Customer Reviews

50 Christmas Carols for All Harps: Each Arranged for Beginning and Advanced Harpers (Sylvia Woods Multi-Level Harp Book Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a nice collection of Christmas carols, both well-known and some you may not have heard. Its main selling point is that there are arrangements for both beginners and advanced players. It's also in a spiral-bound book, which is a plus for those of us who hate struggling with bindings to keep a book open while playing.

The arrangements are mostly OK, with some noticeable exceptions. The book contains only a couple of accidentals, but the author avoids them in other situations by doing some rather strange arrangements, most noted by me in 'O Holy Night'. Instead of having an F sharp, she repeats a G, which just sounds bizarre to me. Some of the beginner versions are over-simplified, to the detriment of the piece overall.

Chord symbols are included with each piece if you'd like to create your own harmony or play with another instrument.

The book includes fingering notation but my instructor and I both agreed that the fingering was awful. It's the worst part of the book, but easily ignored and modified.

Lyrics are included, but note that for some songs they are lumped together as 'miscellaneous lyrics' where they weren't fit onto the same pages as the music.

50 Christmas Carols for All Harps by Sylvia Woods.

This is one of the first books I purchased, of the many books by Sylvia Woods, and it is a constant favorite. Every carol I have ever sung is in this book . All of the pieces are beautifully arranged and playable by everyone because there is both an easy and an advanced arrangement. Friends and I play these two versions as duets during the Christmas season. This book is a must for all harp players and will bring you and your listeners a lot of JOY!

50 Christmas Carols for All Harps by Sylvia Woods.

This is one of the first books I purchased, of the many books by Sylvia Woods, and it is a constant favorite. Every carol I have ever sung is in this book . All of the pieces are beautifully arranged and playable by everyone because there is both an easy and an advanced arrangement. Friends and I play these two versions as duets during the Christmas season. This book is a must for all harp players and will bring you and your listeners a lot of JOY!

At first I was put off by the number of songs in this book that I'd never heard before. However, some of the melodies are very nice. The book includes some more well known favorites such as Silent Night, Deck the Halls, and The First Noel along with songs I've never heard such as Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence and Whence Is That Goodly Fragrance.

I like that the author included lyrics whenever applicable and would recommend this title.

I have enjoyed playing the songs in this book (except for the obscure ones that are not well-known). The two levels of difficulty, as other reviewers have said, are a good way to learn the tunes, and have variations when performing. There are a few songs in which the arrangements are slightly different than the melody traditionally goes, but it is fairly simple to figure out how to change them back--usually with a simple lever-flip. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to have some fun with Christmas carols.

This product has been great. I have learned much and I am still learning. I would suggest this for any harpist.

I am teaching myself to play the harp. I play piano, but it was a dream of mine to learn the harp. This is a great collection of music that has both beginner version and the more advanced version for the same song. What a great idea - the book is in my collection for all time.