The Studies of Fernando Sor are the foundation of classical guitar education — a body of work spanning six collections that addresses every core technique of the instrument while never sacrificing the quality of the music itself. They have been central to guitar pedagogy for nearly two hundred years, and the best of them belong on the concert stage as much as in the practice room.
Six Collections
Sor distributed his studies across six opus numbers: Op. 60, the most elementary; Op. 44 and Op. 35, which occupy intermediate territory; Op. 31, moving toward the upper-intermediate level; and Op. 6 and Op. 29, the most demanding, where the writing becomes genuinely concert-worthy. The full range spans from a complete beginner's first notes to works that test the most experienced players. Sor's approach was always the same: isolate a specific challenge — arpeggios, slurs, chord balance, position shifts, voice independence — and give it a musical form worthy of performance.
Segovia's Selection
In 1945, Andrés Segovia published a hand-picked selection of twenty studies drawn from five of the six collections. By placing the most compelling pieces in a single sequence — from the accessible Op. 35 studies to the demanding Op. 29 — he gave the repertoire a new shape and a new prestige. The study in B minor (Op. 35, No. 22) became perhaps the single most performed Sor study in the world: a piece of such lyrical intensity in a compact form that it works equally for students building expressive vocabulary and professionals programming an intimate encore.
Performed at Siccas Guitars
Playing it
What distinguishes Sor's studies from mere technical exercises is their resistance to superficial guitaristic effects. Each piece asks the player to think like a musician — balancing voices, projecting a melody, shaping a phrase — rather than simply executing a pattern. They reward patience and musical thought more than raw technique.
See the full Sor guide and the Mozart Variations.
