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Spanish and classical Songs
25 Traditional, Festive, Spanish and Classical guitar songs.
Guitar technique exercises
17 exercises for stretching the fingers, developing the arpeggio and picado.
Scale maps and backing tracks
Backing tracks at two different speeds with scale maps.
Video links or DVD
DVD with the printed book or link to the videos.
Songs for Spanish and classical guitar
Songs for Spanish and Classical Guitar offers 17 guitar technique exercises and 25 songs to learn in the form of a book and DVD.
Are you a guitarist who wants to improve your repertoire, or are you just starting out and looking for some songs to learn? Do you like improvising against backing tracks with the help of chord charts and scale maps?
This book and DVD package will increase your knowledge of theory, improve your technique, and introduce familiar and original songs to your playlist. The book begins with a series of 17 arpeggio, picado, and stretching studies; but the bulk of the text consists of songs divided into three categories: Christmas/festive songs; Spanish and classical titles, all of them original; and traditional songs from Europe and the Americas. This varied repertoire is both fun and challenging to play. You will find that mastering these songs will help you to improve your barre, arpeggio, picado, and rumba techniques.
Titles include:
- Festive Songs: Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry
Christmas (solo and duo versions), Jingle Bells, Auld Lang Syne, Happy
Birthday (solo and duo versions). - Spanish and Classical Songs: Eight Drops of Life, Ophelia Storm, The Castle, Rain, Camino, Journey, Bluebird, Blue Balloons.
- Traditional Songs: Greensleeves (UK), Ten Penny Bit
(IE), Bella Ciao (IT), Spanish Romance (ES), Cielito Lindo (MX), La
Cucaracha (MX), La Bamba (MX), La Cumparsita (UY), Tico-Tico (BR),
Tavaszi Szel Vizet Araszt (HU)
Some of the songs include scale maps, chord charts, and backing tracks at two different speeds to help you to freely improvise your own melodies against the underlying chord structures.
Let’s hear how La Bamba’s backing track sounds at two different speeds:
The songs are available in traditional musical notation and TAB as well. If the song is written for two guitars, the chords for the backing track are written at the top of each bar and the chord charts are displayed at the end of the score.
In addition, left-hand fingering is shown for each song, and when it is not obvious right hand fingering is included as well.
About the author
Edina Balczo is an award-winning UK-based guitarist who has been playing the guitar for more than 20 years. This is her second book – her previous volume, Spanish Guitar Strumming Techniques, was published in 2018. She is a registered guitar tutor certified by the University of West London and hosts a popular YouTube channel, The Spanish Guitar Hub, which has received millions of views and attracted tens of thousands of subscribers for over a decade. She has been endorsed by GuitarPro (the originator of the GuitarPro scoring/tablature software program), and in 2019 won the Lukas (UK latin) awards with her guitar duo, De Fuego as the best Jazz/Folk Act of the Year. She also participates in a variety of collaborations with other musicians playing Mexican, pop, Spanish, and Latin music.
Let me introduce my team
Mark Wheeler
Editor. Proofread all the music score and even provided one arrangement.
Ron Celano
Editor. Proofread, structured, and formatted the manuscript.
Tony calvo
Sound Engineer at Epping Forest Recording Studio. Recorded & mixed all the music for the book.
Raz Olsher
Sound engineer at Fossil Studios. Mastered all the music for the book.
Peter Racz
Cinematographer and video editor at PT film. Filmed the DVD.
Diana Redai
Cinematographer and video editor at PT film. Filmed and edited the DVD.
Germancreative
Graphic designer at Fiverr. Designed the book cover.
Bill Gidda
Photographer at Eyemedia Studios. Made the cover picture.