One of the Fernando Sor studies, No. 19 in the folio that Segovia put together or on page 132 of "Mel Bay presents the Complete Sor Studies," is a beautiful piece of music. A fairly complex flowing arpeggio pattern that moves up and down the fingerboard, with a distinct melody line. But—it's in Bb. Bar chords almost all the way. Extremely difficult; in fact, it's considered to be one of the most difficult pieces in the guitar repertoire. As many classic guitarists that I've heard, either in concert or on records, I've only heard it recorded twice:   by Segovia, and by Vincente Gomez. Only once have I heard it played live, and that was by one of my guitar teachers, Bud (Edward) Hern.

Bud was a brilliant guitarist, but he was a very quiet, introverted person. He suffered horribly from stage fright. He even got a bit nervous playing pieces in front of me (a pupil) during lessons. He finally managed to screw up his courage and play a few times before the Seattle Classic Guitar Society (and they practically worshipped him). Had he not had this stage fright monster on his back, he might very well have had a fine concert career. He was that good and then some.

I tried tackling the study in Bb, and I could only get maybe a dozen measures into it before my left hand gave out. But that was over fifty years ago and I've played a lot of bar chords since then. I think I'll pull it out and see if I can get, maybe, fourteen or fifteen measures into it.

Bud was very fast and light-fingered, but he had a left hand he could crush walnuts with.

Don Firth