In this small collection of eight studies aimed towards the student of around grades 2-3, the two composers, who take the credit for four apiece, have just about got it spot on.
The studies are short (the longest is only 39 bars in length, the shortest being only 15 bars) and they focus upon important subject matter such as slurs (including slurring with the left hand alone whilst the bass line is being played, something which seems to come naturally to blues and folk players but can be slightly problematic to classical guitarists at first), glissandi, staccato, accentuation, smoothness of phrasing, harmonics (left and right hand), rhythm, voice independence (staccato in the bass whilst legato in the melody), various fingerboard positions and, most importantly, are musically interesting enough to grab the player's attention.
Why SMS? I'm guessing that as SMS is an abbreviation of Short Message Service - text messaging - these studies do what it says on the tin, that is, they get their message across in modestly-sized compositions with no waffle: they just do the business.
The pieces are all written in a modern idiom, are well fingered and as usual with d'OZ, nicely presented. I loved them.
Steve Marsh (Classical Guitar Magazine)
