3 comments about The Only Basic Piano Instruction Book You'll Ever Need: Learn to Play--from Reading Your First Notes to Constructing Complex Chords.

1. I am new to music and thought this might be "the only basic piano instruction I'll ever need". Maybe I am not musically talented enough, I feel that the book gone far too fast for a beginner - I even have hard time playing the first simple tune. Nevertheless, I must say that the content of the book is really robust and complete, it just that it doesn't suit me. I am better with "Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course" series, and it is a good idea to check that series before you decide



2. I have dabbled in piano here and there and took a beginning class in college. I wanted to continue now that I am older, but didn't want to go through everything all over again. I was very pleased with this book. It did have all the basics, but it was quick enough that you weren't dwelling on them. It gave a great section on the different keys, which is what I am spending my time on now. I thought it was very clear, very straightforward and I enjoyed the exercises in them. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants a summary of basic piano theory or who is committed to studying themselves.



3. This book was not a good choice to learn how to play the piano. It's good reading material...but not good to sit at the piano and try to play

4 comments about R&B Keyboard: The Complete Guide with CD! (Hal Leonard Keyboard Style).

1. R&B has always had a certain appeal to me, maybe it's just because it's something different, but this book breaks it down into an easy to understand format. As a mainly classical piano player, that is all I really feel comfortable playing, even though my listening enjoyments fill a broad spectrum. I have a few of the other books in this series and find them all great! This book includes important information about scales and modes, voicings, chords, inversions, comping, harmony, and much more. It goes through early R&B, Motown soul, Memphis soul, Philly Soul, Funk, Disco, R&B Ballads, Dance/Pop, and even into Neo-Soul. This book covers any generation that you may have grown up in and brings something new to the table for those just starting. The book moves quickly but provides the information that is important for those of us looking to play. It comes with a very handy CD which allows to hear what it's supposed to sound like. I highly recommend this book.



2. I wouldn't recomend this book for those without a solid knowledge of theory or notation but for those who have a moderate knowledge of both shouldn't hesitate to purchase this book. The aurthor breaks down the information into sections starting with the basics such as chord voicings, common R&B chord types, and rythms. The accompnying cd also does a good job of illustrating the concepts aurally and does so with well known artist and songs from the different era's of R&B.
   
   The era's from the 50's until today are covered and the piano arrangments are broken down into rhythm, chord type, and are all notated. Later in the book the aurthor brings everything together and breaks down whole tracks into sections (song structure) all the while explaining the contruction of the song (including other instruments). The cd presents all of these songs in an easy to understand fashion and further fleshes out the descriptions.
   
   Fully recomended for any aspiring musician or composer who wants further knowledge in the genre of R&B.



3. Mark Harrison is one of the best teachers in keyboard style methods, perhaps even the best. His approach is always logical, playable and error free. Above all he explores styles quite deeply. This is far more than most other self-teaching approaches. Most books you get out there are shabby interpretations that are not researched, poorly fingered and don't touch on many aspects of the real thing.
   
   In this book Harrison takes you through a lot of styles and unpacks them so logically that you can see where all the periods or R&B history fit in. Styles such as Memphis Soul and Neo Soul are presented so you understand them.
   
   However, I think in this book Mark Harrison often doesn't go far enough - the book is still basic, even if it is streets ahead of other method books. The style examples of Green Onions and Alicia Keys "Woman's Worth" are too basic. The originals are alive with feeling but the teaching arrangements seem to miss this. Also there isn't a deep enough exploration of each style - is Memphis Soul summarized in a half a dozen examples?
   
   Also the range of the keyboard is limited in the book; perhaps for teaching purposes (I think Mark does this in some other books as well). This leaves me wanting to know more - do all R&B keyboard players always play these simple chord structures in the middle of the piano, or do they use the range and chord voicings in more interesting and expanded ways? I want to get more out of R&B piano and play it like the best.
   
   I found the CD examples to be very dry and bland, although their accuracy is perfect. I would expect a superior rendition of the tracks with a decent recording ambience. After all I am trying to learn to play R&B in the most musical way possible. You need to rock or be tender to do that - it is missing from the CD and I feel that an important part of the teaching is therefore lost.
   
   Other teaching books either present far too difficult and unstructured material and they end up on the bookshelf. Harrison's book and this particular one never have that problem - he really understands popular keyboards, probably better than anyone else. I do recommend this book to intermediate players, but it would be great if Mark added the extra level of keyboard mastery - some advanced techniques and voicing's, and a better CD.



4. Just the first 20 pages make the purchase worthwhile for beginners to playing keyboard for pop, rock or R&B: an easy to understand overview of the scales for solos and fills.

2 comments about Carpenters Anthology.

1. Simply an all-around terrific buy!! The Key is exactly the way Karen Carpenter sings. Sounds absolutely genius on the piano. Includes marvelous songs from their astounding career!! Must buy, and a good deal!!



2. I'm a major league big time fan of Carpenters. This book is fairly comprehensive and all the songs are in the right keys! The arrangements are good. An essential addition to your music collection if you like Carpenters songs.

2 comments about Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP (Piano Transcriptions/Vocal) (Pvg).

1. I was really happy with the book which is in great condition, but it was a waste of money paying for faster shipping - the estimated time wasn't even close! Try adding on another 3 weeks!



2. I was 100% satisfied with the product, i received it faster than i expected and in perfect condition.

1 comments about Teach Yourself to Play Electronic Keyboard (Teach Yourself).

1. I have been trying for a short while and the books steps are great for a real beginner like me.

5 comments about Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization.

1. Stuart Isacoff is a serious pianist and scholar, and his book, Temperament, answers the mysterious questions that those of us who are also serious pianists wish to know and probe. His book is dense with information, but at the same time accessible and clear, so that the pianist who is curious about her instrument and its place in cultural history is enriched with new understanding for the metamorphoses that have produced our modern piano. I am grateful for his impressive research and the deep insights between its covers. Carol Montparker, pianist and author



2. A good superficial read on the historical development of 12 tone equal temperament. For a more in-depth and analytical look at temperament I would recommend Harry Partch's Genesis of a Music.
   A word of warning, this book is available under 2 titles. Temperament - the idea that solved music's greatest riddle, and Temperament - how music became a battleground for the great minds of western civilization. I purchased both assuming that they were companion works, but they are identical.



3. Temperament, by Stuart Isacoff, is almost a great book. It covers a little-known aspect of music history in great depth and with delightful insights and cute 'asides.' In short, it takes a technical subject that is over the heads of most readers and makes it accessible and interesting-- and in the process of course brings it down to a level that the average person can almost understand.
   
   And there's where it fails.
   
   Without audio examples to illustrate the points being made, most of the niceties of the different kinds of scale tuning throughout history are just so much description. Unless you've *heard* the type of tuning known as 'just tuning,' you really can have no idea how strange and sometimes beautiful and sometimes alarming the sounds can be, particularly the effects that familiar harmonies can have when tweaked away from our usual experience in this way. There is a website referred to in the book where you can go and listen to some of these things, but that's just not good enough. The book cries out for an audio CD to be included, with examples tied to specific points in the text, and vice versa. I'm sure the author would have been glad to do it. The publisher goofed.
   
   The other problem in the book is that the author occasionally comes up with a 'fact' which is simply not the case. This is rare, but the fact that it happens at all is cause to wonder about the truth of some of the allegations that he makes. The book isn't scholarly [thank God] and there are no footnotes to use in checking the author's data, but I have a funny feeling that he has played a bit fast and loose with us on some points. No evidence-- just a feeling.
   
   Still-- the book is well worth reading, particularly if you have enough musical background to be able to appreciate some of the author's stories and examples. The tales about politics, philosophy, and personalities gone awry would be fascinating even if the information about music weren't compelling-- which it is.



4. I was quite impressed the first time I read Temperament. How Music became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization by Stuart Isacoff, which is the same book as Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle. I had a the time some theoretical knowledge about temperaments and effects on music playing but I didn't had any chance to experience it until recently.
   
   A friend of mine showed me few months ago a recording called Six Degrees of Tonality. A Well Tempered Piano issued on Gasparo (GSCD-344). I liked so much what I heard that I ordered a second recording available on the same label and called Beethoven In The Temperaments. Historical Tunings on the Modern Concert Grand (GSCD-332). These recordings made by Ed. Foote (see review Not so fast, please., January 2, 2002)are a unique chance to experience other tunings than the widely spread equal temperament.
   
   Returning recently to Isacoff's Temperament after reading L'Histoire de l'Acoustique Musicale by Serge Donval, I realised that the author just wanted to justify historically how and why ET is "THE" temperament that the world has been seeking for over thousand of years.
   
   I invite readers of Temperament to listen to the four Piano Sonatas played on a Steinway D on Beethoven In The Temperaments (two tuned after Prinz and two after Young temperaments) and to compare with any other recordings performed on ET piano.
   
   They will hear how Key Colors used to sound and how triads and chords sound so differently. Listening to the same works on a ET piano make it an uncomfortable experience even if the performer's name is Arrau, Serkin or Pollini.
   
   My wish would be that Mr. Foote and Gasparo come up with more recordings of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt on a period tempered piano.



5. 
   
   
   
   I make a practice of sending books I really enjoy to friends who have similar interests. Ordering up Temperament when it was first favorably reviewed in The Economist, and again as a gift, I saw there were some very negative reviews, which surprised me. Pleasantly, my gift book came in its newer paperback version which includes an Afterword where Isacoff addresses the critics complaints. The quite cranky complainants don't seem to "get it" that he, in this role, is an historian not an advocate of "equal temperament."
   
   The history of slicing and dicing octaves into useful bites for the keyboards of organs, harpsichords and pianos has run 2,589 years from Pythagoras to Isacoff and is still running. 99% of pianos have twelve black and white keys and tuned to equal spacing, so twelve tones seems to be in the lead. Even Pythagoras who understood 3rd and 5th could not find a mix that would come out even. It is of course a compromise, but it is not correct to assume that Isacoff has a European bias for the twelve tone systems and is antagonistic to Chinese and Asian treatments of the issue.
   
   This is a delightful read with the cultural and artistic histories of two millennia intertwined with the struggle for beautiful keyboard related music.
   
   Robert Hansman

2 comments about Great Pianists on Piano Playing: Godowsky, Hofmann, Lhevinne, Paderewski and 24 Other Legendary Performers (Great Pianists: In Their Own Words).

1. If you play the piano with a passion, read this book. It gives many insights into how pianists from the golden age of pianism gave life to music on the keyboard. Hofman, Rubinstein, Paderewski,Sauer, Busoni, Bauer, Godowsky are just some of the greats. You can gauge for yourself how piano playing is expressed in terms of an art and a science. Not just body but mind too. Advice like not over-reliance on the metronome. Use your musical ear. You would have to read the book a couple of times before you find some common threads. They sure are golden threads to spin your music. Enjoy.



2. Accomplished pianists and those aspiring to become one all dream about how wonderful it would have been to study with or to have heard the legendary composers perform their own music. Unfortunately this can only be a dream, however, we do have access to performances given by the greatest virtuosos who indeed worked with their contemporaries. This book, 'Great Pianists On Piano Playing' offers invaluable insight to the thought process used by various artists to make their own performances unique, musically innate and stylistically enhancing such as Teresa Carreno finds great inspiration in Shakespeare, inspiration that was communicated in her interpretations of musical masterpieces. The various interviews with legendary virtuosos offer magnificent findings on how they decide to approach a composition, shape a phrase, choose a tempo, develop touch, how to concentrate and so much more. The bringing together of such pianists as Godowsky, Hofmann, Lhevinne, Paderewski and many others by James Francis Cooke is an ideal source of information and reference for all performers and especially students looking for what lies behind a virtuoso's success such as musical mother in the case of Emil Sauer or behind the notes where magical interpretations are truly created.
   
   Author: Raymond Vacchino M.Mus. A.Mus. L.R.S.M. Licentiate(honorary)

4 comments about Call Me Irresponsible (Vocal/Piano).

1. I have in the past purchased the Piano/Vocal Books for the self titled Michael Buble album, and for the It's Time album, and each book is better than the one before. As a pianist, I am overjoyed to find every small detail of the songs written in the accompaniment, not to mention this book does not do what so many others do and write the melody in the piano part. I wish all Vocal/Piano books were written in this style!



2. The arrangements in this book are excellent. They are definitely not for the beginning pianist, however. The rhythms are challenging, but spot on.
   
   The vocal melodies are not integrated into the piano part, but are shown as an individual vocal part in the book. This means that if you were to play the songs purely instrumentally, you would not have the melody explicitly heard - the performer would have to combine the vocal line above the grand staff himself/herself.
   
   But let's say you're listening to the CD while you play the arrangements in the book. They are practically exact to the pianist on the CD! It's such a joy to play along that it's as though you are accompanying Michael Buble himself!



3. This is an excellent arrangement. Michael Buble sings with a whole jazz band behind him and this music manages to capture the feel of trumpets etc with just the piano.



4. Thank you for your excellent service. Even though I had entered the wrong Zip Code you still mailed it to me correctly and answered all of my inquiries, and that reflects on your customer service. Thanks and I will be shopping with you again. Evan K. Cruse

4 comments about FastTrack Music Instruction - Keyboard, Book 1 (Fasttrack Series).

1. If your looking for an excellent book to help you on your quest to learning how to play your keyboard and read music. Then this is the book for you. It really makes learning a fun part of the proccess. I liked the cd and the way this book was written. I will defintaly buy more fasttrack books in the future.



2. I have to say, given all the choices for keyboard instruction available, I got really lucky in choosing this one! After just 5-6 weeks, I am halfway thru book 1 and they've got me playing loads of songs with 2 hands(something I thought I wouldn't be able to do for awhile!). This book takes a very 'hands-on' approach(this is key!), and includes a CD for you jam along to. The keyboard parts you are intended to play are panned to the right, so that you can hear what they're supposed to sound like, and later pan to the left in case you no longer wish to hear them. I also like the book's laid-back 'take it easy on yourself' attitude, while teaching the reader music theory one piece at a time. Granted, you do start out playing some songs you've probably heard too many times already("skip to my lou", for example), but they are good teaching exercises, and later on the book has you playing material that is more rock, blues, and classical-oriented. I can't wait to start book 2!



3. very easy to understand and follow and encourages a keen interest to learn quickly and accurately



4. I have enjoyed the book very much. For a beginner it is very helpful.

5 comments about Smooth Jazz Piano: Keyboard Style Series (Hal Leonard Keyboard Style).

1. This book includes important information about the differences between various jazz styles and what makes each one unique. It starts off nice and easy talking about the importance of scales and modes in jazz and quickly moves on to the harmonies and voicings that make jazz stand out. It goes through some styles of the great smooth jazz pieces, making rhythms easy to comprehend. It also goes into soloing techniques, which can be scary, but this book makes the ideas make sense. The book moves quickly but provides the information that is important for those of us looking to play. It comes with a very handy CD which allows to hear what it's supposed to sound like. I highly recommend this book.



2. The heart and soul of this book are the great short exercises and extended compositions that are excellently rendered on the included CD. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of this book drip smooth jazz just the way you hear it on the radio. It is very helpful to see this beautiful music written out and to hear it on the CD. Harrison illustrates each new playing technique with a very musical example that is fun to practice. He ties it all together with seven beautiful but practical compositions in the last chapter. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are a bit thin. Harrison moves very quickly through the theory. Playing through the exercises in Mark Harrison's The Pop Piano Book will be really helpful in mastering Smooth Jazz Piano, particularly to master Harrison's upper structure over root chord voicings. For an advanced player, this is a stand alone book. The intermediate player will benefit by playing through the exercises in The Pop Piano Book, before moving on the Smooth Jazz Piano.



3. Before buying this book I have to say: It helps to have some keyboard experience and to know how to read music. Smooth Jazz Piano does a good job of introducing theory, harmony, voicing and melodies (not riffs). You'll get a nice helping hand in soloing or improvising but you'll probably want to get another cd or transcribe to improve in these areas. I HIGHLY recommend this book for the student of contemporary/smooth jazz.



4. If you have some experience with Jazz this book is excellent! It is very logical and methodical in it's lay out and easy to understand. If you go through it step by step you will come out at the end with a much better understanding of how to identify and voice chords for any jazz application.



5. I'm a big fan of Smooth Jazz and I read just about everything on the subject. I bought this book with the view towards developing my very own unique jazz rhythm. I'm not a very accomplished pianist but my husband is a super player. Unfortunately, he is not a big fan of Jazz. So, I just winged my lessons from this book alone and here are my thoughts on the book.
   I thought the book worked very well for me. I easily understood the how to create various rhythms. The CD that came with it was super and an excellent learning tool. I now play my own style of smooth jazz. I'm sure I won't be cutting a CD for a recording studio, but I'm happy. My husband just shakes his head.