5 comments about Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology: A Complete Reference for the Design & Construction of the Steel-String Folk Guitar & the Classical Guitar (Guitar Reference).

1. I just finished spending two weeks building a guitar with William Cumpiano in his shop and I have to say it was a great experience and produced a great guitar, which I believe you can do directly from this book in a similiar way. I love the depth of information here and the care with which it's presented, a direct reflection of the authors' personalities. When working with just the book you need to go slow, be sure you understand exactly what you are doing before you do it, and stay alert to what is going on with your guitar as it evolves. A wonderful book that distills a lifetime of experience and I can say for a fact that the methods described work perfectly.



2. A very good book that covers Acoustic and Classic guitars building in the same book, this is VERY useful and smart.
   You can learn the differences and also to really understand how to make each one of them.
   I gave him 4 stars because I would love to see color images! Not old black and white low quality photos
   Thanks,
   Yaron.



3. This must certainly be the perfect book for anybody interested in the construction of a guitar... - or any stringed instrument, really. The text is obviously written by someone with expert knowledge. I've never read anything as thorough as this. It seems every detail and troublesome process has been covered. The illustrations could be better, though. But it isn't a new book, so I guess we've just grown accostumed to colour photos.
   
   I bought it because I wanted to get started building my own instrument, but now that I have a much better idea of the difficulties I'm facing, I'm not so sure I'll take on the challenge. I could spend the time playing my instrument instead. :-)
   
   But at least, if I do start building, I won't be disappointed if I fail. It isn't easy! Even with my new book close by.
   
   Don't be discouraged. You couldn't ask for a better guide than this. "Courage!!" - as the French say.



4. Excellent book not just for beginning luthiers. An enjoyable read. Discusses not just the technique but also the history and theory. This is a great book to get if you are serious about guitar making. It is not just about putting wood together to make sound, it's about feeling the music as it grows from the wood and strings.



5. I bought this book because I wanted to build my own Flamenco guitar from one of the many preformed and precut kits out on the market. But after reading it I decided not to go for a preformed kit and build it from a basic kit where I do all the work, that is how much information is in this book. Now don't get me wrong this book won't make you a professional luthier overnight, but it will give you a good base and starting point. All you need is the wood.

5 comments about My First Book of Christmas Songs: 20 Favorite Songs in Easy Piano Arrangements.

1. Having purchased this for my kids to use and practice in time for Christmas 2005, I pretested all the music and found it to be a nice starter set of Christmas music for the piano student in their first or second year of training. The arrangements tend to be minimalistic. Caveat: there are at least two obviously wrong notes in The First Nowell and Jingle Bells, so you'd be well advised to correct them once you find them; hopefully they'll fix them by the time a second edition rolls out. Nice features: Each song can be played without turning pages. A charming black-and-white illustration accompanies each song. There's also a list of the songs in order of difficulty for those who want to learn the songs that way.



2. I have never played the piano before this past year and at 56 years of age, it isn't the easiest thing to pick up! However, this book not only let's you play 'like a pro' right off the bat, but the stylings are simple, understandable, and with the number of the finger of each hand attached to each note, one can play with confidence immediately! Lovely and very satisfying. E.



3. Anyone can truly teach themselves how to play the piano with this children's collection of familiar Christmas songs. My husband bought me a keyboard as a graduation gift when I got my Master's degree. He said it was to fill all my free time now that I won't be studying, reading, or writing. Well, this Christmas I played three songs for my family on Christmas Eve. It was so heart-warming. It was a memorable experience for my husband and son as well. This book presents songs that are playable by the novice adult piano player. Thanks for giving us a new Christmas tradition.



4. This is a great book from Dover Publishing. The layout and illustrations are nice, but there is one infamous typo, and frankly, this is a book for more advanced elementary piano students. As a teacher, I've got quite a collection of Christmas music books, and this is definitely not a "first book." If you're looking for more simpler music that's much better geared for younger children, look for the Bastien collection.



5. Truly great instructions, numbering the finger required for both hands, making it easy to learn proper positioning to build skills. It is presented in simple but effective details, and allows learning as well as producing satisfaction with real songs. Recommended for adults learning to play piano for personal pleasure.

5 comments about Classical Music for Dummies.

1. This is a very good entry level book, about classical music.
   It's fun to read and it's written in an easy to understand level.
   I recomend this book for all the people who likes classical music and wants to learn more before moving to more serious books.



2. If you love--or would like to at least understand--classical music, then this is the book to read. It is fun, quick and not so technical or snooty as many books on this subject. In fact, it's not snooty at all. I learned a bunch I had no idea of, reaffirmed things I did know, and corrected several misconceptions. Read this if you are going to be around "high-brow" snooty types and then just smile quietly as they rattle on and on. Little will they know that you "understand the language."



3. You have to be careful with the Dummies series. Some authors use humor with discretion, others, as in this case, lard on so much humor that it gets in the way of learning and turns what should be a pleasure into an ordeal of extracting the useful information from the attempt at clever wise-cracks, puns and general satire.
   
   Yes, there is information here if you are willing to work to get it, but a good 50% of the text is gratuitous laughs. There are other books, such as "The Classical Music Experience" by Jacobson, that treat the reader as someone intelligent who seeks to know rather than to be entertained.
   
   The best advice is to go to the library and look in the music appreciation section. You'll find many superior alternatives to this book.



4. My husband had never been exposed to classical music and when we got married, he wanted to be able to carry on a conversation with the rest of my family. He has loved this book and it has really taught him a lot about classical music.



5. This book is incredibly well written. It was totally absorbing, entertaining and informative. By the time I finished it, I felt like I had earned a degree in classical music appreciation and another in music theory.

4 comments about Chopin - Complete Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes: 26 Preludes, 21 Nocturnes, 19 Waltzes for Piano (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics).

1. This book is an excellent value with offerings suitable for the intermediate to advanced player. A wonderful opportunity to add these selections to your music library. The book itself is about 245 pages it stays open easily on my music stand. The pages are large and printing is dark.



2. Carefully transcripted and correctly analysed in both tonal and expression matters this sheet music Chopin collection covers the needs of both the experienced and the amateurs pianists.



3. This is an excellent book from Schirmer's Chopin collection "Complete ...", in this case "... Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes". Really amazing collection of Chopin's master pieces. This book worths every cent you invest in it.



4. i've never thought getting this would be beneficial since there are tons of free resource on the net, but i was wrong. better arrangement, more detail, it's just better for learning and playing. again i'm an beginner, but i like this book so much. chopin all the way!

5 comments about 24 Italian Songs and Arias - Medium High Voice (Book/CD): Medium High Voice - Book/CD.

1. I personally do not like any of John Glen Paton's writings, so I probably will not buy his book even if it does contain translations. This book however is great, but I would suggest that the teacher and student focus on building vocal technique through progressive vocal exercises and even some Vaccai before attempting the songs in this book. This is not a book I would recommend for the early beginner, but I do feel that all should have it in their music library. An addition book that I like even more is from Dover called "Classic Italian Songs for Medium Voice". There are a couple of songs in that book that are in an entirely different key than either of the Schirmer editions and which I prefer. Of course, these are all just my opinions, but I hope they may help someone.



2. Great book, becuase of great songs! A must have for beginner to intermediate classical vocalists



3. I love the fact that this music anthology now comes with a CD for practicing purposes. It makes it fun to rehearse.



4. A great introduction to the vast body of Italian repertoire. Some of the tempos on the accompaniment CD are a little fast (perhaps just my taste). This is a book you will go back to again and again; the material is appropriate for church, weddings, recitals, etc. A great learning tool.



5. This was my first book given to me as a voice student when I was 11 years old. I have since 26 years later both sung and taught out of this book regularly. I can't imagine my music library without it. These are great classical songs for any novice and continue to be a great reference as warm up arias for the more advanced singer.
   
   Check out: Vocalize!

5 comments about Solo Guitar Playing/Book 1 with CD (Classical Guitar).

1. Prior to Mr Noad's passing, there had been various updates with each revision. The content of this book is superb. The exercises are well thought out. The only true negatives of this book in my opinion are First: It needs a spiral bound edition. The book is almost impossible to put on a music stand comfortably without bending it back so that it lies flat. The copy I have was so damaged from doing this that the pages began falling out. This led me to remove all the pages, punch holes in them and replace them in a binder which allows easy page turning. Many others have noticed the same issue in some of the reviews, but the publisher still has not remedied this.
   
   Second negative is the CD. Again, the content is excellent, but there is no listing of the CD contents in the book anywhere. A simple CD Icon next to the work outlined in the book would be appropriate.
   
   I agree with many of the reviews. The book gradually moves the guitarist through exercises which move from position 1 on the fretboard through Position 2.



2. this book was used in my college classical guitar music class, and once you learn to read the music, this has great songs, most of them sound more renaissance but Romaza/romace is in the book which is a famous classical song, the cd really helps you when you start reading the notes.



3. I bought the book with hopes I could learn to play solo guitar without reference to notes and conventional music notation. However, this book, although very instructive and thorough (and fast) in its design, still relies on the reader's understanding of proper music notation.
   I hate notes. I started playing guitar by the ear only and still play complicated chords by the ear. I wanted to see some important techniques, not exercises, of playing solo.
   The good thing though is that it comes with a CD to accompany some 40 exercises in the book.
   If you are keen on notes and promise to sit and train 2 hours a day, you will play solo guitar freely after one year with this book. If you are like me and like to improvise on the guitar without any proper musical education this book will be too boring.
   In either case, the key to playing guitar is practice anyway! So no matter what you play, spending some time with the guitar every day will yield the fruits sooner or later, with or without any book.



4. I stumbled onto this book as a teenager trying to teach myself to play the guitar. I found it both easy to understand and rewarding. Eventually I went on to minor in jazz guitar in college and spent several years as a union musician. A few years ago I returned to this book (I finally replaced my old copy with a new version) when I wanted to venture into classical guitar. Almost thirty years later I found it equally as captivating and rewarding as it was in my first encounter.
   
   Recently I decided to learn to play the English concertina, but found that there were no quality tutorials readily available, so I turned, once again, to Mr. Noad. The exercises presented in the book have been very helpful and have allowed me to feel an increasing sense of aptitude on the concertina as I step through the lessons!
   
   Solo Guitar Playing is built on a clear, accessible methodology and a well-paced progressive learning system that stands the test of time! If you could only have one guitar instruction book, this would be the one to consider.



5. This book is great if you have a teacher who is helping you. If you are trying to go through this book by yourself you will probably fail and become frustrated with the guitar. I do not recommend you use this book by yourself if you are starting out. Otherwise I love this book. I have a good instructor and I am learning alot. The book does not have tabs so you will be forced to read music (which is good) but harder. Buy the book with the CD so you can hear how the songs are played. I would have liked to see him include a DVD so that every musical section can be heard by the student, this is especially helpful to know if you are playing each section correctly and for the student who is trying to learn on their own.

5 comments about My First Book of Classical Music: 29 Themes by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Other Great Composers in Easy Piano Arrangements.

1. The book arrived in perfect condition. I am anxious to have my granddaughter try it out. It is one of her upcoming birthday presents.
   Thank you.



2. Even the right hand only player, can enjoy classics from these simple arrangements. The left hand is coming along with practice. This book makes learning the classics less intimidating. I would pay more for a spiral bound version.



3. I bought this book for my beginning piano students but am not thrilled with the arrangements. Keep looking.



4. It is excellent for melody but many of the songs are in the wrong key. Taht is the only reason for 4 stars. I will by it again.



5. When I bought "My First Book of Classical Music..." I was and still am amazed by how great this piano book has turned out to be. It has 29 themes by the true masters of Classical music. The songs are beginner level but the author Bergerac has to be commended for his great work to these classical piano songs !!! in bringing out the very best in each song. You will be playing each page from start to finish and loving each classical piece of music. I can't recommend this book enough - 5 stars *****

5 comments about Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!.

1. We bought this book (with accompanying CD) as a self-contained music course for our homeschooled son (10). Although he had no prior interest in orchestra music, he is reading along together with Mom in the book and listening to an excerpt of orchestra music once a week. The first part of the book has interesting tidbits on musical eras of orchestra music, with biographical overviews of some of the major conductors of each era. The second part of the book contains drawings and descriptions of various orchestra instruments. After a composer or instrument is discussed, the book then refers you to listen to a track on the CD that illustrates the composer's work or the instrument's sound. It's surprisingly difficult to find a good self-contained program for teaching music to children. This book and CD worked well for us.



2. "Santa" brought this book for our 4 year old. She loves it! It is layed out in a way that we can read just portions of each page without her getting overwhelmed. It is definitely a book she can grow with. Because a mom has to brag: My daughter can now easily name each instrument and knows which "family" it belongs. She laughs hysterically over Beethoven's picture, knows Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake and the Nutcracker (the sweetest thing is hearing a 4 year old rattle of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi!) etc. Highly recommended!



3. I was looking for resources to help make teaching about classical music and composers to primary grade children more entertaining and I found what I needed all wrapped up in this book and CD combination.
   
   Part I of the book concerns composers and is separated into the periods in which they composed, ie., Baroque, etc., with a brief description of art, architecture and feeling of the period. The composers covered for all periods are Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein.
   
   Part II of the book is about the instruments of the orchestra. Again, this is further broken down into the different sections of the orchestra such as strings, woodwinds, etc. Then within each of those sections a feature on the individual instruments.
   
   The accompanying CD has brief examples of the compositions introduced in the composers section and for each instrument. It really helps the kids hear what they've been discussing.
   
   One of the best things about this book are the illustrations. They are colorful and entertaining. Sometimes there are humorous illustrations such as a drawing of the ideal Baroque instrumentalist needing 2 right hands, 3 left hands, and 3 eyes which really had my 3rd grade kids in giggles after hearing the intricacies of "Spring" by Vivaldi. There are also entertaining illustrations showing how an instrument produces its sound and they are mixed with photographs of the instrument itself. I highly recommend this book for music teachers to use as a reference and for parents who have children interested in learning an instrument.



4. I purchased this book in preparation for teaching a group of homeschooled students (ages 7-14) a short course in music appreciation. It was a terrific resource for them. The text was brief but engaging; the cartoons were entertaining; and the photography was so eyecatching. It covered the musical periods, with information on several representative composers. Then each of the orchestra sections was covered, with a helpful CD included to hear snips from pieces that featured the instruments. The students all learned quite a bit from this book. I recommend it highly.



5. Excellent tool for teaching your children about the Orchestra. The CD that comes with it is great.

5 comments about The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.

1. I have read to chapter 5 so far. I will continue to read because it is a good story and I want to know what happens. I have an intense interest in both music and in the workings of the human mind.



2. I found the book to be inspiring from a number of points of view. Anyone concerned about the plight of the homeless or working in mental health or human services could find the book well worth reading. The reader who is musically inclined or a lover of music will find it equally meaningful. What is has to say about those who contributed to the cause is inspiring, from any vantage point. A real boost if one's faith in humanity is tested in our times.



3. The Soloist by Steve Lopez was such an excellent read. I related to the music side because I am a pianist and the mental illness side. I've never had Schizophrenia, but when feeling down I know how revitalizing music is. This was a warm, touching story that pulls you in and makes you care about Mr. Nathaniel Ayers. I could feel and understand his love for the music. I would like to know how he's doing and what became of him. I have never felt that way after reading a story. The story just touches the humanity in me and I think in everyone who reads it.



4. Steve Lopez writes an eloquent, very personal story of a homeless, mentally ill man with a brilliant, talented past. It is totally by chance that Lopez meets Nathaniel Ayers along Skid Row in downtown LA. Captivated by the music Nathaniel plays on a beat-up violin that is missing two essential strings, Lopez steps over the threshold into a world very unlike his own.
   As a reporter, Lopez's style is rich, tactile and complete. We follow Nathaniel's trail of breadcrumbs from humble beginnings in Cleveland to Julliard to the tunnel in LA where he sleeps.
   Lopez's visually evocative language creates a spell that shows us how the mentally ill are marginalized and along with him, we ride the magic carpet of great hopes for recovery and change and then plummet into the depths of Nathaniel's delusional brain chemical mania.
   All the while, Lopez allows us to experience his personal emotional struggle of managing a reporter's tettering job, a wife, a two year old daughter and his commitment to helping Nathaniel, once a musical prodigy, now brought down by schizophrenia.
   Poignant and touching, this book is a true story of people so real, you will wake from the page with music in your ears and in your heart.



5. Great story line. Towards the end, I began to read slower, then pick the book down for a few days, because I did not the story to end. I think this fall around October, November the movies based off this book is scheduled to come out, Starring Jamie Fox. Might not be a bad idae to pick this box up and read it before the movie comes.

5 comments about The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.

1. I started reading the hardcover version, then decided to get the audio version. While the actual content seems quite engaging, the volume of the MP3 files is way too low. Upping the volume on my mp3 player introduces so much background hiss it's distracting (and I need not push the volume up for other content I listen, be it speech or music).
   
   Very disappointing.



2. What ever happened to composers who were/are women in the 20th century? Like the reviewer with whom I agree that Ralph Vaughan Williams music is sorely underated, so I believe the music of women is also. What about those brave ladies who, without much encouragement did it anyway? That includes Cecile Chaminade, Lili Boulanger, Libby Larsen, Miriam Gideon, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Thea Musgrave, Alma Mahler, Margaret Bonds, Louise Viardot, Amy Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach), and scores of others whose names are not represented? I do feel this book has much good information, but am able to give it only three stars, due to the omissions.



3. Famously (well, sort of famously, in small, self-regarding circles), Barnett Newman once claimed that 'our argument [is] with Michaelangelo'. Almost equally famously, Robert Hughes, standing in front of Newman's 'Stations of the Cross' retorted to camera 'Sorry, Barney, you lost'. The attitude was clearly in the air, because Ross quotes John Cage as saying, at around the same time, that 'Beethoven was wrong'. He even uses the phrase as a chapter title, but I can't imagine him following up with Hughes' putdown.
   
   The problem is that, in the end, Ross takes the stuff he writes about too seriously. But, lets face it, 'classical' music, post Schoenberg and Stravinsky, has, for the most part, withered from a world historical, into a niche activity. The most it has aspired to, the most it probably can aspire to, at least when not chasing after the bourgoisie with a chain-saw, is intelligent prettiness, but this is not something that Ross is willing to admit, and without that basic perspective, the whole thing is a bit overblown.
   
   There are good bits: Ross's response to Webern's piano variations is almost word-for-word identical to mine, but even then, on the whole, I find his critical idiom bombastic, esp given the status of the material, and I do think that a general culling of darlings should have been enforced, if necessary, by a friendly editor: sentences like 'In twentieth century music, through all the darkness, guilt, misery, and oblivion, the rain of beauty never ended' do not make my day better.
   
   One curious thing I noted is how so many of the composers who feature are painted in negative terms, as either politically naive (Copland, etc.), nasty (Boulez - Ross does not like Boulez, and who can blame him) or plain evil, Webern. Adrien Leverkühn is invoked a lot. I wasn't sure what to make of this.
   
   Another curious thing is that there are no transciptions of actual music: Ross does everything with joined up writing. It seems that actual music in a popular book about music is today about as welcome as actual written down equations in a popular book about physics. For some reason, I find this slightly dispiriting.
   
   Finally, I should declare a personal connection to all this stuff: John Cage changed my life. The ultimate cause of my meeting and marrying my wife was a Cage concert (in Saarbrucken, where I lived at the time, which was a very ambitious sort of place: one memorable year, the local opera house - a gift from Adolf Hitler personally - had Wozzeck, Lulu and a magnificent production of Moses and Aaron, all in one season). The Cage concert was memorable fun, but it did did nothing more than confirm Cage's location in the pantheon somewhere below Vivaldi. I don't mean that negatively, but relative to Beethoven? Sorry John, you lost.



4. Alex Ross' chronicle of Western music in the 20th century is just about as far from most histories of music as can be imagined. In most conventional histories composers and their work break into discrete, hermetically sealed capsules of time and place. One could easily believe that the great composers of Western art music worked in artistic isolation, creating their masterpieces without contact with each other or their surroundings. Of course an occasional friendship or student/teacher relationship might have existed and even been important, but that's about all.
   
   Ross from the outset is determined to shatter walls and establish connections, opening with Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss strolling together the night of the premiere of the latter's scandalous opera, Salome, an event at which Schoenberg, Puccini and maybe even Adolf Hitler were present. This sets the tone for the entire book, which sweeps past hitherto familiar events in music history, such as the riotous premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, while shining fresh beams of revelation on them. The core of "The Rest is Noise" consists of three chapters that examine music in three nations during particularly shattering periods of upheaval: Stalin's Russia, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal America, and Hitler's Germany. Each centers around a major composer, Shostakovich, Copland and Strauss respectively, examining these artists and the frequently tortuous relationships they had with their contemporary governments and politics in minute detail. I plan to read and re-read these and other chapters, as it is almost impossible to digest all of the information presented at one sitting. It will be easy to do so, since Ross has a knack for finding arresting images and anecdotes that stick in the reader's mind: Schoenberg and Stravinsky knocking about in Beverly Hills, thinking about writing film music; Pierre Boulez railing against his former friend John Cage; and perhaps loopiest of all, the quintessential serialist Milton Babbitt trying his hand at writing a Broadway musical.
   
   It would be beyond the grasp of any author to treat everything he or she examines with equal depth and skill, and not all of Ross's writing is revelatory. His glance at Debussy, for example, produces no new insights, and while I may be prejudiced, I don't think Jan Sibelius merits the loving, detailed chapter he gets, as enthralling as the actual writing may be. Nevertheless, I don't recall another book about music, and I've read many, that brought both music and the people who created it to such vivid, immediate life. This one will stay on a shelf where I can easily reach it for a long time to come.



5. The music of the twentieth century remains an almost undiscovered but volatile treasure. Too often the only classical music people are aware of are works composed in the long bourgeois century - the 1800's - and earlier. But it is only in the twentieth century when music comes face to face with itself in a confrontation that sparks revolution and counter-revolution all at once.
   
   I hope that Alex Ross' book "The Rest Is Noise" can stir many readers into setting out on a true adventure : the discovery of Schoenberg and all of the other major composers of that fractious period. It is a true adventure because listening to this music puts the soul on the chopping block. There are perils here as well as riches that will haunt one.