Dan Coates

Several selections

This collection has a little of everything, including movie and television themes and old standards like As Time Goes By, but it primarily includes arrangements of pop ballads. The book's main drawback is its binding. At 304 pages, it is a fairly thick paperback, and it doesn't stay open on its own. Since almost all of the songs require at least one page turn, this makes things rather awkward for the pianist. A spiral binding would make the book much more user-friendly.

This collection of Christmas standards is half sacred and half secular. I've been a big fan for years of Dan Coates's arrangements of popular music. While most of his advanced arrangements require some practice, they are usually not difficult to master. The melody never gets lost in lots of unnecessary embellishment.