Acoustic Masterclass: Contemporary Christmas Guitar (Book & CD) [Paperback]

David Cullen (Author), Laurence Juber (Author), Doug Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Acoustic Masterclass | Publication Date: August 1, 2004

This recent addition to the Acoustic Masterclass series features 12 beautiful acoustic guitar interpretations of classic Christmas music as performed by David Cullen, Doug Smith, and Laurence Juber. The included CD contains the original recordings from three beautiful Christmas CDs from Cullen, Smith, and Juber respectively. Arranged and recorded by Doug Smith, winner of the 2006 Fingerstyle Championship at Winfield Festival: Deck the Halls
* Hark the Herald Angels Sing
* I Saw Three Ships
* Jingle Bells. Arranged and recorded by David Cullen: Go Tell It on the Mountain
* O Come Emmanuel
* O Come All Ye Faithful
* Silent Night. Arranged and recorded by Laurence Juber: Away in a Manger
* The Bells of Paradise
* Good King Wenceslas
* Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. The CD alone will become one of your favorite holiday recordings and is included with this book at a great price!

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: Alfred Publishing (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757923755
• ISBN-13: 978-0757923753
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,211,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Christmas Guitar Book, May 17, 2010

By 

J. Wingo "jwingo" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Acoustic Masterclass: Contemporary Christmas Guitar (Book & CD) (Paperback)

I believe I may be the less-than-proud owner of every Christmas guitar book (tab, sheet, and "other") available on Amazon and most of them made great Yule-tide kindling. This book (Contemporary Christmas Guitar), however, stands well above and beyond the rest in both content and quality of performance in the accompanying CD. If you were going to purchase one fingerstyle guitar book for holiday music, this is it. Even if you do not play guitar, the CD alone is worth the purhcase price. The only complaint I have is I only get to play it one season a year.

The book is designed for an intermediate fingerstyle player and will most likely still require ample dedicated practice time before songs are ready to perform for the holidays (read - buy this in the summer or early fall so you have time to learn the music). The songs are meticulously tabbed to the music on the CD and there are no songs on the CD that are not in the book.

The songs have the varied styles of the three greats that play them. David Cullen transforms songs into fluid and syncopated winter wonder, Doug Smith picks past dexterity and pushes beyond what six strings should allow, and Laurence Juber does, as always, an unparallel conversion of a basic song and melody into a music miracle of technically apt fingerings and lyrical beauty.

Happy Pickin'