Does the thought of sight-reading make you groan? The ability to sight-read fluently is a vital skill, enabling you to learn new pieces more quickly and play with other musicians. The best-selling Improve Your Sight-reading! series, by renowned educationalist Paul Harris, is designed to help you overcome all your sight-reading problems, especially in the context of graded exams. Step by step you build up a complete picture of each piece, firstly through rhythmic and melodic exercises related to specific technical issues, then by studying prepared pieces with associated questions, and finally 'going solo' with a series of meticulously graded sight-reading pieces. New edition, devised to support the revised sight-reading criteria from the ABRSM from 2012.

Traditional Fiddle introduces eight regional fiddle styles from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, with contributions from world-renowned fiddlers Kevin Burke, John Dipper, Liz Doherty, Nancy Kerr, Sian Phillips, Aidan O'Rourke, Jenna Reid, and Patsy Reid. This is the perfect introduction to traditional fiddling for intermediate players.

This is a compact, composite and authoritative survey of the history and development of the cello from its origins to the present day. Its carefully structured series of thirteen essays deals with the history and construction of the cello and bow, discusses the careers of the most distinguished cellists through history, surveys the repertory of the instrument in unprecedented detail and reviews teaching methods, technical developments and issues of performance practice. It is the most comprehensive book ever to be published about the instrument.

(Violin Play-Along). The Violin Play-Along series will help you play your favorite songs quickly and easily. Just follow the music, listen to the demonstration tracks to hear how the violin should sound, and then play along using the separate backing tracks. The purchase price includes online access to audio for download or streaming. Songs in this volume include: All of Me * Don't You Worry Child * Fix You * Good Feeling * My Immortal * Pokemon Theme * Radioactive * Star Wars Medley. Online audio is accessed at (a href="http: //www.halleonard.com/mylibrary" target="_blank")halleonard.com/mylibrary(/a)

These are the original editions of the ever-popular instruction books for various instruments by C. Paul Herfurth. The books are packed full of lessons, illustrations, fingering charts, daily practice records, test questions, and manuscript paper for homework. Perfect for use in group lessons, school classes, or for individual lessons.

(Ukulele). A 40-week, one-lick-per-day workout program for developing, improving, and maintaining ukulele technique. This package provides practice material for every day of the week and includes an audio CD with all the workouts in the book. Follow this program and you'll see increased speed, improved dexterity, better accuracy, heightened coordination and more in your playing. Musical styles include pop, rock, folk, old-time, blues, jazz, reggae and more Techniques covered include: strumming, fingerstyle, legato and staccato, hammer-ons and pull-offs, slides, bening, damping, vibrato, tremolo and more.

Long a symbol of American culture, the banjo actually originated in Africa before European-Americans adopted it. Karen Linn shows how the banjo--despite design innovations and several modernizing agendas--has failed to escape its image as a "half-barbaric" instrument symbolic of antimodernism and sentimentalism. Caught in the morass of American racial attitudes and often used to express ambivalence toward modern industrial society, the banjo stood in opposition to the "official" values of rationalism, modernism, and belief in the beneficence of material progress. Linn uses popular literature, visual arts, advertisements, film, performance practices, instrument construction and decoration, and song lyrics to illustrate how notions about the banjo have changed. Linn also traces the instrument from its African origins through the 1980s, alternating between themes of urban modernization and rural nostalgia. She examines the banjo fad of bourgeois Northerners during the late nineteenth century; the African-American banjo tradition and the commercially popular cultural image of the southern black banjo player; the banjo's use in ragtime and early jazz; and the image of the white Southerner and mountaineer as banjo player.

(Sitar). The Hal Leonard Sitar Method is designed for anyone just learning to play the sitar. This comprehensive and easy-to-use beginner's guide serves as an introduction to sitar and its technique, as well as the practice, theory, and history of raga music. The accompanying CD includes 42 tracks for demonstration and play-along. Lessons include: choosing an instrument; tuning; postures; right- and left-hand technique; Indian notation; raga forms; melodic patterns; bending strings; hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides; changing strings; recommended listening; and much more

In the early seventeenth century, enthusiasm for the violin swept across Europe-this was an instrument capable of bewitching virtuosity, with the power to express emotions in a way only before achieved with the human voice. With this new guide to the Baroque violin, and its close cousin, the Baroque viola, distinguished performer and pedagogue Walter Reiter puts this power into the hands of today's players. Through fifty lessons based on the Reiter's own highly-renowned course at The Royal Conservatory of the Hague, The Baroque Violin & Viola, Volume II provides a comprehensive exploration of the period's rich and varied repertoire. The lessons in Volume II cover the early seventeenth-century Italian sonata, music of the French Baroque, the Galant style, and the sonatas of composers like Schmelzer, Biber, and Bach. Practical exercises are integrated into each lesson, and accompanied by rich video demonstrations on the book's companion website. Brought to life by Reiter's deep insight into key repertoire based on a lifetime of playing and teaching, The Baroque Violin & Viola, Volume II: A Fifty-Lesson Course will enhance performances of professional and amateur musicians alike.

The Cambridge Companion to the Violin offers students, performers and scholars a fascinating and composite survey of the history and repertory of the instrument from its origins to the present day. The volume comprises fifteen essays, written by a team of ten specialists, and is intended to develop the violin's historical perspective in breadth from every relevant angle. The main subjects discussed include the instrument's structure and development; its fundamental accoustical properties; principal exponents; technique and teaching methods; solo and ensemble repertory; pedagogical literature; traditions in folk music and jazz; and aspects of historical performing practice. The text is supported by numerous illustrations and diagrams as well as music examples, a useful appendix, glossary of technical terms and an extensive bibliography.

340 pages Every chapter of The Violin Lesson is a masterful presentation in which Simon Fischer tackles the obvious and seemingly intractable problems of playing and teaching the violin. Richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, this book is engaging and candidly narrated. Nobody who is seriously interested in playing, teaching or studying the violin - at any level from professional to amateur, advanced to elementary - can afford not to add The Violin Lesson to their library.

In his typically thorough but straightforward way, he addresses technique, musical artistry and psychology as manageable and interconnected units, often illuminating the problems from new and unexpected angles and transforming even the most intimidating matters into inviting subjects with clear solutions. In Background Essentials, Fischer covers seldom-discussed essential elements of musicianship, technique and how to practice. The chapter on Avoiding Aches and Pains offers understanding of the causes of injuries, as well as new and effective remedies and prevention practices.

(Ukulele Chord Songbook). This series features convenient 6 x 9 books with complete lyrics and chord symbols above the lyrics for dozens of great songs. Each song also includes chord grids at the top of every page and the first notes of the melody for easy reference. These books are perfect for people who don't read music but want to strum chords and sing, and are equally ideal for more advanced, music-reading ukulele players who don't feel like wading through note-for-note notation. This collection features 100 favorites from the Fab Four: Across the Universe * Back in the U.S.S.R. * Carry That Weight * Dear Prudence * Eight Days a Week * Good Day Sunshine * Here Comes the Sun * If I Fell * Love Me Do * Michelle * Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da * Revolution * Something * Ticket to Ride * We Can Work It Out * and many more.

(Music Sales America). This chart includes advice on instrument care, notation guide and a photo/diagram of the instrument.

Improve your sight-reading! Violin Grade 4 is part of the best-selling series by Paul Harris, guaranteed to improve your sight-reading! This workbook helps the player overcome problems by building up a complete picture of each piece, through rhythmic and melodic exercises related to specific technical issues, then by studying prepared pieces with associated questions, and finally by 'going solo' with a series of meticulously graded sight-reading pieces. This edition now includes supporting audio available online for students to check their performances against. The Improve your sight-reading! series will help you improve your reading ability, and with numerous practice tests included, will ensure sight-reading success in graded exams.

This new edition contains all the scales and arpeggios required for ABRSM's Grade 8 Violin exam. Includes all Grade 8 scales and arpeggios for the revised syllabus from 2012, with bowing patterns and suggested fingering, along with a helpful introduction including advice on preparing for the exam.