fernando sor's 12 maxims for guitarists

i shall conclude this explanation by a summary of general maxims, which i observe, as the result of all that has been said:

1. to regard the effect of the music more than the praise as to skill as a performer.
2. to require more from skill than from strength.
3. to be sparing of the operations called barring and shifting.
4. to consider fingering as an art, having for its object to make me find the notes it want, within reach of the fingers that are to produce them, without the continual necessity of making deviations for the purpose of seeking them.
5. never to make any ostentation of difficuly in my playing, for by doing so, i should render difficult what is the least so.
6. never to give work to the weakest fingers, whilst the strongest are doing nothing.
7. not to fall into a too common error, which proceeds from very accurate reasoning in regard to the pianoforte, but is very ill applied to the guitar, namely, not to hold a finger down longer than the duration of the note which it is to produce. as long as the finger presses down the key of the pianoforte, it allows the wires to continue in vibration, and the sound, blending with that of another key, would produce an effect incompatible with purity of performance; but two or three consecutive notes being made on the same string of the guitar, if their progression be ascending, the second damps and terminates the sound of the first, and the third that of the second. if by letting fall the finger which makes the second, i at the same time raise the finger which stopped the first, i make two actions instead of one, and even run the risk of raising the finger a moment too soon, and making the open string sound, which, instead of rendering my performance purer, would give it less purity. if the notes are descending, instead of waiting for the moment in which the note ought to be produced, to press the string, i have the finger already upon it, and have no other action to perform than that of raising the finger which stopped the highest note. this again spares me one motion, and besides a display which i have never approved.
8. to avoid a lateral motion which some guitarists think graceful, namely, to leave the parallel direction between the line formed by the ends of the fingers and the line of the strings. for example, in the successive notes a (on the first string), g, f sharp, e, d (on the second string), on making a they have the ends of the fingers in an excellent direction; but as soon as the little finger quits a, it goes off the fingerboard, g quits it in turn; and when the first finger remains alone on f sharp, the line of the ends of the fingers makes an angle of 45 degrees with the string, or rather all the hand is removed behind the neck, because they have made the wrist do that which, being done by the fingers, would give facility to the second to make d on the second string, without the wrist's being obliged to make a motion to replace the hand before the neck, unless the d be produced with the flat finger, which requires much more force, and i know not how it could be done without pressing the first string also on g, when, perhaps i should want it as an open string immediately, and i should be obliged to make a motion again to leave it at liberty. when my hand is in a position, and the passage does not form harmony, i place the wrist so that a straight line drawn from the first finger to the fourth shall be parallel to the string. i hold the wrist motionless, and keep my fingers over the place where they are to act.
9. when it is a question of a great distance in the width of the fingerboard, and the little finger holds one of the extremities, to take the other extremity with the longest finger.
10. when a difficulty of position occurs, to consult the least inconvenient situation for the weakest finger, and to lay the task on the stronger.
11. when it is necessary to give to the line of the ends of the fingers a direction parallel to the fret instead of the string, to make this change depend rather on the position of the elbow than on the motion of the wrist.
12. to hold reasoning for a great deal, and routine for nothing.

from fernando sor's "method for the spanish guitar", translated by a. merrick.