I have the book “Diatonic Major and Minor Scales” by Segovia, and what you say about having the book as a harbinger of what may come as a player, a student of classical guitar, rings true. I am picking up on alternation of fingers nicely with Sor’s Study No. 1 where I keep watching my fingers alternate carefully. My goal has been to achieve assurance of perfect alternation in this piece, and it steadily improves as I practice, taking less and less work or mindful assertion. What I might do next is take my newly found development of alternating fingers (which I still want to develop for some time to come, so that it is even more mindlessly reliable, dependable and most of all working to keep my hand relaxed as you say) to those scales and see what a more extended workout for alternation of fingers would mean. I have always kept an awareness of alternation of fingers, so I am not at all a newcomer to it; I simply do not know how perfect it is/has been.
It is just that when I approached Sor’s Study No. 1, I found that it was more challenging than even following a Segovia scale’s fingering since the scale is at a dependable tempo in simple sequence.
Thank you for your instructions and for the information on Segovia’s scales and what they mean, including their historical context, since they occupy for me a special place. Words about these scales are all over the Internet, and that is what had sent me to them. However, I did not maintain practicing them for long enough to say that I am deeply engrossed in them; what I learned from practicing them is rather hidden. I made a leap into them, and then for some reason, I found myself gone — that is something of a weighty matter that staying in practice with CGC’s curriculum is solving. I face a lot of obstacles to learning classical guitar, but keeping things simple lately has been a good thing — concentrating on the 10 Progressive Pieces for Classical Guitar. Learning the technology of music recording and then video making is always taking up time recently, yet the results of this will allow some posting at CGC. I would think posting here a couple of scales from Segovia’s book might be appropriate if I record such.
Hi DavidRe the major/minor scales thing. When I was learning piano and harmony and counterpoint, I don’t ever recall seeing any mention of a natural minor scale.harmonic and melodic minor, yes, but no natural minor. Just got out my old piano scales book to make sure and there is no mention of a natural minor scale, anywhere.
I went as far as 7th grade piano AMEB (Australia) and I was studying diploma level (Trinity College) harmony and counterpoint, but I have no recall of ever seeing a natural minor scale mentioned. OK, that was way back in the early 1970s, but things don’t change that much in these fields.maybe I missed something.Cheers, John. (near Sydney) Australia.
Hi Simon,Thank you very much for this interesting insight into the Segovia Scales. Personally, I’ve never used them, having learned scales and arpeggios etc for my Certificate Grade exams with Trinity College London using ‘Technical Development for Guitarists’ by Charles Ramirez. I admit that I rarely look at that book now but since joining CGC Academy, I use your Daily Scales for Classical Guitar regularly as warm-up exercises. I will take a look at the Segovia Scales because learning and enlightenment comes from many sources.Kind regards,Jim. I used to practice the Segovia scales for 1 – 2 hours a day when I was younger and doing lots of playing (60’s, 70’s, 80’s).
I had them all memorized and would do them rest stroke and free stroke with 7 right hand fingerings: IM, MI,AM, MA, IA, AI, and IMAMI. Oscar Ghiglia recommended doing them very slowly also, always making sure that the fingertips were 90 degrees to the fingerboard with minimal motion of fingers not being used (to train the 3rd & 4th fingers not to straighten while the 1st & 2nd were being placed). It was a great way to establish the left hand position of efficiency. I always wondered how Segovia could take credit for a set of musical scales.
Thanks for clearing that part up.I learned most of the scales a few years ago but only practice C major, G major, and sometimes A minor. And like John, I memorized without knowing what the notes were.
While there is nothing magical about these scales, they have help me improve my shifting which I still find challenging.Mistake I made was to practice these scales too focused on speed while ignoring tone, rhythm, and hand position. I have recently started working through your courses. Your recommended technical exercises are replacing my scale playing and are helping me greatly improve technique. Hi Steven,Yes, arpeggios are definitely one of the tools in the toolbox to have and I think it’s important to practice them frequently (if not daily). Arpeggios are an excellent tool for developing all sorts of different movements in the right hand. However, I do still think that scales are an essential asset for left-hand development as well as left- and right-hand syncronization. In that sense I think it’s a good idea to figure out ways of incorporating them into your practice routine.Peace,Dave B (CGC team).
I have been playing the Segovia Scales on and off since 1987. In my opinion they have helped me with my rest stroke and with right hand finger independence. I first used them to develop speed with some success. Also at first I tried playing all the scales on a daily basis, later in my playing I shifted to tackling one scale at a time with better success.I still play them one or two at a time to help reinforce my finger memorization of the scale and to keep me honest with my finger alternation especially with the IMAMI pattern. I play them at about MM80 and try to pay close attention to my left finger landing position on the fret board as well as my tone production quality.
Download Andres Segovia Asturias Pdf De
This is a concise and to the point article! I bought the Segovia Scales around 1964 while still in college.
I dutifully practiced them all every day for about a year. The available thinking on guitar technical development in the early 1960’s was quite limited by today’s standard. Still, I felt that my general technique improved at the time and if I missed a day or two of scale practice, I felt less secure in my playing that day.Since that time I have continued to practice scales from sources including Emilio Pujol, Aaron Shearer, Christopher Berg, Terre Roche and Simon Powis. Eliot Fisk’s scale exercises that can be found in the video section of the Strings by mail website are very good. I like to work some with what the various Jazz educators have put out. I think of Bruce Saunders, “Jazz Pentatonics published by Mel Bay.
Pentatonic scales are interesting and they offer great opportunity for practicing right hand string crossing since they are usually played 2 notes per string. Scales are meat and potatoes or bread and butter for musicians.
Eat healthy portions every day!. Great article Simon.When I started studying classical guitar, the Segovia scales were the only scales I knew, at that time my knowledge of music was very limited, so when someone spoke of scales, all I could think about were the Segovia Scales. When I started practicing them, my only concern was to use the scales as a warm-up exercise, but after a while I discovered that they were useful for many aspects of classical guitar technique and also as a good way to learn all the notes on the fret.
To this day I continue to practice them, although I have learned and practiced other scales, the Segovia scales continue to be my first choice, but as you said Simon, the most important thing in any scale or exercise that you practice is consistency, mindfulness, and the approach with which you work.Eduardo. Hi dear SimonThank you for this great article.So what I understand is scales are good for practicing techniques (staccato, shifting, left hand position, speed etc.) because we can focus on those instead of musical aspect, phrasing and so on.Now my question is we must practice techniques while playing scales not practicing scales while using techniques, right?And should we increase the speed?
I mean does it essential to playing fast? Or the goal is playing correct or correct and fast simultaneously?Best regards.
Hi Farid,Speed is something you must develop and actually I think playing fast but not correct, or precise, can actually slow you down in your speed development. Eventually you need to push your tempo up so that you can continue to advance your speed development (which can be essential to playing certain repertoire, yes), but being able to play precisely and correctly at slower tempos first will be essential to that development. As for your first question, I think Simon would say that technique and music must always go together, so I don’t think practicing scales.only. develops certain techniques, though it does that.
And so it’s important to use dynamics and phrasing and color contrasts while playing scales as well.Peace,Dave B (CGC team). I came across the Segovia scales about three years ago and used them to revise the music theory behind them (which has never really become second nature to me as I am really trying to learn to play not compose) – I don’t feel the need to work out why a piece is written the way it is. I also enjoyed working through the various positions the scales needed which I am sure has helped with more fluidity whilst shifting up the fretboard. It made sense for the scales to span more than just a single octave (I think).
Did I get regularly through all of them? – as you suspected no. In fact I have felt for a while that practicing scales did not do much for me as most guitar music does not seem to incorporate scales per se – in fact your article fairly recently (Scale Practice on Classical Guitar) pretty much matched how I felt.
I prefer the variety of techniques as per your various ‘technical routines’ publications – although I’m not adequately motivated to be thorough as I should and use them ‘as directed’ (e.g. Move through the routines through the week). Hi simon,thanks for your post about the segovia scales.I have done some work on the segovia scales some time ago and also use your scales pdf (based on the CAGED system as you mentioned.my main aim for this moment with scales is ear training and shifts for all fingers and for this purpose i use different sources depending on what to focus on and to satisfy my curiosity.
(major, minor, pentatonic, different Modes)i hope to find some answers regarding the background of the Segovia scales when reading the article of Andreas Stevens.Regards,joannes.