100 Graded Classical Guitar Studies – Selected and Graded by Frederick Noad | Essential Guitar Exercises for Developing Technique and Musicality | Classical Sheet Music for Guitarists

I don't like this collection.My background: about ten years playing a steel-string acoustic guitar. I've had exactly five lessons (a long time ago). I competently play mostly rhythm and open-tuning, flat-picking. Also, I've had formal instruction on the trumpet and informal (read: mom) on the piano. I saw a good deal on a classical guitar, and I've always wanted to play; so . . .About the book: The pieces are all great . . . But:Nothing in the description states its level of difficulty. I bought it assuming that "100 Graded" meant that it had to start somewhere near the bottom and work up. Nope. Within the first 10 pages, there are studies too hard for me to pick up in a couple of hours. Carcassi/Sor studies near the middle of the book, however, are relatively easy (play on site and 2-3 hours to sound competent). It would be very helpful if the publisher provided a preview of the book's contents.One of the reviewers mentioned this book not needing any notation beyond that provided by the original composers. I disagree. If you want the original composers' versions, they are abundantly available here and elsewhere. Mr. Noad, however, has produced a compilation of studies. Mr. Noad should have provided additional notation or suggestions. After all, anyone can use a copy machine.While on the subject of copiers. The thick binding won't allow the book to stay on my music stand. Instead, I have to use a chair and a thick book to hold it. (not an ideal situation) One reviewer suggested making copies. If I wanted to make copies, I could just print these public-domain studies from the Internet.The book needs a companion CD. The CD doesn't need to come with the book, but one should be available. The music is out there, but it's spread over so many different sources, it would cost hundreds of bucks to buy all of them. I'd gladly pay a few tens of dollars to have this compilation in the order of the book.The are a lot of keys. What's the complaint, right? If you look at Sor's Op. 60, the 25 studies are mostly C, D, G . . . all first/second position stuff. Carcassi's Op. 60 is the same way. In this collection, the keys from one study to the next change drastically. Maybe there's a good reason for this (to change the student's frame of mind from one to the next, etc.), but it's annoying to me. Better would be one or two keys for several studies, and then a change.The studies don't seem to follow a logical path that I can discern: tempo, style, key, etc. I'm not a music teacher like many of the reviewers. Maybe one of them can set me straight.Instead:I suggest printing Sor's Opus 60 (all 25) from the Internet. You can find it for free through Google. (It's public domain and not pirating.) Or, you can buy it here  Fernando Sor: The Complete Studies for Guitar . Next, I suggest buying Nicholas Goluses' "SOR: 25 Progressive Studies, Op. 60 / Fantaisie Elegiaque" for $8:  Sor: Fantaisies / Progressive Studies . Similarly, you can do this with Giuliani and Carcassi.Lastly, if you can already play a majority of these studies on site because you've had at least three consistent and consecutive years of classical study, then please ignore most of what I've said. You should have stopped reading as soon as you got to the part about my background :p

Much of what I learned about classical guitar playing came from Frederick Noad's early editions of Solo Guitar Playing and his marvelous collections by period. I use these books to this day, when I have resumed playing after a very long lapse.This graded collection is exactly what it claims to be, a collection of pieces in rough order of difficulty, providing material mostly along the intermediate spectrum (no virtuoso pieces). That's good for most players, as even advanced players will want to use these to fill out a repertoire. The pieces are arranged in Mr. Noad's typical manner, with a brief word about the piece, careful fingering and positioning, and notes for passages that may be a little more difficult or which require extra attention. In this respect I've never seen arrangements so well done.The book contains a lot of music for the money and a tremendous amount of enjoyment. I do wish it were spiral-bound and would stay open more readily, but there are ways around that. (If you're not particular about book preservation you can carefully cut off the glued spine, and three-hole punch the rest to put in a binder.)If there ever was a 5-star book in the classical guitar category, this, and Mr. Noad's other books, are it.

These are very well known pieces readilly available in other places and probably for free download. However this book gather all of them in a book that makes sense. Some of the pieces are boring and simple, but some are rewarding when you play them. If you are an advanve or even intermidiate player, many of these pieces can be used as a warm up for a more challenging practice. And if you are a beginner, practicing and playing them (even the boring ones) is like a good and balance way to keep learning technique and form from a solid and a good base. Well worth the value.

I purchased this book twice. Once many years ago before I was even remotely serious about playing classical guitar. Then, like many of the reviewers on this site, I agree that the studies are not in fact well-graded for novice players. I fuddled through some of the pieces with very simple rythms that remained in first position. Most of the book was unplayable for me.After I lost my original copy, I bought this book again recently after having studied with a very good classical teacher for about 4 years. I had the book spiral bound to eliminate the usual frustration ($4 at staples). I now find that I can read through just about every study without much difficulty. I think Noad's notes are very good and it is normally very clear to me what I should be getting from each study at a technical level. I agree with others who have said that this isn't the most exciting collection and it seems a bit random. That's what I like about it. I keep it near my music stand at all times. When I am feeling bored with other things I am working on, I open it to a random page and instantly find something that is playable with great notes about where to focus. The right and left hand fingering suggestions are generally excellent.

I bought this to improve my finger style guitar playing. It is going to be very difficult to get through all the exercises but this is an excellent work.

A entrega foi rápida e o produto é muito bom. Recomendo!

A collection of graded (increasing complexity) guitar music seems like a good idea, so I happily ordered this collection for a friend who is trying to learn classical guitar. Two problems I noticed as soon as I got the book. First, there's no tab, it's all standard music staves (I didn't realize this when I ordered the book). This will be an issue for those learning from tablature. Second, the pieces are mostly exercise-type works, none of which will be familiar to the player (although based on works by Sor, Guiliani and Carcassi; not a single piece was familiar to me and I listen to a lot of classical music!). Knowing what music should sound like is a good way to learn the piece, but that's not the case here.Beyond that, the collection varies in complexity as you work through the book, although none of these works are "simple". The target audience will be someone who can read music and has a year or two of playing under their belt, wanting to improve their skills. Some of the exercised are quite pleasant to play, but some are just fingering or plucking exercises. All the works are relatively short (one page). I played quite a few of the pieces in the book for my student friend, and they are nice works to learn, giving good exercise to both hands as they complexity builds. Because it's a perfect-bound (glued spine) book, it's hard to get the pages to lay flat on a music stand so some clips will be necessary. A spiral binding or similar lay-flat spine would have been very useful.I'm quite split over this book. If it had tab, I suspect it would be a lot more suitable to the average guitar student (although reading staves is never a bad skill). I liked the works presented, although I doubt I will return very often to play these pieces. For my student friend, she was not overly taken with the collection, unfortunately, finding most of the works less interesting than I had hoped. She kept moving back to some of the competing books in the guitar library instead.

This book is perfect for students and enthusiasts. It is systematically ordered by difficulty and even provides performance notes for each piece. Highly recommended.

Anything by Frederick Noad is very very high quality. What can I say? I love this book! I am using this book to improve my sight reading, and while these studies can develop technique, many are specifically designed to improve a musical aspect, like crescendo, or even the sight reading in a specific key. Highly recommended.