Exercise 13 by Elías Barreiro

Exercise 13 comes to us from a performer, teacher, and composer who is little known to most guitarists. That is unless you went to Tulane University in New Orleans. There is a nice interview with him on the Tulane University website (click here) that took place at the 2016 New Orleans International Guitar Festival. Barreiro was on the staff from 1962 to 2012. He receives his training in Cuba from Isaac Nicola and later from Andrés Segovia.

Publications of Exercise 13

The song is from Barreiro’s Classical Guitar Method, Book 1 published by Willis Music Company. The book is difficult to find online. I believe it is out of publication. My copy came from the third edition of the Royal Conservatory Guitar Series: Introductory. It is not in the current edition of the RCM editions.

About The Piece

This piece falls in the Royal Conservatory level of Preparatory (Introductory in 2004). The key remains in A minor throughout. I play it with free strokes but many beginners might find playing with rest strokes more appealing. It includes many small-scale runs that are efficient for learning to play scalar/melodic passages. The fingers and thumb never play together. This works well if you or a student is not yet putting intervals or chords together with the thumb and fingers simultaneously.

Check out some of our other articles:

• 3 Things I Am Learning From Beginner Guitar Scales in Open Position
• Mastering the Art: Better Judging of Yourself While Practicing Guitar
• Contentment by Shawn Bell
• Exercise 13 by Elías Barreiro
• Petit Poney By Yvon Demillac

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Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.