Blues Suite

5 guitares (+ basse optionelle)

The performance notes, whilst a little minimalist, are very welcome and helpful and fully briefed I slid comfortably into this three-piece suite.
The three pieces are each orchestrated with tune on top, bass underneath and some arpeggios or counter-melodies to provide the filling to this musical sandwich. The bass line would be delightful an octave lower, a point not lost on the composer. Early Morning Blues has a pulsating bass over which sit some very playable boogie-woogie lines, entering one at a time in a very effective fanfare. With five lines of music, the tune is necessarily up high, although the other parts fit nicely in the first and second positions. Even the tune is nice and comfortable to play, and a working knowledge of only the top two strings up the neck will be fine. This is a nicely crafted piece that is a real foot-tapper. Set in the key of A with 6=D, it's bright and full of energy with some lovely deep bass and a couple of little bass runs that add a lovely stylistic embellishment to the music. Melancholy Blues is in 6/8 with that slow triplet feeling and mournful D minor chords that conjure up a gloomy nightclub late at night... Here the relaxed pace is punctuated with some bending of the long notes, but also some semiquavers (sixteenth notes) that I suspect a player of limited experience might gabble a bit. But there is a regular arpeggio underneath that defines the beat exactly, so no real harm would come. Some of the arpeggios are really rather lovely - minor sevenths and ninths, and the accompaniment is a stylish blend of clever writing and well-thought-out progressions that are easily played to wonderful effect. Partytime, in E, has almost a Tamla Motown feel to it and the tune has a cheeky call-and-response style, still sitting on what is ostensibly a 12-bar blues structure. Once more only the top part needs to venture up the neck, but care will need to be taken to get the positions sorted out so that the notes are under the fingers. The large number of sharps and naturals can be very off-putting to someone who is still learning, but with careful fingering, the music is very playable. The upper line is definitely marginally more difficult, and is probably suited to a Grade 5 player who will have the musical maturity as well as the raw technique to carry off this atmospheric suite, The lower parts would probably suit Grade 3 players.
Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)