Celtic Guitar with CD (Audio)

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful to hear and fun to play
Review: An excellent collection of Celtic tunes comprise this book/cd set. It is not a "method" or "how-to-play" celtic guitar book but if you're looking for fingerstyle celtic repertoire this is a great place to start. Most pieces are played with standard or drop D tuning but 6 use DADGAD tuning. They all should be within reach of any advanced beginner to intermediate guitarist as many are played within the first four frets - some move higher up the neck and one piece reaches up to the 12th fret. For those who prefer tablature each instrumental is given in both tab and standard notation. The cd helps insure the player is interpreting the written music as the author meant. Overall the selection of instrumentals is high - everything from reels, jigs, airs, waltzes, marches and hornpipe to arrangements of O'Carolan tunes are here. Definitely a two-thumbs up.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasure for the Taking
Review: As I've been teaching myself to play the guitar over the past two years, I've purchased and used many books of music. I've found that Celtic music is pleasurable for me to play. This is my favorite music book so far. It is very well done. There is a nice variety of songs, slow and fast, happy and sad. One of the pleasures of this music is the emotion felt in playing certain selections.

The range of difficulty is from fairly easy to moderately hard. This is a book that can help you grow in skill while having fun and making a joyful noise. I appreciate that every song has both notation and tablature. Most of the pieces are in standard tuning. Many are in drop D tuning and there is a section of DADGAD songs.

I don't think that the author(s) or editor(s) are credited, which is a shame because I'd like to buy more books from the same person or team.

Rating:
Summary: I love and hate this book
Review: I love it because it is thorough and precise. The tab is accurate (it isn't always with some books) and the music notation complete. There is even a key at the top of the page to give you the tuning if it is altered. The tutorial, while sounding a little sterile is very clear and extremely well executed. Other reviewers, I believe, are understating the level of difficulty somewhat. Having studied classical guitar, I found the pieces here well within reach, but I find it a stretch to say that they would be aproachable by a beginner, even an advanced one. Now, why I hate it: From reading Weiser's (the author) bio I learned that he is a classically-trained guitarist only a few degrees separated from Segovia himself (impressive)and that his intention with his arrangements of Celtic music is to foster greater acceptance of it in classical circles. That's a noble enough cause, but when I reflect upon the arrangements here I have to say that some of them are almost too Baroque-sounding for my finger-picked, steel-strung and down-tuned taste. If, for example, you were looking for a John Renbourne or Martin Simpson-type of experience with this book, you may be disappointed. I think not, though. Predispositions aside, his version of Jock O'Hazelden is very nice and will fall quickly under your fingers. His Morrison's Jig is spot-on how a fiddle tune should sound and his Carrickfergus is richly harmonized. I've returned to this book again and again. If you want to learn some Celtic music for guitar, the sheer volume of material contained here makes it worth the investment.