1 comments about Essential Elements 2000: B Flat Clarinet.

1. I bought this to get me started on my new instrument. I play guitar but am troubled by the weight. Still wanting to play music, I opted for the clarinet. This book and its dvd/cd helps make the process of learning easy and fun. The lessons are paced well and new notes are introduced progressively and sequentially. A great starter book for amatuers or beginners that can be used to get anyone well on their way. I recommend it fully.

4 comments about Art of Clarinet Playing (Art of).

1. This book has been an indispensible aid in learning to play the clarinet. Not only does it answer a myriad questions I had as a beginner, but it gives detailed advice on infrequently documented procedures. For example, there are chapters on the mouthpiece, reed, clarinet, embouchure, relaxation, breathing and support, voicing the tone, tonguiing, fingers, tone quality, intonation, high-register playing, technique, resistance, rhythm, legato, and phrasing. I haven't found any other book that covers half of the subjects. Much less with the lucidity and detail of Mr. Stein. I highly recommend this book.



2. This book is a must for both amateurs and professionals. The book has many solutions to common and uncommon problems, as well as detailed instructions. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.



3. Light print on all pages pages fades into almost unreadably light in a few pages. The print quality of this booklet detracts from the content of this book. If you want some good information about clarinets, but don't mind straining your eyes with an inferior quality publication, this would be for you.



4. It's easy to play a clarinet poorly. Plenty of people do just that. They learn how to play the clarinet in order to be in their high school bands, and they don't learn it all that well.
   
   That's why there is a need for this book, which teaches the basics really well and explains how to avoid many of the more fundamental errors made by those who are learning to control this marvellous instrument.
   
   Even if you are a young clarinetist, it isn't too early to read this book. And if you want to learn the fundamentals of how to play the clarinet, this is the place to start.
   
   One more suggestion: don't stop with this book. Try some of the clarinet music the author suggests. And I'd also recommend Brymer's book "Clarinet," for some useful but more advanced material on clarinet acoustics.

No comments about Amsco Clarinet Fingering Chart (Amsco Fingering Charts) (Amsco Fingering Charts).

2 comments about Play Clarinet Today! Beginner's Pack: Book/CD/DVD Pack.

1. Rather late in life, I decided to learn clarinet. After reviewing all the method books on Amazonm I selected this and it's Level 2. I found the books not for the serious student. There is very little material on scales or arpeggios or on things like using the register key. Mostly the teach you how to play songs. If you don't read music, it gives you lots of material on this. If you do read music (I do) then what is left is not much. The Level 2 is more of the same. The most worthwhile part is the DVD, which shows you how to assemble the instrument, put the reed in, and how to hold it. You also get some visuals on embouchure. I eventually bout Gustave Langenus' 'Complete Method for the Clarinet'. Part one is available from Amazon. It expects you to read music.



2. This is a bad deal. The DVD and the documentation teach one the first four notes of the clarinet, but what about the rest?
   
   DON'T GET SUCKERED INTO THIS BAD DEAL.

2 comments about Celebrated Method for the Clarinet: Complete Edition.

1. This is the ultimate Clarinet Method book. It begins with basic studies and progresses to the more advanced methods. I am both a Clarinetist and a Contrabass Clarinetist, and this book has helped me so much in my studies.



2. Highly qualified instructors and band directors recommended this book to my middle-school aged daughter. She has improved her clarinet playing since practicing this method. It focuses primarily on scales, which is the basis for all music.

1 comments about Guide To Teaching Woodwinds.

1. I was able to use this for my woodwind studies, and at a fraction of the cost!

5 comments about The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing.

1. This book isn't good. It is just about taking apart the clarinet!



2. This book has helped me very much with techniques and embouchure and so much more.I love the section on teaching ...it helps out alot.I think this is a wonderful book and I recomend it.It is like my second bible!



3. I'm a clarinetist myself, and I found this book to be very informative. True that he mentions aspects of playing that I disagree with, or he mentions things my teacher already advocates, but he has a ton of ideas that I would not have thought about otherwise.



4. This is a very informative book. There are tons of tips and information that is simply invaluable. I recommend this to any serious clarinet player to have in their library.



5. Dr. Pino is my professor right now and this book is almost like having a lesson with him. Besides the fact it's full of everything you would have ever wanted to know about the clarinet. Dr. Pino is in my opinion first hand with lessons and second hand with this book THE clarinet guru!!

5 comments about The Power of Positive Thinking.

1. (sigh) I have heard so much good stuff about this book that I literally could not wait till I received it. However nowhere do the ads (that I recognized) do they let you in on the insipid religious bigotry that permeates the book. If you don't believe in god - then forget it! According to the author you've got no hope. In his mind success and religious spirituality cannot be separated and although there are probably some meritorious elements of the book, they are bastardized by the cheap religious recruitment drive endlessly spewing from the pages. As an atheist I couldn't get through half the book without retching. Consequently it went spinning out of my window and hopefully into a bin.
   
   If you are not a fundamentalist Christian who believes in prayer - or you are not easily brainwashed then don't waste your money.



2. I don't mean to deny 100% of what he was trying to say in this book,but it sounds a bit too religious to me. The author seemed to believe Christianity. So I think he wrote his idea of positive thinking based on his religious point of view. Of course, I'm not saying whether or not I'm interested in Jesus Christ. But I'm afraid I can't promise all of Non-Christians accept his idea with no doubt. I know there is no point in dwelling too much on religion, though.
   Anyway, I'm not really sure enough all positive thinkers will agree with his religious idea. I could support what he had written in this book if I were a Christian.



3. This is a very Inspirational book. It's an easy read and will give a much needed attitude ajustment to those who adhere.
   Arrived on time as promised and in good condition.



4. As a book on positive thinking, this is *the* book to read.
   
   However, you don't become successful by positive thinking
   alone. You need negative thinking sometimes. When buying
   a stock, you need to look at the risks. You sometimes need
   creative thinking in your work. You need to think about
   how others will think, feel, and perceive your service or
   product.
   
   Therefore, as a thinking skill book, it only covers one aspect.
   I think the title is appropriate.
   
   I don't consider this a Christian book but a thinking skills book.
   
   Note: I'm referring to the original version. This is the miniature
   version according to other reviews. Amazon got them
   mixed up.



5. This is a cute little book that we keep in the bedroom and just flip through every once in a while! It has some really nice "food for thought" in it. Quick motivation

5 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory, 2nd Edition (The Complete Idiot's Guide).

1. Couldn't recommend this more highly. Easy to understand with concepts that build upon one another in a logical fashion. Very helpful.



2. This is a very thorough approach to ear training, complete with a CD to demonstrate pitch, intervals, etc. Good instruction on chord-building, chord progressions, transposition, and many aspects of composition. Highly recommended.



3. I am 'musician' for some time. I've had some music education, but that was a long time ago, so I have decided to purchase this book and I was overjoyed with simplicity of Mr. Millers writing. Right now I know some stuff that I couldn't figure out before thanks to great exercises and great examples that are in the book. Instantly I've ordered the other book 'The complete idiot's guide to music composition' from the same author and soon as I get it I will write the review for it.



4. Based on the reviews, the first book I bought on this subject was Edly's Music Theory for Practical People. Don't waste your money on that book, or you may very well feel like an idiot due to the incomplete and confusing presentation of music theory. Instead, be intelligent and become well informed on this subject by buying The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory. The subject is presented thoroughly and in a logical manner. Michael Miller is a skilled author and a skilled musician who not only is very knowledgeable about music theory, but knows how to teach it.



5. I'm in 11th grade and have played the piano for 10 years. I've performed at the Lincoln Center in New York City and have accompanied many musicals. Having said that, I realized that I knew everything about music - except the theory behind it. I began looking on the internet for a music theory book and this is the one I found. I was a little hesitant about buying it because some reviews stated that it was for beginners only. I bought this book anyways and yes, the first third of this book is the basics - tempo, dynamics, time and key signature, ect. But this book has so much more (and the beginning section serves as a great reference when you need to know how to count 9/4 time and stuff like that). This book has everything I wanted and more in it from building chords, writing music, following a lead sheet, and directing music. It is a great resource that I think every musician should have sitting on there bookshelf.
   Bravo Mr. Miller

5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. Viktor Frankl has written an powerfull book about his years as a prisoner inside a nazi concentration camp. He worked as a psychologist and wrote on the subject of lifes meaning. The book is a powerfull testament to the will of humans to survive in dire circumstances. The book begins with the train full of prisoners rolling into the camp. At once they are stripped of all their belongings. Beginning with their clothes, and then glasses, jewlery and all other personal belongings. This is the first step in the process of dehumanizing them. So the struggle for these prisoners he writes is very much about struggling to keep the idea of yourself as a subject alive. To keep alive ones feeling of self worth was essential for survival. it was also important he writes to have the feeling that one had a spiritual center where one could retain some freedom even though one was imprisoned. Otherwise he or she will regress to feeling very small and in the end becoming a formless member of the herd, like an animal. Once this was achieved, when the personality and subjectivity had been broken and erased the person could be willed to do almost anything. The spirit only survives he writes, as long as the idea of hope does. That is why in the suffering one has to parodoxically have to try to find some meaning. If one dosent then the organism is in great danger of being annihilated. Only those who where able to somehow retain a sense of hope, that maybe somewhere someone was waiting for them, that someone who loved them was thinking about them, that god,even though it seemed impossible, saw their suffering.



2. I've read this more times than I can count. The autobiographical part of the book is stirring. The details of Logotherapy wear a bit thin after many reads, just because of familiarity.
   
   I don't really relate to the idea of suffering as a life accomplishment - not because I devalue the trials of those who have no other choice, but just because I'm disconnected enough from it that I have trouble relating. I do continue to find the idea that a purpose is imposed on you rather than vice versa intriguing, although again, I'm not sure that I agree.
   
   It's a great book and everyone should at least make a lap of the biography to understand what the Holocaust looked like from an insider, particularly people like myself who have been affected by the death of loved ones.
   
   If you've never read it, it will be the best $7 you've ever spent.



3. In short, it's difficult to complain about life when getting a lesson on it from an Auschwitz survivor. It really puts things into perspective for anyone who feels lost or depressed or worthless or small. It gives depth to "if you can't change your situation, change your attitude."
   
   Frankl hits on surprisingly modern points about depression years before Prozac Nation and the transferring of therapy and medications to the mainstream--the normalization of not feeling normal. And he manages to provide a power-packed message in a tiny book; I found myself taking notes on logotherapy and Frankl's observations. And now I find myself trying to figure out how to apply his theory to my everyday frustrations. It's a good challenge.
   
   Feeling curious about the world, frustrated by your life, or lost? Take a weekend and read this book.
   
   My only gripes are the translation, which was crap in the version I read (but I'm an editor, so I get cranky about things like that) and that Frankl does paint himself as the all-answering, all-curing type who can walk into a room and fix any poor fool who's been suffering for years within minutes. I appreciate a degree of modesty. But I guess he's earned the right to feel righteous.



4. An incredibly powerful, moving account of Frankl's concentration camp experience. His reflections are profound and will bless you deeply. The second half of the book includes an in-depth pyscological exploration that some will not find as digestible; but this is a rich part of the book and well worth the time. Highly recommended.



5. Viktor E. Frankl teaches us that light can be found in each individual struggle to find meaning within - even through the worst pain, suffering and dehumanization; even in the darkest corners of history...
   
   The book is split into two parts: Experiences In A Concentration Camp and Logotherapy In a Nutshell.
   
   Part one is an account of his experiences in the concentration camps (Auschwitz and several others). Frankl gives us a picture of the sequence of three psychological reactions the prisoners experience to the process of imprisonment and freedom. Despite the horrifying circumstances, we begin to see an optimism budding in the sea of bleakness: a unique sense of meaning in some of the prisoners which helps them to cope with the day to day horrors of camp existence - a meaning which holds their spirits up even though their bodies are broken. This part of the book is unbelievably sad, yet the message it carries about the human condition is truly empowering.
   
   In part 2, we are given a brief overview of Frankl's theory of logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy which helps patients find meaning in their lives - no matter what their circumstances.
   
   The wisdom contained herein is so rich that after having only finished it last night, I know that I will be re-reading it for the rest of my life.