Customer Reviews

100 Graded Classical Guitar Studies-Fred Noad

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a collection of studies for the ages. Not only is each one slightly more challenging than the last, encouraging a sequential skill-building approach, but almost every one except for the first few is musically great, a true performance piece.
The fingering indications are left as the original composer intended. Noad has done a masterful job selecting and organizing these 100 studies from the vast number out there. Carcassi's great 25 studies are all here. Sor's "20 Segovia" studies are here (save one or two), much more by Sor, and some great pieces by Guiliani. I have literally scores of books of studies and this is the only one I ever feel like using. Unless you are near virtuoso or a complete beginner, this book will fit the bill as no other. It's the definitive desert island classical guitar book. (Requires music reading ability, No TAB).

This book is for people who play classical guitar well enough to be able to read the music and understand right hand technique. It is not an instruction book. Rather it is a collection of pieces written by three of the giants among composers in the classical guitar world. These studies are musically excellent and develop skills very well. Some commentators have mentioned that you need a teacher--I agree, but this book is not about instruction. It's simply a collection of music, music thqat when played develops specific skills (that's the purpose of an etude, or study). Some people have criticized the book for not including right hand fingerings. The book is given as these 19th century composers wrote the music. Nothing is added. I guess I'm a little irked when people want to criticize something for being something other than what they wish--like criticizing a milk cow for not being a sow. This is simply a great collection of studies.
This is for classical guitar players and is invaluable--the best collection I've seen. I've used it for supplemental music for my students for 8 years and it is the best skill building/musical collection out there.

If you are going to have one classical guitar book, this may be it. The studies in this book are the "classics" that countless guitarists trained on (incluiding Segovia). After a few relatively easy studies, the book shifts into intermediate to advanced level work very quickly. Not a viable alternative for the first or even second year guitarist, but for the advancing guitarist, this book alone would provide years of developmental skill building as well as great music for the performance repertoire. It is sequential (graded). Contains all of Carcassi's and Sor's great studies, plus a sampling of Guiliani's-- graded from simple to advanced with 75% at the high intermediate level.

Frederick Noad has done an excellent job of reviewing the studies/exercises available for classical guitarists and selecting this set of 100 from the studies published by Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, and Matteo Carcassi. The studies are arranged in a progressively more difficult order, and Noad includes his comments on each as to what skills it seeks to develop, etc.

While I feel that the book deserves five stars, it is not without problems, specifically:

1. It is extraordinarily difficult to keep the book
open to the desired pages when it is on a music
stand; spiral-binding would have solved this. This
may seem like nit-picking, but it's an important
shortcoming given the purpose of the book.

2. Right-hand fingerings are given for only a few of
the pieces; in many cases, choice of the proper
right-hand pattern can make a huge difference in
the ease of performing a piece.

3. While Noad gives full left-hand fingerings, he
does not give diagrams of hand-positions to adopt
for a passage, with fingers in place for the next
few notes.

Even taking these into account, however, it remains, in my opinion, the best book of exercises available to any but the most advanced classical guitarist.

This is a collection of studies for the ages. Not only is each one slightly more challenging than the last, encouraging a sequential skill-building approach, but almost everyone except for the first few is musically great, a true performance piece.
The fingering indications are left as the original composer intended. Noad has done a masterful job selecting and organizing these 100 studies from the vast number out there. Carcassi's great 25 studies are all here. Sor's "20 Segovia" studies are here (save one or two), much more by Sor, and some great pieces by Guiliani. I have literally scores of books of studies and this is the only one I ever feel like using. Unless you are near virtuoso or a complete beginner, this book will fit the bill as no other. It's the definitive desert island classical guitar book. (Requires music reading ability, No TAB).

I don't like this collection.

My background: about ten years playing a steel-string acoustic guitar. I've had exactly five lessons (a long time ago). I competently play mostly rhythm and open-tuning, flat-picking. Also, I've had formal instruction on the trumpet and informal (read: mom) on the piano. I saw a good deal on a classical guitar, and I've always wanted to play; so . . .

About the book: The pieces are all great . . . But:

Nothing in the description states its level of difficulty. I bought it assuming that "100 Graded" meant that it had to start somewhere near the bottom and work up. Nope. Within the first 10 pages, there are studies too hard for me to pick up in a couple of hours. Carcassi/Sor studies near the middle of the book, however, are relatively easy (play on site and 2-3 hours to sound competent). It would be very helpful if the publisher provided a preview of the book's contents.

One of the reviewers mentioned this book not needing any notation beyond that provided by the original composers. I disagree. If you want the original composers' versions, they are abundantly available here and elsewhere. Mr. Noad, however, has produced a compilation of studies. Mr. Noad should have provided additional notation or suggestions. After all, anyone can use a copy machine.

While on the subject of copiers. The thick binding won't allow the book to stay on my music stand. Instead, I have to use a chair and a thick book to hold it. (not an ideal situation) One reviewer suggested making copies. If I wanted to make copies, I could just print these public-domain studies from the Internet.

The book needs a companion CD. The CD doesn't need to come with the book, but one should be available. The music is out there, but it's spread over so many different sources, it would cost hundreds of bucks to buy all of them. I'd gladly pay a few tens of dollars to have this compilation in the order of the book.

The are a lot of keys. What's the complaint, right? If you look at Sor's Op. 60, the 25 studies are mostly C, D, G . . . all first/second position stuff. Carcassi's Op. 60 is the same way. In this collection, the keys from one study to the next change drastically. Maybe there's a good reason for this (to change the student's frame of mind from one to the next, etc.), but it's annoying to me. Better would be one or two keys for several studies, and then a change.

The studies don't seem to follow a logical path that I can discern: tempo, style, key, etc. I'm not a music teacher like many of the reviewers. Maybe one of them can set me straight.

Instead:

I suggest printing Sor's Opus 60 (all 25) from the Internet. You can find it for free through Google. (It's public domain and not pirating.) Or, you can buy it here Fernando Sor: The Complete Studies for Guitar. Next, I suggest buying Nicholas Goluses' "SOR: 25 Progressive Studies, Op. 60 / Fantaisie Elegiaque" for $8: Sor: Fantaisies / Progressive Studies. Similarly, you can do this with Giuliani and Carcassi.

Lastly, if you can already play a majority of these studies on site because you've had at least three consistent and consecutive years of classical study, then please ignore most of what I've said. You should have stopped reading as soon as you got to the part about my background :p

This is a really one of a kind great collection of classical guitar studies.
Some reviewers have complained unreasonably:
1. "It lacks a spiral binding" Most guitar collections lack this. So what? Go to Fed-Ex Office and get your book SPIRAL bound for 4 bucks if it's an issue. It's no harder to use than any other book. Geeze.
2. "It lacks fingerings." This is not true. It has the fingerings the composers wrote with the piece. If a composer didn't write fingerings, it doesn't add them. This is a collection of the great guitar studies AS THEY WERE WRITTEN. Usually the fingering is obvious anyway.
3."Lacks Chord diagrams." Hello! This is classical guitar, not a rock fake book!

DO NOT heed these complaints. This is a great book and you will improve immeasurably as a guitarist by playing them in order. I did.

I've had this book for nearly a year now and I still love to pull it out and learn a new piece. It's hard to keep it open on the music stand without using wooden clothes pins but I usually make a copy of the piece I'm studying so I can write in my own notes. I like that Mr. Noad gives a little helpful information at the beginning of piece, but I would have liked even more information. A couple of my favorite pieces I enjoy playing are:
"Study 63: M. Giuliani Op. 51 No. 15" - simple looking at first glance, but has some nice left-hand technical challenges and sounds wonderful, and "Study 26: M. Carcassi Op. 60 No.1" - a lovely scale study which is very, very musical and fun to play. This book is loaded with fantastic music from three of the greatest guitarists, teachers and composers who ever lived. I will never have time to get to every piece, but luckily I can play those I love the most.

If you are weak in understanding musical notation you will most likely become frustrated with most of the material in this book. This is for serious classical guitarists and students of guitar who truly want to improve their playing ability. These pieces are called "studies" for a very good reason - their purpose is to teach various technical skills while learning the piece. I teach classical guitar and will pull out one of these studies for my more advanced students. I really love this book and it is one of the best I have. Good left hand fingering suggestions are given although I will sometimes change them to suit my needs, but usually they are right on. I always have to write in the right hand fingerings for my students (and myself sometimes) which is something I think Mr. Noad could have already done in some circumstances. For instance, Study #26 has no right hand fingerings (p,i,m,a) and if you are not a trained classical guitarist you may have a difficult time with how to play the right hand. That's my only complaint which kept me from giving the book 5 stars.

I would also like to add that even though it was not normal practice for the right hand fingerings to be included in compositions basically before the 20th century, I see no conflict of interest in people such as Mr. Noad including them in this book. A compilation book of pieces from the past is fairly easy to create, but to take the time to personally go through each piece and include right hand fingering suggestions is, in my humble opinion, a very nice gift to us. Just because it was not the standard practice of the time period does not mean that it should not be standard practice in the present. I don't particularly like taking the time to write in the right hand fingerings but will do so because I want my students to play as fluidly as possible.

I've noticed that since Noad produced this book, about 20 years ago now, a lot of the Sor studies in it have appeared in facsimile via Tecla or other sources, and some of the tempos are not the same as the originals..this is also true of Segovia's famous 20 Sor studies, but generally this is not a major issue. Noad's selections are very good, and his editorial fingerings can be helpful. He does add right-hand fingerings for clarification in some cases too, but of course this is editorial advice, not necessarily the way Sor or Giuliani might have played a particular piece. 19th century guitarists tended to use the thumb more than most classical guitarists do now, for instance. Noad also does the student the favor of pointing out the basic purpose of each study to concentrate your efforts, something the composers didn't always do.

Not involved with playing any instr. in over 10 years, i acquired the desire to play the guitar, picked up a cheap fender 16 months ago (really cheap) and to-date, i've been studying classical guitar for about 5 months. im still working on the noad series instructions, but wanted to fill in 'gaps'. even tho, im only up to #11 in the book, i can see that this book is going to be priceless. firstly, for those that are SERIOUS in learning as much as possible for classical style playing, i would (just as many others would) suggest finding (usually its by word of mouth) a good classical guitar instructor. he/she will be the only one that will be able to guide you in the 'correct' techniques to master with the left hand transitions.. barring.. the 'hinge'.. etc, and the 'correct' right hand finger picking with the corner of the finger. i strongly, and sincerely suggest those that are interested in classical guitar studies to pick up this book. its an excellent repitoir that combines needed technical studies with the classical style music of the classical guitar.
i do agree with the 'drawbacks' of this book, tho if you combine this book with good instruction and some dedication in practice, the right-hand finger picking should not be of much trouble, since noad does not explicitly tell you what finger to pick with.
the 'binding' of the book would have been nice if bounded with rings.. just make due, dont let this interfere with your studies!! photocopy it if you need to :)
i would not suggest this book to those begginers that know absolutely nothing about the guitar. you'll easily get frustrated. noad assumes you can read the trebble cleff (the musical staff).. simply put, he assumes you can read all the musical notations including those for the guitar.
i wish i could say that those that are intermediate or advanced guitarists should use this book, but i cant 'cuz i can't truly relate what it is to be 'intermediate' or a advanced player :) if you just play accasionally or play mostly chords, then you probably wont get much out of this book... for the rest of us, we'll simply be better guitarists :)