Charleston Classical Guitar

Segovia Scales And Their Hinderances

No name brings more to the classical guitar conversation than Andrés Segovia. Many consider him to be the ultimate teacher and student. Others question whether he hurt or helped a generation with homegrown techniques and advice. Certainly, he achieved his main life goal of bringing the guitar to the concert stage. Here, however, discusses the benefit, or lack of, in studying his fingerings for scale practice (known as the Segovia Scales). The fingerings given in Segovia’s 1953 publication on scales are highly impractical. They create an unmusical effect when transferring the movements to the actual repertoire. A large part of this thought process must be attributed to my working with Christopher Berg and his directions in learning and thinking about learning the guitar.

Background On The Segovia Scales Fingering Choices

First published in 1953, the Diatonic Major and Minor Scales by Segovia became the bedrock of many guitarists’ technical studies. Unfortunately, other works, such as Julio Sagreras’ Técnica Superior (1922), presented a more deliberately thought-out method behind the choice of fingering and practice approach. However, Sagreras’ work was not available to most of the world outside of South America until after the widespread use of Segovia’s publication. Hence, the popularity and influence of Segovia allowed for the acceptance of his fingerings for scales without much thought to their effectiveness for practice.

In Segovia’s autobiography, he states that he worked out his scales fingerings prior to his 1909 debut in Granada and has “never had to change or modify them since.”¹ It is hard to believe that he believed that never changing the scale fingering was necessary. Especially after playing the same ones for almost 70 years. It needs to be said that the autobiography is a rather romanticized view from Segovia’s perspective.

A Flaw In The Scales

Later, Aaron Shearer stated in an interview about the Segovia Scales that, “They’re highly impractical. I once asked him about them and he said that they were only intended to be shifting exercises, not practical scale fingerings. He said that he conceived them when he was 14 and didn’t take the time to change them… A lot of people still practice Segovia scales—I dutifully worked on the for a while—but they don’t have a relationship to anything else.”²

Considering his fame and status in the guitar world at the time, Segovia might be excused for his inability to see the fault of his own pride in his autobiographical statements. I believe Shearer, in his thoughts on the scales, is able to step back and see them for their intended use when speaking about them from a pedagogical perspective. And it is known that Segovia truly lacked in his pedagogical skills.

Examining Segovia’s Instructions for Practicing Scales

In the preface to the 1953 edition, Segovia states, “In order to derive the greatest possible benefit from the following exercises, play them slowly and vigorously at first, more lightly and rapidly later. In one hour of scales may be condensed many hours of arduous exercises which are frequently futile. The practice of scales enables one to solve a greater number of technical problems in a shorter time than the study of any other exercise.”³

This statement seems to imply that one should play slowly and with a forte attack at the beginning and then with less attack and quicker later. It also implies that a large percentage of technical problems in the guitar repertoire is scale related. This could not be further from the truth. The majority of guitar music rarely presents scale movement as seen in playing scales for practice.

Though these statements leave much to the reader to figure out, the most hindering is the idea that practice en mass will create great dividends upon completion. The direction from Segovia is to practice, “each scale apoyando seven times as indicated below.”³

The “below” refers to the recommended seven different finger combinations for the right hand. In this direction, a student unknowingly perceives that this is the method to master both musical and technical.

Ineffectiveness In Practicing “En Mass”

It may be easy to excuse Segovia’s ignorance due to the self-taught nature of his learning. But this is only an excuse. Though scientific evidence did not exist at the time, plenty of great musicians at and before his time knew the ineffectiveness of practice en mass. To be clear, it is necessary to have repetition in practice. But playing something over and over, en mass, many times does more harm than good when the goal is the only quantity to reach performance goals.

In Frank Merrick’s work on practicing piano, he quotes his great teacher Theodor Leschetizky as saying, “Think ten times, play once.”⁴ Though he is describing Leschetizky’s ideas on “stopping practice” and “delayed continuity,” the idea held here is that thought of action must come before the action itself. Thinking deeply about every aspect of what one is practicing, including scales, results in complex understanding. This execution reaps greater results in playing and performing. On a side note, Leschetizky was in his prime before Segovia was born. These thoughts are not alone to Leschetizky but many concert violinists, pianists, and others were teaching similar thoughts on practice.

Changing The Scales Up A Bit

Another element seen in the great masters of the past is variation in the approach to specific problems and passages. The great violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian states that “any scale or passage that the player can perform with a great many different rhythms, accentuations and bowings is one that has been completely assimilated by the mind and muscles.”⁵ Modern research continues to support this understanding as Robert Bjork, the Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, says, “People’s intuitions about practice are nowhere near optimal…’ interleaving’ between different skills and ‘spacing’ study to force students to retrieve, and embed, new knowledge between sessions [is optimal].”⁶ This idea is further supported by Mark Guadagnoli, a professor of neuroscience and neurology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Medicine. “You want to increase arousal so [the brain encodes] information at a deeper level. It’s [like] using a laser to engrave something versus a ballpoint pen.”⁶

Beyond the Segovia Scales

This information should lead the inquisitive student to move beyond the simple instructions given by Segovia. The two main principles according to the references above indicate that engaging them mindfully and creating variation throughout any repetition will yield the greatest fruit when practicing scales.

Though this article critiques Segovia’s scale work, I highly encourage their study of them for their intention on shifting. You can find them here. I prefer the reprint of the original publication.

Also, if you are looking to increase your scale speeds, then check out my course Speeding Up Your Scales.

Other articles you may enjoy from charlestonclassicalguitar.org:

  1. Segovia, Andrés. Andrés Segovia: an Autobiography of the Years 1893-1920. New York: Macmillan, 1967, 14.
  2. Jim Ferguson. “Aaron Shearer: The Art & Science of Guitar Instruction,” Guitar Player, (Vol. 23, #7, issue 235, 1989), 61-63.
  3. Segovia, Andrés. Diatonic Major and Minor Scales. Washington, D.C.: Columbia Music Co., 1953, 1-2.
  4. Merrick, Frank. Practising the Piano. London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1958, 1.
  5. Galamian, Ivan. Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 2013. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/.

  6. Stephen Phillips. “The Average Guy Who Spent 6,003 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer,” The Atlantic, (August 11, 2017). Retrieved from https://theatlantic.com.

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