RODRIGO – WITH BACKING?

The May edition of GT has just arrived and having flicked through it and read Talkback, I feel obliged to write to you. I think it’s great that you may be

introducing more chord melody soon and look forward to it. Having bought GT regularly for 15 years now and a few earlier editions off Ebay too, the main highlights for me each month are the jazz and classical columns. Bridget continues to do a terrific job with her transcriptions and I look forward to having a go at the Mallorca Barcarola in D Minor in this month’s edition. I do have this piece in a book of six pieces by Albeniz in A Minor, but this looks great too.

Perhaps more traditional classical guitar repertoire pieces like this too would be good rather than popular classical piano and orchestra pieces transcribed for guitar. I appreciate its hard to get the right balance. Which reminds me, regarding Rodrigo’s concerto, I would be very impressed if GT produced a decent backing track for that with accompanying subscription. It’s one of those pieces with its mainly single line melody that sounds a bit empty and pointless on its own. Of course I’m referring to the second movement Adagio section in B Minor here. Regarding gear reviews, personally I would be disappointed to see them introduced into GT - that was why I stopped getting Guitar Monthly, after a couple of years: too many reviews and not enough tuition. Anyway, keep up the good work and I’ll keep buying for years to come.

Alan Beecroft

Thanks for your kind words, Alan. Bridget is always pleased to hear that her articles are hitting the spot. Rodrigo is a beautiful piece, too, but sadly it’s still in copyright and therefore way too expensive to run at the moment. How things have changed! Hitting the right balance with our one classical piece each issue is not easy, but I think the range we offer is pretty good.