Customer Reviews

50 Renaissance Solos for Classical Guitar (Book & CD)

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

 

 

This is a great tab book for those who are interested in learning Renaissance guitar. The cd that comes with it is very nice, almost worth the price itself. If you're into that Bard/tavern music/medieval type stuff, you'll love it.

I only recently became interested in Renaissance guitar, and this book has been extremely helpful. Some really nice, slow beginner pieces in here, and others are a bit more challenging. Think of it as a baby step toward learning more complex classical pieces.

So, if you're looking to learn this style, I recommend it, it's great fun and very pretty. Also, having a classical guitar isn't required obviously, but if you want the appropriate sound it's highly recommended.

The music here is in tablature and standard notation printed in a stapled book. The print quality is excellent, with the staff lines fainter than the tablature itself, making this very easy to play from. Many pieces fit on one page, or a two page spread, with just one page turn needed. The CD has very good sound quality. Few of the selected pieces are instantly memorable, but they are easy to play and provide a good general introduction to this type of music. The arrangements are simple, and comparing the John Dowland pieces with the original lute shows the author has removed many harmonizing notes to simplify playing. However, I wanted to expand my knowledge of the genre and this book achieves that. If you're looking for intermediate/advanced works then you'll be disappointed with this. For excellent print quality and book design, good CD, 50 pieces from 21 composers (including 12 anonymous pieces) this gets 5 stars from me.

the tunes are good, and the CD is fine. But why make new arrangements of tunes that are even better in the original lute-scripts? Originals that are mostly just as easy to play? Go for the Frederick Noad-book, if you don't need the tab. There you will get much closer to the oiriginal music. This is a "Renaissance light" product, not the real thing. But yes, you can use it for beginners and as an introduction to this music.

I was curious about this title and I am very satisfied, because music is very playable and sounds really good without the need to be fingerstyle virtuoso.
Maybe some purist can say that originally vihuella and lute pieces are sometimes too simplified, but the results sound fresh. CD containes all pieces played in steady, easy to follow tempo.

Introductory blurbs to each selection would have been a nice touch, but aside from that this is a enjoyable beginner/advanced beginner resource. The CD is very well played and an absolute necessity when confronted with pieces one has never heard before. I have only gotten as far as a single selection (Greensleeves, go figure -grins- ), but I already gotten rather comforting gasps of admiration when I rather haltingly played this arrangement in front of others.

Have not done much with this book yet. Still working in my Sagreras lesson book. Just finishing the second set of lessons in that book. I am not sure I would even want to tackle this book without first learning what I have from that book. But looking forward to learning a lot of these songs and lessons when I take a break from that. The audio CD for each song in this book will prove very helpful with setting my timing and flowing through the songs properly after I learn them.