Musicals Books

I started drumming about 2 months ago with a basic set, Tommy Igoe's 'Getting Started on the drums' dvd and this book. The book is endless pages of exercises that gradually builds in difficulty. It's great. Each new pattern gets you using all four limbs, and are easy to modify for more practice (open/closed hi hats, crash vs hi hats, etc). It's got sycophated patterns, drum fills, and stuff on establishing a 'groove' with a band/bass player. Not the end-all of drum books, but perfect for beginners.

I really enjoyed using this book as a teaching aide. Obviously, some musical background will allow for faster progress through the book. I have found that someone with no musical background might get off to a slow start, but anyone can improve with more practice. The CD that comes with the book is very helpful.

Without any previous drumming backgroud, I enrolled in a beginers class at college just for fun. We used Rock Drums Basics as one of our textbooks. It soon became my favorite book. It really starts with the basic patterns but gets progressively more complex to the point where you can play along three real songs (included in CD), rock, ballad and shuffle.

With this book you will learn about 19 rock patterns with at least two additional variations of each one plus some fills for each groove. Just make sure you practice on a drum set and not on a practice pad. You will really have fun.

Rock Drums Basics is in fact, one of the easiest ways for you to learn how to count, read notes and play the drums. it's include all the common 2 & 4 snare rhythms, and Also include a chapter about developing a groove with a bass player, which is a very important skill for a rock band. the book can really help you understand the important part of the drummer in a rock band, and even better: anybody can use this great book!

I ordered the Ultimate Book as soon as it came out, and I have gained more plectrum skills in the past few weeks than in the 5 years previous! It is absolutely fabulous. Whether you are a beginner or advanced, student or teacher, it is the perfect plectrum banjo book.

I live in a small town in Indiana, the middle of plectrum banjo nowhere, and have been trying to learn to play plectrum for the last five years. Despite years of 5-string playing, I just wasn't getting anywhere...particularly without a live teacher.Then along came The Ultimate Plectrum Guide. The chord diagrams are the best I've ever seen. They are used in a unique way to indicate timing, picking, and even whether to pick up or down. The organization of the book is superb. First of all the explanations are precise, including "Dave's Rules", neat little generalities that stick in your mind the way he intended them to. Exercises are meaningful...when Dave says play it 20 times, if you play it 20 times you will have learned it. The book starts with the basic chords, and just when you have had enough chord playing, they interject a secondary subject, then back to chords, etc. By the time you reach the end of the beginner's section, you can play all but the most arcane of chords with various picking styles. But then you come to part 3: "Adding Some Polish". Single string picking, turnarounds, etc. "Chord melody vs. improv vs. Background", "You're working too hard -- shortcuts" and "Transposing on the fly". Really great stuff.

Part Four, "Music Theory" is terrific, my wife is taking piano lessons and reading through this section clarified things her teacher was unable to. It is practical music theory, which sounds like a conflict in terms, but it is presented in such a way that you can put it to use immediately...building chords, transposing, converting to chord melody, etc.

Section 4 "Intermediate Banjo Playing" is about playing in groups. The first chapter, "When to cheat and how to do it", is full of techniques for playing above your head. The second, "What'd he say?" is a lexicon of band jargon so you don't feel stupid when you first sit in with a group.

Part 6, "Advanced Banjo Playing" really is, subjects like "single string and embelishments", "Differing Scales", modes and the harmonized scale, and "Inside chords and beyond". Then comes the Appendices! Every chord diagram you can conceive of, transposition charts, etc., etc.

This book is not only the very best plectrum banjo book, it should be the model for every "how to play anything". It is a whole new approach to writing music books, a superb teacher (David Frey) combined with an outstanding writer of technical manuals (Susanne Sagiacomo, who was actually learning to play) created honest-to-God synergy and advanced the art of music instruction by a whole order of magnitude.

"The Ultimate Plectrum Banjo Player's Guide" reallyis. It is not only the very best plectrum banjo book, it is a wholeorder of magnitude better than any music instruction book I've ever encountered.

I ordered the Ultimate Book as soon as it came out. I live in a small town in Indiana, which is in the middle of plectrum banjo nowhere, and have been trying to learn to play plectrum for the past 5 years. Despite many years of 5-string playing, I just wasn't getting anywhere. Then along came "The Ultimate Plectrum...Guide", I have gained more plectrum skills in the past few weeks than in the previous 5 years! It is absolutely fabulous. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced player, a student or a teacher, it is the perfect plectrum banjo book. The chord diagrams are the best I've ever seen. They are used in a unique way to indicate timing, picking, and even whether to pick up or down. The organization of the book is also superb. The explanations are precise, including "Dave's Rules", neat little generalities that stick in your mind the way he intended them to. Exercises are meaningful...when Dave says play it 20 times, if you play it 20 times you will have learned it. The book starts with the basic chords, and just when you have had enough chord playing, they interject an interesting secondary subject, then back to chords, etc. By the time you reach the end of the beginner's section, you can play all but the most arcane of chords with various timing and picking styles.

Next is part 3: "Adding Some Polish". Single string picking, turnarounds, etc. "Chord melody vs. improv vs. Background", "You're working too hard -- shortcuts" and "Transposing on the fly". Really great stuff.

Part Four, "Music Theory" is terrific, my wife is taking piano lessons and reading through this section clarified ideas her teacher was unable to get across. It is practical music theory, however, which may sound like a conflict in terms, but it is presented in such a way that you can put it to use immediately...building chords, transposing, converting to chord melody, etc.

Section 4 "Intermediate Banjo Playing" is about playing in groups. The first chapter, "When to cheat and how to do it", is full of techniques for playing above your head. The second, "What'd he say?" is a lexicon of band jargon so you don't feel stupid when you first sit in with a group.

Part 6, "Advanced Banjo Playing" really is, subjects like "single string and embelishments", "Differing Scales", modes and the harmonized scale, and "Inside chords and beyond".

Then comes the fabulous Appendices! Every chord diagram you can conceive of, transposition charts, etc., etc.

This book is not only the very best plectrum banjo book, it should be the model for every "how to play anything". It is a whole new approach to writing music books, a superb teacher (David Frey) combined with an outstanding writer of technical manuals (Susanne Sagiacomo, who was actually learning to play) created honest-to-God synergy and advanced the art of music. If you've read this far, buy it! END

Covers all the bases from beginners to playing in a jazz band. Highly recommended to all especially those who can't find a instructor for this elusive instrument. It also is a nice supplement to the Buddy Wachter video courses. Also recommended...Vol 2. Well done Dave and Sue!

Volume I is probably the best music instruction book ever, but Volume II is an absolutly essential companion to it. If you're already an intermediate to advanced player, you could possibly get along without Volume I, but you've gotta get Volume II. It is comprised of two sections, songs and exercises.

First there are the songs, just about every song needed in a plectrum player's basic repertoire of tunes. But get this, not only are they presented in the usual "fake book" or "lead sheet" format (melody line in standard musical notation with chord names above and lyrics below), there is also a chord chart, as well as chord diagrams for every note in the chord melody!

The chord chart uses a box for each measure with the chord name(s) in each, a great compact memory jogger for use after you've learned the song.

The chord melody diagrams are the tour de force of this set of books and a major advance in the art of string music instruction books. They not only show how to form the chord, and where on the neck to play it, but they also show the timing and the picking. By following these diagrams, you can be playing the chord melody in a matter of minutes.

Part 2 is the exercises, a compendium of all the exercises in Volume I, which is to say all the really good exercises you will ever need to increase and maintain your skills as a plectrum banjo player. Once you have mastered a particular section in Volume I, all the exercises without the accompanying text will be found in Volume II.

When I was first working my way through Volume I, I tabbed each page with an exercise so I could go back and run through it. Then I looked in the back of Volume II and there they all were, exactly as I needed them to be!

Exercises include: Dexterity exercises; All the chords played up and down the neck; Chord transition exercises (same fret and inversions); Chromatic chord scales for every note on the neck; Single string scales; Harmonized scales; Runs and fillers; Intros, tags, and endings; Duoing; and Arpeggios.

If you can master these exercises, you can play any of the tunes in the first section with professional polish. I can't speak highly enough about these books and the accompanying CD's.

Mark Atkinson has done an incredible job in putting this book together. I'm almost as amazed at his ability to transcribe Vinnie's solos as I am in the solos themselves. With two CDs; one with the solos slowed down and various exercises, and the second with the Randy Waldman's recording of these songs you can both see and hear what Vinnie is playing. To digest all this this book will take many many hours (how many hours in a year?) but what I have found so far is while you learn the solos you will find one or two measure phrases that you may internalize and use immediately. So even if your unable to learn an entire solo you can still get ideas which you can incorporate as your own. You'll find stickings that you've never played before and get a real insight into what makes Vinnie's playing and phrasing of odd time signatures so unique. Highly recommended for the experienced drummer.

This book is a must for all serious drummers. Mr. Atkinson did a great job of breaking down Vinnie's solos so that they're easier to understand and practice. The CD's are so helpful, they alone are worth the price of the book.

Mr. Atkinson has truly done an amazing job transcribing Vinnies solos. The CDs break it down and make it easier to work on. I highly recommend this book for the serious drummer. Thanks Marc.

Buy this book!

If you have a sincere desire to really "get inside" the drumming of Vinnie Colaiuta, you must invest in this book!

The transcriptions are flawless! Each page is well laid out, and to properly prepare you to tackle the rest of the book;
Marc has written a unique set of exercises designed to help you for what is to come in the rest of the book.

One of the most appealing aspects of this great learning device is the fact it contains two CD's! The first CD is the "Unreel" CD by the amazing Randy Waldman, featuring Vinnie, throughout the CD. The second CD is the icing on the cake!

In the second CD, you will find everything that Marc has transcribed, sequenced and slowed down to a very approachable speed. The second CD is unlike any other drum-related CD you have ever worked with. It is pure gold!

In addition to the mystery of Vinnies' soloing techniques being revealed, the CD also includes an incredible amount of great information for you to play along with, to help you develope your own "Vinnie-istic" approach.

Marc has worked very hard to bring this book to fruition. He has been transcribing Vinnie's work for a number of years, and this book gives you the very best insights into learning the language of "Vinnie."

As a matter of fact, I have seen over 350 transcriptions of Vinnies' drumming that Marc has successfully completed. No one has accurately transcribed and documented Vinnie, like Marc! If you will pardon the pun, his whole body of work on the topic of Vinnie Colauita is quite "remarkable!"

As much as the Unreel Drumbook will inspire your imagination, drumset performance, and love for Vinnie's drumming; wait 'till you see what Marc comes out with next!

Until that happens, you will just have to settle for what is quite possibly, one of the best drumbooks ever written!

Go ahead: Make the investment and buy the Unreel Drumbook now!

With the greatest respect,

Dan Bodanis www.thedanbodanisband.com.

West African Rhythms for Drumset is hands down one of the BEST books ever. The writers and editors did their homework because they have given the drum world a true gem. There is so much valuable information in this book its hard to desrcibe in a simple review. Any drummer or hand percussionist can and will benefit from this masterpiece. 5 stars and a total A++++++++++. Larry Salzman www.larrysalzman.net

Had this book nearly a year, recommended to anyone seeking to add to their drumset vocabulary. Material is well presented and structured, how these Ghanaian traditions and styles adapted on to the drum kit, it has given me plenty of ideas about concept of timeline, creating diff.textures, use of brush/stick/hands on drums, 12/8 melodic phrases etc. Study of these rhythms will greatly add to your grooving abilty and improve co-ordination, internalize them and then improvise and have fun with them, buy it.

I would like to post the following quote from Modern Drummer Magazine (September 98) in the interview with drummer Billy Martin of Medenski Martin & Wood.

MD Do you have a particular mode of practice?

BM I highly recommend Royal Hartigan's book West African Rhythms for Drumset. I feel that if drummers would check out some of the patterns in this book they'd really get a lot out of it. What's great about it is you're playing some traditional rhythms that are adapted for drumset, which I think is important because they've been tried and tested over hundreds of years. It's good for coordination, and these rhythms are musical, they're not just technical exercises. And Hartigan talks a little bit about the history. I think it's one of the best books our on drumset stuff.

MD So this book is a real source for you?

BM Well, It's one book that I would pull out if I needed some inspriation as far as really trying to get into into playing something different.

Tha! nks! Please feel free to contact me if you want to find out more about it.

This book and accompanying CD are essential to any real drummer. These rhythms are the real deal and if you can learn to play them, you will have a great foundation to play with anyone (Afro, Latin, Jazz, etc.). Even if you are NOT a trap drummer but play traditional african music, this book gives you the traditional fokloric ensemble set up with examples on the CD. I like that these traditional ensemble examples on the CD have each instrument/part come in announced succesion against the bell. I used to live in Ghana playing drums and I really learned a lot from this book. It has something for everyone, no matter what your skill level! OK enough gushing! Buy it you won't regret it!

When you listen to the CD of Dan Coates playing that comes with this
music book, you think, "I could never play that". Well, maybe you can't play it as fast and as good as he does, but, the music is so expressive played slower at your speed and personal touch. His talent of putting arrangements together is phoenominal and I am enjoying this book so very much!!! I'm only an intermediate player but, his music makes me sound advanced. I recommend these selections to anyone...they are his own too, not someone elses music!

Love it! Fun, accessible pieces for intermediate pianists. My copy came with a CD ... I've used it with my piano students (kids & adults) and they're having a blast. Includes slower, arpeggiated pieces as well as very rhythmic jazzy pieces. Great for recital.

I was very surprised and happy to find that they included a CD of the songs being played along with the book. I'm not a great pianist but these songs flow and while they are challenging, I do not get bogged down in them. Once or twice through and I was able to play them beautifully. Really nice arrangements, I would be proud to perform these pieces for anyone. Well done!

All 8 Songs are wonderful. The best part is the CD that has the same 8 songs played by Dan! I'm so glad that I found this music book from Amazon.com! If you enjoy Dan's arrangement style for the contemporary music, you'd not want to miss this one, 8 original songs composed by Dan!

I played the Yellow Brick Road in a version of The Wiz, and it's an awesome show. I will never forget it. "Ease on Down the Road" and "Slide Some Oil to Me" are probably the best songs. There is no show as creative and imaginative as The Wiz.

I'm in an adaption of the Wiz right now as an insane person, a slave, and part of the tornado. It RULZ!

let's hope the movie gets performed onstage

I am starring in "The Wiz" at this time and it's a great, lively musical. I am The Yellow Brick Road, an Oz Citizen and The Head Winged Monkey. It's so cool. The music is awesome and the whole thing is just jivin'.

Daniel Levitin is both a rock musician and a cognitive scientist. That is, he looks at how the brain behaves as you perceive things. Music is one of those interesting puzzles that allows people like Levitin to see the brain behave in ways different than our other everyday behaviors, even speech. He wrote an interesting book "This Is Your Brain On Music" that I liked and reviewed. You can see it here: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

In this book, the author uses what he knows about music (almost always popular music) and the brain to speculate about what these imply about human evolution and how our development as a species and in our various social cultures was influenced by music and how these inner human qualities influence the expression of music.

The title's use of "six songs" is a bit misleading, though it is nicely poetic and provocative at the same time. Levitin is really talking about six TYPES of songs. The six categories are Friendship, Joy, Comfort, Knowledge (teaching and memory songs), Religion, and Love. Also included in each of these six are the opposites. So, really it is twelve categories. Nor does he deal with purely instrumental music much, or the uses of music that fall outside of these categories. Art music, for example, he assumes is included in what he writes. But the kinds of music he writes about, while art, are not art music any more than butchers and surgeons are the same because they both cut meat. Nor does he deal with categories such as introspection, abstract instrumental music (non-programmatic music or absolute music), or complicated forms that deal with many of these categories (such as opera, passion plays (they are more than just religion), or even Broadway musicals). Heck, what about Ralph Sampson playing the banjo in something like "Cuttin' the Cornbread"? It isn't really telling you about cornbread. We enjoy it and it makes us happy, but it doesn't fit into these categories anymore than a Bach Fugue or Suite or Stravinsky's Piano Sonata does.

While you can lump all kinds of pieces into these broad categories, after awhile they contain so many disparate items that the names become somewhat useless. For example, where would you put Schubert's "Erlkönig"? As fear (the opposite of comfort)? Well, it is also fantasy, drama, it also has the father and son connection where the father fails to save the son despite his best efforts because he cannot see, comprehend, or believe in what the son sees. Or maybe it was just a fever after all and the son's dealing with the phantom was just the son's hallucination. Or what about "Auf dem wasser zu singen"? Is this merely about ecstasy? Or is it about the glorious sensory impressions of being on a boat on the water in the light of sunny day? This is a song about mortality and existence but isn't about love, comfort, religion. Maybe you could put it in the joy category. But I think that it would be stretching it quite a bit to lump it in with "I heard it through the Grapevine" or "Suspicious Minds". But this becomes the problem of categories.

This is a very entertaining book that will help you learn more about what scientists currently know and suspect about our brain. Obviously, the science knows a lot more than it did, but not nearly as much as they will down the road. Some of what they are certain of today will become outmoded. But no one knows what that is yet.

Levitin writes in a breezy and entertaining style. He drops lots of names and that is both fun and, at times, a tad irritating. However, I recommend the book pretty strongly. Not only for what you will learn about how your brain works, but because Levitin talks about art and music in ways beyond what the mere consumer of music usually considers and he does it without sounding academic, or using dense or complex language. The book is actually fun.

Get it and enjoy it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

As the drum, drum, drumming in the air grew louder the usual pregame roar in Ball One Ballpark in Phoenix softened and attention swung to a pre-game show by the Bashas' Bears High School drumline.

They are good. The driving pulse of a drumline, like the beat of a powwow drum circle, is captivating, dynamic, addictive and hypnotic. Music and its rhythms enchant and entrap our souls, and this book offers a fascinating look at "Why" it has such impact. There are many books about music, but this is a fresh look by a skilled writer about why instead of merely the how, what, when and where of musical notes.

Unlike usual textbooks which are heavy on being textbooks and light on understanding, Levitin has experience enough to explain his subject. Humans are said to be the only species that laughs at itself, or needs to; likewise, we are the only species that creates original music, or has the ability to do so, or perhaps the need, and certainly the desire.

Levitin, a professional musician and successful record producer, now runs a laboratory for music perception, cognition and expertise at McGill University. He is a rare academic, solidly grounded in the everyday world of his specialty instead of mere bookish theory. He is a professional who relates to his fellow artists and thus knows how to express basic ideas and themes in words everyone can understand.

Six songs? I'd add a few, such as the Bears' drumline. Even though a drumline is not melodic, it has a powerful rhythmic appeal. It's an example of how music is more than notes on a scale, and how basic the appeal of rhythm and music is to our senses.

Levitin offers some very basic ideas to understand our need and appeal for music, using wit, charm and personal anecdotes. He's been there and walked the walk ... in his case played the notes professionally ... it gives his thoughts and ideas a perfect pitch.

Exquisitely written, it is really about ourselves because we are such a musical species. It makes me wonder: What if humans had never learned to talk, but merely communicate through music? It seems far more reasonable than merely talking without understanding -- at which we're all too expert.

What then the Bears' drumline? Their rhythms are among the most powerful ideas ever expressed. Like Irish step dancing, a powerful expression of unity without using a word, music can be a dynamic expression of human emotions, ideas and spirit.

Fortunately, Levitin is admirably skilled in his use of words; every bit as good as the Bears' drumline or Beethoven's Sixth.

This fascinating book explores the powerful force music has played in shaping our common humanity. It's evolution, with a backbeat. Author Levitin makes the case that six basic types of songs have existed throughout the course of human history, all over the world. Mankind, apparently, shares a soundtrack.

The six broad categories of music are songs about friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. Each has a different function, but all serve to bind us together. They make us stronger as a species.

Levitin, a musician and scientist, cites anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, neurosurgeons, psychologists, and many famous musicians in this book. He includes lyrics from a great range of songs, including "At Seventeen," "The Hokey Pokey," "I Walk the Line," "Twist and Shout," and "Log Blues" from Ren & Stimpy.

Music can be so evocative. A snippet of song can take you back to the exact moment you heard it in childhood or high school or whenever. It's like there is a direct link that exists in the human brain between music and memory.

This books tells us that Americans spend more money on music than they do on prescription drugs or sex, and the average American hears more than five hours of music per day. It's obviously important to us. After reading The World in Six Songs, you'll have a much better idea why.

Here's the chapter list:

1. Taking It from the Top or "The Hills Are Alive..."
2. Friendship or "War (What Is It Good For)?"
3. Joy or "Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut"
4. Comfort or "Before There Was Prozac, There Was You"
5. Knowledge or "I Need to Know"
6. Religion or "People Get Ready"
7. Love or "Bring `Em All In"

I liked this book a lot - I think Howie Klein said it best in his review in the Huffington Post (which is why I bought the book in the first place) so I'm pasting his review here.

I am not a scientist, and I didn't like science in school. Something about the Krebs cycle and the free electrons in isotopes (whatever they were) left me cold. I do read a lot of non-fiction, mostly political books, as part of my new "day job" of helping to raise money for the Democratic party. But in my former life I ran a record company and I consider myself to have had a lifelong obsession with music and art.

I first met Levitin in 1981 when he was playing in a San Francisco punk band that had one or two songs I liked, The Mortals. I introduced him to some friends of mine who were in bands and he produced them back in the 80s. In the 90s he went to college and got a Ph.D. in neuroscience. When his first book came out, "This Is Your Brain on Music," I read it first because of the cleverness of the title's play on the assinine Nancy Reagan-era "This is your brain on drugs" ad campaign. That book taught me a lot of things that I had always wondered about - not just what a scale is, or why some musicians succeed where others fail, but also the way that music is studied in scientific laboratories (it's not just poor monkeys being given electrical shocks by soulless nerds in white coats).

"The World in Six Songs" sounded to me like a terrible idea for a book. I'm not sure what I expected - maybe a list of six songs that Levitin felt were the best in the world, or the six songs that shaped human culture. The world doesn't need more lists and music doesn't work that way - people's tastes are too subjective. I decided to read the first few pages just to see where the book was going, and I planned to put it down. I had better things to do. Obama had just become the de facto nominee for 2008, and I was busy tracking dozens of critical local races across the country where a progressive candidate was pitted against a truly vile, corrupt opponent. The world needed some electoral change, not silly lists. I picked it up at breakfast and would put it down before I was even done with my grapefruit.

Sometimes things don't work out like you planned them. By lunch I was in the middle of Chapter 3 and I had already learned how music helped to form cooperative bonds, the very sort that were necessary to create societies, about the chemical changes that take place in the brain when people sing together, and about how music that you like (not any music will do) can mimic the functions of anti-depressants. The musical examples ranged from Abba to Zappa, and from Tuvan throat singing to 18th century opera and the theme song from Ren & Stimpy. (And believe it or not, there's a connection between all these.)

The phone rang. I had to take care of some urgent business for a California State assembly race. An hour later I was back in the book and reading about the honest signal hypothesis, the idea from biology that some forms of commucation are impossible to fake. Levitin cites evidence that it is easy to lie with language (Really??? I didn't need to be reminded given my current career is trying to oust lying politicians, and that my former career was in the music business, enough said about that) but that it is harder to lie in music. That is, we can tell whether a singer is being sincere or not and we respond to that on an emotional, and unconscious level. This makes music, historically, something exceptionally valuable in the evolution of human nature: An honest signal. Music is a kind of truth serum. Maybe if politicians had to sing instead of making speeches we'd be better at picking the good ones (Bulworth is still a terrible movie).

There were a few places where Levitin did present lists of songs, but he did so in a kind of self-mocking way - he wasn't self important about them.. The six songs of the title, it turns out, are the six ways (read: six kinds of songs) that Levitin believes humans have used throughout time to manage social, emotional, and cultural development. We use music to comfort babiesfor example. We get together with people and sing or drum or strum and all of a sudden we feel a special bond of friendship. In the Amazon our ancestral cousins used to sing about how to make a canoe.

That passing on ofknowledge function was one of the most interesting because I often have songs stuck in my head throughout the day. Levitin explains that this is actually a clue as to the evolutionary origins of music. Songs were meant to get stuck up there, and music and brains co-evolved among other reasons to pass down information from person to person, and from generation to generation, before there was writing.

As the writers Scott Turow and Elizabeth Gilbert have said, the book is exquisitely well-written and easy to read, serving up a great deal of scientific information in a gentle way for those of us who are a bit science-phobic. More than that, the book is fun. As the LA Times said, "Masterful." Who would have thought that a scientific hypothesis could be supported by the "Slinky" song or by Dylan's "Death is Not the End?" The last chapter is a love song to love songs, a sort of Valentine to some of the best songs ever sung. Read it if you have ever wondered where music came from, why we have it, and what it really does for us. But for now I have to get back to work. I've got to get Obama and McCain singing so we can see who the liar is.
--Howie Klein, The Huffington Post

A wonderful book for anyone to read, especially anyone with visions of entering the madness of the concertizing world. It is hard to imagine his abilities as far as playing difficult repertoire on short notice, even recording it.
He doesn't seem to be a warm fuzzy kind of guy, but is organaized in a way that anyone must respect.
Herb

This autobiography proved immensely enjoyable for its revelations about the world of music, all the more so coming from a musician originating from a country which knew so much tragedy in the 20th century. Janos Starker's wit and wisdom shines throughout the book and he really knows how to write - he is much more than a mere raconteur intent on self-advertisement. I would definitely recommend this to any music-lover or indeed to anyone with a curious turn of mind - such a person would start off with something in common with maestro Starker.

Written without the technical competence his fingers are usually spirited with, this is still an intriguing book. Janos Starker barely disguises that he composed this book while bathing. The narrative of his life is interrupted several times with present tense statements concerning his hygiene at the time of writing. "I am flecked with pheasant grease as I compose these words" he writes. "But back to my time in Budapest, or I shall return to it soon. Presently I am bathing, removing these irascible grease spots. I remove the grease with a coarse loofah, then I write a sentence. This is the slow fugue of Janos Starker's life. A sinuous musk snakes from my armpits. The odor, she returns my thoughts to the pungency of Lady Hungary." A strange journey through the life of the notable cellist, his mind, and what is on his mind as he bathes.

In terms of quality of writing, the famous cellist might have stuck to his principal art rather than venturing into autobiography. But then we would be without this odd little gem of self-reflection. That would be a pity.

Starker makes no bones about the fact that he writes from the twilight of his life. That is part of this book's occasionally coarse charm. Like many professional musicians, Starker comes across as something of a crotchety fellow, not only determined to maintain the high artistic standard he early established for himself, but dismissive of those who prove less demanding of themselves.

It could hardly been foreseen that this Hungarian-born Jewish child prodigy, denied a passport from the land of his birth, would play in the great halls of Europe and America-and a number of less great ones far from those cultural centers-and then settle in Bloomington, Indiana with all the fierce loyalty to his midwestern university town that is typical of the emigr?-by-choice. There he became the revered teacher of a cellist friend of my wife's and so found his way onto my reading list.

The World of Music According to Starker reveals the stitchery side of the unglamorous practice room and backstage world that appears to concert-goers as a well-ordered tapestry. Starker's loyalty to his friends-for-life is endearing, as is his enduring respect for the consistently great artists like the idiosyncratic Fritz Reiner. Indeed, consistency is one of Starker's most-admired virtues and in eyes the truest measure of artistry.

Starker occasionally wishes aloud that his contribution might have enriched the lives of others. Indeed.

This is a great book for fun easy songs. Has a lot of the classics. I am a beginning piano player and I can play quite a few of the songs and sing along with my little one. I would buy this book again for sure.

This is a great book- full of easy to play sing-along songs. The songs are simple to play, and the book is full of all the songs we know- plus quite a few we haven't heard of. My toddler has really enjoyed our music time with this book.

This book includes nearly all the old nursery rhymes plus many other songs children like, plus the accompaniment is very simple for any beginning pianist. A great find - it was just what I was looking for.

Rudimental drum solos are very fun at first, especially when you're doing great sight reading them. But it can get very boring.

This is NOT the case with this book!! These solos have many of the rudiments being played over the barline and starting on other weird rhythmic positions. I just got this book last week, and even though I read through it the first day, I am now going back and focusing on 2 solos at a time. (i want to be able to play these really well!)

Great book... very fun... and despite constant recommendations to get Pratt's 14 Modern Contest Solos, I feel I should've had it in my library months ago :)

John Pratt's book is a staple that all serious percussionists should play at some point. Pratt utilizes many rudiments in every solo and incorporates a lot of "over the barline" techniques. Many of my own drum students have performed these solos for solo and ensemble festivals and recitals. This book is a great tool for drummers in the medium to advanced stages. I highly recommend!

This book is great! It contains great peices of music for the snare drummer. It is made to be rudimentaly sound. Meaning the solo's are full of many rudiments. This makes it full of great playback, and full of great learning. The solo's range from diffucult to very diffucult. It is not for the the faint at heart drummer. Hodge Podge(the easiest solo) cannot be played unless you have the ability to play rolls(5/7/9/10/11/13),flams,ruffs,and sixteenth notes with accompyning eight notes. The hardest title is My Friend Norman and Gingersnap. The 6/8 excercies are very diffucult in their own right. This is great solo book for any above average to advanced snare drummer!