Customer Reviews

Mel Bay's Wedding Music for Classical Guitar

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I am preparing for a wedding and have had this book for a while. I am a very experienced player and have played many difficult pieces in my time. But this book is unneccessarily complicated. Perhaps the author was tring to impress himself because i am not. First of all you don't make Kemps Jiggie" a difficult arrangement. Second, you don't make Jesu Joy of man's desiring difficult by putting it in A major. I play mine and G and everything fits nicely under the fingers. The Wedding march and Bridal chorus are virtually complete disasters even for the experienced guitar players like me. Yes they are possible but with months of practice of fingerings and phrases that seem unnatural for the guitar. I honestly felt like calling the author and telling him how difficult he has made these tunes. It is already stressful enough to do weddings let alone having to worry about certain passages in the music. I have already had to change several parts just so they will be possible while trying to be on cue to perform at the wedding. I have almost got the Wedding march down after three weeks but i will still need to practice it daily for the next 6 days before the wedding. I have wasted so much time with this book.
I regret not searching elsewhere for a guitar wedding songbook. To the author i say that i am not impressed. Mel bay publications has a history of complexity and learning UNNECCESSARY things. Save yourself from a massive headache and stress. DOn't buy this book!!!

if you want to spend your time trying to figure out a poor guitar players ideas of wedding music transcriptions here is the book for you. The author puts Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire" in A major, which would be alright if it made the piece fit the guitar, which it doesn't, and while he's at it he gives you a piece "Prelude #1, Op.3" written by himself, as a wedding standard?!! Spend your money on Jerry Snyders book "Weddings for Guitar" and you'll be much happier... trust me.