Classical guitar exercises: arpeggios, scales, slurs and études

Classical guitar is played with the fingers, on nylon strings, and most of its technique lives in the right hand: the thumb for the bass, the index, middle and ring fingers for everything above it, each with its own job. These exercises train that hand one skill at a time, with the left-hand work every piece also needs.

They cover arpeggios in the manner of Giuliani's right-hand studies, free and rest stroke, two-octave scales, slurs on every finger, the tremolo and barre chords, then short excerpts of real studies by Giuliani and Carcassi. Each is drawn as tab with the right hand's p-i-m-a under every note, opens in the player with the notation shown, on a nylon-string guitar, and speeds up from 60 % of its goal tempo as you play it.

New to classical guitar? Start with the free stroke i and m, then the p-a-m-i arpeggio study and Giuliani's Op. 50 No. 1, the first real piece most classical guitarists learn.

Start with Free stroke: i and m

Where to start

Work down a list in order, and move on when an exercise is clean at its goal tempo. Each link has the exercise's tab and how to play it.

Beginner

  1. Free stroke: i and m
  2. Rest stroke melody over a bass
  3. Arpeggio study: p-a-m-i
  4. Arpeggio study: p-i-m-i
  5. Giuliani: Op. 50 No. 1

Intermediate

  1. G major scale, two octaves
  2. A melodic minor scale, two octaves
  3. Slurs on every finger
  4. Barre chords in arpeggio
  5. Carcassi: Op. 60 No. 1
  6. Carcassi: Op. 60 No. 7

Advanced

  1. Tremolo: p-a-m-i

Guides

Free and rest stroke

A free stroke plucks the string and moves on through the air; a rest stroke pushes through and comes to rest on the next string down, for a fuller, louder note. Melodies are played with rest strokes and accompaniment with free strokes, with the index and middle fingers taking turns either way.

  • Free stroke: i and m

    Beginner

    Every note twice, once with the index finger and once with the middle, along the high E, then the B, then the G string, and a last bar that walks down across all three. Alternating i and m is how a classical guitarist plays every single-note line, and playing each note twice shows straight away when one finger is louder or later than the other.

    i, m, i, m without a break, even when the line changes string: never two strokes in a row with the same finger.

    Goal 100 bpm · 4 bars

    Tab and how to play it

  • Rest stroke melody over a bass

    Beginner

    Beethoven's Ode to Joy on the top two strings, played with rest strokes, i and m in turn, over a free-stroke bass from the thumb on C and G. A rest stroke lets the finger come to rest on the next string down, which gives the melody a fuller, louder tone than the accompaniment: the classical guitarist's way to make a tune sing over its own bass.

    Melody fingers push through to rest on the next string; the thumb plucks out and up, clear of the fingers.

    Goal 90 bpm · 8 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Right-hand arpeggios

The thumb on the bass and the index, middle and ring fingers on the treble strings, in every order: p-i-m-a, p-a-m-i, p-i-m-i. Arpeggios are most of what a classical guitarist's right hand does, and practising the patterns over a few chords, as Giuliani's studies do, makes every finger as strong and as even as the others.

  • Arpeggio study: p-a-m-i

    Beginner

    The thumb plays a bass note on every beat and the ring, middle and index fingers answer it down the top three strings, p-a-m-i, through eight bars of chords in C. It's the pattern of many of Giuliani's right-hand studies: the ring finger, the weakest, leads each group, so it gets as strong and as even as the others.

    a on the high E, m on the B, i on the G: the ring finger starts each group, and the three notes fall evenly.

    Goal 72 bpm · 8 bars

    Tab and how to play it

  • Arpeggio study: p-i-m-i

    Beginner

    The index and middle fingers take turns on the G and B strings after each bass note, p-i-m-i, through C and G7, then A minor, D minor and back. Alternating i and m on two neighbouring strings is the most common arpeggio in classical guitar accompaniment, and the first of Giuliani's right-hand patterns.

    i stays on the G string and m on the B: the fingers don't move across, they only take turns.

    Goal 80 bpm · 8 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Scales in two octaves

Two-octave scales are the classical guitarist's daily warm-up: they join the hands across all six strings and show at once if one finger is louder or later than the other. Play them with i and m, then with m and a, the harder pair.

  • G major scale, two octaves

    Intermediate

    The G major scale from the low G to the A two octaves up and back, in the second position, a finger for each fret, with i and m in turn. Two-octave scales are the classical guitarist's daily warm-up: they join both hands across all six strings, and the second position needs no shifts, so all the attention can go to an even tone.

    Index on the 2nd fret, middle on the 3rd, ring on the 4th, little finger on the 5th: the hand never moves.

    Goal 90 bpm · 4 bars

    Tab and how to play it

  • A melodic minor scale, two octaves

    Intermediate

    A minor over two octaves, up as the melodic minor, with a raised sixth and seventh, F sharp and G sharp, and back down as the natural minor, with F and G. The right hand plays m and a in turn, the harder pair to keep even, and the fretting hand moves between the fourth and fifth positions on the way up.

    Going up: F sharp and G sharp. Coming down: F and G. The a finger plays every other note.

    Goal 80 bpm · 4 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Slurs (ligados)

Slurs are notes sounded by the fretting hand alone: a hammer-on going up, a pull-off coming down. In classical guitar they're called ligados and practised daily, every pair of fingers in turn, because a pull-off is a small pluck of the string by the left hand, and it has to be as loud as the right hand's notes.

  • Slurs on every finger

    Intermediate

    Ascending and descending slurs, ligados, between every pair of fretting fingers in the fifth position: picked, hammered on, picked, pulled off, on the high E, then the B, G and D strings. The pull-off plucks the string with the fretting finger, so this works both the strength of a hammer and the small snap of a pull, the way Tárrega's daily slur exercises do.

    Hammer with the fingertip from above, right behind the fret; pull off sideways towards the floor so the finger plucks the string.

    Goal 80 bpm · 4 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Tremolo

The ring, middle and index fingers repeat one note so quickly and evenly that it sounds like a single sustained melody, over a bass from the thumb. It's the most admired sound in classical guitar and one of the hardest to make even: start slowly, with three equal notes rather than a flam.

  • Tremolo: p-a-m-i

    Advanced

    The classical tremolo: the thumb plays a bass note and the ring, middle and index fingers repeat one melody note three times, so the melody sounds like one long sustained line. Here it runs through E minor, A minor and B7 with the melody on the top two strings, the right-hand pattern of the most famous pieces for the instrument.

    a-m-i like a quick, even roll on one string, the thumb in time on the beat: three equal notes, not a flam.

    Goal 80 bpm · 4 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Barre chords

A barre is the first finger laid across several strings, and in classical music each string of it is heard on its own, so a muffled one shows at once. Arpeggios over barre chords are the strictest way to practise them: if every note rings, the barre is right.

  • Barre chords in arpeggio

    Intermediate

    An arpeggio, p-i-m-a-m-i-m-i, through F, D minor, B flat and C: the full barre for F and the A-shape barre for B flat, each held for a whole bar while every string of it is heard on its own. An arpeggio is the strictest test of a barre: a strummed chord hides a muffled string, a picked one doesn't.

    Roll the first finger slightly onto its bony side and pull the arm back a little, rather than squeezing harder.

    Goal 80 bpm · 4 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Études by Giuliani and Carcassi

Études are short pieces written to teach one technique through real music. Mauro Giuliani and Matteo Carcassi wrote the ones classical guitarists have learned from for two centuries; these are their opening bars, checked against their public-domain editions, to loop and bring up to tempo before playing the whole study.

  • Giuliani: Op. 50 No. 1

    Beginner

    The first sixteen bars of the first piece in Mauro Giuliani's Le Papillon, Op. 50: a melody in C on the top two strings over a bass in the thumb, the two voices often moving together in thirds. It's one of the first real pieces classical guitarists learn, and it teaches what every later piece needs: two voices at once, each held for its full length.

    Thumb on the bass, fingers on the melody: hold each half note for two full beats while the other voice moves.

    Goal 100 bpm · 16 bars

    Tab and how to play it

  • Carcassi: Op. 60 No. 1

    Intermediate

    The opening eight bars of the first of Matteo Carcassi's 25 Melodic and Progressive Studies, Op. 60: scales in eighths running down from C, then from G, each starting over a bass note. It's the most played scale study in the classical repertoire, and it puts i-m alternation, string crossing and first-position fingering into real music.

    The thumb plays each bar's first note and lets it ring; the scale that follows is i and m in turn.

    Goal 120 bpm · 8 bars

    Tab and how to play it

  • Carcassi: Op. 60 No. 7

    Intermediate

    The opening eight bars of Carcassi's seventh study, in A minor: the thumb plays a bass line in quarters while the fingers keep an A ringing in 16ths above it, with the melody's notes moving around it. Keeping the repeated note even and quiet while the bass and the melody speak is the right-hand control the study is known for.

    The thumb on every beat, firm; the three 16ths after it light and even, the repeated A always softer than the bass.

    Goal 80 bpm · 8 bars

    Tab and how to play it

Practice routines

Ready-made sessions: play each exercise for the minutes given, at the tempo where it's clean. Play routine opens them in the player one after another and counts the minutes while you play.

Setting up for practice

Sit with the guitar's waist on the left leg, raised by a footstool or a support, so the neck points up at about 45 degrees and the left hand reaches every fret without bending the wrist. The right forearm rests on the edge of the body and the hand hangs over the soundhole, where the strings give a round tone.

File the nails of the right hand smooth and a millimetre or two past the fingertip: a classical note is plucked with the flesh and the nail together. Practise these exercises with the notation open: the player shows the staff above the tab, and reading the two together is how classical guitarists learn their pieces.

Questions

What should a beginner practise on classical guitar?

Free strokes with the index and middle fingers taking turns, a simple arpeggio with the thumb on the bass, and the first-position notes of a scale. Then a first piece: Giuliani's Op. 50 No. 1 uses all three and sounds like music from the first bar.

What do p, i, m and a mean?

They name the right hand's fingers in Spanish: p pulgar, the thumb; i índice, the index; m medio, the middle; a anular, the ring finger. Classical music prints them by the notes, and the tab here shows them under each note.

What's the difference between a free stroke and a rest stroke?

A free stroke plucks the string and the finger moves on through the air, clear of the other strings. A rest stroke pushes through the string and comes to rest on the next one down, which gives a fuller, louder note. Melodies use rest strokes, arpeggios and accompaniment free strokes.

Can I practise these on a steel-string or electric guitar?

Yes, the notes and the fingering are the same. Nylon strings are softer and set wider apart, so the right-hand technique feels most natural on a classical guitar, and the exercises are played on one in the player.

Are the études complete?

No, each is an excerpt, the first eight or sixteen bars, which loops in the player. Once it's at tempo, the whole study is the next step: Giuliani's and Carcassi's studies are in the public domain and free to find.

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