Sheet music is the bridge between a composed piece and a live performance — and for the classical guitar, the world of available scores is vast, spanning five centuries of music from the Renaissance to the present day. Whether you are looking for a first easy study, a public-domain Baroque arrangement, or a professionally edited concert edition, this guide covers what you need to know.
Standard Notation vs Tablature
Classical guitar is written in standard staff notation — treble clef, sounding an octave lower than written. What makes guitar notation distinctive is the use of stem direction to separate voices: stems pointing up indicate the melody or upper voice; stems pointing down indicate the bass line. This polyphonic notation is essential for classical guitar because the instrument carries multiple independent parts simultaneously, and tablature cannot replicate this voice separation.
Tablature (TAB) uses six horizontal lines representing the six strings, with numbers showing fret positions. It communicates fingering positions quickly and works well as a supplementary guide, but traditional TAB omits rhythmic values — a significant limitation in classical repertoire where rhythm is musically essential. Most serious teachers recommend learning standard notation from the start, with TAB used as a positional aid rather than a primary reading system.
Graded Repertoire: ABRSM Grades 1–8
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) organises classical guitar repertoire into eight grades. Grades 1–2 cover simple first-position melodies. Grades 3–4 expand to barre chords, more complex polyphony, and the études of Sor, Carcassi, and Giuliani. Grades 5–6 introduce extended techniques and full concert pieces. Grades 7–8 reach concert-level standard, encompassing Bach lute arrangements, Villa-Lobos, Tárrega, and 20th-century works. ABRSM exams require standard notation — tablature is not accepted.
Other major grading systems include Trinity College London, RCM (Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada), and LCM (London College of Music).
Reading Classical Guitar Notation: Key Symbols
- Right-hand fingering: p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (ring finger)
- Left-hand fingering: numbers 1–4 (index to little finger)
- String numbers: circled numerals (① = first string)
- Position markers: Roman numerals (e.g. VII = seventh position)
- Barre: "B" or "C" followed by the fret number and a line over the affected measures
Free Sheet Music: Public Domain
The largest single source of free classical guitar scores is IMSLP (the International Music Score Library Project), which hosts thousands of public domain guitar works as downloadable PDFs. Music published before 1924 is generally public domain worldwide; works by composers who died before 1953 are public domain in most of Europe. The core classical guitar canon — Bach lute arrangements, Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi, Tárrega, and early Villa-Lobos — is well represented. IMSLP is especially strong for urtext-style facsimiles directly from original manuscripts.
The Classical Guitar Score Collection
Our own blog carries in-depth articles on the most important pieces in the repertoire — each with context, performance notes, and embedded Siccas Guitars performances. See the Famous Classical Guitar Pieces overview for a full index, or explore individual works by composer using the Composers A–Z guide.
Looking for the instrument to play these pieces on? Our classical guitar collection spans every level, from student to concert standard, each filmed in a video review so you can hear the sound before you decide.
