Editing Classical guitar (section)

===Fingering notation=== <!--This section should be moved to the classical guitar technique article BUT AS LONG AS the Alternation subsection is here this section about marking of fingerings needs ALSO to stay here in order for the reader to be able to make sense of the fingerings used in the following subsection-->

In guitar ''scores'' the five fingers of the right-hand (which pluck the strings) are designated by the first letter of their Spanish names namely p = thumb (''pulgar''), i = index finger (''índice''), m = middle finger (''mayor''), a = ring finger (''anular''), c = little finger or pinky (''meñique/chiquito'')<ref>The little finger whose use is not completely standardized in classical guitar technique can also be found designated by e or x. There are several words in Spanish for the little finger: dedo meñique, dedo auricular, dedo pequeño, but their initials conflict with the initials of the other fingers. C is said to be the initial of the dedo chiquito which is not the most common name for the little finger. E and X are not initials, but letters that were picked, each with its own rationale, by people who didn't know what else to pick</ref>

The four fingers of the left hand (which fret the strings) are designated 1 = index, 2 = major, 3 = ring finger, 4 = little finger. 0 designates an open string—a string not stopped by a finger and whose full length thus vibrates when plucked. It is rare to use the left hand thumb in performance, the neck of a classical guitar being too wide for comfort, and normal technique keeps the thumb behind the neck. However Johann Kaspar Mertz, for example, is notable for specifying the thumb to fret bass notes on the sixth string, notated with an up arrowhead (⌃).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/8/88/IMSLP83126-PMLP169483-Mertz_-_Bardenkl%C3%A4nge_books_1-13.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/8/88/IMSLP83126-PMLP169483-Mertz_-_Bardenkl%C3%A4nge_books_1-13.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live |title=Mertz — Bardenklänge books 1-13 |last=Mertz |first=Johann Kaspar |date=1847–1850 |website=imslp |publisher=Vienna: Haslinger |access-date=February 2, 2022}}</ref>

Scores (contrary to ''tablatures'') do not systematically indicate the string to pluck (though the choice is usually obvious). When indicating the string is useful, the score uses the numbers 1 to 6 inside circles (highest-pitch sting to lowest).

Scores do not systematically indicate fretboard positions (where to put the first finger of the fretting hand), but when helpful (mostly with barrés chords) the score indicates positions with Roman numerals from the first position I (index finger on the 1st fret: F-B flat-E flat-A flat-C-F) to the twelfth position XII (index finger on the 12th fret: E-A-D-G-B-E. The 12th fret is where the body begins) or even higher up to position XIX (the classical guitar most often having 19 frets, with the 19th fret being most often split and not being usable to fret the 3rd and 4th strings).