This reader for lovers of the piano distils his musical and linguistic eloquence and vast knowledge, and will prove invaluable to anyone with an interest in the technique, history and repertoire of the piano. Erudite, witty, enlightening and deeply personal, A Pianist's A to Z is the ideal book for all piano lovers, musicians and music aficionados: rarely has the instrument been described in such an entertaining and intelligent fashion.

    Written in an engaging, conversational style, the individual essays outline the elements of intelligent, creative teaching. Duke effectively explains how teachers can meet the needs of individual students from a wide range of abilities by understanding more deeply how people learn. Teachers and interested parents alike will benefit from this informative and highly readable book.

    A musical drama biopic chronicling P.T. Barnum (played by Hugh Jackman) and his founding of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, this December 2017 film features a stunning soundtrack by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen fame. Our songbook features piano/vocal/guitar arrangements of 9 songs including the Golden Globe-winning "This Is Me" and: Come Alive * From Now On * The Greatest Show * A Million Dreams * Never Enough * The Other Side * Rewrite the Stars * Tightrope. Also includes full-color scenes from the movie.

    The book opens with a Note Reading Guide and an introduction to eighth note rhythm patterns. Students work with 5-finger transposition, functional harmony, and musical phrases. Exploration of C, G, D and A major and minor 5-finger positions builds on intervallic reading skills that were introduced in the earlier level. Appealing repertoire reinforces key concepts and encourages students to explore musical expression through varied dynamics and tempos. Selections include well-known classics from the great composers and original compositions.

    This volume includes all of Chopin's 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes and 19 waltzes. It features a biography of the composer, notes on the individual genres, and pieces that surfaced after Joseffy's time-honored editions were initially published. Contents: 24 Preludes, Op. 28 * Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 * Prelude in A-flat Major, B. 86 * 3 Nocturnes, Op. 9 * 3 Nocturnes Op. 15 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 27 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 32 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 37 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 48 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 55 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 62 * Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72, No. 1 * Nocturne in C-sharp minor, B. 49 * Nocturne in C minor, B. 108 * Grand Valse Brillante in E-flat Major, Op. 18 * 3 Waltzes, Op. 34 * Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42 * 3 Waltzes, Op. 64 * 2 Waltzes, Op. 69 * 3 Waltzes, Op. 70 * Waltz in E Minor, B. 56 * Waltz in E Major, B. 44 * Waltz in A-flat Major, B. 21 * Waltz in E-flat Major, B. 46 * Waltz in E-flat Major, B. 133 * Waltz in A minor, B. 150

    It's not about how much students do. It's about how they spend that time. A long overdue look inside the practice room - what works, what doesn't and why, from the founder of and chief writer for PracticeSpot.com, the world's largest website for music teachers and students.

    Whether you are teaching yourself piano or learning with a music instructor, this book and streaming video course will take your piano playing to a whole new level!Ask yourself this:1. Have you always wanted to learn how to play famous piano pieces, but did not know where to start?2. Did you start piano lessons once and give up because the lessons were too difficult?3. Are you struggling to follow online piano lessons that seem to jump all over the place without any sense of direction or consistency?4. Would you like to expand your musical understanding and learn how to play the piano through an affordable, step-by-step book and video course?If your answer to any of the these questions is yes, then this beginner piano book and video course is definitely for you!The following great music is covered in this book and streaming video course:* Für Elise by Beethoven
* The Entertainer by Scott Joplin
* Amazing Grace
* Pachelbel's Canon
* House of the Rising Sun
* Scarborough Fair
* Turkish Rondo by Mozart
* Shenandoah
* Happy Birthday
* Danny Boy
* Kum-Bah-Yah
* Jingle Bells
* J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Major
* Home on the Range
* This Little Light of Mine
* Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg* Take Me Out to the Ballgame
* Red River Valley
* Silent Night
* New World Symphony Theme
* When the Saints Go Marching In
* Greensleeves
* Aura Lee
* Brahms' Famous Lullaby
* Simple Gifts
* And Many More Great Songs and Pieces!

    This book encourages musicians to develop a broader understanding of the involvement of the entire body in playing—and the strains playing places on the body—by focusing on body mapping to increase awareness of the body’s function, size, and structure. Ways in which piano, organ, harpsichord, clavichord, and digital keyboard players can eliminate or prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and other debilitating conditions without traditional medical treatments are also explored.

    Lhevinne was, with Rachmaninoff, Schnabel, and Hoffman, one of the great modern masters, and was the first artist invited to teach at the newly formed Julliard Graduate School of Music. Technique, through essential, must be subordinate to musical understanding. Complete knowledge of scales, apprehended not mechanically but musically; understanding of the uses of rests and silence, which Mozart considered the greatest effect in music; a feeling for rhythm and training of the ear; these are the basic elements of a thorough grounding in musicianship and are accordingly emphasized in the opening chapters. The heart of the book is devoted to the attainment of a beautiful tone. Anyone who has heard Lhevinne play or has listened to one of his recordings will know how great were his achievements in that area. The secret lay, at least in part, in the technique he called "the arm floating in air," and in the use of the wrists as natural shock absorbers. The achievement of varieties of tone, of the singing, ringing tone, of brilliancy, of delicacy, and of power are all explained in terms of a careful analysis of the ways in which the fingers, hand, wrist, arm, and indeed the whole body function in striking the keys. There are further remarks about how to get a clear staccato and an unblurred legato, about the dangers of undue emphasis on memorization and the need for variety in practicing, and special comments on the use of the pedal, which should be employed with as much precision as the keys. Throughout, specific musical examples are presented as illustrations. The author draws not only upon his own experiences and methods, but upon the examples of Anton Rubenstein and of his teacher, Safonoff, for this remarkably lucid and concise formulation of basic principles.

    It provides an intimate and compelling look at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz’s post-war styles. Rich with the voices of musicians, producers, promoters, and others on the scene during the decades following World War II, this book views jazz’s evolution through the prism of technological advances, social transformations, changes in the law, economic trends, and much more.In an absorbing narrative enlivened by the commentary of key personalities, Marc Myers describes the myriad of events and trends that affected the music's evolution, among them, the American Federation of Musicians strike in the early 1940s, changes in radio and concert-promotion, the introduction of the long-playing record, the suburbanization of Los Angeles, the Civil Rights movement, the “British invasion” and the rise of electronic instruments. This groundbreaking book deepens our appreciation of this music by identifying many of the developments outside of jazz itself that contributed most to its texture, complexity, and growth.

    I’ve gone back and repurchased a lot of the CDs I sold off—which, thanks to the bargain bin at Half-Price Books, has actually been a fairly inexpensive proposition—and reacquainted myself with groups that I once adored before they died off, broke up, or settled into respectable but uninspired careers. My goal is to rediscover what I saw in these bands when I was a teenager, and figure out why the music went from enlightening to deadening so rapidly, from the bucolic early years of Lollapalooza to the apocalyptic assault of Woodstock ’99. Because as easy as it is now to take potshots at the mumbly, histrionic sounds of the ’90s, this is music that meant a great deal to me and many others at the time. Out of respect for my teenaged self, I’m giving it an honest re-examination.Each installment of Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation? will be tied to a year, starting with 1990—which I’m packaging with this introduction, since it’s really a prologue year—and proceed chronologically up through 1999. However, this isn’t intended to be a definitive history of grunge; I won’t be writing about every single Seattle band, or even most Seattle bands. A lot of it won’t even be about grunge; I also plan on looking at the feel-good bro tunes of Sublime, and the ironic arena-rock posturing of Urge Overkill, among other groups, and how they fit in with the overall narrative of ’90s alt-rock’s rise and fall. I promise I’ll completely overlook at least one of your favorite bands; please don’t take it personally. As a general rule, I’m interested in discussing ’90s bands that were played regularly on MTV and on the radio, even in a small city like my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, because this was the last time (as of now, anyway) that rock music acted as the engine under the hood of American pop culture. Inevitably, this series will reflect what I liked and cared about back then, which fortunately matches up with what millions of other teenaged residents of Alternative Nation liked and cared about. More than an exercise in nostalgia—or, worse, an excuse to pick on bands that haven’t aged all that well—I hope to give those who deserve it their due, and maybe figure out how something that seemed so promising at the time went so wrong." - excerpt from Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?

    Grammy-nominee Taylor Swift was the top-selling artist of 2008. This matching folio to her chart-topping CD features easy guitar arrangements with tab for the crossover hit single "Love Story" and a dozen more: The Best Day * Breathe * Change * Fearless * Fifteen * Forever & Always * Hey Stephen * Love Story * Tell Me Why * The Way I Loved You * White Horse * You Belong with Me * You're Not Sorry.

    A truly remarkable collection including: All My Loving * And I Love Her * Come Together * Eleanor Rigby * Get Back * Help * Hey Jude * I Want to Hold Your Hand * Let It Be * Michelle * many, many more.

    Many of those are thanks to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, dubbed "the Swampers."Some of the greatest names in rock, R&B and blues laid tracks in the original, iconic concrete-block building--the likes of Cher, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Rolling Stones and the Black Keys. The National Register of Historic Places now recognizes that building, where Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded the original version of "Free Bird" and the Rolling Stones wrote "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses." By combing through decades of articles and music reviews related to Muscle Shoals Sound, music writer Carla Jean Whitley reconstructs the fascinating history of how the Alabama studio created a sound that reverberates across generations.

    Lesson Book Level 1A begins by teaching basic keyboard topography and fluent recognition of white key names in relation to black keys. It focuses on simple rhythms and prepares students for intervallic reading with entertaining songs that focus on same, stepping up and stepping down. It then introduces lines and space notes in treble and bass clefs, melodic and harmonic intervals of 2nds, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths, and graduates to reading on the grand staff. It also introduces the flat and sharp signs. This course is most effective when used under the direction of a piano teacher or experienced musician. Songs Include: Balloons * Batter Up! * The Donkey * A Friend Like You * Hand-Bells * A Happy Song * Horse Sense * Totem Pole Song * It's Halloween! * Jingle Bells! * Jolly Old Saint Nicholas * July the Fourth! * Just a Second! * Love Somebody * Merrily We Roll Along O'er the Deep Blue Sea * Mexican Hat Dance * My Clever Pup * My Fifth * My Robot * Old MacDonald * Old Uncle Bill * Play a Fourth * Raindrops * Rain, Rain! * Rockets * Rockin' Tune * Rock Song * Sailing * Sea Divers * See-Saws * Skating * Who's on Third? * Willie and Tillie * Wishing Well * The Zoo