A Charlie Brown Christmas(TM) (Paperback)

by Vince Guaraldi (Composer)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This deluxe collection features arrangements of all ten Vince Guaraldi arrangements from this annually anticipated holiday classic: Christmas Is Coming * The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) * Christmas Time Is Here * Fur Elise * Hark, The Herald Angels Sing * Linus and Lucy * My Little Drum * O Tannenbaum * Skating * What Child Is This. It also includes a stunning color section featuring Peanuts(TM) illustrations!

Product Details

Sample Music Notation [20kb PDF]

• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0634029797
• ISBN-13: 978-0634029790
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #192,758 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonder for any piano music lover, July 24, 2006

By	Paul A. Jackson "Paul Jackson" (Fairfax Station, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are several reasons I love this book. For one, the songs are very familiar and are pleasing to play. These are instumental works so you get to play it the way it is performed, instead or incorporating the melody into the right-hand piano parts. The chord progressions are very interesting (flat 9th chords, flat 5th, etc.) especially the way they are voiced. You can see an example at the sheet music plus web site. There is another version of this book with parts that are easier to play. I have only seen one sample page from that book (Linus and Lucy) and in the other book it is played in C major and doesn't have the left-hand rhythmic anticipations (first note begins an eight note early) while this book has the song in E-flat, which is a little harder to play but sounds richer. I have a QRS player piano roll of Linus and Lucy and I noticed that it matches the Christas CD better. The song on the CD goes through the main part of the song three times with two swinging (hard to play) refrains. The two refrains are a little different, with the second one being more dissonant than the first. The book documents only the second. The bass line for the refrains are simple walking quarter notes while the piano roll has a rag-time style alternating eight note bass notes and chords. This is fine by me because this is plenty hard to play as it is (triplets over quarter notes, etc.).

At any rate, check out the sample at Sheet Music Plus to see if the difficulty matches you ability. If so, this is a great purchase.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A faithful transcription, January 16, 2007

By	Mike S. (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews

I got this book as a present one year and was absolutely amazed. I've always loved the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and came to appreciate the music more and more as I grew up. Reading through the book, I discovered that the authors had done a painstaking job of transcribing Vince Garauldi's performance nearly note-for-note. When you first start playing "The Christmas Song" for example, you hear those flat-9 chords Vince loved to play and think to yourself, "Yeah, that's the real deal." Even the improvised solos are transcribed wonderfully.

This is NOT a book for the faint of heart. If you are unfamiliar with playing jazz piano, you may quickly get overwhelmed. However, what better way to learn some advanced chord voicings than to play it exactly the way the arranger did? The songs are beautiful and incredibly fun to play, but without at least an intermediate piano skill level, you may get frustrated.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-Rate!, February 1, 2007

By	B. Solensky - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are looking for a Piano Solo book with arrangments by Vince Guaraldi for Charlie Brown Christmas music, This Is It! All of the songs from the CD "A Charlie Brown Christmas" appear in this book. Do Not be fooled by the word "arrangment", if you happen to be looking for the original music. All of this music sounds almost exactly like the CD (and movie for that matter) even to the point of being written in the same key (F Major, G Major, Ab Major sometimes). Excellent Buy!
Level Rate:Late Intermediate-Early Advanced