Various Pieces by Fernando Sor

Given that most popular music is learned by ear, tablature, or imitation, the actual notes of A, F#, Bb, etc. are rarely encountered and thus intermediate students frequently come knocking on my door pleading, “I need help learning this thing!” (gesturing across the length of their fretboard).

I can really go off about the benefits of sight reading and of musical literacy in general, but that’ll be for another time (or for an in-lesson ramble if you’d prefer). But I’ve had a lot of success prescribing daily sight reading to non-classical musicians for the purpose of learning the notes of the fretboard.

I personally love sight reading, I’ve done it every day since I began doing so in 2018. It’s the musical equivalent of reading a book:

• What’s this story going to be like (a slow melodic song or a groovin’ bossa)?

• Where’s the author going to take me? (a slower middle section with lush chords? a key signature change to shift the entire feel of the piece?).

• Who are the characters (musical themes) and how will they develop?

• What ideas is this putting in my head both when reading and away from it? (“Oh, I know that chord, I just saw Tchaikovsky use it yesterday!" or “Ooh, you know, I’m going to steal this thing that Vivaldi always does at his cadences that I keep see him doing.”

Anyways, think about it like this, a score with 300 notes is basically a 300-question quiz on the position of those notes, but unlike some dull app, you’re actively making music and becoming familiar with chords, phrase structures, melodies, rhythms, techniques, etc. that you can use in your own playing!

So for today, here’s a little “sight reading starter pack” that I give to students as a supplement to our studies in a method book or any other pieces they may be working on. It’s a collection of publications by Fernando Sor (1779-1839), a wonderful guitarist and composer writing in a style similar to Mozart!

Note that these do require a beginner level of musical literacy! To get to that point, start with a method book series that uses musical notation and work your way through it!

Also note that all of these links are from imslp.org, the greatest resource ever! (It’s a free online library of public domain sheet music, i.e., anything published before 100 years from today).

Sor Opus 60
Sor Opus 31
Sor Opus 44
Sor Opus 35