5 comments about Easy Piano Classics : 97 Pieces for Early and Intermediate Players.

1. As a music student, it is hard to find cheap, good quality collections, but this one is excellent. Instead of being printed on harsh, white paper, the music is printed on a softer more ivory colored paper. Makes those late nights practicing a little easier on the eyes! Great book, lots of variety!



2. As advertised this book has ninety-seven classic compositions from esteemed composers. Included are several selections from Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and many other well known piano masters. There are really no pieces for very early beginners though perhaps 25% of the collection could be played fairly comfortably by a student who has mastered book two in most piano teaching series. The other 75% is definitely for an intermediate to advanced student and as another reviewer noted there are no guides for fingering and there are also no or few markings for pedalings or dynamics. The editor states in a note this is an asset because it makes for a "cleaner" page but again perhaps not the best format for a beginning student. A glossary of musical terms is included as well as dates of birth and death for each composer.



3. I play piano and the pieces in this book are scaled down from the originals, but they are not easy for early players. I wouldn't recommend for this type of player. I bought it for my daughter, and she found it very frustrating. So it's on the shelf for now. The preface of the book even states that "Early Players" in the title was probably a stretch. For intermediate players, it's fine and probably just the challenge that they need.



4. We recently purchased an 88-key digital piano and I am ecstatic to have a "piano" in the house again. I took 7 years of piano, along with violin, as a child, then stopped it in favor of only violin. With our new purchase, I was looking for a book which had pieces I'd learned then, and new ones, in the pure forms(i.e., not dumbed down versions of classics). This fits the bill admirably, and I've been happily practicing again, re-learning old favorites like Fur Elise, and learning new ones. If you have a moderate ease of playing, and can figure out and write in your own fingerings, this book is for you.



5. I would give this book 5 stars, because I LOVE it, but I am aware that the title "Easy" may be misleading to the sorts of beginners that buy other books named "Easy".
   To really enjoy this book, you need a certain level of knowledge in musical theory, e.g. understanding the various different symbols for the trills and also a solid rhythm to cope with timing when, e.g. triplets are used in one hand against 2 quavers in the other.
   Also, it makes a difference if you are familiar with some of these pieces - they are very famous and well-known to anyone who listens to classical music, but perhaps not to someone who only listens to more modern music.
   I played the piano for 10 years, to performance standard, but then gave it up for 12 years and I'm only just playing again now, very rustily! This book is perfect for me, to give me some easy music to relearn this versatile instrument. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves classical music but is at a standard where they are looking for the easier pieces in this genre.

2 comments about Alfred's Basic Guitar Method- Book 1 (With CD) (Alfred's Basic Guitar Library).

1. I don't have any natural talent in music. I've tried to learn to read for years, but the books I found did not suit my needs. Authors would just assume you'd understand or that you had a teacher to turn to for more. And then I found Alfred's Basic Guitar Method. YOU DON'T NEED A TEACHER with this book. I can't believe I'm actually learning to read! Even without a CD, it would be the greatest book. The CD is just extra help. Thanks, Morty and Ron, whoever you are, I am sending you a hug big time.



2. This book doesn't stand out from the many others like it, but our daughter's music teacher recommended it to us. She seems to be happy with it. No issues. Just fine.

3 comments about Piano 101 : Book 1.

1. I found this a great book to start learning piano. My college class uses this book and It is definately a great help.



2. If you have never played piano, you can start with this book. It will take you from finger numbering to types of notes, through A/B/C/D/E/F/Gs, and a selection of known songs.



3. This book explains everything really well and has some great practice songs in it. My only complaint would be that it's a little too easy - I had taken a little piano before and I could pretty much play everything in the book with some practice. If you are just starting out though, and have never played before, it's a great resource. Highly recomended!

No comments about Million Dollar Les Paul: In Search Of The Most Valuable Guitar In The World.

5 comments about Library Of Piano Classics 2 (Library of Series).

1. The best thing about this book is the variety. There are so many songs included in this book and several different levels of difficulty. This is by no means a beginner book, but there are songs that will challenge you and songs that will please you.



2. I really love this book. I have found that the spiral binding is great for beginners. It opens flat and turns easily, so when I am looking for a new book to add to my collection, I am immediately drawn to yours and as in the past, this is a wonderful collection. I am enjoying learning the music of the masters. Thank you for your talent of creating such a combination of pieces that make learning much easier and yet will be so gareatly appreciated by the expert for years to come.



3. I used to be an early advanced player when I was a teen but lost interest and stopped playing altogether. Now some 15 odd years later I'm trying to pick it up again, and even though I'm probably back down to intermediate level I'm just glad I didn't lose it all. This is a great big book with a nice selection of about 100 songs, over 300 pages. I love the plastic coil binding, the book STAYS open! A definite gem to add to your collection.



4. This is an amazing book. I bought it for my niece and she loves it. This is the third piano book I have purchased from Amy Appleby and Peter Pickow and will buy many more i am sure.



5. A wonderful assortment of pieces accompanied by wonderfully arranged interpretations. The songs in here continue the Piano Classics that everyone should know and provides a nice mix of easy-as-pie to finger-bleeding arrangements.
   
   Playing from this book will not only exercise your mind and help cultivate your understanding of the art, but will also provide you with wonderful presentation pieces.

3 comments about Music for Little Mozarts: A Piano Course to Bring Out the Music in Every Young Child (Music for Little Mozarts).

1. I like it so much that I like to play it again. My favourite song in this book is 'Haydn's Symphony'.
   I like it so much it's my music book ofcourse. I like all the animals best because they learn me music so much. I can't even kiss them because they are in my music book. Mummy might get me the animals for christmas!



2. This is a great 'teach it to your child yourself' book even if you're not a pianist. As a piano teacher, I recommend it to parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents who want to expose a young child to playing the piano or keyboard. The story of Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear makes the lessons even more interesting - keeps the student's attention longer.



3. I bought this book and also the workbook and discovery book for my niece who is four years old. I am a piano teacher, and normally tell parents to wait until their child is at least in kindergarden before beggining piano lessons, but my sister-in-law begged me to start her daughter earlier. I was already teaching her older sister, so I thought I would give this mehtod a try. The lessons proceed very slowly, and are very basic, perfect for a four year old with a short attention span. The lesson book moves at a slow pace introducing basic concepts such as steady beat, higher/lower, finger numbers, quarter note rhythms and rests through whole notes and rests, measuers, times signatures, groupings of black keys, and white notes one at a time. There are duet parts for the teacher to play with every student lesson. Each lesson begins with a continuation of a story begun on page one. One concept is introduced at a time. There are coloring activities in the lesson book as well as in the workbook to reinforce the concepts. The discovery book has songs for the teacher to play, while the student performs movements which reinforce concepts from the lesson. The book moves a slow pace while keeping the student interested and learning. I am very impressed with this method and have ordered level 2 for my neice who is about to complete level 1.

5 comments about Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster: The Story of the World's First Solidbody Electric Guitar.

1. I bought this book first, before coming across Richard Smith's more definitive history of the Fender Story in "Fender The Sound Heard Round the World".
   
   This Six Decades of Telecaster is mostly a picture book and light on the Tele story. It does contain a decent Reference Section, which gives a year by year breakdown of the unique features of the Telecaster.
   
   If you want the Fender Story, get the Richard Smith book. Additionally, I purchased the Fender: The Inside Story book, but it is not an "impartial" telling of the story.



2. Fantastic book for Fender Telecaster users. This book takes you from the beginning to the present History of Leo Fender and his line of Guitars.
   Highly recommended.



3. First the disclaimer: I do not own a Telecaster nor do I even play guitar. I happen to think that a Telecaster is one of the most beautiful man made objects there is, so I got this book. I enjoyed reading the story of how the guitar was developed and how it evolved. Not being an expert on these matters, I an not comment on any of the technical aspects of Mr. Bacon's work. If you have any fondness for Fender Telecasters or want to learn about a part of rock, pop, and country history, you need this book.



4. This is a great starter at a reasonable price for someone wanting to know more about the world's first mass produced solid body guitar. The Telecaster sparked a revolution and is just as popular today as it was 57 years ago. Not too shabby



5. I can really recommend this book . You'll learn a lot about this famous Fender guitar . Also very valuable if You , like me are planning to build Your own tele from parts and want to end up with a special model.

3 comments about Piano Essentials: Scales, Chords, Arpeggios, and Cadences for the Contemporary Pianist (Book & CD).

1. I got this book about 3 weeks ago and already its improved my skills in a number of areas. Everything is organized in such a way that you just automatically progress. The incluion of every scale with chords gives you a good warm-up for every practice.
   The really cool thing about this book is it doesn't overwhelm you with theory, but has just enough for you to understand (or remember if you forgot)the basics. I feel that even after you advance you could still use this book as a review and a warm-up. Great for beginners and those of us wanting a a good basis for review or practice. The only thing I wish they would've thought of was to use a ring binding instead of regular book. That way you can lay the book out on the music stand better.



2. I've been playing scales, chords, arpeggios and cadences on the piano for 55 years. I've digested countless music theory texts and workbooks in those years.
   
   No one puts it all together as well as Ross Ramsay. His text is clear, logical and wonderful, wonderful, from the first definition of a scale to the advanced exercises at the end. This book is a great find and a great help for any pianist.
   
   Plus, when you work your way to page 81, you learn that you have mastered the major and minor scales that are part of the Berklee College of Music Piano Department requirements. You'll play as well as Diana Krall! This is a real life book. Treat yourself.
   D. Strong



3. Like many aspiring musicians, I'd heard a lot about Berklee, so when I decided to try to teach myself piano, this is one of the books I turned to. Although I haven't gotten that far into it yet, I'm finding it pretty useful. The theory review and accompanying exercises are good for getting the musical juices flowing, and the clear text is concise and vaguely satisfying (keep reading). I don't know that this book is helping me to play any better (yet), but I like the feeling of security it provides me by filling in gaps in my musical knowledge. This book includes a CD that is very helpful in learning the passages and seeing where you are going next. Throughout the book, I get the feeling that they are setting up an instructor to give the student a little more information and "inspiration", as though they are telling you what the juicy kernel of piano knowledge is without actually letting you touch it. Hopefully, this feeling will go away when I get to the later lessons. I would say this book is useful for the serious self-instructing student, but would probably serve a beginning pianist with a regular instructor even better. But in an area where quality instruction manuals are sparse and individual needs vary so widely, I think this book has a good amount of utility.

3 comments about Mel Bay's You Can Teach Yourself Accordion.

1. I haven't played the accordion in fifty years and I was looking for something as a refresher. This book was just what I was looking for, it reviewed what I had forgotten and I even learned things that I had never learned in the first place. Nice selection of songs too, not a bunch of corny tunes that you never heard of. It comes with a CD and you can hear what you are expected to sound like after a little practice. I have several books on the accordion and most of them are useless but this is a real worthwhile purchase.



2. I bought this book when I bought a new accordion and so far it has been great. I've never played the accordion before, nor do I know anything about it, but this book has been fantastic about explaining everything.
   A good buy for beginners.



3. I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument- and this book has been a great help in my beginning to play one (having washed out on guitar and piano)...in fact, it makes it very easy to play songs very fast! Thanks for the great book- there is not that much accordian music written for beginners out there...

5 comments about Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson.

1. This book is poignant, tender and funny. The author, a piano teacher, describes the wonderful relationships she has built with her students, how they progress and what she learns from them. The book also harks back to the author's own piano teachers, and finally (and most movingly) to her last piano teacher, who was her husband. Anyone would love this book, whether they have any piano experience or not. It is really about the dimensions of personal growth and how they are enhanced by a student-teacher experience, no matter what realm that relationship takes place in. And it's about the something unusual in our world today: a slow, gradual process.



2. I am fifty-one and about to start my fifth year of piano lessons. I'm slogging in the early - middle intermediate stage. I am also the father of there teenage girls who have studied piano five years, eight years and ten years.
   This book covers the entire child (or new adult, like me) piano training process from beginning, age seven, to graduating high school, it lays out all the steps.
   So I am highly recommending this book to parents, who are trying to figure out where the lessons are going and where they will lead, and to intermediate adult students, like me, who are trying to figure out how one becomes an advanced student. The advanced students "are in this because of an attraction to the act of playing that is compelling, deep and inarguable." The "difficult passages must be broken down into their smallest part and played over and over and over." So, for me there is no more skimming and going off for a ham sandwich (playing with my laptop) when my Scarlatti is hard.
   Sadly, maybe, for parents this desire to master the piano "comes entirely from within". I am not sure my older daughters will ever be advanced, they don't "feel an internal necessity to play".
   The book was written to adults (I knew every Beatles song and can't imagine playing a duet of American Pie, front to back), and while I think teenage students would certainly sympathize with the Recital chapter, most of the reflections on learning would probably be lost on them.
   Thank you Tricia Tunstall for sharing your life and explaining the process to us, and for telling me to work harder.



3. As one of Tricia's former piano students and friends, I was shocked and awed by how fantastic her book is. I always knew she was a special person with talent oozing from her fingertips when it came to both music and literature but this book blew me away. You don't have to have any knowledge of the piano or any interest in music at all to enjoy this wonderful book. Everyone should read it, I guarantee you'll enjoy it as much as I did!
   -M.A.



4. I devoured this book on my Kindle because I was so hungry to know how piano students learn. I recently took up piano so that I can help my young daughter with her lesson/homework. This book inspires me to be more patient with my daughter and myself in my own endeavor to learn the piano as an adult. The only regret I have about this book is that it seems rather short, and it didn't take much time to finish reading it.



5. I only skimmed this book (didn't want to "crack" the binding!), as I bought it as a gift for my son's piano teacher. She just wrote me a thank you note and called the book "amazing." She's a very dedicated teacher, loves the piano and her students, and this book really touched her. (The little bit I read was lovely.) I would highly recommend this book as a gift for a piano teacher, but I'm sure it would be equally welcomed by anyone who loves music or who took music lessons as a child.