Customer Reviews

50 Classical Guitar Pieces - In Tablature and Standard Notation

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the best music book that I have purchased over the past 25 years as a guitar player. I was hesitant to purchase a music book online and my expectations were low. Suprisingly though, it has provided a great selection of songs sorted chronologically by classical music historical periods together with those musicians with great influence on classical guitar. It was simple enough for a intermediate non-classical guitar player like myself and yet could be used by an advanced beginner or a very experienced guitar player. Today, I have learned 15 songs well and look forward to another 20 from this book in the coming year. Some of my best songs, from all styles of guitar playing, are now from this book. Many finger picking arrangements and styles are poor at best. The arrangements in this book are great. This book is well worth the money.

Best for an intermediate player even though includes tab. I like this book, it is a good book for an advanced beginner or intermediate player but has plenty of challenges. My only wish is that it could include a CD so I could hear how the music is supposed to sound. However, since these songs are classics most student probably have a cd or two with many of these songs.

I am glad I purchased this book. Its also priced right.

I'm a self-taught guitarist who has played for 20 years and have mostly played lead guitar in pop/rock/blues bands as hobby. A few years ago I bought a nice classical guitar and decided to learn some pieces when I came across this book.

Since then I have played almost every song in this book. There are a lot of short pieces that beginners will be able to play easily and some more challenging pieces for intermediate players.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn some classical guitar who doesn't read music (tablature is provided).

this book contains some great beginner level songs. nothing you learn in this book is going to blow anyone away, but it is hard enough that those who have never done any type of classical guitar should probably run through it. i'm an accomplished electric player who hasn't done a lot in the classical/fingerpicking realm, and i think it is definitely beneficial.

one downside is that you have to search all over the internet to try and find the music who what you are playing so you can hear if you are playing it right. some links or a CD would've been nice.

My brother loves this gift. Good to find a guitar book that has standard and tablature!

I don't think this book "sux ", at least I tried to see if it did, and it did not. That was not an advertised feature so I won't consider this a bad thing.

Yes there is tablature. Does this make the music any less useful? I think not. If you can read music notation well enough to play the music presented, then do so. I can't do it well enough or fast enough to suite me. Some day I will. In the meantime I use tablature and progress in my guitar playing technique. Granted, my sight reading and music writing does not improve when I use tablature, but that is my choice.

I learn to love music, all kinds, using tablature, then as I progress music theory and music notation make more sense to me. Now I've decided that I want to learn to read standard music notation. No harm at all in that course.

Not all who play the guitar play in orchestras or bands that require notation. I play for personal enjoyment, not for the edification of people who judge music by the format it is published in.

A similar concept can be seen in the medieval catholic church, where latin (not even the original language the bible was written in!) was the only language that the bible was available in. Most people could not read, and those that could, could not read latin (for the most part). Does that make the bible appropriate for priests only (personally I think so, but my point meant to say NO)?

I liked the pieces presented in this book. They were easy to play (for the most part) and stimulated my interest in classical guitar playing (I think that was the point of the book no?).

One of the disadvantages of not reading music notation (well enough or not at all) is that I cannot accurately reproduce the music without having heard it before. I can approximate and I sometimes luck out and it sounds as it should. Here is my only suggestion for this book--Notation and a CD should be packaged together. This way you can learn to play the music properly. The alternative of course is to learn to read the music notation which would give you most of what you need to play it without the CD. The tablature would then only be used then for finger positioning suggestions from Mr Harris.

Conventional musical notation is actually a pretty effective BARRIER to understanding music; any technique, such as tabulature, which communicates the steps necessary to make music is a good thing. However, traditional musicologists and musicians are becoming increasingly defensive as their turf gets eroded by technology and uncoventional techniques. They are feeling left behind as things like MIDI sequencers and digital composing push music theory into new ground and leave traditionalists in the dust. Don't listen to them! (at least, listen only to their music, not their protests). A song that sounds good when learned from tabulature is a song that sounds good.

SINCE ORDERING THE PLAY GUITAR BY EAR BOOK,FOUR MONTHS AGO, I CAN PLAY AS GOOD AS ANY OF THE BOYS!!!!