Gerrit de Boer and Joep Wanders
De Toorts . Haarlem : 32 pages
This latest book by Dutch musician/ guitarist Wanders is subtitled 27 catchy tunes for classical guitar and was designed to help out the pupils who at the beginning of their second year of study want something a little less ‘classical’ and a little lighter in style. Hence this book begins with some quite easy little pieces for two voices, on the way doffing its cap towards Scarborough Fair, Aura Lee, El Vito, Raggle Taggle Gypsy, and The Lakes of Ponchartrain and then including original works that are a mixture of Latin, boogie, folk, 12 - bar, calypso and many other styles. The book gradually increases in difficulty whilst remaining interesting, melodic, fun to play, and teaching the pupil a great deal along the way. There are incidentally some very amusing cartoons at the bottom of many of the pages that comment on the piece above. By the time the player has reached the end of the book, with a fun Ragtime piece called Hong Kong Kitty, there remains one duet Rag ‘n Tag Race, which finishes the book off nicely.
I can see a lot of teachers getting some great responses from their pupils when they are introduced to this fine volume, and therefore it deserves to do really well.
Chris Dumigan
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