Piano The Books

it is a good book for kids to practice their music notes. But, it is NOT by Sergei Rachmaninoff

"Comedy Songs" has a great selection of classic Broadway tunes that are sure to raise a smiler. Since the songs aren't listed, here they are: Adelaide's Lament - Guys and Dolls, Brush Up Your Shakespeare - Kiss Me Kate, Civilization - Angel in the Wings, Eadie Was a Lady - Take a Chance, 'Erbie Fitch's Twitch - Redhead, Everbody Ought to have a Maid - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Honey Bun - South Pacific, Jubilation T. Cornpone - Li'l Abner, Kids - Bye Bye Birdie, Le Grand Boom Boom - Little Me, Life Upon the Wicked Stage - Show Boat, Little Tin Box - Fiorello!, Mutual Admiration Society - Happy Hunting, Tale of the Oyster - Fifty Million Frenchmen, To Keep My Love Alive - A Connecticut Yankee, Triplets - Between the Devil, Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians) - Lady in the Dark.

Enjoy!

This, the most famous study of the Mozart piano concertos, is one of those books it is possible to read over and over again without any loss of the initial delight.
I first read this book because I became confused about how concertos are meant to"work". They did not seem at all like symphonies, with the usual exposition, development and recapitulation, and it was very hard to see what really was going on. Hutchings, building on the earlier and equally famous work by esp. Tovey and Girdlestone, traces the development of the unique Mozartian conception from its naive beginnings to the supreme examples we think we are familiar with.
Several points emerge from this. The first, overwhelming impression is that Mozart's ability is, if anything, greatly underrated. We admire Mozart for his pretty tunes perhaps; but Hutchings shows that his real genius lies in his structural understanding of music. As structural masterpieces, his mature piano concertos have never been rivalled; not by Beethoven, nor by Brahms, nor by the twentieth century protests against romanticism. Perhaps you may think that analysis of music destroys its worth; but Hutchings demonstrates the opposite. Understanding the vast effort that must have gone into these works greatly increases one's sympathy with the composer and his works. And it gives rise to a little sadness: perhaps Mozart was a dead end, who in some ways never gave rise to any further developments (unlike, say, a Haydn-Beethoven-Romanticism route). In the piano concertos, the greatest aspects of his (largely) operatic are on full display; and, as Hutchings says, these include unique features such as his way of writing for the winds, that died when he died.
Hutchings is not afraid to indicate poor movements when they occur; and this brings up the point that writing supreme music is unbelievably hard; a task that even Mozart was not always up to. Still you do not have agree with him! And one of the greatest pleasures I can imagine is to sit with Hutchings in one hand, listening to one of the piano concertos and smiling with recognition as the patterns revealed by your eyes and your ears are found to be one.
I wrote this review listening to the last movement of K449, the piano concerto no 14, one of the greatest of all the things Mozart wrote; yet still hardly known - unless you have read Hutchings!

For those of us who don't transpose at sight as well as we used to, this book is very helpful.

Great music - and a good value. A must for any Bach lovers out there.

No more comments... this is part of Bach production! Fantastic and in an original format!

What a wonderful publication! I am a musician in that I play by ear. This book emphasizes that a piano tuner may benefit from knowing music but, it is not essential that one be a music theorist - which I'm not. It brings us up to speed on the construction of the many types of pianos and the commonalities that all have. Next is the chapter on the actual construction of a piano's "action" and, with many diagrams and photos, identifies the many parts and how they inter relate to create sound. Later chapters are dedicated to tuning and repair. There are exhaustive instructions on listening for the "beats - the sounds" that enable one to tune a piano perfectly such that it is compatible with other musical instruments. This means that the piano is actually a little "off" in terms of perfect pitch so that it really is compatible with other sources of musical sounds. The book is readable. It is a text, but it is understandable without requiring one to have had prior experience in the discipline. Well worth my investment.

I was looking for a improv book to add to my teaching strategies to help some of my piano students, already trained in the Suzuki method and reading well besides, to expand their own creativity in the area of improv. Some students can just "do it!" but others are a little inhibited and so far this book seems to be helping us. We'll know for sure in about 6 months!

I bought "Mastering Jazz Keyboard" at a local music store and found that it was just a little too advanced for me, though I liked the tone and pace of the book. So I ordered "Intermediate Jazz Keyboard," and so far, I've found that it's just what I was looking for.

I'm a classically trained pianist looking to branch out into jazz improvisation. I sightread really easily, I know my major and minor scales inside and out, but I was always a little confused by chord markings like "Emin7b5" and "Csus". I knew what they meant, but I didn't really get what you'd use them for. What Baerman does is explain when - and why - to use advanced chords.

The best part of the book is the accompanying CD. After reading a few pages, you'll find yourself wanting to try things out but not quite knowing how. Every topic has at least one example track on the CD, usually more than one. And all the tracks are written out in notation, so those of us who are used to reading music won't feel too disoriented.

All in all, this book has a great balance of theory and practice, with a good sense of humor and bits of jazz history thrown in to boot. The only thing that would make it more complete would be a few worksheets or tables to fill in, just for practice constructing chords or scales.

Having sung some of these personally, I found this book to be easy to read, easy to transport, and very easy to use in general. I highly recommend this volume to anyone who sings and likes Brahms...you won't be dissapointed.