Gloria Villanueva
Doberman – Yppan: 30 pages
The renowned composer/ guitarist has been responsible for a huge number of pieces over the years, and this latest book is a little different in that there are 30 one – page pieces, sometimes only a scant few seconds long. The fact that the title mentions vintage, makes me wonder whether these little items are from her distant past, and therefore have all been compiled to make this book. The Preface doesn’t give us any clues about the actual pieces, you see.
None of the pieces have separate titles, and none have a speed marking. Indeed the only thing you do get is when the piece is a ‘swing’ item, and the player is instructed to play the written straight quavers as triplets. Otherwise you don’t get any instructions at all.
What you do get are 30 vastly different little pieces in all manner of keys and styles that are usually fun to play, although to be honest a few are so insubstantial that you get to the end and don’t feel like you have played a piece at all. Moreover, some of them feel like it would be very easy to keep going and add the next part of the piece that’s not been written. There were a few times that I felt I could have continued the piece a bit more to make it a little bit more interesting. Having said that they are technically very worth playing, because although they are quite short, none of them are really easy, more intermediate I would suggest.
So in essence , here is a varied set of short pieces , many of which are fun to play , and useful technically, but be prepared that not every piece is a wonderful one, although many are!
Chris Dumigan
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