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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Addictive, playable music, April 9, 2000
This review is from: Renaissance Music For Guitar (Book&CD) (Plastic Comb)
This is a great collection of tunes If you play the guitar and you aren't a concert standard player (whatever that means) you've probably had that experience where you buy a book of guitar music and a third of it is far too difficult to play (unless your last name is Bream or Williams). A third of it is playable but uninteresting, and that leaves a few tunes may be worth playing. This book is different. It contains great tunes with a range of difficulties though all are playable by that mysterious character, the intermediate guitarist. Some of the most beautiful are disarmingly simple. The beauty of renaissance music is that it was written for a stringed instrument like a guitar by people who played a stringed isntrument.It's not like someone has taken a chopin pollanaise and transcribed it. These short pieces are not only fun to play, but they have melody and rhythm and they sound good on the instrument. The editor's fingering makes sense (this isn't always the case in guitar anthologies) and the selection is interesting and varied. There are a couple of well known pieces, but some real finds too. This book has no dud tunes, and nothing that you look at and know you're never going to play. The fact that it is presented in both tab and standard musical notation makes it easier too. If you have a choice, buy the cd. Not only is it good to listen to but It makes learning so much easier. The cd doesn't get bored with you asking it to play the one piece over and over again while you're working it out. So if you want a collection of pieces that are not only fun to play, but which are worth playing and worth listening to Buy this. If you know nothing about renaissance music for the guitar, this is a good introduction. And if you know a flute or recorder player, buy the author's "renaissance music for the guitar and flute' from the same publisher. be warned though, much of this music is addictive.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
well chosen mix of playable fun renaissance music, January 29, 2005
This review is from: Renaissance Music For Guitar (Book&CD) (Plastic Comb)
As usual with his books (I now own all but a few of his books), Mr. Alexander does a magnificent job finding a mix of familiar and lesser known pieces that stick in your memory. In addition he had done a nice job of selecting pieces which are playable and fingering them well (in some cases adding tasteful variations), and all but a few are within the reach of a determined intermediate player, and well worth the time investment to master. The CD alone would be worth the purchase price. I found following particularly fun to play the following four: Duo (Fuenllana) Courante (Praetorius) Christ Has Risen (Judenkunig) and Katherine Bardi Although I slightly prefer volume 2 in this series and the excellent South American collection (and the Ancient Music for Flute and Guitar is my favorite of his), this book is outstanding and highly recommended for any classical or fingerpicking guitarist except for beginners.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good music, low quality printing, September 29, 2009
This review is from: Renaissance Music For Guitar (Book&CD) (Plastic Comb)
The 35 pieces here present a deeper introduction into the genre, the arrangements being harmonically rich and requiring some experience and dexterity to play well at speed. The CD has good sound quality and 3 of the tunes are played on the lute in addition to the guitar (two pieces are played only on the lute). The reason this book loses two stars for me is print quality. The book has a plastic comb binding which is good since it allows for the book to be flat during reading. However, the paper is cheap photocopy paper and the staff and notes are the same dark print density making it very hard to read the tablature without stopping for a closer look (this may not be so much an issue for those of you who don't wear glasses :) At the back there's a couple of pages on timeline which are very hard to read since the dates are printed on a background with a color very close to the text. Some pages of lute tablature add interest. 14 of the arrangements as printed require page turns, slowing down the learning process. Given the mix of different length arrangements, often padded with the author's variations, a more thoughtful layout could have led to more pieces covering a single or two page layout. The author chose to include 3 of his own original pieces which means 10% of the book is more Renaissance inspired than authentic 400 year old music. The music here is very intriguing and well worth getting a copy if you are looking to expand your knowledge of the genre.
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