Musicals Books

No Mirrors in My Nana's House: Musical CD and Book This is a superb book for toddlers and young readers alike. It's music is by a member of the premier acapella group Sweet Honey in the Rock and teaches a wonderful message in a thoroughly enjoyable way. My nephew wanted it read and the music replayed over and over as he danced around.

Another music teacher here to recommend this book. My first graders LOVE LOVELOVE IT!!!! They love the pictures, they love singing the song - even the shy children, and at the end of the song they always ask to hear it again.

Plus, I wish you could've heard the interesting conversations we've had about why the people don't have faces.

I love Sweet Honey and I love this book!

The lead teacher at my son's school suggested that I buy this book for him because he loved it in music class. I had not heard of it, but decided to get it anyway since it had grabbed my son's attention. I am glad that I did. The whole family enjoys the book as well as the catchy tune of the CD. This is one worth having.

I am an elementary music teacher. I have shared this book with all my students from kinder through 5th grade. Every child loves the book and the song, they leave my class singing is every time we sing it. The artwork is so inspiring, a great conversation starter. Excellent resource for a teacher or parent.

"No Mirrors in my Nana's House" is great to have in your collection of musical books. The kids love the song that tells the story and it sends out a great message and shows diversity.

This is a great and comprehensive resource for any orchestra librarian or administrator! A Must Have!

Daniel's Orchestral Music is an amazing resource. As a music librarian, I find it indespensible. It is huge time saver, with loads of information all in one convenient package. I particularly like the updated instrumentation format, which is easier to understand and gives more complete information.

This is my bible! Could not live without it. Far surpasses all previous editions.

This book is a necessity for any conductor, orchestra librarian, or artistic director as it is an invaluable resource. It is significantly more comprehensive than the previous edition but nonetheless is a work in progress, missing many great, but obscure composers. The inclusion of the various appendixes with catagorization by duration, composer nationality, etc. are extremely useful. All being said, it is an essential part of any serious musician's library and will serve you well.

The fourth edition of Daniels' handbook is a must for anyone involved in selecting repertoire for the symphony orchestra. The appendices are extremely helpful, the precise instrumentation for percussion and auxilary instruments is valuable, and the listing of nationality, birth/death dates and places for the composers is useful. This handbook is truly a time-saving and informative reference work.

This book is impressively well written with a dry, concise and insightful tone. This book is not against perfectionism, but against the idea that mistakes should be always avoided, even during practice. The author suggests that music should be performed with a strong body awareness, and that this should be cultivated during practice in a way that is a sort of dialogue between ourselves and our bodies; in this dialogue, errors are a way for our bodies to communicate with us, so we should be able to make them boldly and then recover from them as much information as we can. This, in the end, makes the correction of the error deeper, and our performances more confident.

The book is not a step-by-step guide to practicing using this method; it's more a pedagogic book detailing the philosophy behind this approach. Still, it's very though provoking even for non teachers and for amateurs musicians, especially adults returning to music after previous bitter experiences.

This book is absolutely enjoyable to read. I just couldn't stop reading it...I did not want to continue practicing without hearing all that William Westney had to say about practicing techniques (for any instrument, though mainly piano) and musicality. He uses great resources if you want to learn more about what he writes. His focus is getting in touch with the innate musician within you...a very positive and motivating book...highly recommended.

If you want to truly refresh your thinking about teaching music, this is the book. Explore with the author ways to bring enthusiasm and joy into the learning process... how to use 'honest mistakes" as tools. Be prepared to learn why traditional methods can sometimes harness creativity. This book described for me a way to help my students relax and welcome the journey into music. Whether teaching by traditional methods or not, this book is a must. Thanks, Mr. Westney, for the great read and the inspiring words.

Not really being part of the culture to which the author is reacting, I found this book to be captivating, if a bit strident. The unfortunate tendency towards perfectionism taints a great deal more than music instruction. The expectations of deference and respect on the basis of position weaken bishops and U.S. presidents as well as maestros and music teachers. Still, the control freak element runs deep. As an adult beginner taking piano lessons, I just see it from a different perspective. Take humor in the strutting of the popinjay, no need to be alarmed by it.

Also, the man either knows nothing about golf, or else cheats on his scorecard. I suspect the former rather than the latter. But, a recorded lousy golf swing is just a lousy golf swing, while one left off the scorecard is, well, a reflection of character.

However, on his home ground, the practice room and the recital stage, the author is very strong. Texas Tech is lucky to have him. Go, Red Raiders!

This is my favorite book about music-making (classical piano, in my case). Westney very convincingly makes the case for an overhaul of the way we approach music practice and performance. The 'juicy wrong note' idea promotes a wholistic, passionate attitude. It is NOT the idea of treating mistakes lightly...more, it's the attitude of making the mistake whole-heartedly and then learning what it has to tell you about your level of preparedness,an unsuspected weak point, etc. Westney does not cover specific how-to's (the best book on that for piano in my opinion is Berman's) but more the philosophy to bring to the practice room and to the performance. I'd give more stars if it were possible

If you love soul music and want to understand it from the inside out this book is for you. It is full of facts, myths debunked, and a scholarly yet very sensitive and thoughtful perspective on what the music means to us and why.

In "Sweet Soul Music," Peter Guralnick explains what made soul music great. He views soul as a distinct genre, separate from Motown, which was performed primarily by black singers for a black audience. Soul told the story of the rapid social upheaval transforming the South while reflecting the gains made by the civil rights movement. According to Guralnick, soul was different from other forms of R&B because it involved straining the boundaries of the listener's expectations and hinting at a conclusion without actually reaching it. Unlike Motown, the musicians who performed soul were freelancers and individualists who emphasized the underlying feeling of a song more than keeping the mechanics exactly right. Guralnick says that because the musicians, songwriters, producers, managers, and engineers who created the music worked at isolated regional outposts far removed from the major record labels, they were able to define their own roles within the movement.

"Sweet Soul Music" traces the origin of soul to the song "Crying in the Chapel" by the Orioles, which blurred the lines between gospel and R&B. "I Got a Woman" by Ray Charles, which followed, solidified soul as a distinct genre and exerted a profound influence on the future of music in the U.S. Guralnick explains that "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge then brought white fans to the table. The book tells the stories of the heroes of soul, including Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin, explaining in great detail how each set goals, viewed their careers, related to their peers, and overcame obstacles in order to achieve the extraordinary success that they did. Many of the stories are memorable, enabling the reader to see how a particular event changed an individual artist's view of the world, influenced that artist's decisions, and shaped the music itself.

The book is at its best, though, when telling the stories of the lesser-known talents who paved the way for future artists to succeed. Guralnick explains how Arthur Alexander's single "You Better Move On" was criticized in Nashville for sounding "too black," but eventually found the audience it deserved and opened new doors for other Muscle Shoals artists. William Bell's successful touring to support the single "You Don't Miss Your Water (Till Your Well Runs Dry)" not only to put Stax on the map, but enabled Bell to set the gold standard regarding philosophy towards fame and stardom. Guralnick explains how Stax's decision to open a record store and carry competing labels' stock gave the Stax musicians an opportunity to study hits closely, learn why they were hits, and discuss what future hits should sound like.

The book concludes that soul never fully recovered from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an event that caused relationships among many of the movement's key players to become frayed. Guralnick says that soul was a genre that could only exist in a particular time and place because of the influence that the struggle for civil rights had on the music. Overall, "Sweet Soul Music" offers an outstanding look at why soul left such an extraordinary legacy for artists and fans today. The book is strongly recommended for anyone who wants to understand why soul left such a powerful impression on listeners at the time, and continues to do so today.

Like Robert Palmer's superb "Deep Blues," Guralnick's extensive look back at the roots of R&B and soul music combines criticism, biographical profiles and social history into one rich, printed tapestry. Meticulously researched, the book shows its author's deep love of the music without sacrificing objectivity.

Guralnick provides plenty of background on the "race music" that spawned R&B and the great soul music of the sixties and early seventies, on which much of the book concentrates. Like most, if not all, of the great blues musicians, the early pioneers of soul came from humble, mostly southern beginnings, and made little or no money from their work, which was liberally sampled by white musicians.

A good portion of the narrative revolves around the fascinating rise and fall of Stax Records, the tiny Memphis-based label that brought together white executive leadership and musicians with raw black talent from the South. Despite initially primitive recording conditions, Stax developed into a powerhouse that was home to some of the greatest musicians in soul music, from Otis Redding to William Bell to Carla Thomas to Sam and Dave to Johnny Taylor. The label became representative of the growing sense of black pride that defined the era, one in which civil rights, of course, moved to the forefront of America's consciousness.

All of these musicians and many more, including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and James Brown, to name a few, are given finely drawn profiles by Guralnick, and he treats their contributions to American music with the respect that they deserve. Throughout, he is intent on letting the artists tell their stories in their own words, and remains content to use his own fine writing to direct and bind together the narrative.

Another great accomplishment of the book, for me, was Guralnick's successful effort to illuminate the ties between white and black musicians during this period. Yes, many of the most successful producers, notably Atlantic's Jerry Wexler, were white, but so were many of the musicians. Most had grown up in the south around blacks and were intimately familiar with African-American music. The Stax house band, which included Steve Cropper and Donald Dunn, was white, and they performed on many songs penned by great black songwriters such as David Porter and Isaac Hayes. Think of the great, ominous organ introduction to Aretha Franklin's "I Ain't Never Loved a Man." The white player is Spooner Oldham. This musical cross-fertilization is a notable point, one not often brought into considerations of the era.

As a young kid coming up in the mid-60s, I loved the music that Guralnick writes about here, and I could tell -- even if he hadn't said so -- that he did too. He goes beyond that love to really dig into its roots and understand it, and succeeds admirably.

'Sweet Soul Music' is a fantastic book, the best book I've read on the subject. Having said that, it isn't by any means a complete history of Soul Music (it completely omits the great music that came from New York, Motown, Chicago and Philly), nor is it a complete history of Southern Soul Music (the book ends with the acrimonious break up of Stax/Volt records, even though great Soul was still being made elsewhere in Memphis). Guralnick's book starts off looking like a history of Soul Music (there are early chapters on Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and an amazing and hilarious chapter on Solomon Burke), but then the book changes emphasis and becomes the story of the involvement of white musicians in Southern R&B.

Guralnick's thesis seems to be that Southern Soul achieved its great creative flowering in the 60s as a result of the partnership between black and white musicians, and even though he interviews a great number of musicians and businessmen - black and white - he can't help himself from empathising with the young white hipsters that made up the house bands at Stax and Muscle Shoals, with the result that the book becomes very much a story told from their point of view (Guralnick calls Dan Penn the "secret hero of this book" - fair enough, but surely James Brown should have been its overt hero). After these white musicians were intimidated out of the business during the racial tension that followed Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, Guralnick concentrates more on the politics and seems to lose interest in the music itself.

Which is a great pity, since Southern Soul in the 70s went on to even greater heights (James Brown's rhythmic revolution, then Al Green's great synthesis of the sexual and the spiritual). Though I learnt a great deal from the book (my CD collection has mushroomed after reading it) it felt to this reader as though the book had ended just before its real climax.

I bought this book in the gift shop at the newly resurrected Stax Records museum in Memphis... the Satellite Record Shop, next door to the museum. I've lived in Memphis all my life, although I'm about 15-20 years younger than most of those made famous by the Stax phenomenon. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it served to fill in the blanks about many things I had only heard about superficially growing up here. I'm bothered by a lot of factual errors, not noticeable or important maybe to many, but this is about my home. At least the author and/or his editor could have been more sure of producing a factually accurate book. The edition I bought was published in 1999... the original in 1986. Did no one else catch these errors in the '86 edition? Here are a couple of examples: He refers to a Memphis radio station, KWEM, which was and is actually in West Memphis, Arkansas, and whose call letters are KWAM. (Everybody knows stations east of the Mississippi River start with a "W" and all those west of the Mississippi start with a "K".... radio and TV stations alike. Does the author know where Memphis is?
He refers to a naval base in Tipton County, TN, where Booker T. & the MGs would play, when in fact it's in Shelby County, the same county Memphis itself is in. Does this change anything in the big picture? Probably not. Is the book any less enjoyable or informative? No, not really. But if you considered yourself a true New Yorker, and someone kept writing about it, calling it Gethom City, or The Big Orange, well, you get the picture. I do wonder how many other errors the book may contain that I didn't catch?

Great condition but didn't realise the book contained several stories. Just wanted the one story "Why the chimes rang."It was bought as a gift and the reciever was totally thrilled

I remember this book from long ago. It has a wonderful message. Not only can love make the bells ring, love can change the world! The illustration are just perfect for the story. This would make the perfect holday gift for young people, or even not so young people who want to regain the Christmas spirit of giving and service.

Destined to be a Christmas classic:Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices--echoes the message of Why the Chimes Rang.

Growing up in a small town in Indiana, I got to listen to my paternal grandfather read this story to the assembled family every Christmas Eve. My father has continued the tradition within our family, reading from an original 1906 edition of the book. Every year like clockwork, my mother cries as she looks around the room at her sons, their families and the dogs. My partner and I are adopting a boy and a girl from Guatemala this year, and I can't wait to begin this tradition in our home. This is a truly glorious story about Christmas. Read it and share it with your own family. And make sure it's read aloud by the family member with the most sonorous voice.

lovely pictures and great story
nice to find a childrens christmas book that isnt a popular character of the month
adults will enjoy also, so makes reading together the experience it should be

What a delight to find this classic from my childhood. Our parents read to us at bedtime. This story of love and sharing relates universal values. Thank you for making it available.

This book contains essential information for any music student. Purchased to address physical discomfort that required a year-long sabbatical and hand therapy, splints, etc. Previous methods researched included the Taubman method, etc. were much too time-consuming and impractical for the average person who practices less than 12 hours a day. The material on the mechanics of playing was very helpful in helping me overcome tendonitis and shoulder pain. As for practicing approaches, he first part of the book (A Reason For Practicing: Why Do You Practice, Why Don't You Practice and Concentration) is motivating and inspiring, something I refer to again and again. Helped me understand why I practice and don't practice. Addresses psychological barriers that may influence one's approach to music. Wonderful section on concentration, memory, Listening, You and the Piano and Choreography. Section on Performance Anxiety was also insightful and provided innovative approaches.

Bernstein's book is full of great lessons on how to improve your piano playing. This book and "The Art of Piano Playing" by Newhaus should be on every piano player's shelf. I gained a great deal of insight from reading this book and plan to read it again and again. This book will help any serious student of the piano no matter what your level. As you improve your skills you will turn more and more to this book because it will help you at each level. A must read.

If you can tolerate all the touchy-feely psychobabble, the boasting, self-promotion and pretentiousness, you will find some genuinely worthwhile and (to me anyway) original ideas on a variety of topics -- how to memorize, how to strike a balance between staying loose and obtaining a "big sound", hmmm, I might be able to come up with one or two more. So basically, you're looking at a high noise-to-signal ratio here. On the other hand, if you hate to practice and you're looking for a motivational book, this may be just the thing.

I got a LOT out of this book. The suggestions helped me flesh out many misunderstandings I have at the piano. My teacher told me it's all about concentration and Seymour Bernstein gives tons of suggestions to helped get me to the level of concentration I needed to achieve. I'm an A.D.D. type, mind wondering practicer who focused way too much on muscle memory even though I consider myself musical and the piano hasn't been my primary instrument. That led me to certain distracting physical challenges that took away from the musicality. This book will help you understand how to listen to yourself better and consider all of the notes when you're playing instead of the bulling though hard parts. Get this book, The Art of Piano Playing by Heinrich Neuahus and Piano Technique by Walter Giesking. These books vary in thier suggestions but you can build a complete point of view out of them to find yourself in your piano playing.

Before reading this, I thought it was a kind of mechanical things. And I treated playing piano carelessly. But this book helped me to be serious about it.The title itself shows his idea on piano playing. In the first part I reflected on my attitude to practicing and my teacher. He suggests various aspects of techniques in the second part. Not all of suggestion worked for me but surely it is worth reading.If you are interested in 'why' and 'how as an intermediate player, I think this book is for you.

The best educational book on jazz. Covers ride cymbal, comping, solo ideas, uptempo, brushes and has a good play along cd. All of the written words do a fantastic job of putting things in context. Mr. Riley clearly knows his stuff. "Beyond Bop Drumming" is also a great book for more advanced jazz playing.

This book is fantastic sorce material for any intermediate drummer looking to begin exploring jazz. For experienced players the content can be quite challenging and the advice is imminently valuable. Really a spectacular educational resource.

I'm simply going to reinforce what you may have heard elsewhere: this is as good a foundational text on jazz and bop drumming as you can find (along with Ed Soph's and Jim Chapin's books).

If you are interested in learning to PLAY jazz and bop on the drums, this book takes you from a level assuming some knowledge of the drum kit, little knowledge of jazz, and brings the two together in a very logical way.

I have milked four years (so far, many more to go) out of this book with regards to the density, depth and entertainment/interest-level of the material.

I bought this book after playing professional jazz gigs for 4 years. It is authentic and a great place to start for beginning to intermediate jazz drummers. The CD is a nice accompaniment.

Like Jazz? Don't like Jazz? It doesn't matter. Whether you like to swing or not, this book WILL make you a better drummer and musician. The triplet feel is almost its own dimension in drumming and every drummer should master it. Although it is targeted for bebop jazz (basically faster swing feel as far as a drummer is concerned), this book will give you plenty of exercises and ideas you can incorporate in any genre. The exercises are great for independence and time-keeping, and offer very, very good fill and solo ideas.

As for aspiring jazz drummers, there is absolutely no question, GET this book. Any jazz professor at the university level would approve and it is used widely in music schools such as Berklee and Indiana University Music School (I graduated from IU).

The lessons on brushes are crucial and if you have never placed your hand on a brush, here is where you should start looking.

The accompanying CD is great as well and helps you to master a good swing time, listen to exercises being played, listen to compositions and play along tunes with a bassist or with a whole rhythm section.

A wealth of information. Techniques, warm-up scales, alternate fingerings, transposition, practice music to improve different areas such as range, intervals, pitch. Learned about this from a horn player in the Dallas Symphony when I was in high school, found it very useful when I played with the Guam Symphony, and used it regularly when I returned to playing after several years of absence. Given it to young players across the US and overseas.

This book is my favorite of all time-- and for a teenager, that may seem strange. I have played horn for about four months, and this is my reference for any issues from technical problems, to practice advice, to encouragement and warnings. Philip Farkas speaks in a way that I love-- he offers frank advice and talks to the reader in a voice that clearly states that he is a fellow hornist, a friend helping a friend. His tone is clear, honest, and very distinguished-- I found it very encouraging that he does not speak to the reader in a condescending way. I am extremely encouraged that he offers such a wide variety of advice, though I do question some of his techniques, such as sitting while practicing and advising not to hold the horn "free". I do agree with his preference of a dark, mellow tone, but I believe that can be achieved while holding the horn free if the right hand is in the correct position. Furthermore, Mr.Farkas's book is the bible of french horn and should be commited to memory by each and every hornist that is serious about this art.

95 pages full of advice for any hornplayer, beginner, advanced or pro. Maybe the fotos and the layout are not best quality, but finally its the content that counts.

As a Horn teacher for many many years, this is required text for all my students. The "manual" for Horn playing.

This book is awsome, it is a wealth of information that every horn player should know. I love it to death, as has been said before it truely is the bible of french horn playing. If your not the reading type you may not appreciate this book's full potential, but for everyone else: BUY THIS BOOK!

This is quite a comprehensive book of "selections"...I feel that you could almost perform a revue of the show just using this book! (Just kidding, don't try it or they'll throw you in the Pit of Copyright Infringement!) In addition, delivery was prompt and the book was in very fine condition (looked new).

I am most pleased with this book because of the very detailed arrangement. Although the melody is written in the Treble Clef, the music survives arrangement very well. The chords are accurate, and in my case, difficult to play, but all the songs are included. But the most surprising thing about this book is that it includes all the vocal harmonies as well. Currently I am learning how to better play the music (it is NOT for beginners) and I'm sure I will appreciate the score when I can play it more effectively. This was a very good buy.

I bought this book because the other Avenue Q book I have was only the "Vocal Selections" and it was missing several songs. This songbook has every song from the Broadway Cast Album, with the exception of "School For Monsters/Money Song (Reprise)" and "There's A Fine Fine Line (Reprise)/What Do You Do With A B.A. In English? (Reprise)". Other than that, every song is here.

This book, unlike my other Vocal Selections book incorporates the melody into the right hand, but it can be easily removed to make room for vocalists if needbe.

The best songs to play/sing in this book are "Schadenfreude", "There's A Fine Fine Line", "It Sucks To Be Me", and "Fantasies Come True". At least, that's what I think. To each his own.

I like the book I bought. It had all the songs I wanted. It came in a decent amount of time from when I bought it.

If you haven't seen the show, go and do it. If you have, well done.

What many piano arrangements for recent Broadway musicals nowadays such as Wicked, Mamma Mia, and Spamalot have in their respective arrangements is a lack of a challenging score to play, though it may sound easy, and how oftentimes, they composer tries to alter the original score into something more adaptive for the public. Although this may sound like a good idea, it really isn't, because as soon as you play it based on the arrangement or sing it, you quickly realize it's not as good as the original, which is what everyone wants, right?

The Avenue Q Piano arrangement, however, keeps all the songs in their original context, letting everyone emulate the classic songs the way they're supposed to be sang. No one wants to sing "Defying Gravity" from Wicked without the chorus back-up or Glinda singing in every now and then, right? Avenue Q gives you the score straight from the source, without awkwardly messing up the original greatness of the music. A must-buy.

The Best of Good is a refreshing novel about real people and their journey to self discovery. We all know these people. We are these people. It has the right amount of bitter and sweet. I laughed and I cried. I felt rejuvenated while reading it. I didn't want to put it down. This is my new favorite of all of Sara Lewis' novels, and my favorite of all the books I've read in a couple of years!

What a wonderful book! The Best of Good is a gentle story about real people that grabs hold of you and won't let go, even after you've closed the cover for the last time. I found myself reading long sections aloud to my husband, and each time I thought I had finished, he would say "Keep reading!" It's that kind of book. One that asks you to keep reading because the characters have become important to you as real people, not because the chapter ended with an explosion or a car chase. If you like reading books instead of reading television shows written on paper, this is the perfect book for a fall evening.

Within a few pages, I was so hooked that I couldn't decide if I wanted to read it straight through or savor it for a few days. I couldn't put it down.
I am anxiously awaiting her next book.

Once you meet Tom Good you can't help but root for him and hope for him. Good will stay with me for a long time. Be prepared to leave a place in your heart for him. The best of Sara Lewis' excellent novels. Can't wait to see her next book.

Having just finished reading "The Best of Good", there are tears in my eyes. This book moved me deeply, while also providing hours of enjoyment. Writing in the first person, as a man, was an amazing feat for Sara, who continues to surprise me with her books. I've read all her novels, and this one rates right up there and, in fact, it's hard to choose a favorite. The characters were so very real to me. There are even things about Tom Good that I can recognize within myself. His struggles to start living his life again after isolating for 20 years made me examine my life, too. The children, his neighbors and his sister Ellen were all so realistic. They all have their layers of complexity, which Sara presents so brilliantly.

Read this book and see if you want to start making a quilt, upgrading your surroundings, getting closer to the people around you, and maybe even forgiving yourself for guilt that you should not have assumed for things in the past. This is a powerful book, in the guise of light entertainment! Absolute bravos for this, and I highly recommend it!