?Sebastopol, A Descriptive Fantaisie For The Guitar? or ?The Siege of Sebastopol? by Henry Worrall (1825 - 1902) is considered to be the seminal work of the American Parlor music era prior to the turn of the 20th century. Worrall was largely responsible for introducing open tunings, particularly open D major, i.e ?Vestapol? or ?tuned like Sebastopol, to the American public with the wide distribution of his publications and guitar method. ?Sebastopol? was the original work in open D major tuning. It reveals many of the potential harmonies capable in this tuning such as barred chords at the 5th and 7th frets, as well as the usage of the rising minor 3rd interval rising to the Major 3rd in the context of the major scale - an important element in ragtime and country blues which would develop subsequently. This opus was first published as early as 1854, and was said to have been inspired by the contemporaneous debut of photojournalistic depictions of war in worldwide newspapers; ?The Siege Of Sevastopol? of the Crimean War was this breakthrough. The ?descriptive fantaisie? aspect of the work illustrates via sound the images of armies marching in the 2/4 beat, bugles represented by natural harmonics of the D major chord, cannons firing in barred arpeggios and rasgueados, and bombs exploding using the ?Drumming? technique of tambor. The middle section of this work may be the first extensive passage of a work composed in the ?percussive guitar? genre. In addition, I have included the elegant Introduction and Finale, found only in the notebooks of Worrall's collection. Notation, Tab, with right and left hand fingering, and description of techniques are included. 18 pages including cover.

45 New Classical Guitar Arrangements in Open D Tuning

Theclassical guitar book in open D guitar tuning presents a new, and I think, additionalway of approaching classical guitar repertoire. Tuning to an open chord, in this case, DADF#AD can have itsbenefits. The most obvious is that amajor chord can be played with a single finger, or in the key of D, with openstrings.

Everyattempt has been made to keep true to the original manuscripts, butoccasionally the tune is transposed from the original, or the odd note has beenaltered to make the pieces playable. Ihave kept the arrangements primarily in the keys of D, G or A to take fulladvantage of the open strings in D tuning. In short, this book may not be for the classical guitar purist butdoes expand the repertoire that is lacking with open tunings.

There is agood selection of graded pieces from prominent classical guitar composers like Aguado,Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi and Carulli, plus other well-known works by Bach, Dowland,Satie, Beethoven, de Visee, Diabelli, Grieg, Haydn, O?Carolan, Pachelbel,Paganini, Petzold, Sanz, Schumann and Vivaldi.

I also adapted24 of the Giuliani right-hand exercises, major and minor scales and arpeggios, plusfretboard charts to further develop your knowledge and technique in Open D. Each piece has notation, tablature in Open Dtuning, right- and left-hand fingerings, and performance markings. Audio tracks online.

Look for the audio tracks on my website in the guitar bookssection:

https://brentrobitaille.com/product/classical-guitar-book-in-open-d-tuning/

or,

https://brentrobitaille.com/product-category/guitar-books/

or,

https://brentrobitaille.com/

ISBN 9781619113732. Fingerstyle Technic is a collection of 34 original compositions designed to enhance important elements of fingerpicking guitar technique. I have always felt that as important as scale and technique drills are, they can by themselves be very tedious to practice. In addition, technique has relevance only in the context of the entire musical composition it is intended to enhance. The compositions can be used merely as technical studies but they also may be used as short concert or recital pieces. Several of them may be grouped to present a kind of suite. I hope you enjoy playing these solos. The guitar has so many moods and colors. Good technique enables the guitarist to bring out the breadth and subtlety of expression possible with this instrument. I have tried to present a variety of moods, rhythms and textures in these compositions and have presented a workable assortment of keys, both major and minor. In Notation and Tablature.

This is a simple, short arrangement of the lovely Scottish song 'Annie Laurie' for solo guitar.

The technical and musical level is suitable for early-years guitarists. The ABRSM grade level is approximately Grade 2 and for other boards, where the technical requirements are more relaxed, Grade 3.

Exam boards across the world are now offering online video submissions to replace existing grades. Candidates are required to perform some set repertoire but also free choice music. This piece is ideal for Grade 2-3 standard players (2nd-3rd year). Annie Laurie also makes an excellent piece of repertoire and the addition of chords makes it a possible ensemble piece. I will upload a YouTube video before the end of September 2020.

For a wealth of repertoire choices for solo and ensemble guitar, please see www.danjonesguitarist.com.