Let’s Play Together - Folk & Pop

"Part of the Let's Play Together series, this book by Nathalie Lachance and Luc Lévesque is curious mix of four existing and new works [...]. Scarborough Fair is folk and this arrangement sees each part take the arpeggios, the melody and countermelody. Guitar One ventures up into ninth position for some straightforward single note work. Personally, I'd re-finger a 3-to-4 hammer-on but the other fingering is sparse but helpful, and the arpeggios aren't at all intimidating for novice hands. Sur le Chemin de Waterford, by Lachance is a busy little 12/8 piece that definitely has a skippy, jig feel to it. It begins with the three parts each playing a different three-note arpeggio, giving a rising wall of chords. Once the melody enters, it is passed from guitar to guitar and from pitch to pitch, from top C on fret 8 down to bottom A on the open fifth. It's fun to play, though some sensitive listening will be needed when to ensure the tune isn't drowned out when it drops low. Glockenspiel by Lévesque is a 16-bar piece entirely in natural harmonics. Now you wouldn't think there were enough 7th- and 12th-fret harmonics to make a presentable set of three-note chords out of, but there are, and it ends up a rather delicate little piece. It steers away from the more difficult 5th- and 4th-fret harmonics, so it's surprisingly robust and the harmonic harmonies speak well. Joplin's The Entertainer is hardly folk or pop, but it's been shoehorned in, and it's a very good arrangement indeed - a little bit of fifth position in Guitar One and everything else is ostensibly first position. A couple of the bass 'vamps' seem a little unusual where the three notes in the triads have had to be shared out in a way that flows for each part, but I suspect that this piece alone would justify most teachers buying the book. The overall level of the pieces is probably Grade 3 and that's going to open the book up figuratively and hopefully literally to a large number of learners."

Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)