THE WILDS Christian Association, Inc. has updated their songbook to make this excellent music resource even better. The Eight Edition includes the following:
MANY NEW SONGS
The book now has 221 songs (23 more than the seventh edition), including 64 public domain songs. Many good new songs have been added; one of my favorite ones is By the Gentle Waters.
FULLER INFORMATION ABOUT THE GUITAR CHORDS IN THE SONGS
Each song includes the guitar chords, including many songs with a much fuller indication of what chords to play to make the song sound even better than when it is played with just the basic chords!
A new notation that shows what chords are optional in the songs helps less advanced guitar students know what chords they can omit to make the song easier for them to play.
The fuller chord information allows greater variety when playing the song because the guitarist can vary between playing all the chords on certain stanzas and omitting the optional ones on others.
Songs that are in difficult keys for guitarists are much easier to play than they would be otherwise because they have information about where to put the capo and what chords to play the song in for the easier key.
EXPANDED CHORD CHARTS
The Standard Guitar Chords chart provides diagrams for 63 basic chords arranged alphabetically in rows by key, from A to G (9 in each key – Major, Sus, Sus9, Aug, Sixth, Seventh, Major Seventh, Minor, and Minor Seventh). Additional information with the chart explains the choice for including Sus9 chord diagrams in this edition in place of Sus2 chord diagrams in the previous edition.
The Diminished Chords chart shows the same chords as before but now also has a helpful explanation about how they have been notated consistently in the book “to simplify your chord usage.”
The Additional Guitar Chords provides diagrams for many more chords than the previous addition did (170 versus 114)!
SONG INDEX
The book ends with a comprehensive alphabetical index of the songs. Comparing this index with the one for the seventh edition readily shows that many new songs have been added and some have been removed, which makes it valuable to have and use both editions.
PROVEN VALUE
I have been using the Wilds Songbooks with nearly all of my private students for many years. My students have really liked using these books!
Recently, I began using the Eighth Edition as one of the main books for some of my students in a class in a local church. I highly recommend it for all guitarists who like to play Christian music!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
