The Al & Ray downloads page
Over the coming weeks and months we are introducing one or two very special items that you can download. Some are free, some have a small charge up to 99 pence (yes - less than £1.00), others are slightly more expensive. There will books available to download, video tutorials and music sheets.
This small charge is necessary since we all have to make a living but we believe that you will see all of our downloads as "incredibly good value".
You can pay by PayPal or you can pay by debit or credit card as a PayPal guest.
To begin this here is a piece of sheet music called Blue Cannonball which you can download for just 60 pence:
There will be two free video tutorials along soon to help you play it.
Blue Cannonball
60 pence Sheet Music (incl TAB) Drop D Tuning
Beginner Repertoire Term 1
£3.00 18 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire Term 2 £3.00 20 pages (incl TAB)
Click here >>> to view the video clip associated with Term 2
Beginner Repertoire (Improver) Term 3 £3.00 18 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire (Improver 2) Term 4 £3.00 24 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire Supplementary Term 5 £3.00 26 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire The complete book £12.00 (saving £3.00) 78 pages
Know Your Notes 90 pence 5th´s, 4th´s, 3rd´s and more. (9 pages)
Strategies for learning all the notes (& some of their relationships) on guitar & bass.
This was the final booklet in our ´Theory Lessons in a Booklet´ series, all of which received great reviews in guitar magazines, most going to several printings. This has been the best selling title recently and went out of print at the beginning of 2012, so a secondhand copy or this download the only way to obtain it now - and is cheaper than the original booklet!
"Incredibly informative, lean and mean tutors for the guitar playing gentry."
Guitar Techniques magazine, October 1998.
"Extremely beneficial to those keen on improving their chosen art. Definitely not as glamorous or glossy as the latest video aid or computer tuition course, but probably a darn sight more useful."
Guitar Mart Magazine, August 2000.
On The Slide Slide Guitar Handbook £8.00 47 pages (incl TAB)
"An excellent book for those beginning slide guitar.Most slide tutors seem, in my experience, to instruct the reader in various slide riffs without explaining WHEN they will be of use. This is the best of many slide books I have bought in that it assumes no knowledge of slide playing. A great introduction: buy the other books afterwards, when the basics have been mastered using this publication. "
Amazon UK - 24 February 2012
Over the coming weeks and months we are introducing one or two very special items that you can download. Some are free, some have a small charge up to 99 pence (yes - less than £1.00), others are slightly more expensive. There will books available to download, video tutorials and music sheets.
This small charge is necessary since we all have to make a living but we believe that you will see all of our downloads as "incredibly good value".
You can pay by PayPal or you can pay by debit or credit card as a PayPal guest.
To begin this here is a piece of sheet music called Blue Cannonball which you can download for just 60 pence:
There will be two free video tutorials along soon to help you play it.
Blue Cannonball
60 pence Sheet Music (incl TAB) Drop D Tuning
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Having been asked to prepare a TAB transcription of the wonderful Nic Jones fingerpicking interpretation of Teddy Bears Picnic, which was successful, illuminating & enjoyable, I thought I´d take a look at the original 1907 piano score as I´ve long had the idea of making a guitar arrangement.
£1.00 It´s quite a long way from the chord substitutions and condensed form of Nic Jones - which in many ways made the tune more of a guitar piece - & has retained the richer harmony (dominant-flat-5th and 9th chords for example), eccentricities and latently sinister atmosphere of the original instrumental. As it is the whole score, it is also much longer and - given that I have included as much of the richness of John Bratton as possible with 6 strings and a couple of fists of fingers - presents a different challenge. Nothing that isn´t playable by a Grade 7 player with stamina! The TAB here gives a suggestion of fingering positions: there are, of course, other options. - £1.00 Researched, compiled & arranged by Al Summers - 7 pages. |
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Tunes made famous as themes for Film & TV....
£4.00 Tunes (mostly by ´classical´ composers) made famous as themes for Film & TV... - £4.00 Researched, compiled, arranged & set for ukulele (in clef & tab notations) by Al Summers & Thomas Hiscocks - 24 pages. |
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Spanish & Latin & Catalonia tunes for guitar
£1.50 A Spanish & Latin & Catalonia tunes book for guitar has finally been completed - £1.50 Al Summers - 27 pages including TAB |
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Warminster Ukulele Club Tune Book
£3.00 Simple, interesting arrangements & abridgements with melodies and ukulele bass lines all in clef and tablature notations also includes chord symbols - £3.00 Al Summers & Thomas Hiscocks - 36 pages |
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Ukulele Song Book
£3.00 With TAB tunes and ukulele bass lines. The hard copy version retails at £8.00 download it here - £3.00 Thomas Hiscocks & Al Summers - 36 pages |
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Christmas Melodies for the Tenor Guitar
£1.40 When similar arrangements for guitar were first published in 2002, in two volumes, they sold out very quickly. The single volume reissue was requested by many musicians, students and tutors. Based upon this successful formula, here are the tunes for the tenor guitar. - £1.40 Al Summers - 26 pages |
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Baritone Ukulele Song Book
£1.20 Baritone ukulele: the Songbook tunes are in keys that match those in the Ukulele & Ukulele bass Songbook & are intended as melodies for baritone ukulele players who wish to explore the full range of the fingerboard in a variety of keys (in both treble clef and TABlature notations). Chords are suggested, with more chords introduced as the book progresses. - £1.20 Al Summers & Thomas Hiscocks - 26 pages |
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Practical Guitar Improvisation - The nuts & bolts
£3.00 This book takes the fear out of tackling the theory required, both for those new to the idea and those who are already technically adept. - £3.00 Al Summers & Guy Rogers - 36 pages The FREE downloadable backing / audio tracks that are associated with this publication are available on the Back Trax page. |
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Creative Music Manual
£5.00 Creative music manual is a 'tool kit' of over 80 composition and improvisation projects, workshops and events and community music sessions, with resources, tips and examples based upon actual results, gathered from more than three-and-a-half decades of practical creative experience. - £5.00 Al Summers - 200 pages |
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Brendon Hill - Springtime
Brendon Hill is a classical student at Al Summers and has just released his first solo CD having written all of the music himself. It is available in a cardboard sleeve or in a plastic case with booklet. Brendon has also produced the music in an A4 booklet (notation) so you could play along with him. You can purchase these 3 items at the M.G.B.website. |
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Tunes for baritone ukulele in TAB (tablature) & clef
£1.00 Tried and tested well known tunes from across the world plus some fun melodic exercises, tricks and patterns to encourage skilled fingers. - £1.00 Al Summers & Ray Bradfield - 34 pages |
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Tunes for Lute - suitable for 6- or 7- course lute £1.00 A distinctly non-purist & diverse selection to afford supplementary practice and pleasure using melodic pieces, both familiar, and unfamiliar (to improve sight reading), most not usually directly associated with renaissance lute (so unlikely to duplicate much in your lute music collection) - £1.00 Al Summers - 40 pages |
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Ukulele tunes in Tab & Clef - revised June 2016 £1.62 There are hundreds of ukulele books out there - very few contain tab (they are nearly all chord songbooks, with a smattering of clef-only notation books for tunes) so there is a gap in the market that teachers and students ask for. There are some realistic chords as well as some scales here too. - £1.62 Al Summers & Ray Bradfield - 36 pages |
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Greensleeves - Full Score £0.60 Statistically the most searched for tune on the net apparently though we find it hard to believe but I won't argue with stats! This is three arrangements: tune with chord symbols; tune with bass; fingerpicking arrangement. - £0.60 Al Summers |
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Guilani's Opus 43 Number 6 £0.60 Probably better known as the theme from Tales of the Riverbank (narrated by Johnny Morris) which apparently is another heavily-searched (& difficult to find, especially with tab) tune. - £0.60 Al Summers |
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FREE DOWNLOAD Just click on the image to the left Notes on Guitar - where to find them - circled numbers indicate the string and the numbers near the notes indicate the fret |
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Christmas Ukulele £1.52 Ukulele friendly carols and songs at Christmas time - and one for New Year - £1.52 Al Summers - 26 pages |
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<<<TWO MORE FREE DOWNLOADS >>> <<<<< Notes on Bass / Note Reference Chart >>>>> |
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Django Style £1.50 "Django" - this is a style file for the sorts of phrases used in hot club or gypsy style jazz guitar, grouped by the type of chord with which they work. Genuine short licks, often transposed or otherwise clarified to enable lucid study and easier understanding. - £1.50 Al Summers - 5 pages |
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Fun Fingerpicking Pieces for improving and intermediate guitar players - FREE TO DOWNLOAD We're feeling generous! As a taster of the kind fingerpicking presentations we provide, here are two renaissance tunes more familiar on the lute but which suit the guitar really well - guitar arrangements (with TAB and clef notations), one a short Francis Cutting lute piece, the other a popular and lascivious song, complete with its own stylish variations (embellishments known as divisions). They make very catchy and fun fingerpicking pieces for improving and intermediate guitar players. Al Summers - 2 pages |
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<<<TWO MORE FREE DOWNLOADS >>> <<<< Slide handbook - now out of print, is a great introduction to our very popular Slide Guitar Handbook, and ...........Bass Mode Cards >>>> |
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Progressive Fingerpicking Pieces £1.20 Fingerpicking Pieces that allow the student to progress through various techniques. including tricks that the professionals use for smooth and slick playing. - £1.20 Al Summers - 20 pages |
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So you want to be a full-time guitar tutor? £4.40 "This book is a must. A guitar tutor for over three decades, Summers not only breaks down all the practical considerations but forces you to thoroughly examine your motives. Be careful though, as Summers infuses this little tome with enough passion for his vocation to persuade the laziest so-and-so it's worth giving teaching a shot." -- Guitar & Bass magazine, Feb 2007 - £4.40 Al Summers - 22 pages |
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Don't be afraid of the neck £1.15 Back by demand, this effectively is the book's third reprint. Well regarded as an alternative and sometimes fun and maverick approach to sight reading, it acts as great supplementary and progressive material, with some creative ideas for improving reading. People say they even enjoy some of the pieces in their own right, perhaps a novelty for sight reading books! The first two prints sold out almost immediately, so it is good to be able to offer the book in this way. - £1.15 Al Summers - 12 pages |
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Mandolin - for beginners and intermediate players Revised Jan 2017 £3.95Dozens of tunes! 821 bars of music, lots of pieces and some chords, scales and arpeggios too, including TAB for everything as well as clef notation. This is all tried and tested material, successfully used in many workshops and lessons. - £3.95 Al Summers - 43 pages - (incl. TAB) |
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12-bar Blues Grooves & Turnarounds £1.50 23 pages of 12-bar blues grooves and turnarounds etc, with a demo solo and some scales for good measure, all carefully considered and put together in a progressive order. The favourite keys are covered in various styles, giving you some good and typical blues rhythm 'vamps' to accompany 12-bar blues. For teachers it offers good lesson material presented in a logical order. This material has been tried and tested with many students over many years by experienced Registered Guitar Tutors. - £1.50 Al Summers - 23 pages - (incl. TAB) |
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Chord playing for the impatient guitarist £5.81 a realistic approach to learning chords and playing them smoothly We show the chords in four ways. Symbol (the chord name, often in abbreviated form). Fingerboard diagram (showing you where to place fingertips and which strings to use - or not). Treble clef (shown an octave higher than sounding pitch as is usual for guitar music). TAB, modern six string tablature, fret numbers shown on strings, bottom line is bottom (lowest sounding thickest looking) string. - £5.81 Al Summers & Ray Bradfield - 39 pages - (incl. TAB) |
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Grow Your Own Fingerpicking Arrangements (Section 1) £2.46 Learn how to arrange for acoustic guitar while you play by progressive demonstrations of each tune: Most levels - approximately Grade III to VI [based upon LCM Acoustic Guitar syllabus] - £2.46 Ad Taylor-Weekes & Al Summers - 34 pages (incl. TAB) |
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Grow Your Own Fingerpicking Arrangements (Section 2) £2.46 Learn how to arrange for acoustic guitar while you play by progressive demonstrations of each tune: Most levels - approximately Grade III to VI [based upon LCM Acoustic Guitar syllabus] - £2.46 Ad Taylor-Weekes & Al Summers - 44 pages (incl. TAB) |
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Blues Fingerpicking Step By Step £2.77 This collection introduces you to blues fingerpicking and common moves in some of the most frequently used keys. These are short but complete exercises in the style of blues, which should be fun to play. Familiarity will help make the study of 'real' blues easier. - £2.77 A video tutorial for Boogie Walk (page 3) and One Way Ticket (page 4) is now available on You Tube << click here << A video tutorial for Three Quarter Return (page 6) and Dead Thumb Journey (page 9) is now available on You Tube << click here << |
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Christmas Carols for Lute £3.50 Non-purist arrangements suitable for six- or seven-course lute with some (minimally punctuated) text & some embroidered offerings for lute playing convenience & pleasure - £3.50. |
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Guitar Friendly Christmas Carols & Songs £3.90 Wish you a Merry Christmas, Away in a Manger, Good King Wenceslas, Jingle Bells and many more. 35 pages in total of your favourite Christmas tunes all in one publication for just £3.90. |
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Our new book for Guitar Beginners and Improvers is now available as a download in progressive sections. Each section comprises a block of progressive music, all of which has been tried, tested and developed with individual students, schools, workshops, music tutors and during our successful series of evening classes over many years. Teachers will find them easy to use and an aid to lesson planning, while students will enjoy learning the catchy tunes, familiar favourites and some new pieces, all presented in clear and accessible arrangements. |
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"Honestly self-described as 'anything but purist', this volume is aimed at beginners and improvers with wide but generally popular musical tastes. Individual pieces are used to support different aspects of technical development, and tablature is used below the notation at all times. A familiar mix of folk tunes and blues figures makes up much of the material, with a nice touch being the presence of some tunes by students. Over 69 pages of music the notation and tab are presented to a high standard, with the latter, unusually, furnished with rhythm signs (almost always), rests and nicely readable numbers. many tutors, especially those working with adults or teenagers, will find this a helpful supplementary resource." Music Teacher Magazine June 2012 |
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Beginner Repertoire Term 1
£3.00 18 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire Term 2
£3.00 20 pages (incl TAB)Click here >>> to view the video clip associated with Term 2
Beginner Repertoire (Improver) Term 3
£3.00 18 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire (Improver 2) Term 4
£3.00 24 pages (incl TAB)
Beginner Repertoire Supplementary Term 5
£3.00 26 pages (incl TAB)Beginner Repertoire The complete book
£12.00 (saving £3.00) 78 pages Know Your Notes
90 pence 5th´s, 4th´s, 3rd´s and more. (9 pages)
Strategies for learning all the notes (& some of their relationships) on guitar & bass.
This was the final booklet in our ´Theory Lessons in a Booklet´ series, all of which received great reviews in guitar magazines, most going to several printings. This has been the best selling title recently and went out of print at the beginning of 2012, so a secondhand copy or this download the only way to obtain it now - and is cheaper than the original booklet!
"Incredibly informative, lean and mean tutors for the guitar playing gentry."
Guitar Techniques magazine, October 1998.
"Extremely beneficial to those keen on improving their chosen art. Definitely not as glamorous or glossy as the latest video aid or computer tuition course, but probably a darn sight more useful."
Guitar Mart Magazine, August 2000.
On The Slide Slide Guitar Handbook
£8.00 47 pages (incl TAB)"An excellent book for those beginning slide guitar.Most slide tutors seem, in my experience, to instruct the reader in various slide riffs without explaining WHEN they will be of use. This is the best of many slide books I have bought in that it assumes no knowledge of slide playing. A great introduction: buy the other books afterwards, when the basics have been mastered using this publication. "
Amazon UK - 24 February 2012
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Capo-Users & Chordbusters Handbook £0.90 pence Complete Capo Chord Conversion Charts - PLUS Chord Recipes: Full ingredients for major, minor, 7th, minor 7th & major 7th chords. |
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Chords That Matter £0.90 pence The really useful ones that guitarists really use. After studying this booklet, you will be able to find a major or minor triad and a 7th or 9th chord ANYWHERE on the guitar. Chords That Matter contains all those little Mark Knopfler, Pete Townshend, Eddie Van Halen and jazz chord voicings, and a couple of useful calculations from 'parent' chords at the end too. |
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Tenor Guitar: Begin and Progress £4.00 37 pages (incl TAB)
Introductory tunes for beginners and intermediate players: |