First and foremost, my review of this classic book is coming from the perspective of a primarily a jazz guitarist coming from a classical guitar background. Please do read the review within that context! For classical guitarists, you may see the book from different perspectives.
The first time I encountered this book, I didn’t really think much of it. I’ve read stories of guitarists who spent hours practicing the elusive Segovia scales and how it helped their technique. I’ve also read detractors of the book saying that it was an early work from Segovia that is not as useful as it seems.
A few years ago, I saw an Adam Rogers video mentioning this same book and how it helped his technique. Knowing that Adam was classically trained and is also a world class jazz guitarist made me want to reexamine this book again.
After revisiting the book (several times over the past few years in fact), I’ve come to be fond of this book. In my opinion, the fingerings in this book are useful for developing:
1) Fluid scale technique
2) Position changes
3) Balanced tone production
From the angle of a jazz guitarist, this book was more a useful technique building resource than for developing strong fretboard visualisation skills for melodic single note improvisation.
That same angle makes this book useful for guitarists of all styles (who play in standard tuning) as long as they are aware of it. I also realised that the book is most effective when actually practiced every exercise in the book in one session rather than just playing it in one or a few keys. Going through the entire book provides a strong workout that has been helpful every time I practiced from the book.
In conclusion, this is a great book as long as you know how to use it.
Pros: Concise short book.
Cons: Results may vary depending on how you practice the material. The left hand fingerings may take some time to digest.
TLDR: If you’re looking for a practice routine to get your left and right hand coordination together, this is a worthwhile book to check out.
You can get the book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Diatonic-Major-Minor-Scales-Book/dp/1598060597
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