A Charlie Brown Christmas - Artist Transcriptions Piano Songbook | Vince Guaraldi Sheet Music for Holiday Favorites | Includes "Christmas Time Is Here" and More

I just love this book around the winter holiday—and even 2 or 3 months beyond, playing the "just-winter-themed" tunes (e.g., the very familiar "Skating," which you'd no doubt recognize if you could hear me hum or play it).I grew up excitedly watching all the Charlie Brown shows (and loving the very cool jazz music the composer wrote specifically for the programs). My kids are SOMEHOW not all that interested in The Peanuts, and while I can't understand that, I realize things change. They DO, however, love it when I play through these pieces at the right time of year!This book, mind you, is for an advanced-intermediate player (and it works well with advanced pianists, too)! If you're not quite at that level, you'll have a lot more fun (and less frustration) purchasing and playing one of the other Charlie Brown Xmas books (of modified, but surely nice, arrangements)!While I'm trained (and perform as) essentially a "classical" pianist—and, Lord help me, I'll never be confident enough to do real jazz improvisation at, say, a jazz club in D.C.—I *am*!down with jazz playing style and jazz theory/Harmony and all that great stuff, so I love reading (traditionally scored) jazz piano pieces. And this book is full of them.It's perhaps worth noting, for anyone who is considering this book, that perfect endings have been written (by the original composer) for all the pieces of which we hear only a fragment in the television show. (You know how the music would start during a scene and then fade out, or stop after an early phrase of the piece)—so these are great performance pieces (even if your audience is your spouse or kiddos).The notation is clean, very easily read, and proper attention has been given to seemingly every detail, including proper spots for quick page turns. As I think every book, at least for this level, should be, no fingerings are provided. This is, surely, best, as every pianist has different hands and, thus, should work out their own ideal fingering. (Plus, even if our hands could all play and reach the same, there are usually a few different technically correct fingerings from which to choose—and some pianists can play a passage more easily one way, while another will choose a different, but still good, fingering in accordance with her/his very particular skills or ergonomic needs. So, there's my thought on that!You may find yourself wishing you had a good jazz drummer and a good jazz upright basses to play along, as you heard playing on the show. Well, go out and find them! Jazz “chamber music" is some of the best! And, if that sounds intimidation to you, don’t worry, the pieces are still great with “just” the piano part.I think I may have bought the Kindle edition and simply screen-shot each page and printed out each page exactly as it appears in the book. Scores I'd previously bought in Kindle edition didn't much allow for that—I had to do my best with whatever partial pages, or page-and-then-some, that I could screen shot and then cut stuff up with scissors and tape things together. That was a HUGE drag. But, if you just can't wait for UPS delivery of the hard copy, or if the Kindle version is a whole lot cheaper, you won't have such printing problems with this. (Just remember your copyright restrictions! Just a working copy for yourself—don't post a piece on the internet or give copies out to friends or students!) (Sorry—I feel strongly about copyright when it comes to music.)So, in sum, provided you're up for some challenging sight-reading (especially if you're not used to jazz chord configurations), or if you don't mind a bit of work to get these more-advanced, original pieces "into your fingers," I think you'll love this book. Have fun!

This is the one. Play and Enjoy the memories!

Fun music!

Not for beginners by any means- it is the real Charlie Brown Christmas music- just what I wanted

I love the product. The packaging was off though. This is the actual transcription of music from Guaraldi. The package was too small so the book came folded, so I am trying to flatten it out.

This (artist rendering) version is Intermediate +. Chords in both hands. Much richer version, but more difficult. The easy version is basically one note at a time. This is chords. This (artist) one is a great book, great sound and full melody. Challenging and more rewarding.

Great for learning the Charlie Brown Christmas classics - probably advanced level, or very difficult intermediate.

Great music from Vince Guaraldi that is a close keyboard transcription of what we love and hear from 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. It served me well this past season and also in the future for merry music making!!!

Excellent book, arrangements just as Vince played them on the recording. I have thoroughly enjoyed my son learning the pieces this Christmas. Solos are hard but the regular pieces are more straight forward, I am told!

good as expected

Exactly as expected