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Review #14: Christmas Repertoire Books for Solo Fingerstyle Guitar

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Christmas repertoire books featuring solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements are great for the holiday season!  Whether you simply want to get into the Christmas spirit or you need to perform Christmas tunes at your gigs, there are a number of great Christmas repertoire books.  In this review I will look at three books that I really enjoy: Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide,” Mark Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” (Cherry Lane Music Company), and John Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” (Hal Leonard).

To be clear, all books are suitable for either steel string guitar or nylon string classical guitar.

All three books feature a range of tunes suitable for late-beginner through intermediate fingerstyle guitarists.  Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” features mid-twentieth century tunes like Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bell Rock, and Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!  Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” and Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” both feature traditional Christmas carols like O Come, All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Jingle Bells, and Silent Night.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” and Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” provide both standard notation and tablature, but Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” provides only standard notation (no TAB!!!).

The arrangements in Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” flow really well with nice arpeggiation.  The arrangements in Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” are a mixed bag, but many of them have nice arpeggiation or feature an alternating bass line (Travis picking).  Some of the arrangements are a bit clunky in comparison to the Phillips book.  The arrangements in Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” are also a mixed bag, but tend to be a little stripped down/simplified to make them easier.  While some are great as they are, some are a little uninspiring until you add some extra inner harmony, arpeggiation, or other pizzazz.  The arrangements are great for late-beginner/intermediate players, and they are excellent skeletons/frameworks/starting points from which more advanced players can add extra spice.  The arrangements utilize a variety of alternating bass lines and arpeggiation.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” has 16 tunes.  Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” has 22 tunes.  Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” has 30 tunes.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” is the only book out of the three that has the lyrics written into the music which is nice when playing with friends/family or for helping you to sing the melody out loud or in your head while you are playing solo.

Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” is the only book out of the three that comes with recordings of the tunes (mine came with a CD).

All three books are worth buying – it just depends on what you’re looking for.

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

My music is available on all streaming platforms:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will be released in January 2024. The first single, “Open Road,” was released 10/20/23. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.  Three other singles have since been released: “Lost and Found,” “The Matador,” and “Pins on the Map.”

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #10: 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar by Hal Leonard

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You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Hal Leonard’s 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar is a repertoire book filled with solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of popular songs from mostly the 1960s through present day.  Genres covered include classic and modern rock, pop, folk, jazz, theme songs, Spanish classical, and more.  There are songs from the Beatles, Ed Sheeran, Duke Ellington, Metallica, Aerosmith, Imagine Dragons, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, etc.  Most of the tunes are suitable for intermediate fingerstyle players, although there are some easier tunes for late beginners as well as some tunes that are significantly more difficult.  If you are looking to build out your repertoire for local gigs, this book is incredible! 

Overall, the arrangements are in guitar-friendly keys, they stay below the 5th fret, and they sound good.  You can always simplify or add to the arrangements to suit your tastes and skill level.  Most tunes are in standard tuning, although there are some tunes that use drop D tuning.  Tunes are arranged utilizing a variety of techniques including simple melody and bass, alternating bass, and arpeggiation. The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

Although this book is a repertoire book and not a method book, there is a single page in the back providing an “Introduction to Fingerstyle,” which is probably worthless to anyone who is attempting to play the tunes in this book.  The rest of the book is just filled with song arrangements in alphabetical order, and there is no background information for any of the tunes.  The music is presented as a treble clef lead sheet with the main melody and the harmonizing chords written above, and the solo guitar arrangements are presented in treble clef and tablature.  Occasional left-hand fingerings are provided.

Although this book has great tunes for your gigs, it would be difficult to bring the book to a gig and play from the pages.  The book is 430 pages and has a softcover binding, so you need binder clips to hold the pages open.  Most tunes require multiple page turns, which is a disaster if you are holding the pages open with binder clips.  Your only options would be to photocopy pages or memorize the tunes.

For most of the tunes you could use an acoustic steel string or classical nylon string guitar since most arrangements don’t require using your fretting hand thumb over the top.

  1. Extensive song selection.  You are bound to like at least a few of the tunes if you like popular or rock music.
  2. Great arrangements that generally feature melody and bass, alternating bass, and/or arpeggiation.
  3. Provides treble clef lead sheets (melody with harmonizing chords written above) as well as treble clef and TAB guitar arrangements.
  4. Some fretting hand fingering is included, but there isn’t any picking hand fingering.
  5. Hard to hold pages open, lots of page turns.
  6. No audio access.  However, arrangements generally sound similar to the original tunes.

Published by Hal Leonard.  © 2019

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.

Review #7: Fingerpicking Beatles by Hal Leonard

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You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Beatles is full of accessible arrangements of popular Beatles songs.  The tunes are suitable for late beginner/early intermediate through advanced players.  The arrangements often have simplified rhythms, they sometimes leave out either bass notes or inner harmony notes where they would be difficult to grab, they stay mostly below the 5th fret, and they are in guitar friendly keys.  I think this is a fun book that is well worth the money.

The simplicity of many of the arrangements is something that I prefer for a repertoire book like this.  Hal Leonard has done the work of putting the tunes into guitar-friendly keys and providing basic arrangements that are entirely recognizable and effective.  Aside from the melody, the arrangements often include important bass lines, horn lines, and harmonies.  For experienced players, the tunes present many opportunities for embellishment.

Some tunes are arranged in more of a melody and bass style, some feature more arpeggiation, and some feature alternating bass lines.  The style typically fits the essence of the tune.

1) Excellent repertoire from across the Beatles discography.  Variety of upbeat and slower tunes (and everything in-between).

2) Provides treble clef lead sheets (melody with harmonizing chords written above) as well as treble clef and TAB guitar arrangements.

3) Generally simplified arrangements as I detailed above.

4) Some fretting hand fingering is included, but there isn’t any picking hand fingering.

5) Longer tunes have lots of page turns at sometimes inconvenient places.

6) No audio access.

The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

For most of the tunes you could use an acoustic steel string or classical nylon string guitar since most arrangements don’t require using your fretting hand thumb over the top.

Published by Hal Leonard.  © 1996

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.