Customer Reviews

Trans-Siberian Orchestra : Christmas Eve & Other Stories

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

 

 

When I ordered this book, I was rather torn between two alternatives for what I thought I might be getting. One alternative was something challenging, comparable to Anthony Burger or Dino Kartsonakis. The other alternative was that the book would be akin to the High School Musical piano books, which are in my opinion worthless. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the later, but unfortunately it was not the former either.

The songs in this book do sound remarkably like the songs played by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Unfortunately it is hard to get all of the parts into something that a solo piano can play, and therefore some of my favorite rhythms were absent (originally played by bass guitar, I believe).

If you're looking for a challenge, this is probably not a book for you. On a majority of the songs (with the exception of "A Mad Russian's Christmas" and "Christmas Eve in Sarajevo 12/24", I could sit down and play right through them with relatively few problems. Even the two songs I listed are perhaps at most at the Intermediate level though. My only difficulty was getting those two up to speed without losing some of the rhythms and notes.

Overall, I would suggest this book for someone who simply wants something fun to play (Intermediate Level or higher) or who wishes to perform a song, such as "A Star to Follow". Otherwise, look for something with a little more challenge that was designed for solo piano to begin with.

By Jeffrey W. Bennett Author of Under the Lontar Palm and founder of LayMentor...
I bought this book to learn the screaming guitar solos. What a way to go for christmas. Exciting and dramatic. However, not all guitar pieces are transcribed in tabular format. This book is best played by sight readers.

I am always looking for piano music that sounds impressive, takes some work to learn and play, and gives my fingers a real workout. I absolutely hate playing EZ sheet music, so what I'm looking for is not easy to find, as most people want to be able to sit and play something immediately.

Some of this book's piano music is accompaniment, so not very interesting to play; but there are still enough good, moderately complex pieces that make this book worth the purchase (as well as their other books, most of which I bought). I don't know music levels. My niece and I both played some of it immediately upon getting the book, and it sounded pretty good.

I am a big fan of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and wanted to leard to play some of their songs on the guitar, so I ordered this book. It is exactly what I hoped it would be, with chords and words and sheet music.

This book is great and has the guitar, voice and piano parts all in it. It really sounds like the music from the CD.

This book is excellent for anyone wanting to learn how to play songs from the TSO Christmas Eve CD. I bought it mostly for the acoustic songs, but I've played around with some of the others as well.