Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Twelve Etudes form part of the foundational pillars of modern guitar technique. Etude Nº1 in E Minor begins the cycle by setting an impressionistic harmonic stage for the evolution of the remaining eleven.

This particular etude has right-hand fingerings suggested by Segovia which over the years I’ve used but I like experimenting and have recently found that I like a different pattern. Each pattern yields a slightly different feel. Here I am using p m p i p m p i p m p i p i p i but also warm up using many others. I love working on this etude and come back to it often when I have lots of time to practice. Try these patterns to see if any work or to simply improve your command of the instrument.

p i p i

p m p m

p a p a

p m p i p m p i p m p i p i p i – I use this one in the video above.

p m p i p m i a i a i m p i p i – I find this one to help with the transition into each measure. Honestly, I think it is the best one for me but I need to be warmed up for it to feel great.

p m i a p m i a p i p i p i p i – I think this one is nuts but I saw someone do it really well.

p m p m p m p m p i p i p i p i – This one retains the natural right hand finger position in relation to the thumb.

Any others that you all use?

I’ll try to get a video post of chaining to show how you can practice at tempo. It’s a valuable practice technique for a piece like this.