2 comments about The New Approach To Uilleann Piping (Bagpipes).

1. Well, simply put, this is the best starter book available...the book by Seamus Ennis, The Master's Touch, is good as well, and has many songs to boot. Both are good intros, but the inclusion of the audio CD with this book by Heather Clarke is a welcome addition. If you are learning from an instructor or on your own, this book will do well for you--but bear in mind these pipes are complex instruments that most people who play love and hate at the same time--they aren't easy, but THEY ARE NOT IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!



2. If you are trying to learn Uilleann Pipes without a tutor buy this book! I purchased a Uilleann practice set and discover the book that came with it was not a great help. This book with the CD included will help you learn the Uilleann pipes. The CD is narrated in a clear voice and uses good English without slang so it can be understood by those who speak American English. The musical instrument played in the lessons are a practice set without drones so you will be able to better compare your notes to theirs. The lesson structure will have you learning finger placement to achieve notes on the chanter and teach you how to read music as well. Note combinations are introduced to you in print and sound to show you how to get from one note to another and then tunes are played in their entirety so you can play along as you learn at you own pace.

No comments about The Low Whistle Book.

3 comments about Guide to Repairing Woodwinds.

1. If you are a keen repairer of woodwind instruments or just a player who wants to save a bit of money,this book is a diffinite buy. There are only three books in existance for this field, the second being Brands band Instrument Repair manual. Both of which are as useful as each other.
   If you work out the cost of having your instrument fixed over a few years, you will automatically see how much you can learn about your intrument and how much you can save.
   I refer to my copy as my bible and i am sure you will with yours in years to come.



2. Bought this mostly for the saxophone section. Provides a good overview of the basic techniques for woodwind maintenance and repair. Uses the clarinet as an example for basic techniques (so don't skip it), then explains specifics for other instruments. Clear and informative, if a little expensive. But it's a specialty book, so that's expected. Recommended.



3. I bought this book to learn how to repair my instruments. This book has a lot of information, but it doesn't teach well. There's plenty of text (273 pgs full of them), but no pictures (i mean there's not enough...it needs more pictures!!!) to complement. I wish there were pictures of the tools so I can visually see through the lengthy text. Most of the visual aids are drawn like 2d cartoon. Don't waste your money like me on buying this book. I wish I can return the book because I don't have the patience to learn instrument repair from this book. I hope this helps your decision for purchasing this book.

4 comments about Lord of the Rings Instrumental Solos: Clarinet (Book & CD).

1. This is a great book for the serious player. I would reccomend it for the player who has been playing the saxophone for minimum 2-3 years. It includes some great songs such as Minas Tirith and Into the West! Overall, its an excellent book!



2. Personally, I have really enjoyed this piano book. The pieces are meant to be accompaniments for instruments such as trumpet or clarinet, but they contain enough of the melody that they can be enjoyed on their own. "Concerning Hobbits" has to be the highlight of this collection. I have been playing piano for four years and am concidered intermediate to late intermediate, and this is exactly my level. If you are not that advanced, you can pick through the melody line written above the music. There are some very neat pictures in this book too. I would reccomend this selection very highly. (I would have given it 4.5 stars, but you can't give half stars.)



3. The best I ever played !! Very easy to play and original the film !!!!



4. This is a wonderful score book for violin with piano accompaniment. Inside there is a removable section with just the violin sheet music and it comes with a cd with a demo and back-up music to play along with. I truly recommend this for anyone who plays violin. I enjoy the Lord of the Rings, but I also feel that the music is beautiful on its own.

1 comments about BEGINNER SAXOPHONE BK/CD/BONUS DVD (Progressive).

1. Not every copy of this book contains bonus DVD. Buyer and seller beware "Watch out for the small print". "Heading Listing" for this title is very misleading. Should contact seller before purchase to confirm inclusion of DVD.

No comments about What Did I Do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers.

1 comments about Amsco Saxophone Fingering Chart (Amsco Fingering Charts).

1. Sorry - I just don't like this finger chart. It's badly designed and not easy to understand. I can guess what 1L, 2L 3L and 4L mean - 1st finger left hand, 2nd finger left hand, etc... But what the hell does 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L and 9L mean? On MY left hand I've got one thumb and four fingers - NOT NINE!!! There's no explanation given. What does 8veK mean? Yes, 8veK... it's used throught the chart - again no explanation.
   
   I'm a beginner - I don't need this - it's too confusing.

1 comments about Tipbook Clarinet: The Best Guide to Your Instrument.

1. This is a very easy to read, and covers the most important aspects on Clarinet themes. A must to read. When is the Editor going to publish the Organ tipbook?

5 comments about Bob Dylan Harmonica.

1. This book can be described quite succinctly as a dissapointment. Speaking as someone who has spent hours searching the internet and various music stores for transcriptions of Bob Dylan's distinctly unique and reckless harmonica playing, I can say that this book fails to deliver what the title implies. The harmonica has always been an integral part of Dylan's musical talent and his less than precise playing style is something that any Dylan fan who plays the harp has always desired to emulate. The title of this book implies that the book contains transcriptions of the harmonica parts heard in many of Dylan's greatest songs. This title is indeed misleading, as is the indication that Bob Dylan is the author of this book. Although Dylan has copyrights to the songs presented in this book, the arrangements actually found in the book are attributed to Stephen Jennings, and are anything but the solos that can be heard on actual Bob Dylan albums.

   While this book does deliver clear and easy to learn harmonica notation, it reduces Dylan songs to simple melodies, ignoring the harmonica solos that characterize many of Dylan's songs. In addition, the book ignores the fact that Dylan's songs were not all written in the key of C and fails to include lyrics. I recommend that any fan of Dylan's unduplicated harp playing who wishes to find transcriptions of his solos and fills bypass this book and look for other titles, such as The Harp Styles of Bob Dylan, by Amy Appleby, which contains complete transcriptions of twelve Dylan classics.

   Even if one only wants to learn to play the melodies of Dylan's songs on the harmonica, I recommend that you by a book containing standard song notation of Dylan's music. You will have a larger collection of songs, and any beginning harmonica instruction book can tell you which notes correspond to which holes, making it easy to learn melodies quickly without the aid of harmonica notation. In short, anyone serious about learning to play the harmonica like Bob Dylan should skip this book and continue the search, and if you have any luck finding a complete collection of transcriptions of Bob Dylan's harp playing, contact me. I'm still searching.




2. This book contains a transcription of Dylan's melodys not his harmonica solos. Besides that the lyrics were not included making even playing the melodys a challange.



3. I realize those of you professional players like to bite down on these beginner books to show off your skills, or whatever it is that you do. But the key to writing a review is to rate something for what it is, not what you wish to make out of it. If you want a professional Dylan harmonica book, they're out there. This book is meant for begginers and I give it five stars as a begginer book. Your showing off is not going to help customers with their product choices.



4. I borrowed the book from a friend thinking I was going to go home and learn some great dylan solos. the truth is it was a little dissappointing. the great thing about dylan and the harp is the rhythm he uses. I think you could pick apart the chords that he plays without the book. But we also cannot expect too much from tab books. the only way to learn some good solos is by the good old fashioned ear, and it really makes you a better harmonica player. The book is very simplistic, if you are a beginner than maybe look into it, but I have faith that you could jsut as easily go step by step and pick apart the melodies of bob dylan.



5. If when searching for this book you typed "Bob Dylan" before you typed "harmonica", this is not the book for you.
   
   It isn't the quality of the book that is at issue -- that seems fine. It's clearly the choices that were made -- most notably the aforementioned decision to transpose all the songs to C. Anyone who wants to learn to play harmonica, even as simply as Dylan does, will probably be willing to buy more than one harmonica -- and changing the keys renders the ability to play along with the records useless.
   
   Changing keys (to make it easy for piano I guess) is a common problem with simple music and tab books. I usually only buy books that say "Authentic Recorded Versions" on them -- and even then I am often disappointed.

2 comments about The Saxophone Reed: The Advanced Art of Adjusting Single Reeds.

1. Information about reeds is usually jealously guarded by experienced sax players. Check out Russell's book on Bird and Porter's book on Lester Young. Also check out "The Devil's Horn" about how it all starts with that vibrating piece of cane. Reed modification should be a very serious matter for the thinking player. This book is therefore an unbelievably generous endowment from Mr. Reed to us unwashed and unworthy hordes. The amount of information in this book about an otherwise extremely obscure subject inspires awe and gratitude. Thank you, Master Reed.



2. Just to put my opinions into perspective I am a novice player without a teacher and seeking to learn how to adjust reeds - at present have only experimented on a few old ones.
   I bought this one since it seemed at 200 pages to be the 'sine qua non' of reed books - I figured that even if I did not use it to the full (ie. advanced, time consuming, equipment heavy techniques) at 200 pages it probably must also contain most of the information presented in other less voluminous reed adjustment books. The book is obviously the product of many years of work by a very dedicated and knowledgable professional. Within it's 200 pages there is clearly the potential to learn how to adjust reeds to optimal playing quality - however you better have a lot of spare time on your hands !
   Since I bought it I also bought Ben Armato's PerfectaReed and Beyond book and Tom Ridenour's ATG system. Former of these is more like a booklet, although it manages to pack in quite a few easy to implement handy hints. The latter I have not yet fully explored, but as many testify to I managed to make a bad reed sound pretty good within a few minutes of watching the DVD. The Ray Reed book is a completely different ball game - in comparision to the other two it looks like a NASA technical report or something and it's quickly apparent that what is presented would take a great deal of time to ingest reading and comprehension wise and master practical skills wise (perhaps more than you would care to subtract from practice time on the instrument itself etc.). This process would not be helped by the fact that the organisation of the book is not ideal - there is no index and although devided into many subtitled sections the order of presention is somewhat bewildering - eg. the preface just dives straight in with certain quite technical aspects that looks like it should be several chapters in, there are various appendices but it's initially difficult to decipher whether what your reading is new material or just a different draft of something you already read. Overall the book lacks a logical progression from simplified overview to help you understand what you are trying to achieve to the fully detailed explanations of techniques.
   Also unless you are going to a invest in a dial-guage micrometer set-up (as appears on the cover) and other equipment you won't be anywhere near fully exploiting the potential of the book - there is probably quite a lot of information and tips to extract from the book for use outside of the dial-gauge method but it's not presented in a dedicated chapter and for the reasons above it would take a lot of reading and note making to get at it. Incidently the Ben Armato book, even though he sells PefectaReed dial-gauge, has very little technical info on this - you probably get this with the device or have to contact him.
   Overall I don't regret buying this, but I suspect I'll never get round to doing most of it - I don't know whether professional saxophonists like guitar players have technicians on the road with them etc. but if you are one get this for them.