20 Spanish Baroque Pieces by Gaspar Sanz Arranged for Uke

Since I've bought this volume, I've managed to learn about five of the 20 songs. Many are quite short and are within the skills of even a novice player just learning different finger picking styles, and some are quite difficult and will require patience to master. The supplied audio is excellent and offers tremendous help in styling (where the sheet music itself might fall short in showing the ornamentation of different parts, for example strumming a chord vs picking it). I found at least one inconsistency between the standard notation and the tablature, but was able to resolve the chord based on listening and deduction. Read carefully, listen to the tracks, and be thoughtful about what's correct if you're confused.I particularly like the sequencing of the songs. Tunes with similar melodies or chord progressions or themes will appear side by side, but in different time signatures and styles, forcing you to think and adjust your playing while reinforcing familiar movements.This is one of my favorite song books, filled with beautiful arrangements. I practice from it nearly every day. Highly recommended.

This book is a real gem. Rob MacKillop has done a fine job of transcribing these guitar pieces and adapting them for ukulele. One thing to be aware of is that the arranger makes the most of the ukulele's re-entrant tuning (i.e., the G is a fifth higher than the C string). Consequently, even if you are a decent music reader, you will find yourself using the tabs, as the fingering can be counter-intuitive. For example, you might find yourself playing a passage that is an upward scale, yet you need to reach down and plunk the G string as the passage steps upward. It's counter-intuitive for those of us who play guitar, but it works for uke and allows us to play just a little faster.I would rate this book as intermediate to advanced. You might get discouraged if you were to buy this as your first finger style book. However, if you have been at it for a while, you will enjoy the challenge.One more thing: the recordings have no "clicks" to establish the tempo. They are just straight-ahead recordings of the pieces as they are meant to be played. So you could really buy this book just to listen to the CD. The arrangements are quite nice to listen to.

This is a magnificent book. I have been playing the guitar for many years, and picked up the ukulele a few years ago. I would say these arrangements are for intermediate players, which are hard to find, I'm discovering. The arrangements range from fairly easy to pretty difficult, and I've definitely gotten better by making my way through this book. The pieces translate beautifully to ukulele. I wish there was another volume! I've looked at some of his other books, and the tunes aren't nearly as interesting.

I wanted to get back into music so I bought a ukulele and many books for it. I wanted to challenge myself so I chose to try to learn the most difficult genre I could find. The pieces included in the book are very beautiful and arranged well for the Ukulele. I want to extend my thanks to Rob Mackillop for the time spent on arranging the pieces. Most of the other ukulele books I purchased from other authors were rather dull, too easy, and felt like they were published simply for the money. This book however does not feel that way. You can almost feel the authors excitement when learning the pieces. The CD is very helpful and a joy to listen too. The book uses standard notation and tablature so it's very easy to work through the songs. For reference, I have been playing ukulele for 3 months, owned this book for one month, and I'm on the third piece in the book. I consider myself beginner/intermediate and if I can get this far, anybody can.

I love the music in this little book. It is beautiful. I'm new to playing the ukulele, and this collection of music lets you appreciate how varied the Uke can be. Played slowly some remind me of the background music you would hear in the queens chamber in old movies like "Cleopatra" or "The ten Comandments" (maybe thats what DeMill used! LOL) Plus a number of these pieces, I think, are very do-able for a beginner. They sure do make me sound better than I am.

The music in this book is not technically challenging, but it sounds beautiful if you put the work in. Even if you slow the tempo it still sounds great. It also helps you build chops in several keys since many of the patterns re-occur. The cd that comes with it lets you know what it's supposed to sound like. I'll never get the speed he plays with, but this is highly satisfying music to play and can be addicting since success is not difficult to attain. Just play! I do not recommend it for baritone uke with low d, since it's specifically written for standard uke tuning. Rather than playing one piece and stopping I play several in a row like a suite and it works very well. Enjoy!

This book will prove a bit hard for the beginner and the intermediate player. Most people attempting to tackle this book should be familiar with the basics of reading sheet music and how it translates to the ukulele, since this book won't really explain it.That said, this book has some really cool songs and will give beginners like me a good challenge, especially if looking to get more into ukulele.

I downloaded the Kindle Edition of this book on the same day I bought my Ukulele. (Because I couldn't wait to play it!) I have over ten years of guitar playing experience, but I only recently picked up the Uke. I found this book to be challenging enough to keep me interested, and the quality of the music and arrangements is outstanding. Whenever someone suggests that Ukulele is easy to play/not a serious instrument, I play them an example out of this book to prove them wrong.

Really good transcriptions and enjoyable to play. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is that you can't really play these on a Baritone uke or low g tuning as it just doesn't sound right. But if you're looking for normal tuning repertoire, especially for a more classical approach, this book is great!

I like the musical arrangements but the item is not as described because the stated downloadable audio allegedly available using the code given inside the book does not exist. The code accesses the Melbay website directing one to buy the book.......absolutely ridiculous.

Arranging 5 course guitar pieces for re-entrant ukulele isn't new, but these pieces by Sanz are particularly suitable, and Rob MacKillop does them full justice, both arrangement, and the excellent playing. Essential.

I found this book excellent and very easy to play on the ukulele, I am classical a guitar player and very familiar with the works of Gasper Sanz, the book has a CD which is very useful especially if you don't sight read music and don't know how the piece should sound. Rob Mckillop has done an excellent job of transposing the music to suit the ukulele and it works well, there is the added addition of tableture for anyone who doesn't read music.

Not for learners and sufficiently complex for those of average experience using tablature. The Canarios tab is very good. Others might be less well known.