Joe McMurray Music

Music for any occasion

Repertoire

Review #25: Christmas Rep for Solo Fingerstyle Guitar, 2025 Update

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:33 — 33.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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.  Last year I did a similar multi-book review, but I need to put out an update since I have since gone on a buying spree and purchased 4 more books that I’d been curious about.  In this review I will look at the original three books that I reviewed:

  • 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)

As well as my four new books:

  • Michael Wood’s “Echoes of Christmas Past,”
  • Bruce Emery’s “Christmas Fingerstyle Guitar,” and
  • Doug Young’s “Christmas Carols for Fingerstyle Guitar” AND “A DADGAD Christmas.”

And finally I’ll mention one book that I don’t have, but I can see enough from previews to be able to compare to the other books:

  • Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Christmas”

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

I will demonstrate tunes from each book so that you can see and hear what you’re getting.

Now, whether you are just looking to enjoy playing holiday tunes for yourself, with your family and friends, or on stage, there are several factors to consider.  Christmas music is really only acceptable in the month of December, so if you are like me then you’ll start preparing in November.  As these tunes are kept on the shelf for 10 months of the year, I generally look for the easiest arrangements that still sound as good as possible.  I need to be able to whip these into shape in a reasonable amount of time.

Perhaps you (unlike myself) are looking for the most incredible sounding arrangements possible, regardless of their difficulty?  One of these books in particular fits that bill.

Another important factor to consider is whether you are looking to play instrumental arrangements or if you are looking to lead a singalong.  Some books are better suited to one or the other.

I’m going to try to guide you to the book or books that are best for YOU.  Each of these books is valuable in its own way, but one may fit you better. 

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” is the only book out of these that has popular modern/mid-twentieth century tunes like Holly Jolly Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bell Rock, and Let It Snow!  Hal Leonard is a publishing giant and has the ability to publish these popular tunes that are protected by copyright.  Late-beginner/intermediate.  Pretty good arrangements, especially as a starting point.  No audio recordings.

All of the other books contain traditional Christmas carols like O Come, All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Jingle Bells, and Silent Night.  These are all of the tunes that fall under the realm of public domain, so authors can arrange them without worrying about legal issues or royalties.

Out of all of these other books, two books stand out for containing beautiful, yet easy to play arrangements.  Wood’s “Echoes of Christmas Past” is #1, Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” is #2.  Wood’s arrangements are incredibly playable and sound so so good.  Very flowing and arpeggiated with a folksy touch.  Never too many notes at once, so easy on the hands.  No lyrics written into the music, and no audio recordings.

Phillips’ arrangements also flow very well with lots of arpeggiation and pedaling on the open G string.  Definitely has some classical guitar vibes.  Once again, no lyrics, but this one does come with a CD for the audio recordings.

If you are the type of player who wants a simple arrangement that you can enhance, or if you want to lead a singalong and need a really straightforward arrangement, Bruce Emery’s “Christmas Fingerstyle Guitar: Plain and Fancy” and Doug Young’s “Christmas Carols for Fingerstyle Guitar” are very valuable books.  Each contains the most basic arrangements with block chords harmonizing each melody.  These are excellent for beginners and work great as lead sheets for intermediate and advanced players (as a platform from which you can create your own variations).  Young’s book is a bit easier.   Emery’s book provides each carol at three difficulty levels.  Emery’s has lyrics in the music so it works better for singalongs.  Young’s has lyrics on the opposite page from the music, so usable for singalongs, but not ideal.  Both provide audio recordings.  These two books are both great gigging books, but I if I had to choose, I’d rather have the Wood or Phillips book at a gig.

Doug Young’s “A DADGAD Christmas” is unique and incredibly beautiful.  Much more difficult in comparison – suitable for intermediate and advanced players.  Audio recordings are available on Spotify and make for great listening!  Some really satisfying arrangements, but not my first choice of Christmas gig book – I generally want Christmas gig tunes to be on the easier side.

Hill’s “Classical Guitar: Christmas Sheet Music” contains arrangements that can absolutely work on steel string guitars, but they are written only in treble clef.  These arrangements are all a bit more difficult to play, regardless of treble clef vs. TAB, and they don’t necessarily sound better than the arrangements of the other books.  Many arrangements just feel clunky with difficult fingering.  One thing that I do like is the arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “March” from the Nutcracker, which you won’t find in any of the other books.  If you are a classical guitar teacher, these would definitely be useful to use with your students.  No audio recordings.

So, to organize all of this information:

  • Only one for mid-twentieth century tunes: Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide”
  • Best for solo instrumental gigging: Wood’s “Echoes of Christmas Past” is #1, Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” is #2.  Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide”is an equally important gigging book for me too just because of its arrangements of popular tunes.
  • Best for singalongs: Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide”, Bruce Emery’s “Christmas Fingerstyle Guitar: Plain and Fancy”, and possibly Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Christmas”
  • Most beginner friendly: Probably Doug Young’s “Christmas Carols for Fingerstyle Guitar” orBruce Emery’s “Christmas Fingerstyle Guitar: Plain and Fancy,” then Wood’s “Echoes of Christmas Past” is #1, Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar”
  • Most sonorous arrangements: Doug Young’s “A DADGAD Christmas”
  • Don’t buy: Hill’s “Classical Guitar: Christmas Sheet Music”

Performance:

  • Holly Jolly Christmas, Frosty the Snowman – Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide”
  • Come, All Ye Faithful – in all books other than Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” andDoug Young’s “A DADGAD Christmas”
  • Silent Night – in all books other than Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide”

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)].  The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #23: Fingerstyle Blues Songbook by Steve James

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:15 — 34.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Is this one of the best or worst repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar?

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

Steve James’ Fingerstyle Blues Songbook is a repertoire book drawing from various substyles of fingerstyle blues (general old time country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues, and bottleneck blues).  Most of the tunes are suitable for late-beginner and intermediate fingerstyle players, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well.  The music in this book may sound “old-timey” (much of it comes from the 1920s and 30s), but it is really fun to play if you are interested in the style.

This book is comparable to Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book (Review #9).  Both are great resources.

Fingerstyle Blues Songbook includes solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of 15 tunes.  Each arrangement features a single chorus of a 12 or 16 bar blues (often with a repeat and a 2nd ending).  No page turns are ever needed!  Each arrangement is presented as a lead sheet with both the vocal melody (in standard notation) and the solo guitar arrangement (in both standard notation and tablature).  Each tune includes a couple paragraphs of background information including notable recordings and some fingering suggestions.

Most of the tunes provide you with a single progression of the tune – even with the repeat, none of these will last a full minute as written.  In a real performance you would probably want to repeat the form multiple times with singing, variations, or improvisation.  My only complaint about the book is that it would have been helpful if the author had explained this a bit more.  However, if you listen to fingerstyle blues recordings, then you will hear many arrangement ideas.

As mentioned, the book provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement.  Tiny chord charts are written above the music with fretting hand fingering, but these do not provide fingering for any of the melody lines.  Additionally, no picking hand fingering is included (although you can tell which notes should be played by the picking hand thumb by looking at the treble clef). 

The book starts with a couple easier arrangements, but otherwise doesn’t progress from easiest to hardest.  Beginners might find the spiritual Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep on page 32 to be one of the easiest arrangements in the book.

The majority of the tunes use standard tuning.  However, alternate tunings are used for the four tunes that utilize a slide.

This is a repertoire book full of song arrangements.  This is not a method book that teaches you the fundamentals of how to play fingerstyle blues guitar.  However, if you have some fingerstyle experience, then this book will provide you with a bunch of fun tunes.  This is also a great supplement to a method book.

Recordings are available on an included CD (which unfortunately didn’t come with my used book).  These would likely be very helpful to many readers.

The book doesn’t use 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 authenticity, I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar.  You will need a slide for several tunes.

Published by String Letter Publishing (Acoustic Guitar Magazine).  © 2005

Distributed by Hal Leonard.

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon at https://a.co/d/g7Udsso.  The first priority of this book is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

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

Topic Talk #3: Repertoire

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:05 — 12.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Quick advice, tips, and tricks for improving at fingerstyle guitar, ukulele, etc.

Selecting and maintaining a repertoire of tunes is critically important.  Whether you want to casually play for friends/family or you aspire to perform at a local bar/restaurant gig, you should intentionally choose repertoire tunes that suit your desired performance outlet.

Once you’ve built a repertoire, maintaining it can require a lot of work.  To stay performance-ready, you need to plan time for repertoire review into your practice schedule.  How often you review each tune depends on your own abilities.

In the video I discuss a couple options to ease the burden of gig preparation.  You can use sheet music or an iPad on stage, or you could split a gig with another musician.

Keep a notebook with your repertoire list so that you are efficient with your repertoire review and so that you never lose track of a tune.  If you perform for different types of gigs, you will need multiple repertoire lists.

Your repertoire will continually grow and evolve.  Some old arrangements will fall off of your list as you add new ones.

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

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My music is available on all streaming platforms – links on my Linktree page: linktr.ee/joemcmurray

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

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

Review #14: Christmas Repertoire Books for Solo Fingerstyle Guitar

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:42 — 45.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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 #9: Complete Country Blues Guitar Book by Stefan Grossman

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:34 — 25.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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

Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book is a repertoire book of various substyles of fingerstyle blues (general old time country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues, and bottleneck blues).  Most of the tunes are suitable for late-beginner and intermediate fingerstyle players, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well.  The music in this book may sound “old-timey” (much of it comes from the 1920s and 30s), but it is really fun to play if you are interested in the style.  Aside from the large selection of tunes, the book provides tons of cool history, interviews of blues players (Skip James and W.C. Handy), and historical photos – makes for a great coffee table book!

The book is organized into sections for each substyle of fingerstyle blues.  At the beginning of each section there is a textual description and history of the blues substyle being presented.  Before each tune, there is a description of where that tune originated from, who played it in this style, important recordings to listen to, and some technical performance details.

Most of the tunes provide you with a single progression of the tune – sometimes only 20 or 30 seconds long.  In a real performance you would probably want to repeat the form multiple times with singing, variations, or improvisation.  My only complaint about the book is that it would have been helpful if the author had explained this a bit more.  However, if you take the listening recommendations seriously then you will get the idea.

The book provides both treble clef and tablature.  There are no right or left-hand fingerings provided (except occasionally in the description before the tune).  The tablature is unusual in that the fret numbers are written between the lines instead of on the lines, but I quickly adjusted to it without any problem.

The majority of the tunes use standard tuning.  However, alternate tunings are used extensively within the sections on “Country Blues Guitar: The Alternating Bass and Open Tunings” and “Bottleneck Blues Guitar.”

This is a repertoire book full of song arrangements.  This is not a method book that teaches you the fundamentals of how to play fingerstyle blues guitar.  However, if you have some fingerstyle experience, then this book will provide you with a lifetime of fun (at almost 260 pages, it will literally last you a very long time).

  1. Authentic fingerstyle blues tunes from various substyles.
  2. Great organization.
  3. Good difficulty graduation – easier tunes to start each section.
  4. Short tunes.
  5. Lots of alternating bass and monotonic bass
  6. Strange tablature will take a few minutes to adjust to.
  7. No fingerings for right or left hand.
  8. No audio access, but there are lots of listening recommendations that are helpful.

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.

I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar since there are multiple tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top.  You will need a slide for the final section, but you can use it with your normal guitar.

Published by Mel Bay Publications.  © 1992

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

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:13 — 23.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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.