There's no doubt about it, there has been quite a bit of thought behind the writing of these eleven pieces, Each one has something different and of value to offer, both musically and technically. Take the first one for instance; here is a work which would be ideally suited for the Grade 1 student wishing to explore the upper regions of the fingerboard in an easy fashion with a simple melody line. Then there is the Homage à Baden, a work more suited to the Grade 2 student and a piece which has overtones of the style of the great Baden Powell having sorne very nice arpeggiated chord sequences in a latin-jazz flavouring. Moving further along through the album we encounter a Grade 4-5 "creepy" work concerning monsters complete with tongue clicks, vocals, Bartok-pizzicato and strong dissonances, This is followed by an attractive Brazilian-flavoured work before the book concludes with three pieces in the styles of Brouwer, ragtime and more South American with a delightfully rhythmic work which explores the length of the fingerboard, these final three pieces reaching the upper Grade levels.
Steve Marsh (Classical Guitar)
