50 Easy Classical Guitar Solos by Jerry Willard
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Book Reviews of 50 Easy Classical Guitar Solos
Book Review: Great collection of well written and performed solos
Summary: 5 Stars
The solos are enjoyable and varied. The author performs in the CD at a confortable speed so that a beginner to intermmediate student can follow.Book Review: recomendations
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are not an advansed player you can be best pretender, before you reach the summits!Book Review: Good Set of Easy Classical Guitar Solos
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm an accomplished flat-picker and finger-picker. I picked this book up a couple of weeks ago and have been learning the pieces in it, and I'm satisfied.The fifty pieces in the book are arranged in more or less increasing order of difficulty. There is a nice variety of different tempos, time signatures, keys, etc., and the pieces are about as good as they can be at this level of difficulty.
I'm torn between four stars and five stars for this book. The reasons that I've decided on four stars are:
The pages in the beginning devoted to brief biographies of the composers would have been more useful had they been devoted to things like explaining that p means the thumb, a means the ring finger, and general advice on right-hand patterns where the notation does not explicitly give right-hand fingerings.
The notation should give right-hand fingerings more frequently. Very often, I can get the notes in several different ways. My guess is that some of them will build up bad habits when I move to more demanding pieces; it would be helpful to be practicing patterns that will prove helpful in the future.
These are, however, minor criticisms. This is a very nice collection of pieces, and I can recommend it whole-heartedly.
Book Review: Great pick-up-and-play repertoire!
Summary: 4 Stars
This was my first ever classical guitar book, and I don't regret it for a second! The tablature with standard notation is definitely the way to go for beginners; also, the pieces, as other reviewers have stated, are simple enough for one not extensively versed in classical music to play. However, be warned that this is no method book, and the pieces are not exactly graded (I still have trouble with some of the songs toward the middle). I also agree with most of the other reviewers about the biographies and lack of spiral binding; it would have been better to have technical terms explained, and not force me to clip the book to my stand all the time (shifting those clips after each song becomes a major drag after a while). Problems aside, I love the fact that after the nonsensical biographies, there is nothing but pure repertoire for the budding enthusiast to dig in to. The CD also helps to give the player a better idea of how to play the songs, and can double as a nice addition to your casual listening music collection. When my friends ask me how they can get started making music like me, I always recommend Fifty Easy Classical Guitar Solos!Book Review: Excellent book!
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a rank beginner, having only purchased my first classical guitar 4 months ago. I use several method books in my daily practice (Noad, Parkening, et al), but the one I open the most is this excellent compilation by Jerry Willard. It is well organized, starting with easy pieces that get gradually more difficult. The book has both standard notation and tablature.
The first few pieces are easy enough for even an early beginner like myself to play (not like Mr. Willard, of course, who plays all the songs beautifully, but well enough to keep me interested and keen to practice). The songs are simple but very attractive, and I find myself actually listening to the accompanying CD a lot, at work or in the car.
The only reason for not giving this 5 stars: I would have preferred a spiral binding - it is not that easy to keep the book open, and after a few months of daily use I am getting worried about pages starting to become loose. Not a big deal at all, though. If you are a beginning or early intermediate classical guitarist, this book will definitely not disappoint you.