Guitar Atlas China: Your passport to a new world of music, Book & CD

Nice examples for a small book & CD.

An excellent little introduction to traditional Chinese music through guitar. It give you an overview of the history, culture and the traditional instruments involved along with scales and techniques used. It gives you the basics of Chinese music history and theory much off which I didn't have a clue about.It contains about ten tracks with tab and sheet notation for solo guitar. For each tab it includes information on the history and region of each style. Overall, the tracks are quite tranquil and wouldn't sound out of place on a yoga or meditation CD.Out of the ten tracks: about four are in standard tuning, two are in drop D and the rest are in a range of tunings I've never seen before.Overall, this book surpassed my expectations. The music is good and works well on guitar, the book is informative and the subject matter is deeper and more fascinating than I was aware. It would have been nice if it had included Chinese characters alongside the Chinese words and names but that's a minor gripe. I'm interested in checking out other books in this range and this one has left me wanting to explore Chinese musical culture further. There is plenty here to inspire and incorporate into your own playing.