime; in the longer term, an adjustable footstool would be better.
 Sit at the front of a medium height stool or chair with no arms. The left leg should be at right angle to the body and points forwards, with the left foot elevated by the footstool. The hollow of the guitar rests on the top of the left thigh,so the back of the guitar touches the chest, with the neck of the guitar sloping gently upwards. The right leg is angled away from the guitar and the base of the guitar rests on the right inner thigh. With the right forearm resting lightly on the top of the guitar,the guitar should be securely held in place by these four points of contact - top of the right leg thigh, bottom of the chest, inner left thigh and right forearm on the top of the guitar.
 We have already discussed the correct position and technique of the left hand. This is even more important in classical playing which can place greater demands on the left hand. To re-cap, the main points are:

1. the finger should be spread out one finger per fret with the thumb behind the 2nd finger and the middle of the neck;
2. notes should be held down by the tips of the finger and the finger should be smoothly curved throughtout each of the three finger joints;
3. only the thumb and the fingertips touch the guitar.

In classical guitar playing, the fingers of the right hand are used to pluck the strings. The best tone is produced by plucking with a combination of flesh and nails, so the nails have to extend slightly over the edge of the fingertips. If the nails are too long, the sound will be too trebly and plucking will be difficult to control;if the nails are too short and the string is plucked with the flesh only, the sound will be quiet and lack definition.

 With the right forearm lightly rest on the top of the guitar, the wrist slightly curved to bring the right hand above the strings, which part of the forearm rests on the top of the guitar depends on thelenght of one's arms and will require some experimentation. 

 The general position of the finger is that the index, middle and ring fingers should gently slope to the right as you look down on them and the thumb should slope to the left. The intersection of the thumb and index finger forms an 'x' shape.

 The right should be placed at the right hand side of the soundhole as you look down - if the hand is over the soundhole it blocks the sound coming out of the soundhole, resulting in a muffed tone and reduced volume.

 Obviously, there are many things to bear in mind here, and one aspect of technique can affect another.

Rest Strokes and Free Strokes

There are different techniques of plucking strings - rest strokes or 'apoyando'(to give them their spanish name), and free strokes or 'tirando'. A rest stroke is when the plucking finger or thumb moves through a string then comes to rest on the next string.

 There is a difference in tone and volume between rest and free strokes - a rest strokes produces a louder and fuller tone, so it tends to be used for single note melodies or for bringing a melody out above an accompaniment, whereas free strokes tend to be used for arpeggio accompaniments.

 Practice rest and free strokes on the open top string. Play the string, for example, eight times - alternating middle and index fingers with the rest strokes - then do the same again with free strokes.