Dance Books

As a long time veteran of music lessons, I can attest to the importance of the instructor on the outcome of the lessons - for both the student and the teacher. Having had two so-so, "bored with the whole concept, but gotta pay the bills somehow" teachers, and one excellent, inspiring "be the best you can be and have fun doing it" teacher, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book as an excellent guide on becoming the latter.

Not all kids are prodigies, and not all students want to go on to win State competitions and have prestigious careers as soloists. Some do, of course, but some just want to be able to play well around the campfire or at their cousin's wedding, and have fun doing it. Some take up an instrument later in life because they are recovering from an injury and playing an instrument can improve their dexterity, or simply because they want to finally experience the joy of making music now that the kids are out from under foot, and they finally have the time. Ms. Blanchard offers a great collection of fun and creative ways to help every type of student, from the prodigy to the part-timer, meet their own particular goals, as well as excellent tips on setting up a teaching studio to be profitable and successful.

Ms. Blanchard demonstrates an intuitiveness in this book that reflects her years of teaching, and draws upon that experience to provide useful guidelines for the music instructor to follow to help achieve the best results for each student. Students come in all ages, skill levels and attitudes, and have widely variable family backgrounds, social and financial situations and personal goals. This book provides thought-provoking questions that instructors can ask themselves to help assess how each particular student can best reach their goals, and provides insightful ideas on how to make the learning process an enjoyable and positive experience for everyone - including the student, their family, and the instructor too!

The impact a great teacher can have on a student is undeniable. A great teacher can inspire, encourage, and motivate students to embrace life-changing principles which will affect not just their music but every aspect of their life. I would encourage all music teachers hoping to become that great teacher, to take advantage of this excellent collection of insights to become more effective at enriching their students' (and their own) music and lives.

Bonnie Blanchard's book "Making Music, Enriching Lives" is a joyful, fun and inspiring read, imbued with the author's enthusiasm and humor. The book is pleasantly personal, filled with many stories and examples, which go straight to the heart of teaching. The numerous suggestions offered are practical, rather than mechanical. For example, the book does not cover the physics of tone (the air hits here at this angle, etc), rather it offers ways to help students find and instill in themselves the motivation and desire to practice tone. I read the book, cover to cover, over a long weekend (away from my teaching studio) and was reenergized upon my return - this book is its own "mini-teaching spa/retreat"!

The book is unique, specifically because of its focus on the "human" side of teaching - drawing attention to students' varied abilities, personalities and learning styles. Ms. Blanchard presents many suggestions to help build and nurture the student/teacher relationship, as well as the teacher/parent relationship - both primary factors for student success. In addition, it not only encourages us to challenge and raise the bar for our students' playing skills, but to do the same for our own teaching skills.

Ms. Blanchard reiterates the importance of teaching the "whole" musician, rather than "a piece of music". She offers helpful suggestions for incorporating fundamentals and musicality within each lesson and provides many pointers to help students build their problem-solving and independent learning skills. The author includes a valuable list of suggestions to help students become creative and critical thinkers.

The sections discussing the varied learning styles of boys vs. girls, as well as the section specifically addressing the characteristics of adult learners are extremely informative and helpful. The author places important emphasis upon the learning process and the skills acquired and enhanced throughout, rather than placing the most important emphasis on what the author defines as "outcome goals" (winning the audition, something in control of the judges, not the student). Also unique is the Ms. Blanchard's "Music for Life Notebook System", which ultimately provides students with a personalized reference of all they have learned.

Overall, the book was a refreshing look at many aspects of teaching, offering a myriad of ways to lead each student to their fullest musical potential, through a balance of hard work and fun! One of the most memorable lines in the book is Ms. Blanchard's statement that, "Many musicians decide to become music teachers because the love music. A better reason would be because they love helping people". I believe this not only best sums up what teaching should be, but also the overall nature of the book - "Making Music and Enriching Lives" helps teachers, help their students develop skills to experience joy, confidence and success, in music and many other areas of their lives.

"Making Music and Enriching Lives" offers something for everyone - new teachers, experienced teachers, burnt-out teachers, teachers relocating or teachers of any instrument. The title is well suited to the book, as it will "enrich" the teaching of those who read it and in turn "enrich" the lesson experience of their students. I highly recommend this book to all teachers - keep it in your library, as you will undoubtedly refer to it often. If possible, for the first read, find a quiet spot, curl up with a good cup of tea and be inspired!

One of the best books on pedagogy I've read. Bonnie's work is positively brimming with ideas -- I found it difficult to get through the book in a timely manner; I was too busy trying to incorporate the ideas from my previous reading.

Bonnie's style is very conversational, making the book a fun and light read despite the heavy amount of content. She strives to make the work useful and full of examples from every instrument, making this the most comprehensive work on pedagogy I've come across. The helpful sections on methods of bill collection and marketing as a private teacher were sorely needed and filled in a lot of gaps in my conservatory education.

As a voice teacher of many years, it was a joy to read this inspirational book, with wonderful advice for all teachers (not even in the music field). It shows you're never too old to learn new motivational tricks and ways to be more organized as well. Hats off to Ms. Blanchard!!
Margaret Russell
Essen Germany

A number of people sent me the Amazon link for this book and indicated that it was the best book they'd read in this subject area. Mine arrived yesterday and I can't put it down. It really is excellent. I do think that the characterological makeup of pianists and string players is different than that of flute players (the book is written by a flute teacher and freelancer in Washington state), but nevertheless, the book is full of ideas and helpful recommendations, and is not to be missed.

This is a classic. It is the first book of its kind, and probably the first book about Star Trek at all. But The Making of Star Trek is much more than any of the later books with similar names. This book doesn't idealize or simplify the making of the series. It doesn't enthusiastically praise everything and everyone involved in its production. It is an authentic and meticulous report on how TOS in particular and a TV series in general comes to life. It shows that it is a process of try and error, that aspects have to be taken into account the viewers wouldn't think of, and that the responsible persons don't always know exactly what they want ("I need some device that does something...").

The story how Stephen E. Whitfield (aka Stephen E. Poe) asked Gene Roddenberry if he could write a book about the series sounds like a fairy tale, but is true. The Great Bird was very forthcoming, and Whitfield was granted access to everything behind the scenes of the still running show, seemingly without any restriction. The book shows production schedules, budgets, private notes, script drafts, production sketches, all things that are usually kept secret or simplified for a larger public. I don't think that something like this would be still possible today. Compared to The Making of Star Trek, Whitfield's last book (he passed away in 2000) on Voyager seems rather superficial.

The Making of Star Trek may be over 30 years old, but it is of more than only historical value. It demonstrates that TV is a business that sometimes doesn't allow technical or artistic perfection. It also shows how many things we may take for granted and that are essential parts of the Star Trek Universe today have taken a rather surprising course change. Who would like Vulcans with names like "Spook, Spork, Splak, ..." as frequently suggested in the early days, or who would think that one race was originally described with the words, "Honor is a despicable trait.", namely the Klingons?

There are probably loads of 'Making of Star Trek' books out there, but this is particularly interesting as it was written in 1968, between the second and third series, before the show had become a phenomenon. Which is odd at first - everything is in the present tense, and there's nothing about the cultural impact of the show because that was all in the future. Doubly odd is the fact that all of the many quotes from Gene Roddenberry are reported IN BLOCK CAPITALS, giving the bizarre impression that he is not a television producer, but God Himself.

It's extremely detailed, and is as much about the making of any TV late-60s series as it is 'Star Trek'. There are bits from shooting scripts, set plans, photographs of noted theatre actor William Shatner in old-age makeup (looking nothing like he looks in genuine old age), profiles of production staff, and programme budgets which, translated dollar-for-dollar, would just about cover the catering bill on 'Star Trek : The Next Generation'. It's worth it for the stream of memos about Vulcan names alone.

Back when there was little else written about Star Trek, before David Gerrold's great "World of Star Trek" analysis or Franz Joseph's blueprints, "The Making of Star Trek" was the ultimate. I devoured it as a boy in the early '70s. To this day I don't think anyone can consider themselves a true original series die-hard without having read this book. It really does take you inside the making of the show, but keeps it on a professional level, without salaciousness. That's because the book wasn't written as something for the few Star Trek fans that were known of then, but as a book about how to write for TV, as older printings stated on the cover. That does leave some things out, but those details have been covered since by other books and memoirs.

Since this was written while the series was in production, it's a good view into how people felt then, even refreshing because Trek had yet to become a pop culture colossus, so the book doesn't have any of that built-in reverence. They were making a good TV show that aspired to be something better than most everything else on then, but in the end it was considered just another TV job, certainly not anything that would become legendary.

For instance, "The Defenders," one of the highest praised, most thoughtful and well-written dramas of the '60s, is scarecely remembered by anyone not old enough to have seen it. Part of the issue with that series had to do with rerun-rights issues, but another part had to do with the times then, when TV was still rather young, and shows were thought of as rather disposable, coming and going without much of an afterlife except for "Lucy" and "Honeymooners" reruns. When you think of it in that context, it's easy to see why Gene Roddenberry bailed on Star Trek after it became clear NBC was out to kill it, even though the letter campaign forced them to bring it back for a third year.

The pics and blueprints within the book are cool but may not be as impressive today. At least the blueprints, while not "accurate" by today's standards, were drawn by Matt Jefferies himself. Remember, though, for a long time this was all the reference stuff available. However, if you want what is still a good insider's look into the making of the show, plus Gene Roddenberry's take before even he got sucked into the myth, this is a must-read.

hey Spouk

the capitalization of quotes from Roddenberry (aka the Great Bird of the Galazy) give one "the bizarre impression that he is a god" because for the series, he was :-)

i have a copy of the original publication, read it then and howled, still think it is a great read.

BTW Terry Pratchett uses the same literary device of all caps for Death, in the Discworld series.

Harlan Ellison's memories of the show are fascinating reading as well. As are David Gerrold's.

I read this in the Seventies and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I've bought it again and enjoyed it all over again. Fascinating behind-the-scenes look at TOS. You have to read this book to understand what a groundbreaking series Star Trek was. You also learn how grueling a TV series is to work on. This book is fascinating, and sometimes hilarious!

Mark Kistler's books are wonderful, entertaining books that canteach anyone (of any age) how to draw! I bought his books for my sons,and I quickly became a devoted fan and an avid drawing maniac myself! The book is packed with pages of fun drawings, as well as 'story starters' in which kids are asked to complete the story. Mark's enthusiasm for drawing and story-telling just bubbles up out of the pages of this book. As a mom, I appreciate his encouragement for kids to watch less tv, say NO to violent video games and drugs, and to expand their brain power by getting involved in art. This book is a 'must have' for all teachers and parents who would like to see their kids motivated to express their creativity and feel good about their drawing ability.

While aimed at kids, this is a great place to start at any age. If you have been looking at other drawing books, and the books you have seen before only make it harder, your search is over. Mark makes it easy for anyone at any age to get basic drawing skills, the building blocks you need to get started. He teaches the skills that other books make seem complex, without the stress or making it go over your head. His way of teaching is simply the easiest method a person can have to start drawing. And if the books are good, his old show on PBS and his videos are even better. Mark makes drawing so fun kids beg to use the book again and again. He does not start by intimidating you with the completed project, in fact you don't always know what you are drawing until you are done. He takes you one line, circle, or square at a time and before you know it you have a fun drawing. I also reccommend you try the books from Ed Emberly, or check my lists on Amazon for kids that want to learn to draw, or be a cartoonist or animator.

If you think you stink at drawing, think again! Mark Kistler shows you how, step by step, to draw pictures that really look like something and tell a story besides!

I bought this book to relearn how to draw properly. While the book is directed at a young audience, adults-at-heart like me will benefit from the drawing principles such as foreshortening, placement, size, overlapping, shading and shadowing, contour and horizon (plus 1 and 2 point perspectives). My disappointments were that a few later lessons repeat previous lessons and that it uses blank pages after each lesson for you to practice on. I suggest you use a separate sheet of paper to do this so you can pass this book to your kids and their kids and so on and so forth. Despite these, I still rate it 5 stars.

I can now draw simple everyday objects both as cartoons and as realistically as I can. They're not professional quality yet, the book recommends daily practice until they are and that's exactly what I'm doing.

This isn't the only book you should buy though if you want to draw artistically. In my case, I'd like to draw comics-style characters and objects so I can move on to animating them later. I got Tom Alvarez's "How to Create Action, Fantasy and Adventure Comics" (separately reviewed) which is also an excellent how-to book.

Mark Kistler's books are EXCELLENT for anyone who want to learn to draw. The layout of the book is fun easy to follow. Although it is geared toward children it is appropriate for a beginner adult. It starts with simple concepts and gradually builds on what you've already learned. Anyone at any age will be impressed by what you will be drawing in a short amount of time. I bought this book for my children and was so impressed , I started drawing myself. My children love this book and so do I.

Meet the Veggies...What Happens in Miss Mae's Kitchen is a colorful and adorable book that introduces children to the benefits of vegetables. I think children will really like the bright illustrations. And if they are old enough to read they will enjoy the colorful text; each character's speech is written in a different color. You could even use it for role playing or as a basis for a play. A great way to keep a group of kids entertained. Meet the Veggies: What Happens in Miss Mae's Kitchen?

Meet the Veggies is educational and fun. What a great to learn about vitamins. It is a book that can be read again and again by and to children. Kudos to Charlotte Raybon with her first book.

Meet the Veggies is a wonderful children's book. Parents along with their children will have a great time reading this book.

Little ones will find it hard not to eat healthly after viewing these cute little colorful illustrations of the veggies.

Miss Mae's Kitchen is very entertaining. Children will find it hard to put this book down and will enjoy reading it again and again.

Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Fiddle (Complete Idiot's Guide to)

What can I say? Chicago police chief Francis O'Neill collected these tunes in the late part of the 19th century. We can have it on our shelves today. Over a thousand tunes from the Irish tradition. Essential book on the shelf for any Irish musician for reference, reminding or discovering new tunes.

The ultimate book when it comes to Irish folk music and amazon.com is one of the few places that stock the full edition not the revised ed. which has many cuts

You really can't not have this book, if you're going to get very deep into Irish traditional music. I think most Irish musicians would agree with me on that, too. (I teach Irish traditional fiddle.) There is another version, edited by Miles Krassen, that I do not recommend (Krassen "updated" the settings in idiosyncratic and often not particularly helpful ways). But I do recommend the other "big" O'Neill's--"1001 Gems." The latter and "Music of Ireland" are *not* the same book, although they have considerable overlapping content, many tunes are in one but not the other.

Basically, while as a teacher and player I don't recommend actually *learning* tunes from tunebooks like this, this great tome is extremely useful for purposes of reminding yourself how tunes go, for acquainting yourself with tunes, for getting ideas about good settings, for practicing sight-reading, etc.

I purchased this for my father, who is a mountain dulcimer enthusiast. It's a nice thick book with soft cover, bound with the cheapness typical of most music publications. It's too big to sit easily on a music stand, so I imagine it's intended as a sort of Irish folk music dictionary. In this capacity, it is excellent. There are nearly two-thousand tunes, indexed by title. These are short- the vast majority only a couple of lines long. A tune consists of melody on a treble-clef staff (if you need tablature, this isn't a good place to start), embellished by 19th-century style ornaments. Each is given both its conventional Irish (Gaelic) and English names and the composer to whom it is attributed. There are no notes about the scholarship behind the collection or how these tunes might be approached in performance. The engraving is nice (done around the turn of the century), and fairly easy on the eyes.

Look no further. Of all the Irish tune books, this is the one to get. It goes by many names, "O'Neill's", the "big O'Neill's", the "1850", and the "yellow book". Like the Fiddler's Fakebook, I am on my second "yellow book", having worn out the first till the pages came out. This collection contains most if not all of the Irish tunes you will hear being played, and many hundreds more you will want to play.

I find it indispensable for several reasons -

It's a reference - when I hear an Irish tune that I like on an album or in concert or a jam session, I look it up in the "yellow book" to determine the canonical version. I'll probably end up playing it my way anyway, or the way I hear it played, but I like to at least see the "official" version.

It's a collection - most of the Irish tunes I have come to love and learned to play are here collected in one volume.

Its an exercise book - the "1850" serves as a seeming endless supply of sight reading material, after I have practiced scales and tunes I know.

It's a diamond mine - there are gems in there, just waiting to be learned. Amazing and uncommon tunes lying between the pages waiting for the curious musician to breath life into them. Grab a tune, take it to a session, set it free.

Get a copy of O'Neill's Music of Ireland, and the Fiddler's Fakebook. There are many other wonderful tune books, but these two are essential.

I was introduced to this book in a university class and the story blew me away. One man's journey back to living a more authentic and meaningful life. I continue to reflect on, and apply many of the lesson's Newburg imparts through "Bob's" story. We're talking foundational lessons-- the kind that can lead to what is perhaps best described as transformation of self, more in line with how you want to feel any given moment. I would suggest there are aspects of "Bob" in all of us and as such highly recommend this book to anyone who seeks more out of life but isn't sure how or where to start.

I was sitting in a psych class with hundreds of undergraduates when Doug first asked "me" this question: how do you want to feel? I was stunned. No one had ever asked me that before, not my mother, not my father, not my teachers, not my employers, not my clients, not my deans. It took me eighteen months to answer the question--and I was 50 years old at the time. Doug's next question, "Does how you feel affect your performance?" is equally profound--since the vast majority of managers believe that "professionals will do what they have to do regardless of how they feel," and in so doing, unintentionally but inexorably lock up vast oceans of human energy and productivity. Unheralded, Doug Newburg gets it--and teaches us all--what life is all about. This book describes "it"--and unless you pay careful attention, you still might not get it. If you do, it'll change your life.

Doug Newburg has thought about, researched and analyzed peak performers for more than 20 years. This book distills his findings and makes clear that there is a process, a way of being, common among those who are the best at what they do.

Newburg's ideas are refreshingly different from the mundane claptrap found in most self-help books. His insight is that the most successful and happiest people are those who are most true to themselves. You are good and fulfilled when your work and life resonate with who you are. It sounds mystical and feel-goodish, but Newburg's coherent prose and relevant stories hit home and make sense.

Read this book. At the very least, it will make you think about your own process of performance--and that's always a good thing.

In this book, Newburg used the power of stories to share meaningful life lessons he learned from remarkable people he came to know in his life. These lessons can be applied to all areas in life so you will no longer need a bookcase full of self-help books to tell you how to manage your time, lose weight, find a mate, get the job you love and so on. Newburg helps you answer all the important life questions without telling you what to do or reducing your unique experience down to a score on a questionnaire. It's a MUST read for those who are in search of true meaning and happiness in their lives.

Wow. This book "solves" so many questions people have about their lives so simply, so elegantly it left me wondering why it took "the kind universe" so long to help people understand how to get on the road to and build their own happiness.

Let me attempt to explain: What's wrong with "traditional" self-help is there's no "self" in it. We read about other people's "success patterns". They sell us on why their "patterns" work best. Problem is they don't work for us precisely because they're other peoples'. This creates a nice self-help industry, but doesn't help readers become any happier--or even help them realize what does make them happy! Does this make sense?

Newburg's genius is giving us a "process" for identifying, understanding, and incorporating into our lives what uniquely makes us happy. He has put the "self" back where it belongs, at the center of the process. Warning: he's also put the responsibility (and fun) for understanding and action back where it belongs, with us, not with Dr. Phil, Steven Covey, or Tony Robbins.

I know why he had to publish this himself. It's the last "self-help" book-- the only "self-help" book you'll ever need. Why would an industry that exists because people are searching for "themselves" actually tell you how to find yourself? That's business suicide.

Anyway, thank-you Dr. Newburg, thank-you. If you don't like this book, I'll give you your money back.

I would say that it is a very informative book and an easy read.
I read over half the book in 3 days. I would recommend this book for all to have in their reference library.
It's worth keeping near your Pro Tools rig

Wow! I'm an intermediate PTLE user, and this book blew me away. Now I know what's been missing from my mixes, and what to do about it.

This is not a book for beginners, although the initial section on setting Preferences for professional workflow is something I'd never seen covered in any other basic PT book. The authors explain WHY certain preference settings make your life easier or harder, and where certain settings can cause PT to behave in unexpected ways. The other feature for beginners is to show what to aim for in the way of pro quality results. However, the book assumes that the song, arrangement, playing, tracking, and basic mixing (EQ, comp, volume/mutes, panning, etc.) has been done to a reasonable quality level. The material covers the last 10% of tightening the rhythm and fixing any vocal glitches that separate a potential gold-record result from a semi-pro effort.

After getting the book, I went into a session I'm doing with some rather complex rhythm parts over a synth drum loop. After "pocketing" the parts, the song now sounds much crisper and more alive, but not mechanical. (NOW I know why I should have recorded the loop to a grid, and driven the synth from PT's clock. Oh well...) My next step will be to clean up the vocals, using the book's suggestions for using Auto Tune. Now I understand why I was always a bit dissatisfied with Auto Tune, even in Graphic mode.

Overall, the book is very well written and edited, and covers not just the easy situations but tells you how to handle a number of real-world oddities. Most of the text is accompanied by screen shots (including before / after, where appropriate.) The DVD is also very helpful, and I found myself really understanding material by referring between the text and the DVD.

I'm advanced ProTools User.
This book is more about Nathan particular techniques.
Dont adds much to me maybe works better to you.

Being a professional Recording Engineer in the music industry for 23 years and having used Pro Tools for the last 3 years, finally there is a book written that offers some useful and valuable information. Mostly all of the other Pro Tools books are written for beginners and intermediate users. They seem like edited down versions of the Digidesign documentation that already ships with Pro Tools. The most valuable part of the book to me was showing where to separate audio events before time stretching them. You always want to preserve the transient of the sound and the authors have some very good tips on how to best preserve the original piece of audio. Though editing is the tedious process that many hate to do, it many times is the difference between a good recording and a major label quality recording.

I am a songwriter and have a home studio where I demo my songs. Even though I know the mechanics of using pro tools, I was missing the practical knowledge of how to apply all of the nuts and bolts. This book and the other dvds by this same publisher do just that. You are sitting right there next to the engineer with actual raw studio tracks going through the entire post production process. The accomanying DVD/ROM provides you with narration and actual pro tools screen shots so you see and hear what the engineer is doing. This book covers editing and pocketing in extreme detail. I now appreciate pocketing - a term I had heard but never really understood with respect to post production. Now I KNOW how the records I hear sound so insanely tight. There are a lot of tweaks done in post and this book shows you how to do it. The autotuning chapter also is excellent. After so many disappointments with other books that basically rehashed the user's guide this book and all of the other Multi-Platinum Pro Tools products were exactly what I was looking for. They have been my rosetta stone to pro tools. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Get it!

This is most recommended who loves Jazz and/or ever been a fan to Duke from the past and the future. I always been a long-time supporter to him since I was 9 or 10. This is definitely going into my book collection alongside Autobiography of Malcolm X, Miles: The Autobiography, Revelations: There's a Light After the Lime, Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, Hip-Hop America, As Though I Have Wings: The Lost Chet Baker Memoir, and mos definitely the Bible.

I'm a huge fan to the memoir/biography section than I do most books I read about life and stuff. This would go on forever in a lifetime.

Sometimes self-serving, somewhat pretentious, but indispensable. Edward Kennedy Ellington, the greatest composer this country has ever produced, in his own words.

Classic. If you consider the classic elegance of Edward Kennedy Ellington, it should come as no surprise that his prose is as lyrical and poetic as his music. This is a wonderful collection of writings. It is in effect an arrangement of essays and short pieces written with what I suspect is love about the love of his life-jazz, or music itself, if you will. The book contains many short pieces-impressionistic sketches and characters of persons that Duke Ellington knew-musicians, friends, acquaintances, public figures. But it also has a variety of essays-longer subjects interwoven with themes and counterpoint. Ellington's is exquisitely musical prose-again, not to be surprised. The organization is chronological, narrative, more or less. Duke organizes with autobiographical passages followed by short portraits-Dramatis Felidae-that demonstrate the concreteness through brief descriptions of the persons that he knew with anecdotes that define them. The book covers a life filled with friends and experience. The variety is tremendous, and the life and the career are masterpieces. The themes and subjects are multifaceted. This is Duke Ellington's poetic literary suite posing as prose, and it should not be missed. Really-it's great poetry and a terrific compendium of jazz history and experience.

I'm a great fan of autobiography. Granted, often it is sanitized and self-serving, but there's nothing like hearing a person tell their own life, especially if the life is as important as this one. Without a doubt, Duke Ellington was the century's greatest American composer and bandleader; the only ones who even come close to him (Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Cole Porter) had neither his longevity nor his variety. And none of them also maintained a working band through six decades! I own almost every recording ever released by Duke Ellington; his music has become indelibly printed on my brain. This book may not be the most accurate account of his life (if you can handle a little armchair psychology, the Collier biography is the best choice for that), but this is like sitting in a room hearing Duke talk -- and play!

Wow what a book. The best part about this book is that Duke wrote it. You get it straight from him. I recommend this book to anyone into the music.

His accounts of his younger days were what most appealed to me. He pays so much respect to the people he was surrounded by, both his family and the community of musicians. Sometimes the many names dropped can be a bit much, but that was just his style--always letting people know who helped him, who mentored him, who taught him, who he admired. There's scarcely a mean-spirited word in the whole book!

There is a lot of variety to the way he tells his stories. Sometimes its through the name dropping profiles; sometimes its through interviews reprinted for this book; sometimes its through out-and-out philosophical dissertations about music and life; sometimes it's in the midst of his endless travelling of the globe with his band.

For the musician looking for tips and advice, there's plenty of Duke wisdom provided throughout. His overall love for music and musicians is just SOOO apparent. My favorite piece of advice is that he said he learned music exclusively through oral instruction, from people in the scene who would share techniques and secrets seemingly as freely as idle conversation (how different the musical climate is these days!)

The last third or so of the book get a bit tedious for this reader. There just wasn't a lot of variety to his accounts of globetrotting and meeting all the important people in all the countries. What kept me going through these sections were the occasional gems of advice or insight, but there's more of that in the first half of the book. Thank god for the end of the book, a funny interview where the interviewer is REALLY condescending to Duke, but Duke gets through is with all the grace, wit, intelligence, and humor that makes him such a compelling person, composer, and most of all, a genius and musical mystic.

Thank the Duke for this book, and allowing us to get a glimpse of his life and all his amazing stories!

There is an entire industry in publishing books about writing. Writers, especially aspiring writers, are very insecure about their work, and seek reassurance that they're on the right track from others. Most of the books produced to ameliorate writers' self-doubt are crap. But I can say with confidence that Downs and Russin's NAKED PLAYWRITING is not only the best playwriting book I have ever read, it is the best book I have ever read on any kind of writing, from the beginning of the process to the end.

It's easy to talk about how to tell a good story, but how many books actually break down ideas point by point to determine which ones actually have a future? This one. Many would-be writing mentors talk about sitting down and writing, but how many have actually given instructions on how to create a style sheet on Microsoft Word so that you can create a perfectly formatted manuscript on your first try? This one. Everybody knows that the creative process isn't complete until the work is seen by an audience, but how many books demonstrate how to comparison-shop theatre companies, give you balanced pointers on how and when to get an agent, and show how to evaluate a contract to tell if it serves your interests? This one.

The light conversational tone that obtains through most of this book makes the information contained between the covers very approachable. The authors are aware that many of their readers will be beginning writers, but they also incorporate more intermediate and advanced information, so young writers can follow through to the end on what they've already begun. This book is not some compendium of lukewarm exhortations to write now and write more; it's an actual plan to turn your writing into a vocation and a life.

Young writers buy a lot of books to get them started on the art and the craft. This is one of the few books those writers will actually keep on their desks through the years as they write.

A little context -- I studied playwriting in college several years ago and had productions of a couple scripts. Recently I've had a play germinating inside me, and I decided to give it a try. I discovered this book on a casual browse through a bookstore.
This book is not only the best imaginable resource, it also serves to inspire and give you a chance to believe in yourself. Yes -- I was rusty and this book reminded me of the styles of plays available to draw on (I'm a bit into alienation and absurdism.), and it demonstrates clearly the difference between vague and uninteresting dialogue with that which contains dramatic tension.
He is also the most practical of teachers. He makes regular suggestions for writing a play that has the best appeal for being produced. (Don't write a play with 50 characters and six scene changes, including a snowstorm in Siberia!)
I would think this book is most useful if you too have decided to embark on the challenge of writing a play; otherwise I'm not sure what the appeal would be. It is not a great tome on dramatic theory. At every step of the way it is practical -- right there ready to help you express yourself and, one hopes, to write a successful play.

The authors have a great sense of humor and tons of information. There are a lot of books out there on playwriting but this one really opened my eyes. Naked is a good way to write.

This is an excellent book to get you on your way towards fulfilling your dream of writing plays.

Okay, maybe its attractive title did draw this reader's attention to the book, but Naked Playwriting proves to be, as one other reviewer stated, not just a great one amidst so many How-To...books. Naked Playwriting is the best book I've read on writing, as well.

I finished this and thought (yes, exhilarated) that every writer could benefit from this one. No matter what genre. No matter what style. Naked Playwriting is, incredibly, written by two voices, Downs and Russin, and yet it speaks so fluently, so masterfully, and so concisely--with this humor throughout--that I just trusted these writers were actually writers from the first line.

That it speaks so smoothly to the reader, guides the reader, without pompous self-glorifying stories of their own past careers, speaks of the closeness these two writers stayed on course with the subject--and it speaks of the dedication to playwriting that Naked Playwriting follows.

A well-crafted ship is, as the authors describe, the beauty of a stage play, carefully crafted, going somewhere, with purpose, and capable of taking others along on a tremendous ride--that is what the great ones do--and that's what Downs and Russin have offered us.

Read this, then reread, and continue to reference it--Naked Playwriting will become a manual to hold onto.

This is a great follow-up to Chris Lopez' "First Stage" guitar book for beginners. I am in the transition stage; going from beginner to intermediate in my playing and not only do I take lessons one hour per week, but I also go back to these books for the basics. They are easy to follow, and will help you remember the basics of playing that guitar....

The best guitar tutorial I've seen-excellent chord charts are easy to use, with logical progression that make it easy to locate desired chord. Simple and straight forward.

This book continues to present the need to know, nuts and bolts information that's necessary to play the guitar. This second book builds on the first by introducing the reader to scales and how to play the scales from many different positions on the fretboard. There's enough info in this book to keep a person busy for a long, long time, but again it's given in an easy to comprehend format that seeks not to confuse, but to provide a practical, down to earth guide to making some music with your guitar. Don't miss out on this unique book.

It's hard to believe that learning scale patterns could be made so easy. The "Next Stage" Guitar Book is great. It also includes easy to understand tabs and standard notation. What a great deal and savings on private lessons. A Must Get!

I find this book The "Next Stage" Guitar Book easy to read and understand. Most of all the patterns in this book are moveable and has made my lead guitar playing more exciting. Also we have found out that these patterns can also be used on the bass guitar as well.