William Bay: Achieving Guitar Artisty - Odd-Time Etudes: Guitar: Instrumental

Contemporary Baroque Etudes-The arts flourished in the Baroque period. Music from that time is still performed worldwide by symphonies opera companies choirs chamber ensembles and soloists on many instruments. The period was characterized by the worksof such great artists as J. S. Bach (b. 1685) Handel (b. 1685) Telemann (b. 1681) and many others. These composers defined the rich ornate and melodic Baroque style of music which we categorize in theclassical realm. There was another genre of music flourishing during this period and that was the 'common' or folk music style characterized by such composers as Ireland's legendary harpist Turlough O'Carolan (b. 1670).In composing music for this book the author recreated harmonic and melodic elements of this great musical age while adding some contemporary twists. All of the etudes are original and will serve to enhance guitar technique phrasing expression note- reading ability and knowledge of the entire guitar fingerboard. Fingering and string markings are included where appropriate.In addition to facilitating the many technical and aestheticaspects of performing at an advanced level on the guitar these etudes may be used successfully in concerts or recitals. This book is an ideal companion for the other books in the Mel Bay 'Achieving Guitar Artistry' series whichis designed to condition and guide the developing guitarist to an advanced level of proficiency regardless of the style of music performed.

This book of triadic concepts is as much for the ears as it is for the hands. Playing harmonised scales in triadic form is very helpful for the progressing Guitarist. By working through these exercises the Guitarist will learnthe harmonic sound of each key and develop a strong sense of melodic and harmonic voice leading.These studies contain interesting melodic content and are very fun to play. The keys are presented in tonic major andtonic minor rather than tonic major and relative minor. This is the second book in Mel Bay's Achieving Guitar Artistry series and follows the initial Linear Etudes text. Readers should develop a routineof practising one key per day for the best results. Mastery of this book will do much to enhance the Guitarist's sense of voice leading note reading and improvising.