Enjoy Playing Guitar: Christmas Crackers

Debbie Cracknell studied guitar and piano at Trinity College of Music in London and graduated with licentiate diplomas in both instruments. Since then she has been teaching as a peripatetic guitar teacher for Buckinghamshire County Council. Her very successful series, Enjoy Playing Guitar, has been followed by many solo and ensemble works aimed mainly at beginners and those in the early grades.

It all works rather well; the simple and predictable harmonisations fulfil their function, there's a lyric for singing students, and even chord symbols and a concluding chord-chart for those lessons when a non-reading chord-player joins the ensemble . . . any fingering presented does so just when the student would pose a fingering enquiry.This is a good resource which teachers of group lessons should know about. It would be a useful book to keep in the briefcase for this time of year when headmasters start to ask for Christmas items for the school concert. I can, without reservation, pass this book as 'fit for purpose' and I recommend it to you.

• Frosty the Snowman ; Away in a manger ; Deck the hall ; Let it Snow! ; Once in royal David's city ; In dulci jubilo ; The Virgin Mary had a baby boy ; We wish you a merry Christmas ; Rockin' around the Christmas tree ; Hark! the herald angels sing ; Jingle, Bells ; Santa Claus is Comin' to Town ; O little town of Bethlehem ; Sleigh Ride