Dionisio Aguado’s beginner classical guitar study “Etude in E Minor” (or Estudio in E Minor”) is a fantastic arpeggio piece for beginner classical guitarists!
The continual right hand pattern (p-i-m-a-m-i) seems easy at first, but requires careful articulation of each note to keep the piece interesting.
You can download the full score of Aguado’s Etude in E Minor for FREE here!
This piece is originally found in Aguado’s “New Method for Guitar” (Nuevo Método para Guitarra) Seccion Segunda, Exercise No.19.
The etude progresses with bold chords, E minor, A minor, and B7, while projecting a deliberate melodic bass line. Some of these shifts can be slightly tricky, especially the move from E minor to B7.
Use guide fingers and planting as much as possible to help with speed and ease of playing. In my version of the score below, I’ve indicated when it’s advantageous to leave your finger down with a horizontal line by the bass note (–).
Holding these notes will make the whole piece a lot easier, and it will allow you to switch chords shapes even faster!
In addition, this etude is a good opportunity to make sure that your fingers aren’t causing any interference on these common chord shapes.
Lastly, I recommend you also experiment with dynamics to tell a story with this piece–this is especially important with repetitive arpeggio studies!
Editorial Note About This Arrangement
Note: You might notice that this edition is slightly different from some source material. Specifically. measures 25-32 in my edition is a slightly different bass pattern over a B7 chord formation.
The pattern I’ve included in my score is the same as the way I initially learned the piece under the Shearer method, which you can also find in The Shearer Method Classic Guitar Foundations Book 1.
Therefore, I’ve also included an optional alternate version at the end of page 2 with the phrase as it appears in other editions.
Below is an image preview of page one, but you can download the whole score here!
