Contemporary Christmas Guitar: Guitar TAB Book & CD

You get three distinct arranging voices on one disc, each bringing their own fingerstyle vocabulary to familiar material. The TAB book pairs perfectly with the recordings, letting students hear exactly how these pieces should breathe and where the finger work sits in the mix. It's rare to find holiday guitar music this sophisticated that still stays playable.

These arrangements treat Christmas music with real musical intelligence. You'll find warm harmonic colors, tasteful counterpoint, and space for the instrument to resonate naturally. It's festive without being sentimental; thoughtful without losing joy.

Intermediate to advanced guitarists looking for repertoire beyond standard Christmas fare, and teachers who want to program serious acoustic guitar work during the winter season. This book works equally well for ensemble performance contexts or solo recitals.

• Listen through the corresponding arrangement on the CD multiple times before tackling the TAB. Each arranger's phrasing and tempo choices are subtle but important for authenticity.
• Pay attention to open string resonance in pieces like 'Away in a Manger' and 'Silent Night.' Let notes ring where the arrangement allows rather than dampening them out of habit.
• Work through the Juber arrangements slowly to lock in the countermelody and bass line interaction. These aren't single-line pieces, and rushing will blur the texture.
• Use the rhythm section from Doug Smith's arrangements as a grounding reference if you're playing along with the CD. His fingerpicking patterns establish the harmonic foundation clearly.

Feature this music in a December concert alongside classical chamber work or as part of a winter festival that mixes genres. Solo guitarists can build an entire short recital from these 12 pieces, or select three or four for a holiday assembly program. The quality of the playing on the included CD also makes it perfect for background music during rehearsals in November and early December.

• Reading and executing fingerstyle TAB notation with multiple voices
• Managing open string resonance and decay in acoustic settings
• Interpreting variation in tempo and phrasing from recorded models
• Balancing melody, countermelody, and bass line in three-voice writing
• Applying left-hand muting and damping techniques selectively