Mark Hanson's Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar: (Book & CD)12 Beautiful Songs & Carols for Solo Guitar

This is one of my favorite Christmas books. It has increasing difficulty, examples of how to play with or add to a piece of music, fun tuning options and info about the song or advice. It may not start off as easy as some books, but it has a wide skill level to grow into or explore.

When buying a book of arrangements to classic tunes from an artist I never heard of before worries me because I don't have any idea what kind of quality the arrangements are going to be. On such books my biggest question is: Is this book for the performing musician or for the beginner student wanting to learn some simple arrangements?Mark Hanson's Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar book is made for the intermediate/advanced player wanting to learn performance worthy arrangements of Christmas tunes. This book is great for the gigging guitarist who'd like to include some solo guitar versions of Christmas tunes for the holiday season. It's also great for the intermediate/advanced student (which we all are students no matter the ability) to learn some cool techniques: such as playing melody in bass, voice leading, bass lines, some reharmonization (such as Good Christian Men Rejoice having a minor section), use of harmonics and contrapuntal techniques (movement in the inner voices/the tenor and alto voice).The book does have tunes that range from easy to difficult, but it is important to say that the easy arrangements aren't basic/watered down/so-so arrangements. All the tunes are beautifully arranged and performance worthy. The easier tunes are simply easy because the tune (such as The First Noel) is just a simpler tune and the techniques used aren't as difficult as the harder tunes. The First Noel is a great example of a simple tune that is still greatly arranged. That tune has good voice leading and a nice contrast with the melody in the bass for the 2nd stanza. Easy doesn't equal poor, overly basic arrangement. It simply equals easier to play.Some of these arrangements sound very traditional and others are more modern.The accompanying cd sounds great as well. It's a good quality made cd that can stand by itself.Lastly, some tunes have alternative tunings, such as Angels We Have Heard on High which uses the tuning: DGDF#BD. A handful of tunes are in standard tuning but there are also a handful in other tunings.This book is exactly what I was looking for. It is a great book with high quality performance worthy Christmas arrangements that shouldn't disappoint.

This is a fantastic book for the intermediate guitar player! If you are a classical player and you want to play some Christmas tunes I suggest you go out and buy this book.I initially bought another book by the same author called "Fingerstyle Jazz Images for Christmas." That book was too difficult for me to hit the ground running with, so I went and purchased this book hoping for something a bit less challenging. After all, Christmas carols are for fun, right? This book did not disappoint me. 12 beautifully arranged works that do still provide a challenge but are definitely playable! Go and buy it!Cons? The fingerings aren't always written in. I think the fingerings are on the chords above the notation, but I like having the little 3's, 4's and 1's there so I know the artist's intended fingerings. Also, there is a discrepancy between the tabs and notation in silent night (on a D7 chord and in passing tones on the variation 2nd measure). I will investigate more places, but I've only had so much time to play.

This book is a little odd. The tunes start really basic, then work their way up. The tunes in the back of the book are really nice, and are "gig-ready." My biggest complaint however is that many of the tunes in the middle of the book (which look like good arrangements of good songs) are in weird tunings - and I'm not talking about drop D or even drop D/G...no, these entail tuning multiple strings down. That may be fine for some, but for me when I'm out gigging as a solo player I'm okay with tuning my E string down, or my E and A down (or carrying a second guitar for drop D stuff), but I'm not retuning the whole thing for a song or two (with all the string stretching and stuff).I've also ordered some of Hanson's other stuff. This was my first exposure to him, and from what I've seen here I do like his style. Definitely worth checking out.

This is my second Mark Hanson fingerstyle book (the other is his Beyond Basics book.) The Christmas songs in this one are very well chosen, including absolutely stunning arrangements of Go Tell It On The Mountain and In Dulci Jubilo. It's worth the price for the CD that accompanies the book, just to hear Hanson playing!The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that it's misleading to call four of these songs "easy." These so-called "easy" songs are definitely not what most people would think of as easy! Others have made similar comments about the book being for intermediate to advanced players, and I completely agree. But if you have a few years playing experience and are at least an "advanced beginner" with respect to fingerstyle playing, then I highly recommend this collection of great songs.

Mark Hanson is one of the best arrangers for fingerstyle guitar, and this is up to his usual standards. The arrangements are fairly complex, employing the upper registers and techniques like harmonics -- it is at intermediate level at least, Each song is preceded by a discussion with performance notes, chord charts, and other aids. Some of the arrangements are in alternative tunings. I don't usually use tunings beyond dropped D and lute tuning (G dropped to F#), but Hanson's arrangements illustrate how lovely the guitar can sound when opened up with alternative tunings. They might encourage the conservative guitarist to look into tunings beyond the standards. Rather expensive for a 12-song book, but well worth it in terms of quality.

Book is ok but I was disappointed the words to the songs are not in it.

Avevo sempre desiderato trovare una raccolta di spartiti di canti natalizi per suonarli in modo fingerstyle, lo consiglio a tutti!