Buy Santana/Supernatural transcription book at Warner/Chappell website.
Buy In Session with Carlos Santana at Amazon.com
Buy Santana at Borders.com
Buy JAM with Carlos Santana at the Jamtrax.com website.
Learn to play like Santana
As the new millenium got underway, no musician was more popular than guitarist Carlos Santana. Since receiving an astounding 8 awards for his album "Supernatural" at the 2000 Grammy Awards, the spotlight on Santana has grown even more bright. By learning the solos and music of Carlos Santana, an entire new generation of guitarists will be influenced by the Latin guitar superhero. The following four resources have been designed to help the ambitious guitarist learn to play Carlos Santana's music note-for-note.
Santana/Supernatural (book)
$24.95 (list)
Hot off the presses, this new Warner Brothers "Authentic Guitar Tab Edition" book includes every track from the recording "Supernatural", the album that set the pop world on fire. The guitar parts in the soft-cover book have been transcribed in both tablature and standard notation formats. When appropriate, the piano parts have been written for guitar, to make keyboardless performance of the material entirely possible. Second guitar parts have also been included for total accuracy. The quality of transcription in general looks to be superb, and entirely accurate. Although the book does not include annotations for each song, the music transcriptions contained within it's pages should speak for themselves.
In Session with Carlos Santana (book w. CD)
$21.95 (list)
Never, in my experiences examining resources designed to teach transcribed guitar solos, have I come across a book (and accompanying CD) as impressive as "In Session with Carlos Santana". The soft cover 76-page book includes transcriptions (with tablature) to six Santana tracks with a distinct appeal to guitarists. Following each transciption in the book is a multi-page explanation of the previous tune and guitar solo. Each annotation includes practice tips, insight into what Carlos was thinking when we played the solo, and much more. Guitarists will surely find these descriptions to be extremely helpful, and even inspiring. For those interested in learning more about Santana, "In Session with Carlos Santana" includes the guitarist's biography and discography.
The accompanying CD is just as impressive as the book. Each of the songs featured in the book are presented on the CD in many formats. While the songs on the disc are vocal-less recreations of the original tunes (undoubtedly for copyright reasons), they are note-for-note reproductions of the authentic Santana recordings. All six songs from "In Session with Carlos Santana" are presented in four formats each on the CD:
The presence of the slow-speed tracks gives guitarists the opportunity to practice the solos along with music almost immediately, and to pay special attention to getting everything "just right". The tracks without guitar give guitarists the opportunity to try the solo themselves (or even create their own solo).
The creators of this book deserve a HUGE pat on the back. They have created a resource for learning Santana songs that is 100% effective. If the six songs on "In Session with Carlos Santana" interest you, this package is highly recommended.
Santana (book)
$19.95 (list)
This compact 84 page softcover book is a great resource for guitarists interested in Carlos Santana's pre-1980 music. Despite it's relatively small size, "Santana" contains full transcriptions to 15 tunes. Each song in "Santana" is presented in both standard notation and guitar tablature formats. The tab layout is extremely easy-to-read, making it fairly simple to decipher while playing along with a CD of the music (not included). Although no performance notes accompany the tablature in the book, several black and white photographs of Carlos and the band are included. If you're on a budget, and want to learn "classic" Santana tunes, this is the book for you.
Jam with Carlos Santana (book w. CD)
$24.95 (list)
This entry in the "Jam with" series features eight transcriptions of the most popular tunes Santana recorded before the release of "Supernatural". Each of the transcriptions is printed in both standard notation and tablature, with a very easy-to-read layout. Upon examining the transcriptions, it is clear that they are fully accurate in all cases. "JAM with Santana" prefaces the transcriptions with a brief analysis of each solo, detailing the theoretical aspects of what Carlos plays on the corresponding tunes.
The accompanying CD allows users to listen to, and play along with the featured solos. Each song is presented in two formats: one with guitar present, the second with the guitar absent. The music on the CD is not played by Carlos Santana and band, rather by a group of studio musicians who do an impressive job of re-creating the original recordings note-for-note (without vocals). Although the "JAM with" CD doesn't benefit from the addition of slowed down tracks (like the "In Session" book/CD included), it is nevertheless a great resource for guitarists trying to learn some "classic Santana".
Explore Guitar