GARY TURNER : Progressive Guitar Method Fingerpicking : Learn to Play Music.Com Gary Turner LearnToPlayMusic.com : 169 pages This huge book by Gary Turner has a large amount of material in it, a lot of which is very useful and some of which I totally disagree with. Firstly he gives the impression that between tablature and reading music, that tablature is much better than reading music. Wrong. Once you can read music you can place the various different parts, or voices, on

SHANI INBAR : Guitar Poetry : CD ALBENIZ : Mallorca: ARNOLD Fantasy for Guitar Op107: DE MILANO Ricercare LVII: TARREGA Fantasia on themes from La Traviata ; Capricho Arabe: CASTELNUOVO – TEDESCO Capriccio Diabolico: KARKOWSKI Sound Moves 1984: TURINA : Sevillana. Shani Inbar CD Privately produced :Available from her web site. Israeli – Born Shani Inbar has here brought us an album with a lot of variety and with music over a large span of time from Francesco Canova

RICARDO GALLEN : Fernando Sor Guitar Sonatas CD SOR: Grande Sonate Op25; Sonate Op15b; Grand Solo Op14; Grande Sonate Op22. Ricardo Gallen Eudora Records EUD SACD 1401. Fernando Sor wrote many guitar works, but some of the most important are these recorded here. Incidentally Gallen does use a 19th century instrument to make the sound even more like Sor would have played them. Indeed in my humble opinion Fernando Sor was by far the most important guitar composer in this period

ROVSHAN MAMEDKULIEV : Guitar Recital CD DE FALLA ( Arr. Fujii) : La Vida Breve – Danza No1 –Act II Scene I ; AMIROV : (Arr Mamedkuliev) : 12 Miniatures ( Excerpts) I Ballad, II Ashug’s Song, V Lyrical Dance, VI On Hunting , II Nocturne, X Toccata ; LLOBET : Theme and Variations on a Theme of Sor Op15; RUDNEV : Ivuska (Russian Folk Song Variations) ; ALBENIZ (Arr. Tarrega): Suite Espanola Op47- No3 Sevilla ( Sevillanas) ; TURINA : Sevillana ( Fantasia) ; CASTELNUOVO – TEDES

NIGEL NORTH : Robert Johnson –The Prince’s Almain and Other Dances for Lute ROBERT JOHNSON : The Prince’s Almain, Masque and Coranto ; Pavan No1; Galliard – My Lady Mildemay’s Delight; Pavan No2 ; 2 Almains; The Noble Man; The Witches’ Dance ; Pavan No3 ; 3 Almains; The Fairies’ Dance ; Fantasie ; Galliard; Lady Strange’s Almain ; Pavan No4; The First, Second and Third Dances in the Prince’s Masque; 3 Almains; The Satyre’s Dance. Nigel North Naxos 8.572178 Playing a 10-cou

PIXINGUINHA : Proezas de Salon; Desprezado; Rosa ; Atencioso ; Ingenuo; Gargalhada ; Oscarina ; Lamentos ; Naquele Tempo ; Carinhoso ; Um A Zero . Roland Dyens GSP Recordings: GSP 1035CD The first thing that strikes you about this music is how fitted to the guitar it is, and yet Pixinguinha (or as he was born Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho ) was a flautist and a saxophone player, and never wrote a single piece for the guitar, though he wrote literally hundreds of works . The

LUIGI ATTADEMO : D.Scarlatti Sonata for Guitar : CD D.Scarlatti : Sonata K377 Allegrissimo; Sonata K208 Adagio e Cantabile; Sonata K209 Allegro; Sonata K32 Aria; Sonata K77 Moderato e Cantabile; Minuet; Sonata K34 Larghetto; Sonata K291 Andante ; Sonata K292 Allegro; Sonata K87; Sonata K481 Andante e Cantabile; Sonata K476 Allegro; Sonata K213 Andante. Luigi Attademo Brilliant Classics : 9125 Domenico Scarlatti never wrote anything for the guitar but his 600 or so keyboard

JONATHAN JACKSON : Sandplay : Bergmann Edition Jonathan Jackson Bergmann Edition : 32 pages Here is another large volume of pieces from Jonathan (see the previous review of Lemon Frog) .It consists of 20 complex pieces, definitely more advanced than the other volume I’ve just mentioned. They also feel often more like a set of studies in the way that various techniques are used .So the first piece is in 5/4 with the middle of the 3 voices full of hammer – ons in semi – qua

JONATHAN JACKSON : Lemon Frog- 30 pieces for guitar : Bergmann Edition Jonathan Jackson Bergmann Edition : 34 pages Here are 30 very varied pieces, quite short, often one page but occasionally two using a large portion, but not all of the 24 keys. So that you do spend a fair amount of time playing in keys that you may not be normally used to playing in on the guitar. Not only that, the style of each piece is quite different from the others, so that they are extremely usefu

Marianne Vedral Bergmann Edition: 11 pages I have seen quite a few pieces from this lady and they have always been quite something. This latest book is no exception. Moreover the title of Love Songs is very apt. The tunes and the harmonies are very catchy and really do stick in your mind and the pieces themselves are wonderful to play, and the other thing to say is that they do sound as if they need words, because they really are love songs in every sense of the phrase. See

Wolfgang Vedral Bergmann Edition : 10 pages I have reviewed pieces by a Marianne Vedral before, who is mentioned in the fourth piece here, so I can only assume that they are related. This however is the first time that I have seen music by Wolfgang Vedral. These five pieces are instantly melodic, full of emotive harmony work, and when you play them , you do get the feeling that they are somehow familiar in content. The title piece Golden Memories is first, set in D Major and

Jane Darcey Bergmann Edition : 7 pages This Australian composer/teacher of the guitar has written a number of pieces for the guitar, this one partially under the guidance of Gilbert Biberian during late 2022. Set in A Major, but moving through various keys in a mixture of 9/8 and 3 / 4 , this gentle piece has almost no solo lines in it, but rather spends a lot of time with pairs of notes in the melody, and a bass line underneath. However it moves quite a great deal over al

J.S. BACH (Arranged by Marek Wegrzyk) Bergmann Edition: 12 pages Polish-born Marek Wegrzyk has arranged a number of Bach pieces for the guitar in the past , many published here by Bergmann Edition. This latest pairing are pieces that I have never seen before for guitar and so that immediately makes them desirable for guitarists who love their Bach! The first thing to say is that both pieces are tuned like the Renaissance Lute, namely with the third string to F#. This tuning

Ivo Antognini : Arranged for guitar by Stefano Moccetti and Ivo Antognini Bergmann Edition: 9 pages Originally, this work was for choir, but now here has been freely arranged for guitar solo, freely in the sense that much of the guitar version has new sections and really doesn’t sound anything like the original ( which you can find on YouTube in a couple of performances) The first thing you notice is the wide varied use of many time signatures including 5/4, 9/8, 4/2, 10/8,

Adrian Andrei Bergmann Edition : 22 pages I have always admired Adrian Andrei’s works for guitar, as they are very different , melodic but often unusually harmonised so that you don’t ever get the feeling that this man’s work is like a dozen others. This latest volume consists of 18 little pieces, mostly one page but occasionally two, all with that very different sound that the music from this country often has. They reminded me, harmony – wise a little of Bartok’s For Chil

O’CAROLAN : First Two Pieces After Turlough O’Carolan – Shebeg and Shemor; Irish Suite After O’Carolan –1) Hewlett 2) George Brabazon; Carolan’s Farewell to Music ;A Jig : HROMEK : Suite 1) Prelude; 2) Pilgrimage; 3) March ; Double Obstinacy (At The Five Bells) ; Dances From Old Narnia – Part Two – Rondo #2; Pieces of Eight ; The Fall of a Chieftain : TRADITIONAL : Two Irish Ballads – Fanaid Grove; To Scotland , England ( Westward Bound , Suita); Three English Ballads – T

Book 1 The first thing to say is that the first book’s initial introduction to playing and reading music is very detailed. Although I can see that that would be necessary it does take considerable reading. Having said that the place where the player starts actually plucking the open strings is very carefully done and, with a teacher to oversee it all, I can see that it is a very useful way to begin. (I did however think that the section on page 13 of how to tune a guitar sh

EDWARD SIMON : El Manicero ( The Peanut Seller): NICO ROJAS : Guyun – El Maestro; En El Abra Del Yumurí (In Yumuri Bay) ; Francito Y Alfonsito ; Lilliam ; Guajira A Mi Madre (Guajira For My Mother): CARLOS FARINAS : Preludio ; Canción Triste (Sad Song): ALDO RODRIGUEZ: Cancion ; Danza: HAROLD GRAMATGEZ : Suite Breve (Preludio; Alemanda;Siciliana, Sarabanda; Minuetto):LEO BROUWER: Cancion de Cuna ( Berceuse);Zapateo; Ojos Brujos: HECTOR ANGULO: Cantos Yoruba de Cuba : (Asokere

D’AGOSTINO : Grand Canyon; Mediterranean Spark; Costa Rica; The Blue Ocean; Running Wild; Under The Same Sky; The Dancer; Close to Heaven; Western Journey; Desert Flower; Mother’s Tears; The Genie; Lagavullin; Born In The Sea. Peppino D’Agostino Favoured Nations Entertainment: FNA 5020-2 Here is an album where every track is written by our player, who is playing in a classical manner on an acoustic guitar. The first thing that hits you is how fabulous a player this man is.

LAURO : Virgilio; Romanza: RUIZ – PIPO : Cancion y Danza No1: DUARTE: Appalachian Dreams Op121: TAKEMITSU : Londonderry Air: GISMONTI : Agua e Vinho : RAMON Y RIVERA: Brisas del Tobes: LECUONA: Canto Siboney: SAN SEBASTIAN: Preludio No6 – Dolor: TARREGA: Recuerdos de la Alhambra: SHEMER: Four Songs: THEODORAKIS: Two Epitaphios: THIAGO DE MELLO: Varre – Vento: GRANADOS : Dedicatoria. Sharon Isbin CD: Teldec : 3984 – 25736 – 2 . Here is a very varied recital from Sharon Isbin