Book picks similar to
Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music by Frye Gaillard
music
digital
historical-journalism
music-books
Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend
David Shipman - 1993
A provocative look at the private life of the legendary performer reveals intimate details about Garland's bisexuality, her drug and alcohol addiction, and her many abortions.
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
Daniel J. Levitin - 2006
Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: • Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? • Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? • What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music? • Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.
Principles of Orchestration
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - 1822
But invention, in all art, is closely allied to technique, and technique can be taught. This book, therefore, which differs from most other texts on the subject because of its tremendous wealth of musical examples and its systematic arrangement of material according to each constituent of the orchestra, will undoubtedly be of value to any music student. It is a music classic, perhaps the only book on classical orchestration written by a major composer.In it, the composer aims to provide the reader with the fundamental principles of modern orchestration from the standpoint of brilliance and imagination, and he devotes considerable space to the study of tonal resonance and orchestral combination. In his course, he demonstrates such things as how to produce a good-sounding chord of certain tone-quality, uniformly distributed; how to detach a melody from its harmonic setting; correct progression of parts; and other similar problems.The first chapter is a general review of orchestral groups, with an instrument-by-instrument breakdown and material on such technical questions as fingering, range, emission of sound, etc. There follows two chapters on melody and harmony in strings, winds, brasses, and combined groups. Chapter IV, Composition of the Orchestra, covers different ways of orchestrating the same music; effects that can be achieved with full tutti; tutti in winds, tutti pizzicato, soli in the strings, etc.; chords; progressions; and so on. The last two chapters deal with opera and include discussion of solo and choral accompaniment, instruments on stage or in the wings, technical terms, soloists (range, register, vocalization, vowels, etc.), voices in combination, and choral singing. Immediately following this text are some 330 pages of musical examples drawn from "Sheherazade," the "Antar Symphony," "Capriccio Espagnol," "Sadko," "Ivan the Terrible," "Le Coq d'Or," "Mlada," "The Tsar's Bride," and others of Rimsky-Korsakov's works. These excerpts are all referred to in the text itself, where they illustrate, far better than words, particular points of theory and actual musical practice. They are largely responsible for making this book the very special (and very useful) publication it is.This single-volume edition also includes a brief preface by the editor and extracts from Rimsky-Korsakov's 1891 draft and final versions of his own preface, as well as an appendixed chart of single tutti chords in the composer's works.
Punk USA: The Rise and Fall of Lookout! Records
Kevin Prested - 2014
In 1987, Lawrence Livermore founded independent punk label Lookout Records to release records by his band The Lookouts. Forming a partnership with David Hayes, the label released some of the most influential recordings from California’s East Bay punk scene, including a then-teenaged Green Day. Originally operating out of a bedroom, Lookout created "The East Bay Punk sound,” with bands such as Crimpshrine, Operation Ivy, The Mr. T Experience, and many more. The label helped to pave the way for future punk upstarts and as Lookout grew, young punk entrepreneurs used the label as a blueprint to try their hand at record pressing. As punk broke nationally in the mid 90s the label went from indie outfit to having more money than it knew how to manage.
Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever
Will Hermes - 2011
Disco and salsa. The loft jazz scene and the downtown composers known as Minimalists. In the mid-1970s, New York City was a laboratory where all the major styles of modern music were reinvented--all at once, from one block to the next, by musicians who knew, admired, and borrowed from one another. Crime was everywhere, the government was broke, and the city's infrastructure was collapsing. But rent was cheap, and the possibilities for musical exploration were limitless.Love Goes to Buildings on Fire is the first book to tell the full story of the era's music scenes and the phenomenal and surprising ways they intersected. From New Year's Day 1973 to New Year's Eve 1977, the book moves panoramically from post-Dylan Greenwich Village, to the arson-scarred South Bronx barrios where salsa and hip-hop were created, to the Lower Manhattan lofts where jazz and classical music were reimagined, to ramshackle clubs like CBGBs and The Gallery, where rock and dance music were hot-wired for a new generation. As they remade the music, the musicians at the center of the book invented themselves: Willie Colón and the Fania All-Stars renting Yankee Stadium to take salsa to the masses, New Jersey locals Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith claiming the jungleland of Manhattan as their own, Grandmaster Flash transforming the turntable into a musical instrument, David Byrne and Talking Heads proving that rock music "ain't no foolin' around." Will Hermes was there--venturing from his native Queens to the small dark rooms where the revolution was taking place--and in Love Goes to Buildings on Fire he captures the creativity, drive, and full-out lust for life of the great New York musicians of those years, who knew that the music they were making would change the world.
The Big Fat Activity Book for Pregnant People
Jordan Reid - 2017
Baby shower gifts don't get more perfect than this. · Word finds: Sorry, Nope (all the stuff you’re not allowed to have anymore); Bad Baby Names (Murl, anyone?)· Mazes: Make it from Your Desk to the Bathroom Without Throwing Up· Lists: How to Register Without Crying; Things Every OB on the Planet Has Been Asked by Newly Pregnant Women· Journaling: Yoga Teachers (Also Your Mom Friends, Your Parents, People on Facebook, All Articles, and Everyone You Meet) Want to Tell You How to Give Birth, But You Don’t Have to Listen· Quizzes: Which $1500 Stroller is Different?"Comfort, solidarity, entertainment, and maybe even total life enlightenment.”—Lauren Smith Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester
The Chord Wheel: The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians
Jim Fleser - 2000
Master chord theory ... in minutes! The Chord Wheel is a revolutionary device that puts the most essential and practical applications of chord theory into your hands. This tool will help you: Improvise and Solo Talk about chops! Comprehend key structure like never before; Transpose Keys Instantly transpose any progression into each and every key; Compose Your Own Music Watch your songwriting blossom! No music reading is necessary. This is the kind of device that players of any instrument can use to enhance their musical understanding. Chord and key relationships are inseparable, and learning these relationships is a must in becoming a successful musician. Alan Remington, Orange Coast College Music Dept.
Dawn
Phil Elverum - 2008
"Dawn" delves deep into an intensely creative period of Elverum s life, with a beautiful mix of journal writing, jokes, photographs, and music. This 144-page hardcover collection chronicles a winter spent alone in a cabin in arctic Norway, wrestling with ghosts, gathering wood, acting out myths--3 months of unfiltered brain torrents interspersed with drawings. It comes with a 17-track CD of songs written during that time, songs that have become well known over the years through recordings and live performances. The CD is a kind of lost album finally recorded properly, pared down to just guitar and vocals. Also included is a 16-page color photo booklet.
The History of the NME: High Times and Low Lives at the World's Most Famous Music Magazine
Pat Long - 2012
The fights, the bands, the brawls, the haircuts, the egos, and much more—the definitive book about the infamous music magazine. For 60 years, since it was founded in 1952, the New Musical Express has played a central part in the British love affair with pop music—and has been essential for American connoisseurs to remain in-the-know as well. This authoritative history is an insider's account of the high times and low lives of one of the world's most influential music magazines. It explains the stories behind the stories that kept readers coming back week after week—the office brawls, the former staffers who launched their careers there (Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill, Nick Kent, Mick Farren, Steve Lamacq, and Stuart Maconie), and the bands who owe their success to the magazine. Snotty, confrontational, enthusiastic, and sarcastic: the new issue of the NME was the high point of any music fan's week, whether they were listening to The Beatles, Bowie, or Blur.
Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons
Ben Fong-Torres - 1991
A biography of a pioneer in country rock discusses Parson's privileged childhood, fame, friendship with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, drug problem, and mysterious death.
Michael Jackson: 1958-2009: Life of a Legend
Michael Heatley - 2009
As with Elvis and John Lennon, everyone will remember where they were when they heard about the death of Michael Jackson. He was just fifty when he died, yet had become a superstar by the time he was eleven, ensuring his music was part of the fabric of everyone's life.Though his days of greatest success were behind him, Jackson was standing on the threshold of what could well have been one of the biggest comebacks in showbiz history. It wasn't to be, but the music, sales figures and the number of current stars who queued to pay tribute to his influence underlined the fact that, for all his controversial personal quirks, Michael Jackson was indeed one of the greats.This picture-packed tribute charts the life of a legend, from his earliest days as a hyperactive child protégé fronting family group the Jackson Five, to the assured superstar looking out from the cover of Thriller, still the best-selling album of all time. It analyses the magical stage moves like the Moonwalk that made him a sensational live act, celebrates the intoxicating music that made him the King of Pop and follows his life right through to the comeback that was to be cruelly cut short before the curtain could rise.MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009: LIFE OF A LEGEND tells the larger-than-life story of a unique character whose musical legacy will never die.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier
Thad Carhart - 2000
Intrigued by its simple sign—Desforges Pianos—he enters, only to have his way barred by the shop's imperious owner.Unable to stifle his curiosity, he finally lands the proper introduction, and a world previously hidden is brought into view. Luc, the atelier's master, proves an indispensable guide to the history and art of the piano. Intertwined with the story of a musical friendship are reflections on how pianos work, their glorious history, and stories of the people who care for them, from amateur pianists to the craftsmen who make the mechanism sing. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is at once a beguiling portrait of a Paris not found on any map and a tender account of the awakening of a lost childhood passion.
Coyote Breed
Alan David - 2016
Praise for Alan David 'A classic of the genre.' – Tom Kasey, bestselling author of Trade Off.Alan David is a prolific writer of over 500 novels in a wide range of genres, from classic westerns, to historical thrillers. His other western novels include Fight or Die, Gun Hell, Gun Wages, Wildmen and Draw or Die. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK. Sign up to our newsletterFollow us on Twitter: @PioneeringPress
Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark
Tamara Saviano - 2016
His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him. He has served as model, mentor, supporter, and friend to at least two generations of the world’s most talented and influential singer-songwriters. In songs like “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” L.A. Freeway,” “She Ain’t Going Nowhere,” and “Texas 1947,” Clark’s poetic mastery has given voice to a vision of life, love, and trouble that has resonated not only with fans of Americana music, but also with the prominent artists—including Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Jeff Walker, and others—who have recorded and performed Clark’s music. Now, in Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, writer, producer, and music industry insider Tamara Saviano chronicles the story of this legendary artist from her unique vantage point as his former publicist and producer of the Grammy-nominated album This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. Part memoir, part biography, Saviano’s skillfully constructed narrative weaves together the extraordinary songs, larger-than-life characters, previously untold stories, and riveting emotions that make up the life of this modern-day poet and troubadour.
First Year Teacher: Wit and Wisdom from Teachers Who've Been There
Randy Howe - 2009
It offers hundreds of tips, warnings, and anecdotes from experienced educators--all in one warm and charming package. Benefit from their wisdom: ""Principals love a heads-up on both good and bad news. It only makes you look good if you keep the principal in the loop. Don't hide in your classroom "" --Fifth grade teacherLearn from their mistakes: ""Don't put off returning phone calls of a pushy parent. The longer you wait, the longer they have to think of new questions "" --U.S. History and Government teacherAnd remember that humor conquers all: ""When you're having a hard day, remember why you became a teacher in the first place. My neighbors wouldn't listen to me talk about environmental science, so I had to find a captive audience "" --Environmental Science teacher