Andrés Segovia’s Unfinished Guitar Method: Placing His “Scales” in Historical Context

Abstract

For over sixty years, guitarists of my generation have been familiar with the so-called Segovia Scales--the systematic scale fingerings advocated by the Andalusian maestro. They have been an influential--some might say a definitive--bestseller since their first USA publication in 1953. Countless guitar students have incorporated them into their daily practice routines. For the publisher, Columbia Music Co., they seem to be the goose that laid the golden egg. Are they everything that Segovia wanted them to be? Two books of recent date on guitar technique attest to their enduring value and relevance. Thomas Offermann wrote in 2015: "The fingerings of the scales used here mostly correspond to those of Andrés Segovia." revised edition of the 1953 publication came out in 1967. It was republished in 2011 and has remained in print. The original preface by Segovia was partly removed and replaced by a "Historical Note" by Thea E. Smith, the granddaughter of the publisher, Sophocles Papas. She attested that they were "one of the best-selling guitar publications of all time.