Aimed at players around Grade 2 and 3, this second-level book also guides guitarists through some ideas beyond that. Exploring higher positions with a cogent argument that they may be more difficult to read but not to play, the wisdom and encouragement of the charismatic Miloš is evident from the outset.
There is some emphasis on chords, an area important to the instrument all too often lacking among classical reading learners. These are explored both musically and as technical fingered shapes. Some TAB notation is given when pragmatic. An informative glossary explains terms by cross-referencing bold words throughout the book. Audio is available online for pieces given a special symbol, as are scores and parts for the duets.
Pictures feature significantly throughout, lending the book a suitably relaxed atmosphere in keeping with the author's text. His observations are both personal and encouraging. Although learners should perhaps have grasped posture, fingering, instrument and accessory basics by now, such images here are as per the Level 1 book.
Warm-up routines are offered, including one very similar to Odair Assad's infamous fretting hand exercise. The excellent arrangements are for the most part by Carl Herring. His sterling work for both solo and duo material is well printed. This is evident from the first tune, ‘Peddlers’, which is a traditional Russian melody that we're informed was the basis for the Tetris game theme. With this, Miloš immediately sets out his stall, approaching music with a wide cultural embrace. It includes a bass melody, and advice is given on bringing this out during performance.
The second piece is a beautiful four-note dotted minim melody with a quaver arpeggio accompaniment below from Reginald Smith Brindle's Guitarcosmos 1, a wonderful resource too often overlooked now.
Martin Hegel's simple arrangement of the main theme of Liszt's Liebestraum gives the author a chance to put celebrated musicians in context – after all, there is in many aspects very little intrinsic difference in character between what is here referred to as a ‘classical pop star’ and rock idols of recent years.
Apoyando (introduced as ‘rest stroke’ with a glossary reference) is explained in terms of its vital musical effect and usage. Campanella technique is also introduced, its effect amply described. Here, some cross-referencing – with scales familiar from the first book – helps continuity and progress. Such aspects of guitar articulation are also put into context, highlighting musicality – the importance of bringing out melody and allowing accompaniment harmony to sustain. These essentials of guitar playing need this kind of prominence in the learning process. Although virtuosic, Miloš is an advocate of the relevance of musicality and enjoyment at all levels. Like Sor and others since, he celebrates the musicality of the instrument including the many different sonic possibilities and tonal colours of the guitar. As well, he promotes the pleasure and usefulness of short and/or gentle pieces, not only for personal enjoyment but also for delighting audiences with little gems, for example as encores.
Ear training, legato and syncopation also feature. A piece by Sor is used to introduce (partial) barre (‘bar’) chords. Creative advice on scale practice is offered: many tutors teach this way but too many do not, leaving scales as dry exercises, pure finger patterns or disconnected theory. It is also good to see how much modal music is explored with a sense of investigation and discovery. It is peculiar that modal scales have been considered somehow exotically strange or unusual in classical music education for so long, despite their prominence in so many eras of music. The Lydian mode is explored via Bartók, tablature put into historical context with a facsimile and arrangement of Adrian Le Roy. Pieces from around the world abound, including a catchy Macedonian dance in seven-time.
Tárrega's Gran Vals features as an extract. Bars 13 to 17 make up the (in)famous Nokia ringtone, almost certainly the best-known quotation from the classical guitar repertoire. Here it is presented as a simplified arrangement in C major in first position. Given other positional explorations in the book, just the four bars of the theme itself in its original form would not have been out of place perhaps, nor beyond the scope of this volume. Nonetheless, a sense of fun with famous phrases is very much part of the entertaining and instructional flamboyancy on offer here. Mertz makes a welcome appearance, and the book finishes with an arrangement of a Bach cello suite – a C major bourrée rendered attractively, but very unusually, for the guitar into E flat major.
An aspiring player will have progressed well both as a technical guitarist and as a musician with the first two books. Especially welcome is the breadth of musical appreciation and the placing of so much music and musical history in context.
Each page exudes enthusiasm as well as excellent advice from someone who has worked hard and been successful. Miloš has used his success to point out that the study of music is not only for those who are to become professionals and, for those who do so, not just about technical prowess. Although fingering is recommended and offered where helpful, there is a sense in these books that music is an opportunity for anyone and everyone to express and enjoy ourselves. Where will Level 3 take us? We can hardly wait!
