SCENES and THEMES
Scenes & Themes consists of 2 books :
The Teacher's Book which is spiral bound in glossy covers, consisting of the Teacher's and Students' parts as duets, together with brief explanatory notes as to the purpose behind each section.
The Student's Book stapled in glossy covers, with just the student's parts, printed boldly & clearly. The book comes complete with its complementary Compact Disc.
Scenes & Themes was written to provide the absolute beginner with additional material with which to reinforce the learning of basic musicianship, literacy and specific guitar skills. It is intended to complement any of the popular methods, and has been 'road-tested' successfully with students of all ages, both individually and in large groups. Fingering is minimal, with emphasis on internalising the first position, but for postural reasons left hand finger 4 has been suggested for the notes D and G on the top two strings; this is of course discretionary. Dynamics and phrasing marks (where appropriate) have been included in the new second edition (October 2008).
There are 27 pieces, of up to 32 bars length, grouped in five sections each of which focuses upon one aspect of the early stages of learning. For instance 'In the Country' (4 pieces) introduces the note A on the 3rd string, this being the first fingered note.The ground covered by the book completes the first position, deals with rhythms to quavers, and there is one accidental.
The teacher's accompaniments have been designed to be stylish and attractive, and to enable the very limited students' material to nevertheless produce performances which are attractive to audiences. The basic concept is that the teacher adopts the same rôle as any other instrumental teacher; that of providing a larger musical context within which the student plays simple material appropriate to his standard. Thus there are introductions which the student must count through, passages in which the student must listen to and respond to rubato and rallentando, and passages for student solos.
Scenes & Themes offers a wonderful way to introduce beginners to public performance. After only a few weeks a group of beginners can play on stage and give an effective, confident, musical performance with the support of their teacher.
The Teacher's accompaniments include first and second time endings, key signatures, swing rhythms and compound time against the student's simple time melodies. These do not appear in the student's books since they are to all intents and purposes 'transparent' to the student.
Scenes & Themes was revised in 2008, it now incorporates :
CD track numbers adjacent to each piece
Dynamics
Phrasing marks
minor improvements to students' melodies
See sample pages from Scenes and Themes
Read about the Compact Disc
Read the Review in Classical Guitar Magazine