Product Description

Here s yet another book that should be in every serious classical and flamenco guitarist s library; this time, Ioannis Anastassakis (The Art of Rasguedo) eliminates the guesswork on how to practice and perform the tremolo technique. The book addresses over 70 different approaches and methods to practice the tremolo with unprecedented advice from some of the greatest classical and flamenco guitarists including: Andrés Segovia, John Williams, Sharon Isbin, Christopher Parkening, Pepe Romero, Scott Tennant, David Russell, Narciso Yepes, Stanley Yates, Stepan Rak, Juan Serrano, Manolo Sanlucar, Manolo Franco, José Antonio Rodriguez, Paco Serrano, and many more. Characteristically, Anastassakis presents an exhaustive analysis of the different tremolo patterns: 4-note, 5-note, 5-note extended melody tremolo, 6-note tremolo, 8-note tremolo, and continuous extended tremolo. A comprehensive bibliography of classical and flamenco guitar pieces that utilize traditional and/or extended tremolo techniques is also included. Written in standard notation and tablature

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #276078 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-22
• Released on: 2008-02-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 152 pages

About the Author
Ioannis started his musical studies on both the Flamenco & contemporary Electric guitar at the age of 12. He studied both styles privately, with numerous teachers and at the Contemporary Music program of the Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece. He continued his studies at the American College of Greece, from where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1993. Subsequently, he relocated to Hollywood, CA and pursued extensive studies at the distinguished Musicians Institute, where he started working as an instructor after graduating at the top 1% of his class in 1996. He was subsequently accepted for Graduate studies in Flamenco guitar under the tutelage of the great flamenco guitar master Juan Serrano at the California State University, where he completed an MA in Guitar Performance, with emphasis in Concert Flamenco Guitar, graduating Magna cum Laude. Currently, he is working towards a Doctorate in Education, with emphasis on Music. In 1999, he acquired 1st place at the "California Guitar Panorama", an international contest of Classical and Flamenco guitar. In 1999, he founded in collaboration with Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens the 1st Flamenco guitar department in Greece. In 2000, he became the 1st guitarist ever to present a solo guitar recital at the Greek National Opera House. On August 2000, his first solo CD, "Ioannis - Live at loannina", was released by MP3.com and immediately entered the company's Top 10 chart in flamenco guitar music, eventually reaching the #1 place worldwide on October 2002. In 2002, his 1st instructional book, titled "The Art of Rasgueado" was published by Mel Bay Publications. His 2nd & 3rd Flamenco instructional books, titled "The Art of Tremolo" and "Flamenco Fuitar Studies, Vol.1" are currently in the process of being published by Mel Bay Publications. Ioannis has presented over 300 Flamenco guitar recitals in Greece and the United States and has given lectures and seminars at several leading American colleges and Universities (University of Southern California, California State University Northridge, California State University Fresno, California State University Fullerton, Musicians Institute: Fresno City College, American College of Greece). Ioannis has been featured more than a dozen times on American TV. In Greece, he has lectured at the most prominent International Guitar Festivals (International guitar festival of Ermoupolis, International guitar festival of Volos, International guitar festival of Patras) and he has presented solo recitals in most of the major cities (Athens, Volos, Patra, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Samos, Ermoupoli, Halkida, Tripoli and more). Ioannis is currently sponsored by La Bella Flamenco Guitar Strings. At present, Ioannis is Professor of Music at the American College of Greece and presents numerous Flamenco seminars, masterclasses and recitals around Greece. He also instructs privately a large number of students, through his professional teaching studio. In addition, he is currently recording his second solo flamenco guitar CD, due out Summer 2004 and is preparing an extensive series of additional instructional materials for Mel Bay Publications.

Customer Reviews

OK
This contains a lot of varied tremolo drills. A lot of them are exactly what you'd come up with yourself if you wanted to, some are more esoteric and interesting. A few curious trivia (for example, Segovia played tremolo as pimi -- which by itself is nothing awfully exciting perhaps, but as it happens, two hours before I pulled this book out of my mailbox, I watched a Segovia video where he played one of those tremolo pieces, and there was a closeup on his right hand, and it was very clear that he didn't use his a or c fingers -- and I thought hm... what the hell? what's he doing? sounds like tremolo, yet he's not playing it, what's that -- so now I know he went pimi, that's why it looked weird).

The book contains mostly music (in notation and in tabs); the amount of text is small. It is written clearly, though it _is_ insufficiently edited: the author has an annoying habit of ending two out of every three statements with an exclamation point; sometimes several, believe it or not. This gives the overall narration a sense of unhealthy exaltation! Beside being an error, I mean!!! This is very unprofessional and why this couldn't be edited away in publishing is unclear to me. Of course this is Mel Bay not O'Reilly or Addison-Wesley, so why edit anything at all! Books can -- and should -- be sold without this UNNECESSARY [he likes caps too, but not overmuch] expense. After all the target audience is illiterate anyway! We only need their twenty bucks and then they can go jump in a lake!! OK, enough of that.

On one occasion the author did something strange: instead of notating a patern he described it in words! Someone Stepan Rak plays some sort of a weird, multi-string-combined-with-pulloffs pattern; this is described verbally. Why the author chose not to simply write it down as notes on the staff I can't fathom -- but, that aside, I like the information itself though.

There's a list of classical tremolo pieces, then another one of flamenco tremolo pieces, and a good bibliography at the end (unfortunately the bibliography isn't an annotated one, so you don't know what every book is good for and which ones you might want to get. I have quite a few of the books listed and can vouch for the quality of selection though). There's a bit on nails as pertains to tremolo (planting buzz avoidance, that is).

The book appears proofread: I only found a couple of typos and one music title made it to the list of classical tremolo pieces twice. This is nits.

Though not thick, the book is spiral bound: thank you. I've taken many books to Staples to get them sprial bound after the binding disintegrated after barely a couple of days of use, especially if I needed them on the stand.

Overall, it's an OK book: if you have a couple of discretionary bucks, it won't hurt having it. If you don't, then don't fret, you can do without this book just fine -- if you need to improve your tremolo, just play the piece that requires it, it'll be a totally adequate exercise. Or, make up something yourself. There are no breakthrough discoveries in this book, but it's an honest book of good drills and curious info; it definitely warrants three and a half stars; when in doubt and the book is honest, I round up. Four stars.

Some Advice & Exercises
I would have thought that an entire book dedicated to the tremolo technique would have gone into great detail about your hand position, finger positioning, resetting your fingers for the next series, etc. Instead, there is some common advice (such as, practice slowly at first) along with exercises and various finger-strike order (such as pami -- these letters are the Spanish abbreviations for certain fingers and is very common in classical and some fingerstyle notation). There are some very exotic tremolo techniques covered, also.

The physical production of the book seems very good, and you will learn a lot from this book. It still is a fine book despite missing the above-noted detail.

The Art of Tremolo : a very thorough review
I had already purchased and used the fine work on Rasgueado by Ioannis Anastassakis , so I decided to give a bash at his new work on Tremolo.

This right-hand technique is one of the trickiest in both classical and flamenco guitar playing, the big problem being of obtaining an even tone and regular rhythm between all the notes.

The approach proposed by Mr. Asastassakis I found very thorough and intelligent, just as in his book on Rasgueado. Regular and slow practice are the open sesame to this challenging technique. His exercises are both technically and musically stimulating, and if practised intelligently, avoid boredom and tedious repetition. I strongly recommend this tutor.