Matteo Carcassi Op. 60 No. 23: How to Master Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

Struggling to master the hammer-ons and pull-offs in Matteo Carcassi’s Op. 60 No. 23? Isolate the left-hand slur mechanics in a micro study before you take on the full etude. The slurs fail in this piece because the left hand is being asked to build equal finger strength, hold chord shapes and drive scale fragments all at once, while the right thumb keeps the bass moving underneath it. Separate those jobs, secure them one at a time, then rebuild the etude around them. That is what the Micro Study System is for, and Etude No. 23 is a great use case for it. This is a short, updated overview of the method article I wrote for Classical Guitar Magazine.

Background

Carcassi published his twenty-five studies as Op. 60 in Paris in 1836, and they have not left the student repertoire since. He was a younger contemporary of Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani and Ferdinando Carulli, part of the generation that turned guitar teaching into the published methods we now take for granted. No. 23 is a great flashy show piece, in 12/8, built from arpeggios, scale fragments and slurs that sound far harder than they are, right up to the point where one finger is weaker than the rest and the whole line stumbles.

How do you get better at hammer-ons and pull-offs in Carcassi Op. 60 No. 23?

Mastering hammer-ons and pull-offs requires initiating the motion entirely from the left-hand knuckles while balancing snap speed with minimal physical force. It is more Vision speed than Hulk strength, and that Marvel reference is fun as well as accurate. Below are the main concepts you need to understand to get this piece up and running.

• Slur mechanics: Pull-offs are actually pluck-downs, and hammer-ons require less force and more speed and accuracy. Both are initiated by the LH knuckles.
• Left-hand independence: Etude No. 23 is a fantastically fun study that focuses on left-hand equal strength, with right-hand thumb control.
• Structural application: The piece is in ternary form, structured A B A, in 12/8 time (the compound time signature for 4/4), using arpeggios, scale fragments (major and minor), and interesting harmony.

How do you master Carcassi Op. 60 No. 23 using Micro Studies?

Isolating technical bottlenecks into targeted Micro Studies lets you build right-hand thumb control, left-hand independence, and slur accuracy before reintegrating them into the full study.

Micro Study 1 — right-hand thumb control

Micro Study 1 is based on Ex. 4 (p. 13) from Ricardo Iznaola’s The Path to Virtuosity. This micro study will help with tackling the RH thumb control that is required in Etude No. 23. It can be played with rest strokes by the thumb, or i m a. Alternatively, all fingers rest strokes or all free strokes. Once those are secure, add thumb dampening; the RH thumb returns and stops the string (after playing a bass note) and is notated by the asterisk.

Micro Study 2 — left-hand independence and coordination

Micro Study 2 is inspired by Ex. 6 (p. 22) from Scott Tennant’s Pumping Nylon. The micro study facilitates the LH finger independence and RH coordination you will need in Carcassi to nail those chord shapes (with slurs) along the fretboard. It is now known as the “spider” exercise and has many variations; go slow at first, in one position, until you are comfortable, and then move each bar one fret up with the guide fingers.

Micro Study 3 — scale fragments and rhythmic variations

Micro Study 3 tackles a scale fragment from Etude No. 23, and is a template for similar passages. It uses rhythmic variations, which can be found in Carlos Bonell’s Technique Builder.

Aim to gain fluency with each rhythm. Challenging the scale with differing rhythms will help strengthen your understanding of the music and improve speed. Start slow with a metronome and push the tempo until you hit your wall.

Micro Study 4 — hammer-ons and pull-offs slur drill

Micro Study 4 is a slur exercise inspired by Examples 99 and 100 (p. 88) from Frederick M. Noad’s Solo Guitar Playing 1. This micro study works on hammer-ons and pull-offs at the same time. There are a variety of fingerings available for it, and one has been provided that works the slurs for Etude No. 23.

How do the recommended guitar method sources compare?

Each foundational method book targets a distinct balance of pedagogical scope, technical depth, and exercise structure for mastering piece-specific mechanics.

Method Book	Author	Primary Pedagogical Focus	Best Micro Study Application
The Path to Virtuosity	Ricardo Iznaola	Upper echelons of advanced technique	RH thumb control and dampening mechanisms
Pumping Nylon	Scott Tennant	Complete warm-up for the modern guitarist	LH finger independence and spider drill coordination
Technique Builder	Carlos Bonell	Workbook format of practical exercises	Rhythmic variation templates for scale fluency
Solo Guitar Playing 1	Frederick M. Noad	Graduated beginner to intermediate foundation	Isolated hammer-on and pull-off slur drills

Summary & Next Steps

Etude No. 23 sounds flashy the moment it is up to speed, and that is the trap. Slow it down and it will find every technical weakness you have long before it lets you sound good, which is exactly why it repays diligent practice. Take the four micro studies one at a time, get each one secure on its own terms, then rebuild the etude around them.

Check your edition before you start. Nineteenth-century guitar music carries a lot of editorial interference, and you should know whose fingerings you are actually learning. The Tecla edition prints Carcassi’s studies as he wrote them, with no editorial suggestions laid over the top. The De Oro Publications edition, fingered throughout by Tariq Harb, is the one to pick if you would rather start from a modern player’s solutions.

What you are aiming at is the standard Charles Duncan sets in Classical Guitar 2000:

The goal in performance is to play with legato fluency, rhythmic surge, and dynamic contrast—in other words, with the kind of creative freedom that is the reward of a high level of control.

Control is the part you can actually build, and it is what these four micro studies build. This is how I use a method collection: not as a curriculum to work through from page one, but as a parts bin. Etude No. 23 tells you which parts to pull.

The full score for Etude No. 23 is on my Patreon. Get the score.