Creative Enjoyment: Guitar II

Nicholas Pashley was a bookseller and a freelance writer and editor in Toronto.

In The Guitar: How to Play and Enjoy It on Your Own (Seven Oaks Publishers), Milan B. Bucil introduced his techniques for the beginning student of the guitar. In response to requests for more advanced instruction, Mr. Bucil, Czech-born composer, educator, and performer, has now produced Creative Enjoyment: Guitar II, a book that begins where his previous volume left off. This second book is designed to take the graduate of the first book into more sophisticated technique and a more highly developed sense of music.

The book begins with the idea of range extension, leading the student out of the first position on the guitar and introducing him or her gradually to the entire fingerboard. Concentrating on proper hand position and correct fingering, the book teaches the use of different keys in two and then three octaves. Easy to follow exercises lead the student through the problems of both major and minor keys. Further exercises work on the use of the right hand and the development of rhythm, along with major and minor triads and chords, and the more sophisticated diminished, augmented, and dominant seventh chords.

The author goes on to provide a brief section on musical terms, then fourteen pages of musical pieces that vary from Bach to “When The Saints Go Marching In.” He finishes with some of his own thoughts on music and musical training.

The book is printed in a spiralbound format to make it easy to use while holding a guitar, and the printing is clear and easy to read.