The Classical Guitar Compendium: Classical Masterpieces Arranged for Solo Guitar in Standard Notation

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.

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 accompanying CDs are of performances by the author. Julian Bream she isn't, but she does play very well indeed and the CDs are a very enjoyable listen in their own right.I only give it four stars because it is blighted by the inclusion of the regrettably ubiquitous tablature. Apart from cluttering the page, this leads to a smaller music font and more page turns. Arguably, guitarists capable of effectively performing these pieces will be readers anyhow; indeed they should be. If it had been presented in staff notation only I would have given it five stars.A few of these pieces I have arranged myself in the past, and by an large I prefer my own versions, naturally, but mine are not published so I am not trying to sell them. However, I will be using some of Bridget's arrangements at my gigs. She has saved me a lot of work.B. Arthur is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher active in Northumberland UK.

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 Puccini's Nessun Dorma (used as the World Cup anthem from 1990). I was staying in a youth hostel on Crete where there were some partying Italians. I started playing Bridget's arrangement of Nessun Dorma quietly in the corner and they were stunned into silence! They were asking where I found the arrangement and said they never heard anything like that played on the guitar! There's even an arrangement of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries so I hope they'll be some partying Germans at the youth hostel next summer! This is a great value package as it also comes with 2 very well engineered CDs. It would have been good if it came with a DVD showing the pieces being played l but I guess that would be pushing one's luck a bit too far. Even if you don't play guitar but like guitar music, it's worth buying for the CDs alone. The great thing about the guitar is that it's such a versatile instrument. These arrangements exploit this versatility to the full. Overall a great package and I hope there'll be volume 2 sometime.

I bought all 3 of Margaret's books as they have such great reviews from so many people- Compendium, Anthology and the Masterworks (the one with a white cover). Compendium and Anthology are amazing books. I had other books with the same songs in but these are written perfectly and sound amazing so no longer use those books- I just play these. I am a big classical fan anyway but most people would recognise most of these songs, if not all. All the big names you would expect plus some others that you just wont find in other books. These are not easy songs but the easiest songs in the book are doable if you've played for a while, and the advanced songs are still achievable if you spend time working on them. A few are seriously hard with huge chords but it's something to work up to and enjoy the process- sense of accomplishment with these books is great. If you want to build your repertoire and play songs people recognise and enjoy, you need these books. Margaret has a way of creating TAB that sounds so beautiful. She has amazing reviews for good reason. You need these books if you enjoy classical guitar.