In Europe’s classical period, both 12-string and 5-string guitars were used. With the invention of the six-string romantic guitar in the 19th century, the use of other guitars gradually decreased. With the popularity of the romantic guitar in Europe, solo, chamber music, étude, and method writings increased. The pioneer of these guitar compositions was Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841). Carulli was followed by Fernando Sor, Francesco Molino (1768-1847), Matteo Carcassi (1792-1853), Dionisio Aguado (1784-1849). Methodological approaches gained importance in guitar music, and virtuosity peaked. Guitar performance became a profession, and the creation of composed resources such as methods and études became important.

The Spanish guitarist Fernando Sor completed his education at the Montserrat monastery and contributed to classical guitar music as an interpreter, composer, and teacher. He obtained a solid foundation in composition by receiving harmony, counterpoint, singing, piano, and violin lessons. Influenced by the works of Italian guitarist Federico Moretti (1760-1838), Sor went to Barcelona in 1795 to focus on the guitar. He lived in London between 1815-1822 and became very famous in England. The reason for this was not only that Sor was a talented guitarist but also that he had introduced the Spanish guitar to the masses. In 1826, various works he composed for the guitar were published in Paris. Among these were Italian ariettas for singing and piano, vocal duets, solo piano pieces, solo guitar works, symphonies, string quartets, motets, boleros, seguidillas, operas, and ballets.

Publications related to guitar education began with étude books written for vihuela in the 16th century and baroque guitar in the 17th century. The first example was El Maestro (1536) by Luys Milan (1500-1561), after which the composers Narvaez (c. 1500-1560), Mudarra (1510-1580), Valderrabano (1500-c. 1557), Pisador (c. 1510-1557), Fuenllana (c. 1525-1585), Cabezon (c. 1510-1566) also published studies. The contents of these studies included reading tablature, vihuela playing, basic music theory, and instrumental knowledge and presented works consisting of religious or secular songs in simple form.

One of the first works containing a pedagogical approach to the baroque guitar was Metodo Muifacillissimo para Aprender a Tañer La Guitar (1626) by Luis de Briceno (1610-1630). The book conveys basic music and tablature information with musical presentations. The first comprehensive study of the period involving the 10-string baroque guitar method was Guitarra Espanola (1596) by Carlos Amat (1572-1642). Other important works occurred on 5- and 10-string guitars, as well as on 12-string guitars. The headings in these books list such topics as correctly holding the guitar, the tuning system, right- and left-hand techniques, scales, chords, arpeggios, accompaniment techniques, and ornaments. Composers’ own musical pieces and their explanations about them were one of the most notable parts of these works.

One of the first models of the romantic guitar was made in Germany, and the first known method for this instrument was Heinrich Christian Bergmann’s Kurze Anweisung zum Guitarrespielen (1802, Halle). While 10- and 5-string guitars gave way to the romantic guitar, the batente guitar maintained its position in accompaniment music for a while in Italy. In the classical period, many guitarists such as Carulli (1770-1841), Carcassi (1792-1853), Aguado (1784-1849), and Sor explained the basic techniques of the romantic guitar in their methods. These methods formed the basis of modern guitar techniques and are still in use today. The methods contain detailed explanations on how to properly hold the guitar and maintain timbre, as well as left- and right-handed techniques, with systematic studies and études being composed separately for each technique. Other important method writers of the classical period include Molino (1768-1847), Coste (1805-1883), Legnani (1790-1877), Mertz (1806-1856), and Cano (1811-1897). 

This study is a descriptive study and benefits from the document analysis method, a type of qualitative research. The study analyzes the 24th étude from the book Opus 44: 24 Petites pièces progressives pour la Guitare pour servir de leçons aux élèves tout à fait commençants (or 24 short progressive pieces) and the 4th étude from Opus 6: 12 Études pour la Guitare, livre 1 and also shows the distributions of the techniques in Sor’s étude compositions in charts. 

The works are grouped in charts as right- and left-handed techniques. The purpose of the charts is to clearly show the techniques that are contained in each étude. In this way, performers can easily identify the techniques on which they want to focus. The analysis is important in terms of clearly explaining the melody accompaniment, agility, and single-string coordination techniques. 

When evaluating the tables in all the étude works, the most preferred is seen to be the melody accompaniment technique, followed respectively by chords, intervals, arpeggios, legatos, barres, muting, ornaments, scales, agility, thumb usage, harmonics, tremolos, position jumping, and glissando. This emphasizes how important musical expression is in Sor’s études.