Ensemble Book Reviews and Spring Concert Plans

I wanted to share my thoughts on some of the ensemble music I'm using. After doing my first Christmas concert a couple of weeks ago, I really want to gear up for our spring concert and do some real music. I plan on hitting the ensemble stuff pretty hard after Christmas. Right now my average student is finishing up study with the 4th string. I estimate that in 3 to 4 weeks I'll have 80% who've passed off the 6th string material. Then, they'll graduate on to the ensemble music.

Right now the plan is to have a few ensemble pieces that all of these students work through and pass off. Then, I hope to have several small ensembles of 3 to 6 kids to better fill out our Spring concert program.

Also, I've got students of pretty widely varying levels of skill. I've got a couple of 'nerds' who just are reading and technical machines. They have no previous musical experience but just freakishly adhere to every musical and technical suggestion I make. And they just can't get enough guitar.

I also have the band kids who can already read music. Then there are the students who have been in my class a previous year and are a little ahead. I say "a little" because this is the first year that I've actually done guitar exclusively in my General Music classes. So, we're basically almost a semester ahead of last year already.

Then there are my special education students. Of these, I've got three who will never be able to read beyond the first strings even with letter names and/or fret numbers written over the notes. Then there are probably another 8 to 10 who are "struggling" with 2 to 3 strings. For these students, I've had to find ensemble music that accomodates these challenges. I'll address this issue in my reviews of the books.

My main considerations in finding ensemble music for first-year middle school guitarists are ease of playing and quality of arrangement.  I guess I'm looking for the highest "quality of arrangement" to "ease of playing" ratio in these pieces.   Honestly, there is plenty of material out there that is good quality.  It's just more difficult.  I also was looking for some of the arrangements to be more rhythmic and contemporary.  There are tons of classical arrangements to be found, many of them free.  There is a definite need for lighter concert material to mix in with the classical arrangements.

I'll review the four ensemble books I got from the GAMA workshop this summer and also the other sources I'm using for the concert. There are a lot of other sources out there and I certainly haven't seen them all. I'm just giving my thoughts on the few that I've seen.  All of these books are companions to method books of the same title.  Some of them even let you know at which point in studying the method the ensembles can be used.  (Purchasing any of these products through the links provided here supports my blog.  Thanks.)

21st Century Guitar Ensemble

This is book one of the ensemble companions to the popular "21st Century Guitar" method series.  I haven't used the method book yet.  So I can't really compare it to that method.  This one I found to have the lowest ratio of the two afore mentioned factors.  Many of these short pieces have substantial measures of rest for one or two parts while the others begin alone, almost canon style.  I don't think you can easily hold student interest with many measures of counting rests in such short musical works. 

The arrangements didn't really do anything for me either.  I know that's very subjective, but I don't have the book in front of me.  I'm not using any of the pieces from this book and don't foresee using them in the future.  I think there are better options out there.  Again, if you want something more difficult, why not just do something which is also of more interest and quality.  I will say that the 21st Century Ensemble Series has a large number of books in publication.  Some of the other books in the series for specific styles and themes have good reviews at Amazon.com.  If you're looking for something different or a specific theme (like Peter Gunn), they may be worth checking out. 

Bill Swick's Guitar Class Ensemble Series

This is an ensemble companion to the material I use daily for classroom instruction.  I used "Song Tune" last year for my spring concert, and it was by far the best thing we did on the program.  It is the simplest tune, using mainly whole, half and quarter note rhythms, and each part has notes on a couple of strings each. 

This year I've given a few kids who are finished with the classroom materials the next two ensembles which are a couple of Paganini studies.  These have some eighth notes, a few high A's on the first string and some accidentals if I remember correctly.  The pieces in this series are all from classical compositions and have pretty basic rhythms for beginner guitar students.  The pieces become gradually more difficult as you work through the book with the last few including notes in upper positions for students who are a little farther along in their study.

Everybody's Guitar Ensembles

This is the companion ensemble book to Everybody's Guitar Method, which I used for several years in private lessons.  It's pretty much what the title indicates, very simple and graded to be easy enough for anyone to be able to succeed.  It's funny because I had already picked 3 or 4 of these pieces out for our spring concert and was calling them our "everybody" songs before I remembered the title. 

We're doing the first 4 arrangements which are very simple and probably way too easy for high school or what you might consider "normal" even for middle school, but with the large number of special education students I have these are great.  They're good sounding arrangements and are very short.  This book would definitely be good for use early in the year. 

Part 1 on these first few pieces is first string only and very simple quarter, half and whole note rhythms.  They also have 2 to 3 additional parts with optional chords.  Some of the lower parts include notes as far down as the 6th string.  This book also has arrangements which are limited to the first three strings or so, two of which we used for our holiday concert. 

These were My Dreydl and Jingle Bells, which were very nicely arranged and simple to play.  We put them together in all of two weeks time.  I had a couple of second-year kids strum chords which really filled the sound out.  The arrangements become slightly more advanced as you go through the book, but overall this is probably the simplest of the books.  These pieces are mostly lighter numbers which can be hard to find arranged well like this.  This book is highly recommended, especially for Middle School.

Hands On Training Guitar Ensembles

This is the companion to the H.O.T. method books.  It contains very nicely arranged pieces which are simple to play if you have some kids who are reading on all six strings.  It says in the description on their website, "no sixteenth note rhythms".  There is a very tasteful use of dynamics as well as other guitar sound effects and optional percussion parts on some pieces .  This book has several American and international folk song arrangements.  This book is a good value and contains a wide variety of styles.

Jerry Snyder's Guitar School Ensemble Book

The Jerry Snyder Guitar School series is probably one of the more popular methods for classroom instruction and with good reason.  It is very well written and if you don't have a copy for reference in your classroom, you should get it.  The companion ensemble book is also excellent, having the best arranged pieces of those reviewed here.  When playing through these, you can really tell that these were arranged by someone who has played a lot of guitar and knows his instrument. 

Most of these arrangements are a little more difficult, but many are entirely appropriate even for middle school students performing an end of the year concert.  This book has the best balance of classical and contemporary arrangements of the books reviewed.  There is also a wide range of difficulty to be found from piece to piece.  Definitely don't overlook this book.  It deserves a place in your reference library. 

How They're All Going Together

For the final concert, I plan to have 3 to 4 "everybody" pieces which should take up all of 5 minutes,  3 or 4 pieces that most of the other kids play together and then a few small ensemble pieces for the kids that just need something a bit more difficult.  Then we're having our high school counterparts play a few pieces as our special guests. 

Last, I've arranged for a buddy who is a classicaly-trained professional guitarist to come perform a short set for us.  I think we're going to end the concert with him, the high school guitar teacher and myself playing as an ensemble for the kids.  I though they would get a kick out of seeing the old guys play with a pro.  I'll update as we get closer to the concert.