Reviews for Great Orchestral Solos for Flute

The average rating for Great Orchestral Solos for Flute based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-04-26 00:00:00 Roxanne Newman As far as I’m concerned, this is a terrific book. What a pity it’s out of print! Overview DADGAD tuning has been steadily growing in popularity since it was pioneered by Davey Graham in the 1960’s; but if you’re used to playing in standard, a transition means not just relearning the fingerboard, but a shift in the way you think. In particular, if you’re a folk musician, it requires abandonment of the “What are the chords?” mentality, and a reorientation to the use of counterpoint and the drones that are so characteristic of Celtic music. In addition, for a finger-style guitarist, getting that characteristic DADGAD sound means rethinking the usual way of playing scales along the strings in favour of playing across them, in the manner that Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson innovated on the 5-string banjo. We may conveniently divide the world of DADGAD into it’s use with a plectrum/flatpick for back-up of dance tunes, and it’s finger-style use — either for more nuanced accompaniment, or for solos. Content The present opus is concerned with solos, and it’s one of the two that have most helped me to adjust — the other being Pierre Bensusan’s amazing first book from 1987, which is not so much a music book as a total brain-dump. The advantages of this one are a) although none of the pieces is for beginners, they are generally easier than some of those in the all-Bensusan book, which starts deceptively simply but later becomes virtuosic, and b) since all the pieces are by different artists, it gives a wider picture of the expressive range of this tuning. The guitarists represented are: James Earp Laurence Juber Doug Smith Bill Mize David Surette Eileen Niehouse Brooks Williams Peppino D’Agostino Adrian Legg Phil Keaggy Pete Huttlinger Pierre Bensusan Adrian Legg is famous for hybrid picking, i.e. flatpick and two fingers; but the notation here would seem to indicate thumb and three fingers in the conventional manner. The easiest piece is probably Ms. Niehouse’s arrangement of O’Carolan’s Draught, but none appears more difficult to me than high intermediate. My particular favourite is Doug Smiths The Rose and the Pearl (written in memory of his grandmother, Rosa Pearl Smith), which features a simple but beautiful melody over an ostinato bass line. All the pieces have something to offer, and there’s a wide variety: Laurence Juber’s, for instance, shows how to use the unusual (for DADGAD) key of F. Presentation The book has a soft cover, and opens flat easily. The music is given in staff notation and tablature. Comparison with the recordings did show up a few minor misprints (see below). The CD, with which a great deal of care has obviously taken, is a pleasure to listen to, and lasts 46'51". Summary If you have four or five years or more finger-style playing experience, and want to make the leap, I can’t recommend this too highly. Misprints In the following, “slur” means a hammer-on or pull-off. James Earp — The Twins The staff is mostly right, but there are some errors in the tab, and also all the slurs aren’t shown properly. • Bar 2: the slur should go through all three notes G-A-G, and not just from the A to the G. Also everywhere else that this phrase occurs (including bar 54, where for some reason the A is given on a different string). • Bar 26: the E should be slurred on to the following D, as in the previous bars (shown on the tab but not on the staff). • Bar 43: the F# should be on the 1st string (not the 2nd), and slurred on to the following E. Similarly for bar 45. • Bar 44: the F should be natural (despite the F# in the previous bar). The following D should be on the 1st string (not the 2nd) and slurred on to the following E. • Bars 45-46: the A-C-B-A should all be one long slur on the 2nd string. • Bar 47: The 1st D should be slurred on to the following E. • Bar 52: there should be a fermata (half a fried egg) above the bass D. • Bar 62: the last two notes should be E-F#, not F#-E. Doug Smith — The Rose and the Pearl • Bar 1: LH finger on the penultimate A should be 1 (not 3). Similarly in the same phrase elsewhere. • Bar 18: the final A and G look as though they’re together, but in fact they’re separate, as in bar 10. • Bar 86: the last note should be a D on the open 1st string (not an F#). Wrong in both the tab and the notation.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-10-25 00:00:00 Diarmuid Sands very very short but poignant booklet on practicing.