The Professional Pianist -- Solos for Christmas: 50 Advanced Arrangements

I like this book. Good for advanced pianists.

Some really good songs...

Let me know if you like my review. This will encourage me to continue writing and updating my reviews, and leave a comment if you have any questions, I will be more than happy to answer if I can be of help :)Beautiful arrangements of piano music. Some are easier than others, which gives a good range of pieces that you can pick up right away and others that you'll want to spend a little more time working on.This collection of 50 beloved Christmas songs has been crafted to provide professional-sounding, easily prepared arrangements for busy pianists. Each arrangement has been carefully engraved for easy reading, and approximate performance times have been included to assist with planning set lists. Perfect for holiday parties, light concerts, or other festive gatherings, these piano solos will provide a valuable resource of crowd-pleasing favorites. Titles: Angels We Have Heard on High * Auld Lang Syne * Away in a Manger * Believe (from The Polar Express) * The Christmas Waltz * Deck the Halls * The First Noel * Frosty the Snowman * Ges? Bambino (The Infant Jesus) * The Gift * Go, Tell It on the Mountain * God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen * Good King Wenceslas * Grown-Up Christmas List * Hark! The Herald Angels Sing * Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas * A Holly Jolly Christmas * (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays * I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day * I'll Be Home for Christmas * It Came Upon the Midnight Clear * It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year * Jingle Bell Rock * Jingle Bells * Jolly Old Saint Nicholas * Joy to the World * Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! * Let There Be Peace on Earth * Mary, Did You Know? * O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum) * O Come, All Ye Faithful * O Come, O Come Emmanuel * O Holy Night * O Little Town of Bethlehem * Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree * Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer * Santa Baby * Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town * Sending You a Little Christmas * Silent Night * Sleigh Ride * There Is No Christmas Like a Home Christmas * Toyland * Ukrainian Bell Carol * Up on the Housetop * We Three Kings of Orient Are * We Wish You a Merry Christmas * What Child Is This? * When Christmas Comes to Town (from The Polar Express) * Winter Wonderland. 136 pages.

It’s not bad… but it’s definitely not advanced, and all of the arrangements are very uninteresting. Nothing stands out about them. Really beautiful songs that don’t have their beauty stand out in any meaningful way with these dull arrangements.

This book is a great anthology to bring along to a party or play through at home during the Christmas season. I love that it is easy enough for an advanced player to sight-read because usually during the Christmas season (unless you're playing a recital) you're going to play a good handful of pieces and not just one or two. These aren't overly complicated showstopper arrangements, which is nice because although you might want to polish a few frilly arrangements during the season, you probably don't want to spend all your time piecing together very technical or difficult pieces. This book is great to pull out for playing through a whole lot of Christmas favorites! I was hesitant to buy this book because I had read a review that some of the arrangements were 'funky' but I did not run across this at all. From what I have played through, they are all straightforward and accurate. Many songs are written with only one verse, but it's obviously very easy to go back and play as many verses as you'd like. Pretty arrangement, not too simple and great for singing along if you already know the words!

This sheet music is perfect for me! I consider myself to be somewhere between an intermediate and an advanced player. A lot of pieces, I could play through very easily, and others did seem more on the advanced level. I like how most songs were short and on the title page of each song, it shows you the approximate playing time. I tend to get bored after a minute or two of playing a song, so the shorter versions are great for me. I think the audience will enjoy shorter songs too so that a variety of songs can be played for a family Christmas party. A lot of people are complaining on their reviews about how the book doesn't stay open. I have never had a piano book that stays open until you bend the heck out of the spine! I'm happy with this purchase and I would recommend it.

This is a great book for intermediate piano players. The pieces aren’t difficult, but some are surprisingly challenging. There are some interesting adaptations of traditional Christmas carols. I would definitely recommend it if you are looking to add to your collection of seasonal sheet music.

I don't like the arrangement much. If you like it, this will be good solos for Christmas. Remember, this is not for the beginner.

From a preliminary flick and playing a couple (ish)...Some are mainly crochets but with maybe 5 (or 4 to 6 -- book isn't directly infront of me) notes playing at a time (e.g. away in a manger); some/a few you have triplets, semi-quavers, quavers overlapping or directly next to each-other (e.g. santa baby -- which i'm personally particularly pleased is included), again one can expect to be playing similar amounts of notes at once as the former. The fact you are playing a number of notes makes it sound 'full' as others have mentioned. Some are quite a quick pace. I'd imagine a proper pro could `sight read' much of it or all of them quite well.Left hand usually (again from quick look and the couple I tried) tends to a fairly consistent repeated thing in terms of rhythm and vaguely often note pattern that changes with the chords with little variation around it, which makes it easier to pick up. Might be a mix of single and multiple notes.Music appears generally melodic in the sense that there aren't many 'shocker'/discordant -- or in many cases any -- which makes them quicker to pick up.The spine seems to withstand really wedging it open less than some books -- maybe that means it's going to be more prone to fall apart, I'm not sure!No lyrics -- some people like having them for some it doesn't matter. It's not a voice and piano book so it does make sense not to have them, and makes the page less cluttered, but at the same time, it is a bit of christmas light fun so it wouldn't be terrible to have them in small in there. But i'd probably be getting distracted trying to sing along anyway so probably no bad thing for me!Of the couple I tried (i picked two I'd guesstimate to be around the around middling level of those in the book and one of the hardest ones), the arrangements sounded nice, but I wouldn't say they really sounded immediately like the song, but probably that was me and my playing and not having really looked to identify the main singing melody line amongst the number of notes being played that one identifies a song with in the tunes and playing appropriately(!) I'll try and find them a bit more next time.For me personally it's quite nice to have some that can be played most of quite quickly and easily, and some that can be played to some degree of serviceably after playing a few times, or after a bit of practice.The 4 is more tentative. After a couple of playings of a few of them and dipping into it a bit more I might expect it to raise to a 5. I'm quite happy with it.

I love the phillip keveren christmas medleys arrangements, but i wanted more variation. This has a wide variation of christmas songs i love. I was pleased to see the level of music was higher and the pieces sound lovely. It can start off simple in some pieces but get more richer in sound throughout.Anyone concerned about the thickness of the book to keep it flat, just use a paper clip.Arranged enough to sound less hymn like but still hear the traditional melody. Very pleased!

About grade 6 ish level. Good selection and arrangements. Some silly page turns -would be better spiral bound but good overall 👍😊

I’d been looking for a book of Christmas piano arrangements for ages, this book is just the thing for solo piano. Variety of music and some lovely arrangements that I’m looking forward to learning properly for next Christmas. The arrangements are good for intermediate to advanced players.

A pleasant selection of pieces by the arranger. Some look simple, however to make them sound professional, you need to be a good pianist. Good for seasonal teaching material. Some pieces are quite short and good for sight reading but many need a higher level of capability.