SKU: MB.31008M

ISBN 9781513467016. 8.75x11.75 inches.

Blind Lemon Jefferson was a trail blazer, both as a singer and guitarist, but also as a commercial phenomenon, for he was the first blues musician to establish the tremendous appeal that blues, as played and sung by rural African American folk, had for the record-buying public. It is no exaggeration to say that the sales of Lemon’s records paved the way for a host of other solo rural blues musicians to record in his wake and made the record companies more willing to give other musicians a chance, in the hopes of achieving similar success. 

Lemon’s record sales weren’t what made him a great musician, though - that could only be attributed to his startlingly virtuosic guitar - playing and soulful singing, developed over years of busking, building on his natural gifts with a great deal of practice and work. In the Guitar of Blind Lemon Jefferson author John Miller presents transcriptions, in standard notation and tablature, of 22 of Lemon’s greatest performances, with an additional essay examining Lemon’s senses of time and phrasing and his picking techniques. Also included is a download link to all the original recordings. 

To present a picture of Lemon the man, noted blues researchers Alan Governar and Kip Lornell have contributed an essay focusing on Lemon’s early life, the origins of his music, and his time spent in a musical partnership with Lead Belly. Links are provided to downloadable performances of the songs in the book from which the transcriptions were made, so that you can have Lemon’s sound in your head as you learn to play his songs.

Blind Lemon Jefferson was remarkable, even in a style that abounded in great musicians, and some measure of his influence can be seen in the fact that musicians recorded in the 1960s, more than thirty years after his death, were still covering his songs and stealing guitar licks from him. The Guitar of Blind Lemon Jefferson gives you the resources needed to learn what was so special about Lemon’s music, and to experience his musical excellence from inside the music itself.

Titles include: One Dime Blues, Got The Blues, Dry Southern Blues, Big Night Blues, Rabbit Foot Blues, Shuckin' Sugar Blues, Where Shall I Be, Wartime Blues, Black Horse Blues, Prison Cell Blues, Piney Woods Money Mama, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, He Arose From The Dead, Beggin' Back, Broke And Hungry, Bad Luck Blues, Matchbox Blues, Lemon's Worried Blues, That Crawlin' Baby Blues, Easy Rider Blues, Stocking Feet Blues and Right of Way Blues

Level 2/3 • 160 pages • Direct download link to audio files. 

SKU: BT.ALB10651

ISBN 9789043145084. Dutch.

Guitaar Starter is a 2-part guide to the Classical Guitar in which all basic techniques are discussed from the very beginning. These techniques are gradually incorporated into the featured tunes to play and arealways preceded by preparatory exercises. The 'DIY' style of this book makes it easier for beginning guitarists to teach themselves in their own time.

This series aims to acquaint the student with the different styles ofGuitar music that are out there, including classical pieces, folk, blues and rock and more.

In addition to acquiring technical skills, providing students with a fun musical experience is the series' primary aim.Theprinciple is simple - if the student is enthusiastic about the pieces that they are playing, they will be motivated to practice diligently.

SKU: DY.DO-1522

ISBN 9782897963026.

Francis Bebey est né à Douala en juillet 1929, dans une grande famille où son père, pasteur, luttait pour nourrir ses enfants. Mais Francis a eu l'opportunité d'aller à l'école. Admirant son frère aîné, Marcel Eyidi Bebey, il s'est éduqué, s'est distingué, et a finalement reçu une bourse pour passer son baccalauréat en France.
Nous approchions de la fin des années 1950 lorsqu'il est arrivé à La Rochelle. Plus que jamais, dans cette France où les Africains étaient regardés avec curiosité, condescendance ou dédain, Francis s'appuyait sur ses ressources intellectuelles. Travailleur assidu, il a obtenu son baccalauréat, puis s'est installé à Paris où il a commencé des études d'anglais à la Sorbonne. Un jour, il a su ce qui l'attirait vraiment : il voulait faire de la radio. Francis a appris son métier en France et aux �tats-Unis.
Après avoir travaillé quelques années comme reporter, il a été embauché en 1961 en tant que fonctionnaire international au Département de l'information de l'UNESCO.
Parallèlement, Francis a toujours été attiré par la création musicale. Son activité diurne très sérieuse ne l'empêchait pas de fréquenter les clubs de jazz le soir. � Paris, le jazz, la musique à la mode à cette époque, mais aussi la rumba et la salsa l'attiraient. Il collectionnait les disques et assistait à de nombreux concerts. Avec son complice Manu Dibango, Francis montait sur scène et jouait de la musique.
Francis aimait la musique classique depuis son enfance. Il avait grandi en écoutant les cantates et les oratorios de Bach ou Handel que son père chantait au temple. Il s'est passionné pour la guitare, impressionné par les maîtres espagnols et sud-américains, et a décidé d'apprendre à jouer de l'instrument lui-même.
Il a commencé à composer des pièces pour guitare, mêlant les diverses influences qui le traversaient avec la musique traditionnelle africaine qu'il portait en lui depuis son enfance. Son approche a captivé le directeur du Centre culturel américain (alors situé dans le quartier de Saint-Germain à Paris), qui lui a offert l'opportunité de se produire devant un public. Francis y a donné son premier récital de guitare (1963) devant un public hypnotisé. Son premier album solo est sorti peu de temps après.
Progressivement, Francis est devenu reconnu comme musicien et compositeur. Plusieurs albums de l'ambassadeur africain de la guitare, comme le décrivait la presse, sont sortis. Il a également écrit des livres, au point que sa carrière artistique est devenue difficile à concilier avec sa carrière de fonctionnaire. En 1974, même s'il était devenu le directeur général chargé de la musique à l'UNESCO, il a fait le saut audacieux et a démissionné de cette prestigieuse institution pour se consacrer aux trois activités qui l'intéressaient : la musique, la littérature et le journalisme.
Il a exploré le patrimoine musical traditionnel du continent africain, notamment à travers le piano à pouce sanza et la musique polyphonique des pygmées d'Afrique centrale, ou en chantant dans sa langue maternelle et en composant des chansons humoristiques en français !
Le succès a suivi. Francis Bebey a parcouru le monde : de la France au Brésil, du Cameroun à la Suède, de l'Allemagne aux Caraïbes, ou du Maroc au Japon... la liste des pays où il a été invité à se produire, à donner des conférences ou à rencontrer des lecteurs est très longue. En plus de la reconnaissance publique, il bénéficiait de la reconnaissance de ses collègues musiciens, tels que le guitariste John Williams ou le Vénézuélien Antonio Lauro, qui l'ont invité à faire partie du jury d'un concours de guitare classique à Caracas.
Sa vie était le voyage d'un pionnier africain, un homme enraciné dans son patrimoine culturel et portant un message de partage et d'espoir pour le monde. Son originalité continue de résonner dans le monde entier depuis son décès à la fin du mois de mai 2001.

Francis Bebey was born in Douala in July 1929, into a large family where his father, a pastor, struggled to feed his children. But Francis had the opportunity to go to school. Admiring his elder brother, Marcel Eyidi Bebey, he educated himself, distinguished himself, and eventually received a scholarship to go and take his baccalaureate in France.
We approached the end of the 1950s when he arrived in La Rochelle. More than ever, in this France where Africans were looked at with curiosity, condescension, or disdain, Francis relied on his intellectual resources. A diligent worker, he obtained his Baccalaureate, then moved to Paris where he started English studies at the Sorbonne. One day, he knew what truly attracted him: he wanted to do radio. Francis learned his craft in France and in the USA.
After working for a few years as a reporter, he was hired in 1961 as an international civil servant in the UNESCO Information Department.
In parallel, Francis had always been drawn to musical creation. His very serious daytime activity didnâ??t prevent him from frequenting jazz clubs in the evenings. In Paris, the Jazz, the trendy music of that time, but also rumba and salsa attracted him. He collected records and attended numerous concerts. With his accomplice Manu Dibango, Francis took the stage and played music.
Francis liked classical music since his childhood. He grew up listening to the cantatas and oratorios of Bach or Handel that his father had sung in the temple. He became passionate about the guitar, impressed by the Spanish and South American masters, and decided to learn to strum the instrument himself.
He started composing guitar pieces, blending the various influences that flow through him with the traditional African music he had carried within since childhood. His approach captivated the director of the American Cultural Center (then located in the Saint-Germain neighborhood of Paris), who offered him the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. Francis gave his first guitar recital there (1963) in front of a mesmerized audience. His first solo album was released shortly thereafter.
Gradually, Francis became recognized as a musician and composer. Several albums of the African guitar ambassador, as described by the press, were released. He also wrote books, to the point that his artistic career became challenging to reconcile with his career as a civil servant. In 1974, even though he had become the General Manager in charge of music at UNESCO, he took the bold leap and resigned from this prestigious institution to dedicated himself to the three activities that interested him: music, literature, and journalism.
He explored the traditional musical heritage of the African continent, notably through the thumb piano sanza, and the polyphonic music of the Central African pygmies, or singing in his native language and composing humoristic songs in French!
Success followed. Francis Bebey traveled the world: from France to Brazil, Cameroon to Sweden, Germany to the Carribean, or Morocco to Japan... the list of countries where he was invited to perform, gives lectures, or meets readers is very long. In addition to public recognition, he enjoyed the recognition of his fellow musicians, such as guitarist John Williams or Venezuelan Antonio Lauro, who invited him to be a part of the jury for a classical guitar competition in Caracas.
His life was the journey of an African pioneer, a man rooted in his cultural heritage and carrying a message of sharing and hope for the world. His originality continues to vibrate around the world since his passing at the end of May 2001.

SKU: DZ.DZ-4244

ISBN 9782898521614.

La Sonate n° 6 Kharkiv pour guitare solo a été composée en 2021, à la fin du confinement lié au COVID-19. � ce moment-là, ma famille et moi étions restés dans notre ville natale de Kharkiv (également connue sous le nom de Kharkov), en Ukraine, pendant près de deux ans. Nous considérions cette période de pandémie comme un désastre, mais nous avons réalisé plus tard que c'était en fait un moment plutôt heureux, car la guerre est arrivée dans notre pays quelques mois plus tard. Depuis 2022, une fraction considérable des 1,5 million de citoyens de Kharkiv ont quitté leur foyer, ceux qui sont restés vivent sous des attaques incessantes de missiles, et beaucoup ont été tués. Je voudrais dédier cette Sonate à la ville frontalière de Kharkiv et, surtout, à ses citoyens souffrant de la guerre.

Pourtant, la musique de la Sonate n'a aucun programme spécifique. Ici, je donnerai un bref aperçu de ses principaux éléments de composition pour faciliter les interprétations futures.

Les premier et quatrième mouvements de cette Sonate sont basés sur l'interaction entre le principe dodécaphonique et le centre tonal de sol majeur, naturel pour la guitare. En particulier, le premier mouvement est basé sur l'interaction de la triade de sol majeur Solâ??Siâ??Ré des cordes de guitare à vide 2â??3â??4, le motif ascendant 1 impliquant les notes Miâ??Fa#â??Laâ??Do# (à l'origine sur la première corde), et le motif descendant 2 utilisant les notes Miâ??Doâ??Sibâ??La (à l'origine sur la corde de basse 6). Ces éléments se complètent presque pour former douze tons (à l'exception du Fa manquant), et les motifs alternent avec des fragments ostinato où chaque note de la triade de sol majeur est déplacée pas à pas d'un demi-ton vers le haut ou vers le bas.

Le deuxième mouvement est un Scherzo impliquant de nombreux demi-tons dans des accords accentués et des passages rapides, ainsi qu'un mouvement mélodique chromatique dans la voix de basse. Il est presque atonal dans certains fragments, mais a un centre tonal global de la mineur.

Le troisième mouvement est un Adagio méditatif basé sur un thème composé dans l'échelle hexatonique Réâ??Miâ??Faâ??Sol#â??Laâ??Si et des accords ostinato impliquant les cordes de basse à vide Miâ??Laâ??Ré et le demi-ton Siâ??Do.

Enfin, le quatrième mouvement est basé sur le thème dodécaphonique complet composé de deux phrases comprenant les motifs 1 et 2 du premier mouvement : Solâ??Faâ??Sibâ??Labâ??Doâ??Mibâ??Ré et Miâ??Siâ??Do#â??Laâ??Fa#. Ce thème est présenté dans ses formes prime et rétrograde. Il y a des dialogues entre la première corde, les basses et les cordes médianes à vide, similaires au premier mouvement. Ã? son apogée, le thème dodécaphonique est interprété en utilisant le mouvement parallèle de l'accord de sol majeur standard de la guitare avec les cordes médianes à vide sur douze positions.

La Sonate a été créée en première et enregistrée (CD Naxos No. 8.574630) par le célèbre guitariste ukrainien Marko Topchii, qui a également vécu et étudié à Kharkiv. Je lui suis extrêmement reconnaissant pour l'interprétation brillante de cette pièce.

Je suis très redevable envers Productions d'Oz d'avoir conservé mes notations originales là où celles-ci ne correspondent pas au style de l'éditeur.

Sonata No. 6 Kharkiv for guitar solo was composed in 2021, in the end of the COVID-19 lockdown. At that time my family and I were staying in our home city of Kharkiv (also known as Kharkov), Ukraine for almost two years. We considered that pandemic period as a disaster, but later have realized that it actually was a rather happy time, because a war came to our homeland just a few months later. Since 2022 a considerable fraction of the 1.5 millions of Kharkiv citizens have left their homes, those who stayed have been living under ceaseless missile attacks, and many have been killed. I would like to dedicate this Sonata to the frontier city of Kharkiv and, most of all, to its citizens suffering from the war.
Yet, the music of the Sonata does not have any specific program. Here I will give a brief overview of its main composition elements to facilitate future interpretations.
The first and fourth movements of this Sonata are based on the interplay between the twelve-tone principle and the G-major tonal center, natural for the guitar. Namely, the first movement is based on the interaction of the G-major triad Gâ??Bâ??D of the open guitar strings 2â??3â??4, ascending motif 1 involving the notes Eâ??F#â??Aâ??C# (originally on the first string), and descending motif 2 using the notes E-â??Câ??Bbâ??A- (originally, on the bass string 6). These elements supplement each other to almost make up twelve tones (apart from the missing F), and the motifs alternate with ostinato fragments where each note in the G major triad is step-by-step moved by a semitone up or down.
The second movement is a Scherzo involving numerous semitones in accented chords and fast passages, as well as chromatic melodic motion in the bass voice. It is almost atonal in some fragments, but has an overall tonal center of A-minor.
The third movement is a meditative Adagio based on a theme composed within hexatonic scale Dâ??Eâ??Fâ??G#â??Aâ??B and ostinato chords involving open bass strings Eâ??Aâ??D and semitone Bâ??C.
Finally, the fourth movement is based on the complete twelve-tone theme consisting of two phrases including motifs 1 and 2 from the first movement: Gâ??Fâ??Bbâ??Abâ??Câ??Ebâ??D and Eâ??Bâ??C#â??Aâ??F#. This theme is presented in its prime and retrograde forms. There are dialogues between the first string, basses and open middle strings, similar to the first movement. In the culmination, the twelve-tone theme is performed using the parallel motion of the standard guitar G-major chord with open middle strings across twelve positions.
The Sonata was premiered and recorded (CD Naxos No. 8.574630) by the prominent Ukrainian guitarist Marko Topchii who has also lived and studied in Kharkiv. I am extremely grateful to him for the brilliant performance of this piece.
I am greatly indebted to Productions dâ??Oz for keeping my original notations in places where these do not conform to the publisherâ??s style.

SKU: FG.55011-324-4

ISBN 9790550113244.

Quadri Morandi (2014) ties together two essential themes of Kai Niminen's (b. 1953) compositional style: guitar and a subject inspired by Italy. The strong presence of the guitar in his works is natural since he is in an actively performing guitarist himself, and guitar works indeed play a significant role in his oeuvre. Moreover, he has written plenty of orchestral music; for instance two symphonies, numerous concertos, and chamber music. In the field of Finnish music he is a composer who can be characterized as free from any specific school or style. In his musical language, free tonal in essence, one can detect traces of Impressionism, Neoromanticism and even Expressionism at times, but he is also willing to employ more recent 20th-century stylistic devices. Nieminen has mentioned that he finds himself very similar to Japanese Toru Takemitsu both musically and in thought.

Mediterannean culture and Italy especially have been close to Nieminen's heart ever since he first visited the country and appeared in the jury of the international Fernando Sor guitar competition in 1981. He has composed a great number of works which refer to Italian landscapes or artists. The work Quadri Morandi (Morandi's pictures) is written in four movements. It has at its centre the painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), who is known as a master of still lifes and landscapes painted in a plain manner and is subdued colours. Their atmosphere typically reflects a calm spirit. This is the third guitar work that nieminen has written for Kleemola.

It is easy to find a counterpart for the encaptivating realm of Morandi's art in Nieminen's clear and pure expression. The titles and expression markings also include several references to Morandi. For example, in the opening movement Prelude the words la Natura morta (still life) appear as an additional note on the chord sequence following the freely flowing opening section. At the end of the movement one can hear rhythmic motif coloured with flageolets that repeats the syllables of the painter's name: Gior-gio Moran-di. A similar motif can be heard at the end of the second movement Quasi cadenza. The tranquilly breathing third movement Paesaggio (landscape) creates an illusion of landscape by imitating the echo of monastery bells (come campane del monastero) and at the same time refers to il monaco (the monk), the name by which Morandi was often called. The final movement Ritratto (Portrait) is the most extensive of all the movements and can be seen, with its recurring motifs, as a reflection of the stable yet subtly varying elements of Morandi's art. The work ends with the rhythmic motif that once more echoes Morandi's name, like signature.

SKU: HL.14017586

ISBN 9788759879412. English-Danish.

Preface I Programme Note TENEBRAE was commissioned by the Turku (Abo) Music Festival and composed for Finnish guitarist Timo Korhonen, whom I had known and admired for a long time. Timo gave a brillant premiere of TENEBRAE in Turku on August 13, 1991 and has played it several times since then. The title is Latin, and means darkness or gloom, but it also refers to the Roman Catholic matins and lauds services in Holy Week. These are held as dusk falls, and the idea is that the sixteen candles that are burning at the beginning of the service are gradually extinguished until, after sixteenprayers, the church is in darkness. The same development is carried through inTENEBRAE by musical means, so that we have not yet had to resort to acandlelit setting - although it is by no means out of the question. The piece makes extensive use of the guitar's properties for revealing quiet, intimate feelings, although naturally in a work of this scope there is contrasting material included. Jouni Kaipainen, 1993.