Singer Books

This fakebook is an excellent tool for worship leaders in different situations and venues. Huge variety of popular Contemporary Christian songs in an easy to use format.

We bought this a year ago, not a week goes by where one of our band members doesn't look through it and say wow, I didn't know this was in here. Some of the chord progressions are different from other song books, but it leaves you with plenty of room to play. For some of the unfamiliar songs I was able to put into Guitar Pro so we can learn it quickly. We had two song books to pick from and we went with this one. We'll by the other this coming year. Between them we'll have over 900 songs and I'm considering getting the hymnal fake book for when we mix in with the traditional service.

This is a fake book format, G clef for melody and some harmony parts and chord symbols over staff, no bass clef. The songs are transcribed so they fit on one or two pages. No page turning. Not ideal if you are a pianist that is used to looking at two staffs for playing.

An invaluable tool for the praise and worship musician. I am constantly amazed when I think of a song to play, I look it up and its almost always there. It has the best of all the PW from the last few years (Hillsongs, Delerious, Passion, Vinyare, Integrity, Maranatha: pretty much everything) in good condensed fake format (melody lines and chords only, which is all you ever need) with almost everysong fitting on one page, some two to a page. Well worth the price for keyboardists and guitarists alike!

Ten years ago Elena Water left her husband Tom in Taos, New Mexico taking her son Johnny with her. A few years later, Johnny left her to study music and live in Taos under the tutelage of family friends Jack and Maggie Dalton, who run a musical production company. As Johnny is becoming a success, someone shoots and kills him. Elena, who had not spoken to her son in months or seen him in five years, is stunned by her loss.

As the cops fail to break the case, Elena arrives in Taos vowing to bring justice to her son's murderer. Tom and Maggie are worried about her mental state as she insists she is talking with Johnny who is giving her some clues to his homicide though her findings are uncannily accurate. Because Johnny refuses to tell her who killed him, she assumes he is protecting someone, perhaps a loved one, but who had the motive to commit homicide?

RETURNING TO TAOS is a haunting amateur sleuth tale in which the audience wonders whether Elena is losing her mind though she seems to easily converse with Johnny. Thus, fans will ponder paranormal or psychological; either way the audience gets a deep look inside the grieving mother who finds no closure perhaps because she was somewhat estranged from her son who she cherished, but failed to let him know that when he was alive (underlying message: don't wait - tell your loved ones while they live). Regardless of Elena's state of mind, RETURNING TO TAOS is a powerful mystery with a terrific twist that grips readers from the first "mother-son conversation" inside her head until their last.

Harriet Klausner

I have fond memories of Taos, and the title induced me to buy the book.
I expected it to be a pleasant, descriptive story of someone longing for Taos and returning there after many years.
Instead, I found myself immersed in a gripping, page turning novel which has all the elements of a best-seller: romance, passion, yearning, mystery, suspense and crime.
Nick Klepper

I've read all of Lois Gilbert's books, and this is my favorite. It doesn't hurt that the book is set in the dramatic and gorgeous Southwest, because that's what we get here: a dramatic plot and gorgeous writing. Ms. Gilbert keeps getting better, and this story really hums. I couldn't see the ending coming, but when it did it was just right. And after all the drama and pyrotechnics are over, there's an understated, delicate Epilogue that makes you doubly glad you read this book.

Fantasic story on the beginnings of what Garth Brooks became. He never has lost his dream.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the "real" Garth -- the person behind the icon. The book details his hard work and determination as a local singer, and how he never gave up. It's not glitzy (black & white photos) but packed with stories that make you feel you are there, experiencing what he experiences, feeling what he feels. It is an inspiration to all, as is Garth.

This book grabbed my attention and held on from beginning to end every time I read it! This isn't your run-of-the-mill, facts-everybody-already- knows kind of books. Matt O'Meilia does an outstanding job of describing the trials, troubles, and times of a young, struggling Garth Brooks just as he and their former band-mates remember them from their lives back in Eastern Oklahoma. Weather you think you know everything about Mr. Brooks or if you know absolutly nothing about this legend, this book is sure to leave you with a smile and many interesting stories you will not find anywhere else. You may also find yourself with a new sense of hope and determination for your own goals as O'Meilia shows the hopes and dreams of five young men, one in particular, come alive.

I liked this songbook because it has such a variety of songs. It's got some of my favorites, such as "God Bless America," "The Star Spangled Banner," "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," "Amazing Grace," and "This Land is Your Land." If you like these kinds of songs, then I reccomend Get America Singing...AGAIN.

I teach general music in a Marine Corps dependents' elementary school in Okinawa, Japan. I use this songbook and its companion, volume 2 constantly in my curriculum. I consider them to be at the core of my teaching. These are songs that every American should know. They are a part of our common history, our culture, our heritage.
These books were first suggested to me by a junior high choir teacher colleague who knew that I was interested in the Core Knowledge series by E.D. Hirsch. Thanks, Karen.

This is the book that will sit on your piano and when teachers ask for the basic songs that we grew up with, here they all are.
It is a melody line and chord symbols, but that's enough!
No high tech, just music , and the kids like the songs and they are in easy keys.
I highly recommend this book! Great for the price.
There is an accompaniment book as well.

This is an excellent resource that I've used many times in my song study. I recently purchased the updated 2008 edition also by Adams, and it contains much of the same great material. I'd recommend either edition, but the latter does have more current research that makes it a bit more desirable.

Prof. Adams was my previous voice teacher at College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati. Now I study voice at University of Illinois. We used his book for Diction class. Every terminology and explanation is very clear. It is best reference book for singers.

Professor David Adams skillfully offers keen insight into the basics of Italian, German, and French diction. In addition to covering the most general rules, he goes on to explain common exceptions and more elusive nuances of each language within the context of a singer's perspective. Some familiarity with the International Phonetic Alphabet is helpful but not necessary.

This book will prove a tremendous asset for any singer whose goal is more than simply singing correct notes. It will assist in adding that element of expression only possible with the clarity of the text as it was intended by the composer.

This book is a MUST for anyone who is a fan of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Trigger of course! Only three things could make this book better; An index would be a nice addition, MORE of Roy and Dale's own stories about their lives and lots more pictures

This is a wonderful, warm and personal look into the lives of Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys and Dale Evans Rogers, the Queen of the West. This book gives the stories of Roy's life from his humble beginnings in Duck Run, Ohio and Dale's start in Uvalde, Texas to their present lives in Apple Valley, California. The stories of their joys and hardships are very touching. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is fan of Roy or Dale as well as anyone who wants to read an inspiring story about the Hollywood couple who are heros in real life just as they were in the movies. The only suggestion I would have for the next edition of this book is that it needs an index. The stories are so wonderful you'll be wanting to see more photos and hear more of Roy and Dales personal stories

This is a wonderful, warm and personal look into the lives of Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys and Dale Evans Rogers, the Queen of the West. This book gives the stories of Roy's life from his humble beginnings in Duck Run, Ohio and Dale's start in Uvalde, Texas to their present lives in Apple Valley, California. The stories of their joys and hardships are very touching. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is fan of Roy or Dale as well as anyone who wants to read an inspiring story about the Hollywood couple who are heros in real life just as they were in the movies

Hello- well this book is very well done!

It not only addresses children with glasses but pretty much speaks to any physical disability- I really liked the way the protagonist overcomes his peers' insults.

This is a great story for kids- to show them how it is very important to be "who you are" in life...

A great book for the whole family-
Thanks!
Josh---

This book is great! It can help children overcome the fear of wearing glasses! The characters are great and the story is fun and educational! A+++
Dr. Singer has done it again!

Dr. Singer does an awesome job of telling the story of Harry & his sidekick Masker and what it is like to get glasses!

This book is a MUST for any child with or without glasses. I loved it and the illustrations are GREAT!

Wonderfully educating and enjoyable for parents and kids alike!

I highly recommend this story to all. It is one to treasure for years!

The book is devoted to the investigation of Dirac operators , in particular to explaining the relation of the Atiyah-Singer formula for their index with the heat kernel expansion. Dirac operators on Riemannian manifolds were introduced by Lichnerowicz, Atiyah and Singer. Most first order linear differential operators of geometric origin are Dirac operators. The main technique in the book is an explicit construction of the kernel of the heat operator $e\sp{-tD\sp 2}$ associated to the square of the Dirac operator $D$. Note that in the proofs of many theorems due to J. M. Bismut, the original use of probability theory is replaced by the applications of classical asymptotic expansion methods. List of Chapters: Introduction, 1. Background on Differential Geometry, 2. Asymptotic Expansion of Heat Kernel, 3. Clifford Modules and Dirac Operators, 4. Index Density of Dirac Operators, 5. The Exponential Map and the Index Density, 6. The Equivariant Index Theorem, 7. Equivariant Differential Forms, 8. The Kirillov Formula for the Equivariant Index, 9. The Index Bundle, 10.The Family Index Theorem.

Dirac operators on Riemannian manifolds are of fundamental importance in differential geometry: they occur in situations such as Hodge theory, gauge theory, and geometric quantization.

The book is based on a simple principle: Dirac operators are a quantization of the theory of connections, and the supertrace of the heat kernel of the square of a Dirac operator is the quantization of the Chern character of the corresponding connection. From this point of view, the index theorem for Dirac operators is a statement about the relationship between the heat kernel of the square of a Dirac operator and the Chern character of the associated connection. This relationship holds at the level of differential forms and not just in cohomology, and leads to think of index theory and heat kernels as a quantization of Chern-Weil theory. The importance of the heat kernel is that it interpolates between the identity operator and the projection onto the kernel of the Dirac operator. However, the authors study the heat kernel, and more particularly its restriction to the diagonal, in its own right, and not only as a tool in understanding the kernel of the Dirac operator.

The authors attempt to express allof their constructions in such a way that they generalize easily to the equivariant setting, in which a compact Lie group acts on the manifold and leaves the Dirac operator invariant. They consider the most general type of Dirac operators, associated to a Clifford module over a manifold, to avoid restricting to manifolds with spin connections. They also work within Quillen's theory of superconnections.

The book is not necessarily meant to be read sequentially, and consists of four groups of chapters: (1) Chapters 1 and 7, the former giving various preliminary results in differential geometry and the latter on equivariant differential forms; they do not depend on any other chapters. (2) Chapters 2, 3, and 4 introduce the main ideas of the book, and take the reader through the main properties of Dirac operators, culminating in the local index theorem. (3) Chapters 5, 6, and 8 are on the equivariant index theorem, and may be read after the first four chapters, although Chapter 7 is needed in Chapter 8. (4) Chapters 9 and 10 are on the family index theorem, and can be read after the first four chapters, except sections 9.4 and 10.7 which have Chapter 8 as a prerequisite.

The book is intended for researchers and advanced graduate students; you need a very strong background in differntial geometry, algebraic topology, harmonic analysis, and hypercomplex analysis to read it. The style is definitely French, so if you have had trouble with Bourbaki be prepared. The list of references is adequately long. Very nice printing and binding quality.

This monograph treats the modern theory of the heat equation on manifolds, with special emphasis on recent work related to the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, and in particular Bismut's contributions. Much of this work has been concerned with finding explicit differential-form representatives of the cohomology classes that arise in the index formula and its generalizations.

The authors have completely eliminated the probability theory that figures so notoriously in Bismut's papers, replacing it by the more classical asymptotic expansions. (However, I must say that my study of Bismut's papers goaded me into learning the probability theory, and I'm glad I did; for apart from being interesting in itself, it also proved very useful in my thesis). Moreover, they have also managed to eliminate almost all of the analysis. What remains is a fair amount of differential geometry and a great deal of algebra.

In those parts of the book that are written very concisely, readers will have trouble supplying full details. An example is Sec. 1.6 on the Euler and Thom classes; even my thesis adviser did not understand the algebra of differential forms, which becomes confusing given all the various pullback bundles; here understanding the algebra in Lemma 1.51 is the crux of the matter. Another example of extreme conciseness is Sec. 3.6, which sketches the standard Clifford modules in the important cases -- De Rham, signature, spin, Kahler. In general, just enough information is provided to enable a well-motivated graduate student to fill in the details and/or acquire the necessary background. Doing this took me the better part of two years.

On the other hand, the parts of the book dealing directly with heat kernels are written less concisely and are therefore more readable. The book gives a nice construction of the heat kernel for generalized Laplacians (Thm. 2.30) in Chap. 2, which is devoted to the asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel, essentially following Hadamard's classical approach; however the treatment is highly algebraic. Chapter 6, based on work of Berline and Vergne, re-covers much of the same ground from the viewpoint of equivariant vector bundles; it has a more overtly differential-geometric flavor. Chapters 9 and 10 on the index bundle and Bismut's version of the index theorem for families are again quite readable and again highly algebraic.

Seeley's work on pseudodifferential operators, which played such an important role in the original proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, of course has its counterpart here in the asymptotic expansion, but the treatment makes it seems rather innocuous if not quite trivial. In general, the lack of "hard analysis" in the book is striking. Except for a cameo appearance in the short Chap. 7 on equivariant differential forms, Fourier analysis, for example, plays no role.

Researchers already active in the field will probably benefit the most from this book, but fun-loving grad students can also profit from it.

This is an informative and delightful set that has information on Hollywood songsters that can be found no where else. Each entry has a wonderful picture accompanying. I have spent many, many happy hours pouring over the entries and learning facts about my favorite stars. This is a must have for all libraries and any scholar of musical theatre or musical film or just popular music of the 20th century. Well worth the money! It is clear that Parrish and Pitts have done their homework, but even clearer that they have a love for the subject matter and it shows on every page. As a songwriter with a love for the field, I use this book constantly.

Film historians James Robert Parish and Michael Pitts's "Hollywood Songsters" have outdone themselves with this handsomely designed three-volume set that is worth every penny. Filled with rare photos, "Hollywood Songsters" has comprehensive, accurate and fascinating entries on over 100 "singers who act and actors who sing." The lives and careers of everyone from A to Z or June Allyson to Mae West are covered in intriguing and fact-filled detail. Who would have thought that such an indespensible reference book could also be a page-turner. Once you start reading this treasure trove of information it is hard to put down because of the insider tidbits and behind-the-scenes facts that fill the well-written pages. As theater and film critic and lover of musicals, I find this a most wonderful addition to my library as well as a great read. The filmography and lp and CD bibliography on each singer is unparalled. Bravo to Mr. Parish and Mr. Pitts!!!

This project has to be a mad labor of love on the part of the authors -- how else / who else would produce a 3-volume directory of singing in the movies? We must applaud and support the authors for this massive work -- I can't imagine it not being definitive -- by urging local libraries to carry it. A database like this should be available to everyone!

This is a very good book for those who want to learn how to sing and learn how to teach others how to sing. There are many wonderful insights and excercises in this book.

I was very fortunate to find Larra years ago. To study with her was quite an experience. She was like no other. I highly recommend her techniques, especially for those who have problems as I did when I came to see her. She could fix problems like magic. I would never rely on a book like this alone though. Use it as a guide to what a good teacher should be doing. The best part about this technique as others have stated, is how natural it is. That is the best way to avoid problems now and in the future.

Larra could still sing beautifully well into her 80's after a long worldwide career. This alone attests to her ability to keep the voice in good health with her methods for a very long time.

L Larsen
San Diego, CA

This book has so much information I don't know where to start. The author was one of the greats as far as teaching voice and her students have gone on to sing professionally in very demanding capacities without vocal injuries and with beautiful sound - and isn't that what vocal training is all about?

There is a chapter on basic care of the voice - stuff I never knew in 8 years of lessons - don't subject yourself to radical changes in temperature, don't use numbing sprays in your throat, etc. There is another chapter on what to do for vocal nodes, another deals with diction (that chapter alone improved my tone and changed the responation to more in the mask - it was amazing).

For the voice teacher, there are exercises for developing a healthy technique in the students. It covers from beginning to advanced and there are some great chapters on breathing and Alexander Technique - which is taught at most of the Conservatories as a part of the training of serious students of voice. Very informative and has some good resources listed for further research.

Like the guy said in teh review of the previous edition, these books are not bound very well but he woujldn't be so upset about that if it wasn't one of those books you have to keep referring to because the information is so good. If it was a lesser book, then he wouldn't want to open it every 5 minutes and it wouldn't matter what the binding was like.