Ernesto García de León's 20 Studies, Op. 50 is an ingenious collection thataddresses fundamental questions about how to develop and maintain guitar technique. It is designed toserve guitar teachers and students as well as performers and concert audiences. Since it explores notjust the technique of our instrument, but its musicaland expressive aspects as well, it makes daily technical work enjoyable, not tedious?even for someone only beginning to study the guitar.

For guitar teachers and students, 20 Studies canserve as a basic curriculum or it can complementother methods or other sets of studies. For performers, it provides a complete overview and tune-up ofthe guitar technique in one graded set of daily studies that can be played in less than half an hour. Thiswarm-up then provides the player delicious concertrepertoire?as the complete set, or in smaller groups,or in combinations with other music by ErnestoGarcía de León.

These musical exercises are also useful to rectify,reform or rehabilitate the guitar technique.

The materials out of which the twenty studies aredeveloped are first idiomatic patterns of the guitarand then the variety of musical styles so appealing toand characteristic of Ernesto García de León. For example, classic examples of the music of theCaribbean coastal basin in general and thecomposer's native state Veracruz in particular appearunvarnished in #12 (a rumba veracruzana) and #20(a son). The other studies blend elements of Mexicanmusic in general?songs of the revolution, nativedances, boleros, children's songs, and so forth?withelements of European classical music, Beatles, NewAge music, jazz and other musical styles, in a wayintended 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 theright hand. At the same time, they also address thefull range of left hand techniques?including balanceand 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 fixedfingers. The last four studies concern the slur.

Though each of the basic right- and left-hand formulas explored in the twenty studies is relativelysimple in itself, each is a building block of a solidtechnique. Mastery of the complete set of twentystudies?less than half an hour of music?integratesall the formulas and develops the technique to a levelat which an enormous range of the guitar repertoirebecomes available.

ISBN 9781609746599.

This is the first compilation of guitar music specifically composed for right-hand technique that includes the little finger. The 57 compositions include original pieces in the Easy-Intermediate to Intermediate -Advanced levels by renowned guitarist/composers from Europe, North America, South America and the Caribbean. Music by Ernesto Cordero, Carlos Dorado, Jim Ferguson, David Flynn, Gerald Garcia, John Hall, Ricardo Iznaola, James Lentini, John Oliver, Charles Postlewate, Mirko Schrader, Burkhard Buck Wolters and Luis Zea show the advantages of a five-finger technique in the playing of scales, chords, arpeggios, tremolos and harmonics. They also show the advantages of using the little finger for speed, accuracy, strength and balance. All of these compositions are edited and fingered by Postlewate, pioneer in the use of a five-finger technique. This book is a companion to Anthology of Nineteenth Century Guitar Studies for Five Fingers of the Right Hand (MB21153), compiled and fingered by Leonhard Beck and edited by Charles Postlewate. Standard notation only. In English and Spanish.