5 comments about Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises - Complete: Piano Technique.

1. This is an essential book for pianists who are serious about improving their technique. Casual pianists may find the excercises repetitive and boring, but those who have the desire to improve will find them extremely rewarding. I find that these excercises have a pleasant sound and I do not get bored of them, but not everyone sees them so favorably in that respect.
   
   One point of note: you will not derive much value from this book if you do not practice the excercises intently. I used to play the book incorrectly; I thought I had completed the majority of the first section when, in fact, I had not completed a single excercise to a satisfactory level. Some say that hanon can be played while the mind wanders; this is incorrect until you are VERY familiar with the excercise in question. Take special care that every note is played perfectly evenly, that every finger moves confidently and efficiently. Make sure that your weak fingers make the same mechanical motion as your strong fingers, and only then will the benefits become apparent.
   
   Once I started focusing on these points, Hanon became truly valuable...and enjoyable!



2. This is a book for piano players to play techniques. It's a good pratice for all levels.



3. This book is written by Charles Louis Hanon, who lived through 19th century. Pianoforte was invented little before the beginning of 19th century. Piano has not developed much since 1880's. Charles Louis Hanon, who was born in 1819 and died in 1990, was at the time when piano's pedagogy was not developed well. Hanon was only thinking about using fingers to play the instrument, which was applyed in playing clavichord. However, for playing pianoforte, which has large range between piano and forte, the whole body must be used, not just fingers. If one plays the piano with trained fingers through Hanon's exercises, then he may feel good about his strong fingers. However, the shortage of playing just with strengthened fingers is that it will produce not a good quality of sound. Furthermore, using just fingers to play the instrument can cause serious injuries and tension. Some people recommend Hanon's Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises. But I wouldn't recommend this book for above reasons. You may like using this book for a short period of time. But after the short period of time, you will get bored and some of you will give up practicing this book. I strongly suggest that this book is not useful in practicing pianoforte playing.



4. This book is great and is in great shape. Perfect for strengthening and training fingers.



5. I used this book in grade school when I took piano lessons and HATED it with a passion. Some decades later, I'm picking up the piano again, and my weak fingers made me think about these exercises. I acquired the book, and have been working through the exercises again, and over just the space of 6 weeks have noticed dramatic improvement. It's taken a while because I don't practice every day, or for the same length of time. Just for giggles I've tried playing the first exercise a couple times at the fast end of the recommended metronome speed (60-108). At first I just couldn't do it. Now I can get through about half of it at top speed, and I can play the first two exercises with quality at 80. I find that by practicing the exercises first without the metronome, then with at the low end, then slowly increasing the speed, that I get a real sense of accomplishment and progress in smaller doses, which is very satisfying and motivating to work on the longer term goals of learning whole pieces of music.

5 comments about The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook.

1. I just ordered my 3rd copy of this book - the other ones have been given to other players that won't return them once they get their hands on it. While it's certainly not going to show you much detail or any solos, that's also the beauty of this thing. Learn the basics and then take it further if you want. I have other Beatles chord books showing much more detail when I need it.



2. This book is definitely a necessity for anybody who enjoys the work of the Beatles. All the songs are transposed well, and the chords used in the book are simplified when necessary, making playing along to the songs very easy and fun. There is just about every Beatles song in here except for a few cover songs like Anna and Twist and Shout, but other than that everything is there. For this price, you get a great bang for your buck. And for those who are new to guitar, this book will help you learn a lot of new and different chords that you might not otherwise.



3. True to its title, it is just a chord book. Chords and lyrics, nothing else. I would have liked something that had some picking and strumming techniques as well, but I can't honestly say there is anything about the book or the way it was packaged that indicated it would be more. My only question is, why? Why bother putting out a book that is so sparse on content, when there are plenty of books out there with much much more. Don't waste your hard earned cash on this one.



4. I play guitar and keyboards at the professional level. Any rock guitarist who is familiar with the Beatles' tunes will love this book.
   
   Just lyrics with chords written above the lyrics. Every song written by the Fab Four.



5. I just have to start out by saying that the one for "blackbird" in this book is astonish. It's amazing, the exact chords on the recording and i reckon you can even use it to fingerpick! :-)!
   
   Ok now to the main point, this book might be a bit big and you can't put it standing up perfectly on your music stand, i know i know. With that in mind, I would suggest you be careful with it... because i kinda made a little tear on a few pages already. But this shouldn't downplay the book's intellectual and "inside of the cover" qualities, after it's a book...
   
   So on to the next pro. I know you can go on the net and get lots of tabs, but i guarantee you mate, this is the best! It's really in the exact keys as on the recordings!
   
   Be aware that if you want to play the songs on PLEASE PLEASE ME, you won't find "Baby it's you" "Chains" and a few others on there. That's for the reason that those songs were covers. The Beatles didn't write them. Hence if they didn't write them, they really can't have it on your sheet music catalouge...
   
   OVERALL, this book is great mate, get it if you're a beatles fanatic like me and many others out there. GOODLUCK WITH THE FAB FOUR!

5 comments about Puff the Magic Dragon.

1. I am of the opinion that one of the things that makes Puff the Magic Dragon a great song is the bittersweet ending. That and Peter, Paul and Mary's three-part harmony. Sadly, this book adds a Hollywood ending by suggesting, through the pictures, that Puff's life of play continues with the next generation. Okay, maybe it does, and maybe some people had it figured that way. Puff is the song we grew up with and Puff is the song we sing to our kids. Duh! But don't go spelling it out!



2. Are you looking for a politically correct version of Puff the Magic Dragon? Then you found it! Even though it completely destroys the iambic pentameter, everything has been rewritten to not be gender specific.
   
   For example,
   "Dragon's live forever, but not so little boys and girls,
   Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys."
   
   Yeah, even though the story is about a little BOY, the authors found it necessary to change the poetry to include girls too, at the expense of the rhythm.
   
   But there are no girls in Puff the Magic Dragon, you might say. Well, there is in this version. See little Jackie grows up in this version and gives Puff the Magic Dragon to his daughter so she too can play with Puff. And who thought that Puff the Magic Dragon was melancholic? No, it is happy after all! And politically correct too!
   
   It's too bad, because the artwork in this book is very well done. The cloth cover binding is high-quality with a glossy image of Puff centered. Even the dust jacket is top rate.
   
   I would highly recommend sharing this story with your children, but do yourself a favor and don't buy this altered version. It's not nearly as powerful as the original.



3. This book takes the classic story and sets it to wonderfully illustrated pictures. We love it.



4. This new illustrated Puff is absolutely lovely. My five year old listens to the song during quiet time in school, so I picked out this book to complement that activity. The CD has a beautiful new version of the old Peter Paul and Mary song as well as three other children's songs, which is a nice addition. My daughter is delighted with it! The illustrations have added to the imaginative journey as she asks complicated questions about Puff's cave and about where Jackie Paper went when he went away. We talked about how sometimes grown-ups lose their imaginations as they get older, but that it doesn't have to happen that way.
   
   Some readers didn't appear to like the suggestion in the illustrations that Jackie brought his daughter back many years later to befriend Puff, but I found it comforting. As a child, I often cried when hearing the song and it stuck with me into adulthood. Sometimes sad endings are inevitable and kids do need to learn to deal with heartbreak, but those things happen naturally enough without us having to evoke it for them. The book has a gentle and bittersweet ending for, although Jackie returns later, Puff still has to endure his lonliness for many years, something my young daughter pointed out! Children are so intuitive.
   
   A beautiful book for every home library. We own thousands of children's books and I do not review every one of them. Only a very few present such an emotional connection worthy of a public review!



5. My 2 1/2 year old and I are really enjoying this book. I loved the song as a child and was excited to share it with her. I did think there was a story book for Puff but this is just the lyrics with pictures. The song is a sad one and my little girl understands it very well. The thing I like most about this book is that the illustrations show a new child coming to play with Puff and make him happy again. The song just ends with Jackie Paper never returning and Puff being lonely. I love that the pictures leave you on a happier note.

5 comments about Teaching Little Fingers to Play: A Book for the Earliest Beginner (John Thompsons Modern Course for The Piano).

1. Despite what the title says, "A Book For The Earliest Beginner", I feel that it's not for the kids younger than 6 or 7. Requiring to read the music notes on the lines right from the beginning is too much for the kids who barely know alphabets. This book could be fine for older kids or for supplementing other courses. Try Alfred's books which I found much easier and gradual on very young children. If they are under 5, you could try Alfred's Prep Course.



2. My grandmother had this book at her house when I was a child. I taught myself how to play piano ( a little bit) with it. I am going to use it to teach my children.



3. Good first book for learning piano, but our teacher requested we get another book to accompany this, since this one moves a little too fast for our kindergartener.



4. Beyond the simple enjoyment of playing a song, learning to play music is a catalyst for discovery and learning in life. Rudiments such as fractions are learned by understanding the key signature. Motor skills are developed in both hands. Processing of symbols into piano keys and then piano keys into musical tones that, when played together, create a song. We often forget this as adults, or never learned it. The key with teaching these things effectively to kids is to make it fun, keep the lessons to a reasonable length and to get involved as a parent or teacher.
   
   Teaching Little Fingers To Play is perfect for introducing children to the joy of playing a piano. It provides short, fun songs that kids can sing along to as they develop their skills playing. My daughter finds so much enjoyment in practicing and can't wait to "figure out" the next song. The skills and knowledge are added little by little in such a way that they build on what is already developed, rather than overwhelming the child. The notes to the teacher are also helpful, particularly when the teacher is simply a parent who isn't a piano virtuoso.
   
   The price is VERY affordable and the book simply works well, particularly for my child. I'd recommend this book for any child under the age of 10. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you buy this book. I certainly wasn't.



5. My 7 year old has enjoyed learning piano w/ this book. I don't play but I've been able to "teach" her with it. This is great for beginners.

5 comments about Blue Moo: 17 Jukebox Hits From Way Back Never.

1. We enjoy this cd and have given it as a gift to friends and family in the US and Germany.
   
   The only negative feedback we got was from a family whose three young kids wanted to hear the cd over and over and over again, until the parents finally had to say no. So yes, the cd is not good on endless repeat, but definitely worth it in more reasonable doses.



2. We have become fans of Sandra Boynton. We have "Dog Train" and "Philadelphia Chickens". The kids like almost all the songs.



3. This book, along with Dog Train, Rhinoceros Tap, and Philadelphia Chicken are favorites of everyone in our family!! The kids love the catchy tunes and being able to read along and I love hearing some of my favorite actors, singers, and bands singing to my kids!



4. My son is always singing these songs and truthfully so am I. We have listened to all the Sandra Boynton musical CDs and this is by far the best.



5. My kids, 12 & 9, absolutely love Blue Moo. It is quirky and funny and very singable. We also love DogTrain, Philadelphia Chickens and Rhinosauras Tap by Sandra Boynton. Makes car trips a hoot!

5 comments about Guitar Fretboard Workbook.

1. MI's Guitar Fretboard Workbook, written by: Barrett Tagliarino is the second workbook I have studied out of. I immediately noticed how the pictures and diagrams were so intuitive. It took a lot less effort to memorize the concepts simply because they made much more sense. Tagliarino removed the mystery, and immediately made it easy for me to grasp, and memorize the five root shapes with his diagram in the workbook. Ultimately this is why I bought a workbook like this in the first place. Great job, Barrett!
   
   I do not know this author. Just really like his book.
   
   -Shane



2. Great way to build a road map around the fretboard. Builds precept upon precept, one building block after another till you have a good grasp of the neck. My eyes are opened!



3. I bought this book to help my husband learn how to better play his guitar. This book has truly helped him learn and better understand other tools he has. He is very happy and excited. I can now enjoy hearing him rehearse:-)
   janbustr:-)



4. This very helpful book provided me confidence to tackle a partial refret on my 12 yr old washburn D34S (wideneck: 12 fret). It's a scary moment when you start pulling frets out of the board, believe me! I will say that no book is completely thorough in describing such work, but this is one of the better resources I have found.



5. There's no substitute for knowing what you're doing when you are learning an instrument. This book will take you a long way but you must be willing to put in some time with it. Personally, I find it almost addictive with it's worksheets. My son calls them puzzles.
   
   Figure on taking a year to work through the material. Getting in a hurry will cause confusion and you'll just have to back up and start again. I find that for me I absolutely have to finish each worksheet several times before it really takes root. My routine is to spend maybe fifteen minutes or so a day in the Guitar Fretboard Workbook and then go on to my regular practice.
   
   This is highly recommended. If I had found it years ago I wouldn't be struggling with my playing now.

5 comments about Music Theory for Guitarists: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask.

1. This book has been one of the best learning tools I've come across. The author lays out exactly the things needed to learn and memorize. Great discussion on scales, modes, etc. I recommend.



2. I would say that if you are seriously studying guitar and music music theory (yes, the two go together), this book is a must have addition to your library. It gives clear concise explanations of music theory as it applies to the guitar.



3. I found this book extremely helpful. For the first time, I learned about a visual pattern on the fretboard that allows me to play a mayor scale on any key. Switching to a blues scale simply ammounts to removing certain steps in the major scale. This is a great work.



4. I should start by stating that I am a beginning guitar student. So please take my review in the appropriate light. The book "Music Theory" is a unique addition to my quickly growing guitar library. It is broken into 13 chapters:
   
   Chapter 1 - a detailed explanation of the fretboard. This was particularly useful for me, because it explained what every note on the fretboard was. Tuning and intonation are also briefly discussed. Everything in the book is also given in TAB as well as sheet music.
   
   Chapter 2 - covers the basics of reading music including the treble clef, musical alphabet (A-G), accidentals (flats, sharps, naturals), rhythm, time signatures, note values, beams, dotted notes, chords (stacks, names, and frames), repeat signs, and tablature.
   
   Chapter 3 - discusses the major/minor scales, key signatures, and the handy circle of fifths.
   
   Chapter 4 - focuses on intervals (distance between two notes).
   
   Chapter 5 - covers the major and minor triads (chords which are a third interval apart).
   
   Chapter 6 - discusses harmonizing the major scale.
   
   Chapter 7 - a study of chord construction - both in theory and on the fretboard, covering major, minor, power, suspended, sixth, six/nine, seventh, extended, altered, slash, and poly chords.
   
   Chapter 8 - discusses harmonizing the minor scale.
   
   Chapter 9 - talks about key centers (something I must admit I haven't quite figured out yet).
   
   Chapter 10 - covers the 12-bar blues progression, the major and minor pentatonic scales, and parallel pentatonic scales.
   
   Chapter 11/12 - discusses modes, modal harmony, other scales, and chord/scale relationships.
   
   Chapter 13 - covers chord substitutions and reharmonization.
   
   My impression of the book is "Wow!" There is a tremendous amount of information in this book. As a beginner, I really benefitted from the first five chapters, but quickly lost my way as I pushed further ahead. But I fully expect that as I gain more experience, I will continue to consult this very valuable resource.
   
   Written by Arthur Bradley, author of "Process of Elimination" - a cool erotic thriller that pits a martial artist against a world-class sniper.
   
   As always, please be kind enough to indicate if reviews are helpful.



5. I am mostly an intuitive guitarist who actually does fairly well as a performer. I was hoping this was the book that would help me along, but it was not what I hoped. It's still pretty technical and fails to link riffs, patterns, and fretboard relationships into music that you can recognize and use. A few bits were OK, but it's back to doing what I do best- listening and playing along, and teaching myself.

5 comments about This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.

1. I'm very surprised by how many negative reviews this book is getting. I just finished it, and I love it.
   
   Are you considering reading it? Then, do!
   
   I think the problem many people have is essentially that the book isn't written only for them. In other words, let's say you don't give a fig about jazz--say you couldn't tell the Bird from Benny Goodman. That's no problem: every time he uses an example from jazz to illustrate a point, he uses a famous rock example as well. If you don't get the jazz one, you'll probably get the Rolling Stones reference. I would think everyone could live with that.
   
   Or, let's say you are not at all interested in knowing why Joni Mitchell prefers a certain bass player. You only want to read about the neurology. Or vice-versa: all that neurology stuff is boring; you want to know more about what Neil Young thinks about music.
   
   Unfortunately, there's a little of everything in here. Good solid multi-disciplinary science (neurology, genetics, evolutionary biology); a nice thorough introduction to music theory (explaining terms like pitch, octave, scale, dissonance, beat, timbre); anecdotes from his personal musical experience (what Joni Mitchell told him about her favorite bass player, why he didn't get to take guitar lessons when he was a kid).
   
   UN - fortunately?
   
   Well, I loved this book. I learned a lot about music (in general, as well as specific genres), a little about neurology and evolution, a little about various musicians. I couldn't have been more pleased.
   
   The only reason I can find that anyone didn't enjoy the book is that they didn't want to read about all that other stuff (whatever was not the thing they did want to read about). If you can overlook that, of if you look forward to all of it, I guarantee this book will prove an entertaining, enlightening experience.
   
   The one caveat I have is that, if you really do not know anything about music, pay good attention in the opening chapters when he introduces concepts like chord and scale. Or, be prepared to go back and reference those chapters. I do not see how a detailed book about music could avoid this situation (he cannot talk about music without talking about rythyms, melodies and harmonies). But he does a very good job of introducing and explaining them.
   
   So, enjoy!



2. Daniel J. Levitin is a hack. He is a living embodyment of the term used in the title of this review. There is no science here, only opinion and second hand knowledge that anyone with any amount of musical education already knows. He should read Debussey's essay "The Dilettante in Music"
   and go re-invent himself. There is more to being an expert on any subject than being interviewed on CBC.
   
   Gordon Boothe



3. Think about earworms, you know, those tunes that you can't stop playing back in your head.
   
   Now we'll play a little game. We'll take some ordinary English sentences but dress them up in smartypants neuroscience language. So instead of saying "in your head" you say "in your brain". And instead of saying "idea" you say "neural pathways representing a concept". You can probably make up your own rules for converting English to Neurospeak. "I have a headache" might become "a neural excitiation in my brain is causing the my pain sensors to represent pain in my cerebral area" or "I remember that book" might become "signals from my optic nerve are analysed and compared with prior stored representations of books until a match is found" and so on. Anyone can play, it's easy.
   
   Dan Levitin knows how to play. Here's what he has to say on earworms: "Our best explanation is that the neural circuits representing a song get stuck in `playback mode'". Cute eh? But here's the weird thing. He doesn't realise this is just a game you can play with language. He thinks these are actually scientific explanations. In fact he spends 300 pages writing trivial things about music in Neurospeak, presenting it as science. It's like Moliere's joke about explaining how opium works by saying it has "soporific virtue".
   
   It's not completely content-free however. For example he has a quote from Newton pointing out that you can't see the colour of light waves, rather that light waves are what you use to see things in colour. Bizarrely Newton made no such claim because he believed light was made of particles, not waves. The point still stands, but how did a completely fictional quote like that get through? Is it acceptable to make up quotes from scientists to make your point?
   
   At one point Levitin tells us all about the mistake of Cartesianism - the idea that the things we sense in the world are just encoded in a new representation that some inner self can view, as if the external world is presented on an inner screen in our brains. That, of course, leads to an infinite regress. Who watches the inner screen? This is all well and good, but throughout the book Levitin describes a model of the brain that is 100% Cartesian. For example, he says that when we hear a sound, the end of the journey is a mental image of that sound. He seems to have missed the point that the philosphers he quotes, Wittgenstein and Dennett, devoted much of their lives to demolishing such a silly picture.
   
   I did find the discussion of the roots of Joni Mitchell's chords quite interesting however, not that I like Joni Mitchell. But that saves the book from one star.
   
   Oh, and Levitin does know a lot of famous people, if you're impressed by that sort of thing.



4. The most striking feature of this book for me is that it blurs the line between music as an aesthetic experience & the study of the brain as a scientific exercise.
   
   So while it does a great job of defining the various parameters we appreciate music by ( notes, pitch, timbre, meter etc), it also delves into the way memory is organized in the brain, how musical appreciation is connected to our emotions, what makes a great anything (10, 000 hours of practice, apparently) etc.
   
   The chapter on memory is tiresome & is far too academic for general readership. The initial chapters on musical parameters is very helpful to somebody with no training on music. The connections to emotions, & the music we like are very interesting reads.
   
   Overall, a more than moderately good book without being exceptional because of the insufficient sieving out of unnecessary detail.



5. I absolutely love this book. It discusses all the parts of music that I have ever wondered about (being a musician myself.) I enjoyed this book so much because it's easy to read but also extremely engaging. David Levitin is so brilliant and intuitive. It's like having someone type out my exact thoughts and put them in a book.

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

1. Made possible by the exacting editors at The New Yorker, where most of it appeared first, this once-over-very-lightly survey of 20th century Western music begins with the first stirrings of modernity in Bayreuth and Paris circa 1880 and takes us up to now, when new classical work is largely consigned to movie soundtracks.
   
   The real story since 1950 is the discovery of so much forgotten classical past, and the careful efforts to recreate its original sound in recordings. We experience classical music today through the composers brought back to roaring life by musicologists and audio engineers, not the dry postwar modernisms shunned by the public. At home, I now have more beautiful music ready to play than any pre-war musician would have heard in a lifetime. Halfway through the century, the medium itself changed profoundly, from an ephemeral public one to an archival private one. This story Mr. Ross does not tell at all.
   
   What would make his survey really useful is an annotated bibliography for each chapter, showing us where to get the information barely sketched here, along with a discography longer than one page. Ross' survey is very readable; it's just that you're on your own if you want anything more. But I do envy Ross for getting two paychecks for the same work, from his magazine and from his publisher.



2. There's some good stuff here, and plenty of great material to work with, but somehow it doesn't hang together and engage the reader (at least, this reader) either in the narrative or in the music that the narrative describes. I also missed any real mention of Ralph Vaughan Williams, a personal favorite among the 20th century classical greats--although I tried not to hold that against the author. For me, the real test of a book about music is whether it moves me to listen to the music. Sadly, apart from one Bartok quartet, this one didn't.



3. Alex Ross is the music critic of the New Yorker magazine. This book has been ballyhooed far and wide being named as one of the ten best books of 2007 by the New York Times. The 600 page book takes a detailed look at the great figures of twentieth century music and the major works they produced.
   The book begins with a riveting account of the 1906 premiere of Richard Strauss' "Salome" which proved shocking to Edwardian audiences. We learn of Strauss' friendship with Gustav Mahler. Their works are discussed in detail. Strauss and Mahler were the last hurrah of traditional tonal music. Gone were the glory days of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and the boys! The new century of two catastrophic wars and the Jewish holocaust would usher in a century of avant gardism and experimentation. Classical music would decline in popularity but would be influential in its impact on jazz, twelve tone compositions, movie music and works using newly invented instruments and electonic/computerized music.
   The book has technical explanations of the works discussed which I found less interesting than the profiles of the composers and the political and social milieus in which they crafted their art. Such major figures and eras are covered as:
   Music under dictatorship. We visit Prokofiev and listen to the somber symphonies of Dimitri Shostakovich. We see how Stalin enforced musical banality on an entire generation of Soviet artists.
   Nazi Germany under Hitler bowed to the altars of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner while forcing artists like Richard Strauss to bow down to the idol of Hitler.
   Ross has a chapter on American popular music focusing on African-American jazz manifested in the genius of Duke Elliington and other black composers. We see how radio and the phonograph record revolutionized the way the public heard and responded to music. The chapter on Aaron Copland and music in FDR's America was insightful. Ross has done his homework!
   We visit artists in exiles from embattled Europe such as Stravinsky with his "Firebird" and "The Rites of Spring" and Arnold Schoenberg the creator of the twelve tone system of musical composition. We explore how immigrant composers found jobs in the Hollywood Studios
   Aloof artists such as Jean Sibelius are examined. Sibelius disdained much of modernism and charted his own course. We also see the works and career of Benjamin Brittain and Leonard Berstein.
   Avant garde artists such as Phillip Glass, Martin Gould, John Adams and Steve Reich are discussed by Ross. The author is nonjudgmental in explaining their techniques.
   As a person who loves classical music but knows little about avant garde music this book proved to be of interest. The book is geared for the general reader who wants to discover how music mirrors life as lived in the past century. Politics, culture and popular public approval have all influenced the paths taken by the muse of music in the modern era. This is a fine boo and is magisterial in the knowledge it conveys to the reader. Excellent!



4. Extremely well written but one gets the feeling that two different books have been sandwiched together. The overview of 20th century composers is ideal for anyone looking to consolidate what may only have been fragmented up to then. The analytical sections are addressed to the reader with considerable musical knowledge.The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century



5. First, I don't consider Mr. Ross's narrative and insights to be particularly compelling. He has a fairly shallow vision of classical music . Second, and more important, his unrelenting liberal political views intrude ubiquitously into his story of 20th century music. His focus on Germany is standard left-wing claptrap. Can't liberals ever give Germans and Nazis a rest. They were bad, really bad and probably lots of Germans still are. But in the 21st century, it's time to move on...which won't occur for people like Mr. Ross who are virtually blind to anything wrong on the left. Also, the book meanders and it's selection of composers to write on is arbitrary---the Sibelius section is inexusable. Finally, he's a socialist and a true believer in big government as big daddy for us all. This book is perhaps the most overrated book in many a year.

5 comments about Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Complete Edition: Books & CD's 1, 2 and 3.

1. This is a great instruction book. I have some experience playing guitar so the beginning instruction was a little basic, but it still has a lot of good material. This book is perfect for the beginner!



2. I'm used to playing other instruments (Piano, trumpet, handbells, etc) where I am given the notes to play and play them. This book first teaches you the basics of music and which notes are on which frets of which strings. You start off playing melodies with the CD. It eases you into the chords, and for me, this makes it much easier to learn! I can get my calluses built up before I get into the tricky stuff. It also allows me to come up with multiple ways to play a song. I can't wait until I get through the book and can play with my friends!



3. I bought this to try and learn to play the guitar and so far have gotten through a couple of lessons. Sadly, I'm having trouble sticking to continue the lessons, but none of it is the book's fault.
   The CD provides play along and really helps you understand. I however found the electric guitar harder to tell between notes, but I suppose I'll deliver a ear for it as time goes on.
   If your to get 1 book for learning how to play guitar, this should be your first choice. Has almost everything that you could possibly need. I couldn't find scales, but I didn't look hard enough so they're probably already there.



4. I teach beginner guitar to young students. This book is an excellent resource for them. It teaches the basics at a slow, steady pace which I've found to be highly effective over the fast paced books for children. It encourages students to learn to read music and learn the basics of music theory, equipping them to become musicians and not just guitarists. The CD's are added bonuses as a teaching tool!



5. I bought this book with the intention of using it as a "do it yourself" guide until I had some basic skills. At that time I intended to seek professional help. I was however, advised to find an instructor immediately. I checked around and found an individual with excellent references. He told me to bring some extra money on day one because there is a book he uses with all his students. You guessed it - "Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Complete Edition." I wish I could say that the book has made me the second coming of Jimi Hendrix. Not yet.
   
   The CDs are stupendous. At first I wanted to use them as frisbees, but they are great for forcing you to recognize the rhythm and to "keep up" with it. It would be impossible to accomplish this quickly by seeing your instructor only once a week.
   
   The large and varied collection of songs in the book is phenomenal. You find yourself playing recognizable tunes after mastering only two strings.
   
   Highly recommended. A good instructor really helps too.