Campfire Songs - Strum Together
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
Campfire Songs - Strum Together Details
About the Author Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard LLC has become the worlds largest source of music performance and instructional materials, with a catalog of over a million products in both physical and digital form. They represent many of the greatest songwriters and artists of all time and publish and distribute works from all genres of music for all styles of musicians and ensembles. Read more
Reviews
I previously bought "Americana - Strum Together" from this series and had a great time using it to play with a friend on a campout this summer -- he plays ukelele, I play both guitar and uke -- so when I saw this collection, I ordered it immediately. The songs are mostly 60s and 70s rock, country and folk, which is the stuff I grew up on, so the selection is perfect for me; but most of the songs are familiar to younger folks as well. The songs have the melody in standard notation, chord names above the staff, and lyrics below. They're set up with the entire song on one page, and chord diagrams for five different instruments on the opposite page. The arrangements are not necessarily in the original key -- the editors seem to have compromised on keys that are reasonably easy to play on all of the instruments -- and the chords are simplified. That works great for how this book is intended to be used -- a group of people who may not have played to song before, having fun in a casual setting. Nothing fancy. There are no tabs, no intros or solos, no suggestions on strum patterns. That's not what this book is for. I have a couple of minor gripes. On some of the songs, not all the verses are included. And the print is a little small to read easily if several people are sharing the book, especially in low light (like around a campfire - duh). I guess both of those are the result of fitting every song on just one page, and in the end I'm okay with the trade off. Despite those minor criticisms, I love this book, and look forward to sharing it with friends next time I get together with other players.Added thought: There's a some overlap between the two books I own -- about 6 songs appear in both. It is interesting that most of the arrangements are different. A couple are in different keys, and the ones in the Campfire book are generally slightly (more) simplified -- fewer 7th chords, for instance. That's pretty low overlap and I like the fact that the arrangements are different, since it gives me a choice of which I want to play.