Errata and Updates

For the third printing of this book (not yet available), we’ve made a few changes. Some are very minor issues of house style, others are cosmetic; but there are some corrections, clarifications and additions. Here is a list of the most significant changes.

Three updates are available for download:

Index, new version. This includes some additional entries and information, and on the last page, a detailed table of contents: download
Chapter 17, Example 3 (de Visée, Passacaille) and Chapter 19, Example 2 (Paganini, Cantabile) have important corrections (described in the table below). Here is a PDF page with both examples: download
For US readers, we inserted a rhythm values conversion table at the end of the preface (for example, UK crotchet = US quarter note). Here it is: download

List of Corrections/Clarifications

The third printing includes a number of tweaks to the text, but this list gives only significant changes. ‘Paragraph 1’ refers to the first block at the top of any page, even if it continues the paragraph from the previous page. Headings and musical examples are not counted.

page	para.	change
56	last	…more than the other string. By now it should be clear…
67	last	When both notes on either side of a position shift are played
115	1	Take Sor’s Fantaisie Elégiaque, written around 1836 in memory of Charlotte Beslay, a pupil of Sor’s who had died in childbirth. Example 2 maps out its second movement, a funeral march. Although the form is very simple, we have found that students often do not picture it consciously.
158	last	…example 28 10
165	3	But could he not have left us more than a handful of song accompaniments and taken more care to ensure the survival of his solo variations on Mozart’s Là ci darem la mano (if they ever existed)?
206	last	In addition, three of the four added strings were both re-entrant and non-diatonic (Example 31; for more on re-entrant tuning, see p.254).
207	last	Ohana had already written a piece for the six-string guitar: Tiento, in 1955.
210	Ex. 34b	In bar 58, beat 3, F now has a sharp sign
211	Ex. 34c	On beat 3 of both bars, D now has a natural sign
219	1	note … also how Tárrega shifts grace notes in the bass from the second beat to the third (lines b and c).
219	Ex. 37e	Bar 129: after the diminuendo sign, p changed to pp. The original edition has p, but this seems to be a mistake.
236	1	Danza característica (with accent on i)
240	2	Le tombeau de Claude Debussy
240	last	Bachianas ~~brasilieras~~ brasileiras
244	table	We have removed the bad spacing in last line, item 12 (found in the first printing, corrected in the second)
245		His Estudios sencillos (Simple Studies) – especially those from the first set of ten (1959, published in 1972) – have proved to be the most valuable of all modern pieces available to the early learner.
255	Ex. 3	The De Visée example has a misplaced grace note: in bar 2, grace note A should attach to B♭ on the 5th course. See above to download the new image.
271	1	Item (a): Here, the upper staff clarifies the melody with upward stems.
296	Ex. 22	Caption: bars 13–30
295	Last, going into p.296	… see the many rests that have been added to the bass in Segovia’s version.
297	1	Best practice here would have been to leave Ponce’s notation unchanged, even if some notes cannot be sustained literally with Segovia’s editorial fingering.
305	Ex. 1	Caption: bars 1–20
309	4	Scoop. As you pluck play the first note, give it appropriate emphasis by putting extra pressure on the string at the beginning of the plucking action (a ‘scoop’). Slur the second note with the left hand. Make the slur very clear. Remember that a hammer-on is a fast tapping motion, while a pull-off is a pluck with the left-hand finger (see p.71). Skim. Pluck the third note with the right hand in such a way that it is no louder than the slurred note. Do this by putting less pressure on the string – in other words, by applying less downward force (a ‘skim’, or a ‘flick’).
313	Ex. 10	Music ex: beats 2 and 4, the beam is now unbroken at the quaver, following Bach’s mansucript
316	2	some notes are highlighted by unstable chords, such as the E7 chord in bar 4, while others express repose, such as the arrival on D at the end of the excerpt.
325	2	Added full stop to end of paragraph
337	Ex. 2	Violin, bar 10: C♯, not C♮. The edition from which this excerpt is taken, Zimmerman 1957, includes some additional performance markings that we omitted, but these have been restored in the new printing, at least until we can find a facsimile of the earliest source. To download an updated image, see above.
372	Item 11	~~BMV~~ BWV
376		Removed repetition of ‘Benjamin Britten’
380		Added reference: Kenyon, Stephen. ‘Articulation and Authenticity in Nineteenth-Century Guitar Music.’ EGTA Journal no. 7, 1997: 46–57. (See Chapter 4.)
381		Added chapter references: Kirkpatrick (Chapter 4), Ponce (Chapter 17), Turina (Chapters 5 and 17)