Fernando Sor

Sor is to the classical guitar roughly what Czerny is to the piano, except that his studies are also good music, which is why guitarists keep playing them long after they need the technical work.

The studies are published in several selections, the best known being the twenty Segovia chose and edited. Those are the sensible starting purchase — they are graded, musically substantial and everyone else is playing the same edition. The variations on a theme of Mozart are the concert piece.

His music is out of copyright but modern editions vary considerably in fingering, and on the guitar fingering is not advisory: the same passage can be easy or impossible depending on the position chosen. This is one of the few instruments where the editor's name on the cover genuinely tells you what you are buying.