The Classical Guitar has the reputation of being a soft, sweet, and gentle instrument. While it deserves this reputation because it is all these things, it is also an instrument capable of tremendous fire and passion. Here is a selection of some fiery and passionate classical guitar pieces that will add power and raw emotion to your repertoire.

None of these pieces are particularly rare. Transcripts and videos of all these pieces can be readily found by doing a web search.

Spanish Guitar pieces

Villa-Lobos Prelude #1 - This piece has a great melody, is very Spanish, and has some wonderful chord phrasings that just can’t be found anywhere except in the deepest Spanish guitar pieces. It moves at a great pace, is sometimes slow and easy that burst into some great chord phrasings at a good speed. This piece will transport your audience to Spain.

Leyenda (Asturias) This is a very popular and very powerful Spanish Guitar piece. It is also one of my personal favorites. Altough it takes time to learn this piece it is well worth the effort. There are some wonderful bass runs and alternate picking patterns with this piece. It revolves around a wonderful central theme.

Zapateado – This is just another awesome Spanish piece that has some great bass lines and some terrific melodic phrasings.

Traditional Classical Pieces

Bolero by Ravel – This piece is the ultimate performance piece when it comes to passion. It isn’t a fast piece it is all about the passion. Since the movie 10 with with Bo Derek this piece has come to symbolize passion.

Fuoco by R. Dyens Just a great short piece about a minute. It is not a well-known piece but well worth the effort of learning. It burns bright and fast.

Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Everybody knows how this piece goes and it is not associated with the Classical guitar but is perfectly suited for the instrument. This piece doesn’t exhibit passion but it does exhibit fire simply by the sheer speed that it is played at.

The Classical Guitar has been called “The Little Symphony" for a reason. It is an instrument of incredible range and reach. And while it is often most associated with pretty melodies it is capable of some very fiery and passionate expressions. As you are building your classical guitar repertoire make sure you select pieces from this whole spectrum of capabilities.