Classical Masterpieces Arranged for Solo Guitar: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classical Guitar

Bob: This seems a very haphazardly assembled collection, with odd exercises thrown in at the front. I think I am not the only one who prefers tablature as well. It has redeeming social value, but I would not buy it again.

United States on Oct 13, 2023

TomO: The book starts with exercises to build your techniques for the songs to follow. Even the darn exercises are fun to play. You will need some skill to perform the songs, but the great part of learning these is you can take it nice and slow and build up to whatever speed you want, its not the same as playing a Metallica song that has a defined tempo. The songs are interesting, some are recognizable to me. If you are a tetris fan this includes the two "tetris" songs, haha! Bridget did a great job at arranging. I liked this book so much I bought another Bridget book.

United States on Oct 05, 2023

David C.: There are two songs that I like best 1. Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise.

United States on Aug 01, 2023

Rev. TRev. T: You do need to be able to read music really to use this. The print is too small for me but may be ok for younger/better eyes. I suppose they do that so there's not too many pages [to keep production costs down?]

Unfortunately this is yet another guitar book I've bought from Amazon that looks returned. It's corners are ragged & dog eared.

I will attach pics when Amazon "allows" me.

United Kingdom on Feb 09, 2023

Stefan Hammar Karlsson: If you want to get better at classical guitar, this is a good book. Each piece has an excercise that focuses on learning motion needed for that piece.

Sweden on Jul 15, 2022

Red500: I ordered this book only a few days ago. It arrived today and was that was quick. It was packed into a single wall cardboard envelope but it had please do not bend printed on it in big letters. It had no marks from the journey to me so am very pleased with the packing.
I thought that this book also displayed the tablature as used by guitarists, but it doesn't, so make note of that when you order if you can't read music. It says in the book that you can download the tunes from a site that is mentioned in the book. So I will be doing that as I always find it handy when learning new tunes.

United Kingdom on May 05, 2022

K. Honeyager: I'm so happy I purchased this book based on others' reviews. It contains very logical, reasoned progression in difficulty geared towards what I would say is a late beginner or early intermediate player. The pieces are well-chosen (and beautiful) and I am learning them in the order presented, because it just makes sense. The notation and tablature are easy to read, and the recommended fingering shown is very helpful. It is also a HUGE benefit that she has recorded all of the musical pieces and tutorials and they are available for download. I only wish there was also video of her playing each piece, because I like to study how the players place their hands, move up and down the neck, etc.

I quickly realized that this would be a daily use book for me, so I took it to Office Depot and spent about $5 having it spiral bound so it would lay flat on my music stand. That is the only improvement that could be made to this book, in my opinion.

Thank you, Bridget, for providing this gem of a compendium. It'll take me years to make my way through it, but I intend to learn every song you've included.

United States on Jul 31, 2021

klaatu: I wanted to wait a while to write my review, I am no one special and have not taken any master classes, very few classes actually, just a normal person that enjoys all types of music played on guitar...

What a terrific collection of classical pieces of many types. Almost want to say it's a greatest hits collection, but then folks tastes might differ. Love the TAB along with the normal musical notation. Hint, if your tab rendition does not sound like the audio (includes log in code to listen or download) read the actual music! Might help a light bulb illuminate. For me the tab useful only for initial roughing out the music, but there it's very helpful... helpful, but I wont use the word easy for any of these as playing every note perfectly might take some serious quality time and of course patience.

Great news is that your time and patience will be rewarded, the pieces are to me very satisfying to learn and to play correctly. There are more virtuoso transcriptions out there, but all the pieces I have played in this book are more than suitable and instantly recognizable and appreciated in most venues. My thanks to all that brought this book to market, and a very...

United States on Feb 13, 2018

B. Arthur: I highly recommend this book/CD set.

The volume mostly comprises solo guitar arrangements of well known non-guitar classics: Jesu Joy, Air on a G string, Morning from Peer Gynt, Pachelbel's canon, two of the Three Gymnopedies, Moonlight Sonata, even Ride of the Valkyries. The collection is prefaced by 8 well known guitar studies by 19th century masters.

As performance pieces for the gigging functions or hotel/restaurant guitarist this collection is excellent. So many arrangements of popular classics don't do the original music justice, but these do (in their intended context.) The pieces are well known and even people who don't follow classical music will still recognise and enjoy most of them.

The 31 arrangements mostly work remarkably well for the intended audiences and musicians. However, an aspiring concert artist might not want to present these pieces in a formal concert. For example, 'Air on a G string' has a melody with long sustained melody notes that can not be adequately delivered on plucked strings. That said, it still sounds lovely and will give the casual listener much pleasure though you wouldn't use it for your Wigmore Hall debut.

The...

United Kingdom on Apr 22, 2014

Bern: I've been following Bridget's arrangements in Guitar Techniques for the last few years and have often been so impressed with the arrangements that I just had to learn to play some of them. This book is primarily a collection of those arrangements. Standard notation is used and tab is also provided so it's no problem if you're not a good reader of standard notation. The book starts with a Technical Study section which consists of a series of exercise that are designed to allow one to play some of the great classical guitar studies. These are great pieces of music in their own right. Examples are the 3 arpeggio exercises designed to help one play the Giuliani Allegro study. There are a total of 8 studies by Sor, Tarrega, Giuliani, Carcassi and Aguado, along with their associated exercises. The repertoire section contains over 30 beautifully arranged pieces. The pieces range from moderately easy to advanced so there is something for everyone. The pieces also cover different eras of classical music as there is everything from Bach (the beautiful Air on a G String), to modern pieces by Satie (the hauntingly beautiful Gymnopedies 1 and 3). One of my favourites is the arrangement of...

United Kingdom on Dec 21, 2013