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Classical Scales & Arpeggios: Your Daily Fundamentals

Classical8 minNylon strings · rest-stroke tone · reading notation · a ladder of famous pieces

Classical players run scales and arpeggios first thing every day — it's the fingers' “morning jog,” and it practices reading, position shifts, and right-hand alternation all at once.

Video lessons are in production — follow the notes and practice checklist below and you'll learn it just fine.
Stage 13 · Intro to Classical Guitar10 lessons

You're on lesson 8 / 10 in this stage

Show all 10 lessons
  1. How Classical Guitar Differs from Steel-String7 min
  2. Classical Sitting Posture & Holding the Guitar6 min
  3. Classical Right Hand: Rest Stroke & Free Stroke9 min
  4. Classical Left Hand & Touch7 min
  5. Reading Staff Notation: A Beginning (Required for Classical)9 min
  6. Studies, Scales & a Ladder of Famous Pieces9 min
  7. Staff Notation, Further: Note Values & Reading by Position8 min
  8. Classical Scales & Arpeggios: Your Daily Fundamentals8 min
  9. Slurs & Ornaments (ligado / trill / mordent)8 min
  10. “Reading” a Public-Domain Miniature Through9 min

Segovia scales

The set of major and minor scales arranged by Segovia (spanning the whole fretboard, with position shifts) is the standard text for classical fundamentals. Each day pick one or two, play them with alternating i-m and rest strokes, and start slow with the metronome, picking up speed day by day. In one go it trains three things: left-hand shifting, right-hand alternation, and reading.

Arpeggios: Giuliani's 120

Giuliani's 120 Right-Hand Arpeggio Studies are the bible for the right hand: the left hand holds a simple chord loop (like C–G7), and the right hand runs through every order of p-i-m-a (p-i-m-a, p-a-m-i, p-i-m-a-m-i…) one by one, drilling the right hand's independence, evenness, and speed.

How to set it up

5–10 minutes a day: one scale + one or two arpeggios, where slow-and-accurate matters far more than lots of variety. Fundamentals are “compound interest on your foundation” — a little every day, and three months later you'll be steady on anything you play.

  • 💡 The key isn't practicing a lot, it's “every day, slow and even.” Better 8 minutes daily than one big blast a week.
Open the metronomeStart scales / arpeggios slow and evenly spaced, recording your fastest steady speed each day.→

Practice checklist

  • Play a Segovia scale with i-m rest strokes, aiming for evenness — don't use the same finger.
  • Hold a C chord and run arpeggios for 2 minutes each with p-i-m-a and p-a-m-i.