Piano The Books

The Sonatina album is a great album containing sonatinas, rondos and a few other pieces. For the intermediate player, you will be challenged by many of the pieces. The Clementi sonatinas contained in this album are wonderful as well as the classic Prelude by Bach.

It's a fine book. Actually I ordered it to replace the one a lost years ago.

Sonatina album is great for teaching if you are a piano teacher. Most of the works are about intermediate level. Ideal for teaching students that finished grade 4 to help reinforce student's skills. This edition is clearly printed and carefully fingered.

I really like this book and it includes Larry Young's "Ritha", one of the best jazz lines ever.

Of all the fake books out there (including a well known set of under-the-counter ones owned by all jazz musicians), this is the *only* one that has all, or even most, of the tune found here. You've got tunes by Jackie McClean, Hal Galper, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson... you get the idea. If you know who these players are... you need this book.

This book is the jazz musicians dream, nice tunes presented in easy to look at format. None of that junk you get with those other fakebooks, this is the best ever. Anybody who includes Hank Mobley in a fakebook gets my vote.

This is an awesome book but definitely not for beginners. It's got excellent explanations and exercises, and authentic music to learn. You'll definitely learn stride, but unless you're an accomplished pianist, expect to spend a lot of time leaning the pieces.

I have a few of the other books in this series and find them all great, which is why I purchased this book! Scott Joplin has always been a favorite composer of mine and to be able to learn his style, yet ad my own style is something that I have struggled with up until now. John Valerio is a wonderful composer and teacher and has a very similar style to Mark Harrison (another composer in this series). This book includes everything from the history of ragtime and swing to how to voice lead. Techniques, rhythmic layering, variations, harmony, form, call and response, and so much more is included in this book. It goes through classic ragtime, blues & boogie woogie, New Orleans jazz, stride piano, and swing piano. It is such a wonderful teaching tool for those interested in the big-band era. The CD it comes with has standard tracks to listen to, but also wonderfulk original tunes that encourage you to come up with your own style! I can't wait to try more books in the series!

Normally books like these present you with the "dumbed down" and easy version of piano music--music you can play with one hand while drinking a sweet iced-tea with the other. Not so with this book. The methods and techniques Valerio teaches are the real thing, and the pieces within the book are those transcribed straight from the big boys--Waller, Johnson, Wilson, Tatum, Joplin, and Morton. This is an excellent introduction/continuation for those interested in stride piano.

Finally I have found a book of marvelous songs for my low alto voice. What a find, simply exciting to have beautiful songs in my key. The range is excellent, I love this book, where have I been, not knowing about it!! No more trying to find someone who transposes, and no more rewriting the "too high" notes. I am so pleased. Thanks.

I split my time in class between classical and jazz. I have a 4-octave range, but, at the end of the day, I look for low jazz/torch numbers. Most of the torch song books are unpleasantly high. These arrangements are great for us second altos. I wish there were more in this series -- I only know of two books of jazz/torch that are truly for low voice. My only complaint about the book is that, if you really use it a lot, the pages fall out.

As an alto going on bass, I was always getting in trouble with my voice teacher and accompianist for bringing in songs that were too high, luckily, I found this book. It's wonderful to be able to sing a song that's low enough to be comfortable!

The songs in the book seem to be extremely low, however...a lot of girls will find it difficult to go that low, however, I'd highly reccomend this book for second-altos looking for pieces in low keys.

Great book!
It is the closest sound to playing Tori that you will get (If your a beginner) Take your time with it and remember its "for easy piano" and wont sound like tori's piano playing but you will have access to play her songs in a simple form and they sound great.

I am learning to play piano and this book is helpful. I am playing the favorites that I have truly enjoyed over the years. I recommend this book for Tori fans.

I've been a Tori Amos fan ever since I was eleven and always wanted to be able to play her music, but her being the excellent musician she is, it was difficult for me to play out of her existing music books. The music isn't really easy, but it is manageable for all the fans with less musical expertise than she has, which is probobly the vast majority. I'm really glad she came out with this, because even more so than most musicians, her music needs to be simplified (but not dumbed down) for all her fans to play.

I bought this book in a bargain book bin without the CD and I am now re-ordering it because I want the CD too. I am an adult piano student who is taking lessons for a second time. As a child, like so many others, I was ordered into lessons by enthusiastic parents with a local college music student. There was little formal thoeory, less fun, and not much sunk in.
As an adult with a fairly good ear, I am now taking lessons at an excellent music school but I have found the early theory knowledge is half remembered and often not much of a help in my current practice. I needed a theory refresher course that was light, fun, easy to follow that I could review quickly. Many are too juvenile or too intense. I flipped through this book in a store, it was cheap and well I thought what the heck, it looks like an easy read so I bought it.
It is great. An easy read for adults and teens, but not too difficult for older kids with easy excercises. I think a person could learn the basics of the piano with it. At this point I have to say there is no substitute for the experience and feedback of a professional pianist if you are just learning the instrument. However, this book is helping me fill in the gaps in my musical background very nicely. I am sending my current copy to my niece who is just learning the instrument but whose mom and grandmom who only learned to play a little, aren't always sure how to answer her theory questions when she is doing her practice and piano homework. I think they will find this a good, well explained reference and she will find it a great accompaniment to her current music and theory texts.

Terry Burrows' book is an excellent overview of classical piano for the inexperienced and non classical keyboardist. The book combines historical factoids along with useable theory and technique displayed in an attractive layout. I would recommend it highly for those players who are more attuned to the right hand melody/left hand chord school and in fact have used it that way myself as a useful adjuct to pop and jazz study.

Typical instructional materials for non-classical styles lead the self learning student down a perilous path of developing bad habits that impede growth. Just because you don't desire to play Chopin doesn't mean you shouldn't pick up the basics of which fingers should play which keys! This book painlessly adds this and other practical information while offering a teasing intro to "serious" piano. When you finish you might still just want to play easy Ellington out of fake books, but Chopin might look pretty good after all.

My previous review of this product is still the same but through my second order of the book I found the product discription of an included CD to be incorrect. A CD would be great but neither of the books I have included one. I think the discription is incorrect. The books are good enough, terrific easy theory books, that I would not return them even without a CD but the discription of a CD is not correct.

It works for my gutiar (it has all chords well written) and for my friend who plays piano...very cool and essential book if you are a U2 fan and a musician.

This book of U2 songs set to the piano is better than I expected. When I originally saw this book I grabbed it because it had Running to a Standstill. It was the one song by U2 I really had a desire to play and had been searching for sheet music for quite a while.

It didn't disappoint. The sheet music and arrangements are excellent, and better then one might expect. The song selection is quite nice too. Some of the songs that included:

Where the Streets Have No Name, Running to a Standstill, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, The Unforgettable Fire, New Year's Day, Sunday Bloody Sunday, October, All I Want Is You, Love is Blindness, One, Stay (Faraway, So Close), Miss Sarajevo, Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment, Miracle Drug, Sweetest Thing, Electrical Storm, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own.

I might have missed one or two songs, but most of them sound pretty good on the piano. I think a couple more songs could have been good on the piano, but having any songs by U2 on the piano is a nice treat. Running to a Standstill sounds great. The Unforgettable Fire is suprisingly great. October is good, but it is really a simple song. Where the Streets Have No Name is another one that is really good.

Overall, the songs seem to stay true to the music. My only disappointment so far is Beautiful Day, although that is mostly because it focuses on the chords and doesn't have a lyrical melody. It is a minor complaint that I could solve if I could sing. At Amazon's prices, it is definitely worth the purchase.

Highly recommended for any U2 fan...classics old and new. Includes 'Beautiful Day,' 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' and 'Where the Streets Have No Name.' Lyrics, piano, and guitar chords.

Notes are easy to read, format is well laid out, all the waltzes and scherzi from a major romantic composer, and at a very reasonable price. What more could a music lover or pianist ask for? Highly recommended!

This collection of Chopin's waltzes and scherzos is excellent. The waltzes are perfect for anyone from the intermediate-grade pianist to the professional performer, and the scherzos are dramatic, emotional pieces suitable for advanced pianists. The book itself is put together well so that it won't fall apart (as so many other piano books of mine have).

For Students and Professionals alike, you cannot go wrong buying this edition of Chopin Walzes and Scherzos. They are from a respected source, priced right, and printing is clear and easy to read.

I just bought this book for my mother-in-law because this was one of my favorite piano collections as a young pianist. I love the pieces (ALL of them!) because they're not too difficult to play, yet they sound beautiful and impressive. A MUST for every intermediate pianist!

Wow, this book is a treasure. I am taking lesson for 3 years and as an adult, my fall back is speed as I don't have flexible fingers like young kids. I have been doing Hanon trying to strengthen and to keep my fingers flexible, but I get so bored with the monotone. I still am at a beginner/intermediate level (4) and this book is just perfect to learn and practice. This book is definitely great until advanced level, as it will be so enjoyable to play and you will never get bored. All 25 pieces have beautiful melodies and so enjoyable to learn and most importantly...the speed. I listened to the CD and it helps so much to feel the speed; and with such lovely melodies, I could not get bored. This book is sooo worth it to have in your collection. I'm so glad I have it in my collection.
Play on :)

I love the Leader Anthology itself, and the accompaniments are very well done. So well done in fact that I often just put them on as great background music while I'm reading or something. I find them very soothing.

The next best thing to having a pianist right there with you. Even if you play, it is not the best situation to play for yourself while rehearsing alone. And you can absolutely use these tracks for live performances.