Ernesto García de León - 20 Estudios (20 Studies), Op. 50 - Collected Works, Volume 2 Classical Guitar - Digital Sheet Music

The materials out of which the twenty studies are developed are first idiomatic patterns of the guitar and then the variety of musical styles so appealing to and characteristic of Ernesto García de León. For example, classic examples of the music of the Caribbean coastal basin in general and the composer's native state Veracruz in particular appear unvarnished in #12 (a rumba veracruzana) and #20 (a son). The other studies blend elements of Mexican music in general-songs of the revolution, native dances, boleros, children's songs, and so forth-with elements of European classical music, Beatles, New Age music, jazz and other musical styles, in a way intended to appeal to the player and to the listener.

As the summary on pages 34 and 35 illustrates, the first sixteen studies explore basic formulas for the right hand. At the same time, they also address the full range of left hand techniques-including balance and positioning, independence of the fingers, longitudinal and transversal movements, shifts by substitution, by displacement, by jump, and by positions, barring, stretches and contractions, damping, pivoting, crossed movements, and movements with fixed fingers. The last four studies concern the slur.

Though each of the basic right- and left-hand formulas explored in the twenty studies is relatively simple in itself, each is a building block of a solid technique. Mastery of the complete set of twenty studies-less than half an hour of music-integrates all the formulas and develops the technique to a level at which an enormous range of the guitar repertoire becomes available.