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Arranged Xmas/holiday music book recommendations?


Gribs

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Hey guys, do you have any Xmas/holiday music book recommendations? I have some guitar/mandolin books with melodies, chords, and lyrics that I can use like a fake book, but what about arrangements? I just took a look at sheetmusicplus.com because they are having a sale up to and including today. Both of us are playing around the SP Level 6-7 right now. I would like something with more titles than just the Charlie Brown Christmas stuff, though I suppose I could get that.

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I would like something with more titles than just the Charlie Brown Christmas stuff, though I suppose I could get that.

 

 

Too bad you're not interested in the "Charlie Brown Christmas stuff" because the Vince Guaraldi arrangements in the piano solos book are excellent jazz arrangements. I go through that book every year to brush up on some Christmas music.

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Yeah I know, I ended up ordering the Charlie Brown book and also another one called "Cool Yule" that got some good reviews on sheetmusicplus.com. It seems that many of the Xmas music books rated highly are "easy piano" books and I don't want that. My son finished all the songs in Jazz, Rags, & Blues Book 2 and is almost done with Book 3 (working with our teacher) in the same series. They are pretty good sounding songs really, and he is going to play 20 minutes worth of them at some special dinner at an assisted living center dinner in a few weeks (our teacher's best three students are volunteering to entertain). The same composer (Martha Mier) has a Christmas piano book too, but I wanted to get something different for him (and me). It is sorta like a musical equivalent of the way that not reading the same author all the time helps improve his vocabulary.

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Mr. Gribs,

 

I would check out Abersold fake books. There are a few good ones in that collection. If that's waht you're looking for. Otherwise Hal Leonard also is a great source. They don't sell direct but will suggest a distributor or a local music store wher you p/up your order.

 

Regards,

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The following folks just emailed me the suggestion that I'd like to buy some of their chirstmas wares:

 

 

Doug did you ever buy anything from them before? Are the arrangements any good? They seem to have a very large library. I have a couple of books shipped already from Sheetmusicplus.com, but I will keep this place in mind for future. Thanks for the info.

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I usually use musicnotes.com if only because I've used them before etc. I don't much use sheet music except to extract the chords sometimes if I'm stumped or to get a verse or something. Some of the collections seem reasonable, but I have some trouble swallowing $5 for a single out-of-copyright arrangement. Mostly (99%) I play from lyrics & chords.

 

My biggest problem with sheet music is that I'm a baritone and it's always pitched for tenor. Which means that I have to transpose; boo! Easier to do it by ear.

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