To reach the highest standards of instrumental performance, several years of sustained and focused learning are required. This requires perseverance, commitment and opportunities to learn and practise, often in a collective musical environment. This book brings together a wide range of enlightening current psychological and educational research to offer deeper insights into the mosaic of factors and related experiences that combine to nurture (and sometimes hinder) advanced musical performance. Each of the book's four sections focus on one aspect of music performance and learning: musics in higher education and beyond; musical journeys and educational reflections; performance learning; and developing expertise and professionalism. Although each chapter within its home section offers a particular focus, there is an underlying conception across all the book's contents of the achievability of advanced musical performance and of the important nurturing role that higher education can play, particularly if policy and practice are evidence-based and draw on the latest international research findings. The narrative offers an insight into the world of advanced musicians, detailing their learning journeys and the processes involved in their quest for the development of expertise and professionalism. It is the first book of its kind to consider performance learning in higher education across a variety of musical genres, including classical, jazz, popular and folk musics. The editors have invited an international community of leading scholars and performance practitioners to contribute to this publication, which draws on meticulous research and critical practice. This collection is an essential resource for all musicians, educators, researchers and policy makers who share our interest in promoting the development of advanced performance skills and professionalism.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Practice, practice, practice to play like Chopin or the Piano Man The piano will help you add a touch of fun to your life, impress your friends at parties, and even reduce stress. It even makes you better at math (really!). Piano Exercises For Dummies is at your service as you learn to make those 88 black and white keys sing. You'll get a quick overview of the basics before diving into practice routines and sample songs that you can use to improve your skill, whatever your level. This book gives you online access to audio files of the exercises along with digital access to the sheet music shared in the book. Learn from an experienced pianist, composer, and arranger, and start making beautiful music, the Dummies way! Refresh your knowledge of the piano basics so you're poised and prepared to play the right way Play enjoyable practice exercises and songs designed to teach specific skills and techniques in all genres Go online to access all the audio files, anytime, anywhere Bring a little more joy into your life by stepping up your piano know-how Piano Exercises For Dummies is for new and experienced pianists alike, and useful for improving your skill in any musical style.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Perspectives on the Performance of French Piano Music offers a range of approaches central to the performance of French piano music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors include scholars and active performers who see performance not as an independent activity but as a practice enriched by a wealth of historical and analytical approaches. To underline the usefulness of contextual understanding for performance, each author highlights the choices performers must confront with examples drawn from particular repertoires and composers. Topics explored include editorial practice, the use of early recordings, emergent disciplines such as analysis-and-performance, and traditions passed down from teacher to student. Themes that emerge demonstrate the importance of editions as a form of communication, the challenges of notation, the significance of detail and of deeper continuity, the importance of performing and teaching traditions, and the influence of cross disciplinary frameworks. A link to a set of performed examples on the frenchpianomusic.com website allows readers to hear and compare performances and interpretations of the music discussed. The volume will appeal to musicologists and analysts interested in performance, performers, students, and piano teachers.

As Robert Schumann put it, 'Only few works are as clearly stamped with their author's imprint as his'. This book explores Schubert's stylistic traits in a series of chapters each discussing an individual 'fingerprint' with case studies drawn principally from the piano and chamber music. The notion of Schubert's compositional fingerprints has not previously formed the subject of a book-length study. The features of his personal style considered here include musical manifestations of Schubert's 'violent nature', the characteristics of his thematic material, and the signs of his 'classicizing' manner. In the process of the discussion, attention is given to matters of form, texture, harmony and gesture in a range of works, with regard to the various 'fingerprints' identified in each chapter. The repertoire discussed includes the late string quartets, the String Quintet, the E flat Piano Trio and the last three piano sonatas. Developing ideas which she first proposed in a series of journal articles and contributions to symposia on Schubert, Professor Wollenberg takes into account recent literature by other scholars and draws together her own researches to present her view of Schubert's 'compositional personality'. Schubert emerges as someone exerting intellectual control over his musical material and imbuing it with poetic resonance.

Among the major changes that swept through the music industry during the mid-nineteenth century, one that has received little attention is how musical performances were managed and directed. Yet this was arguably the most radical change of all: from a loose control shared between the violin-leader, musical director and maestro al cembalo to a system of tight and unified control under a professional conductor-manager. This process brought with it not only baton conducting in its modern form, but also higher standards of training and discipline, a new orchestral lay-out and a more focused rehearsal regime. The resulting rise in standards of performance was arguably the greatest achievement of English music in the otherwise rather barren mid-Victorian period. The key figure in this process was Michael Costa, who built for himself unprecedented contractual powers and used his awesome personal authority to impose reform on the three main institutions of mid-Victorian music: the opera houses, the Philharmonic and the Sacred Harmonic Society. He was a central figure in the battles between the two rival opera houses, between the Philharmonic and the New Philharmonic, and between the venerable Ancient Concerts and the mass festival events of the Sacred Harmonic Society. Costa's uniquely powerful position in the operatic, symphonic and choral world and the rapidity with which he was forgotten after his death provide a fascinating insight into the politics and changing aesthetics of the Victorian musical world.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The authors' new approach to learning two playing techniques offers a systematic method for mastering the modern, legato technique needed for organ music composed after 1750, as well as an articulated technique for earlier works. The authors also present useful information on accompanying anthems and solos and on adapting piano and orchestral accompaniments to the organ.

What does it mean to talk about musical coherence at the end of a century characterised by fragmentation and discontinuity? How can the diverse influences which stand behind the works of many late twentieth-century composers be reconciled with the singular immediacy of the experiences that they can create? How might an awareness of the distinctive ways in which these experiences are generated and controlled affect the way we listen to, reflect upon and write about this music? Mark Hutchinson outlines a novel concept of coherence within Western art music from the 1980s to the turn of the millennium as a means of understanding the work of a number of contemporary composers, including Thomas Ades, Kaija Saariaho, Toru Takemitsu and Gyoergy Kurtag, whose music cannot be fitted easily into a particular compositional school or analytical framework. Coherence is understood as a multi-layered phenomenon experienced, above all, in the act of listening, but reliant upon a variety of other aspects of musical experience, including compositional statements, analysis, and connections of aesthetic, as well as listeners' own, imaginative conceptualisations. Accordingly, the approach taken here is similarly multi-faceted: close analytical readings of a number of specific works are combined with insights drawn from philosophy and aesthetics, music perception, and critical theory, with a particular openness to novel metaphorical presentations of basic musical ideas about form, language and time.

Despite their central role in many forms of music-making, drummers have been largely neglected in the scholarly literature on music and education. But kit drummers are increasingly difficult to ignore. While exponents of the drum kit are frequently mocked in popular culture, they are also widely acknowledged to be central to the musical success and aesthetic appeal of any musical ensemble in which they are found. Drummers are also making their presence felt in music education, with increasing opportunities to learn their craft in formal contexts. Drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews and questionnaires, Gareth Dylan Smith explores the identities, practices and learning of teenage and adult kit drummers in and around London. As a London-based drummer and teacher of drummers, Smith uses his own identity as participant-researcher to inform and interpret other drummers' accounts of their experiences. Drummers learn in multi-modal ways, usually with a keen awareness of exemplars of their art and craft. The world of kit drumming is highly masculine, which presents opportunities and challenges to drummers of both sexes. Smith proposes a new model of the 'Snowball Self', which incorporates the constructs of identity realization, learning realization, meta-identities and contextual identities. Kit drummers' identities, practices and learning are found to be intertwined, as drummers exist in a web of interdependence. Drummers drum; therefore they are, they do, and they learn - in a rich tapestry of means and contexts.

Based on primary sources, many of which have never been published or examined in detail, this book examines the music of the late seventeenth-century composers, Biber, Schmeltzer and Muffat, and the compositions preserved in the extensive Moravian archives in Kromeriz. These works have never before been fully examined in the cultural and conceptual contexts of their time. Charles E. Brewer sets these composers and their music within a framework that first examines the basic Baroque concepts of instrumental style, and then provides a context for the specific works. The dances of Schmeltzer, for example, functioned both as incidental music in Viennese operas and as music for elaborate court pantomimes and balls. These same cultural practices also account for some of Biber's most programmatic music, which accompanied similar entertainments in Kromeriz and Salzburg. The many sonatas by these composers have also been misunderstood by not being placed in a context where it was normal to be entertained in church and edified in court. Many of the works discussed here remain unpublished but have, in recent years, been recorded. This book enhances our understanding and appreciation of these recordings by providing an analysis of the context in which the works were first performed.

(The Little Black Songbook). This Little Black Book provides a pocket-sized collection of hundreds of guitar scales, presented in an easy-to-read format. Includes fingerings, full TABs for each scale, and helpful tips for all guitarists.

Developing Expression in Brass Performance and Teaching helps university music teachers, high school band directors, private teachers, and students develop a vibrant and flexible approach to brass teaching and performance that keeps musical expression central to the learning process. Strategies for teaching both group and applied lessons will help instructors develop more expressive use of articulation, flexibility in sound production, and how to play with better intonation. The author shares strategies from today's best brass instrument performers and teachers for developing creativity and making musical expression central to practicing and performing. These concepts presented are taken from over thirty years of experience with musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Barbara Butler, Charles Geyer, Donald Hunsberger, Leonard Candelaria, John Haynie, Bryan Goff, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic and from leading music schools such as the Eastman School of Music, The University of North Texas and The Florida State University. The combination of philosophy, pedagogy, and common sense methods for learning will ignite both musicians and budding musicians to inspired teaching and playing.

The era of the self-playing or automatic piano embraced the first three decades of the 20th century. Piano-playing cabinets were followed by the pneumatic player-piano, soon to be known the world over by the name of the leading American make - Pianola. There were many other makes, of course, with names like Kastonome, Triumph, Pistonola, Claviola, Autoplayer and Apollo. Invented almost simultaneously in Germany and America, player pianos became the most sought-after addition to the family home and the huge industry that built them and made their perforated paper music rolls became both important and wealthy. This book, written by a world-renowned authority on mechanical music and its instruments, relates the development of the automatic piano from the spring-powered dulcimer-playing musical clocks of the 16th century through the once-popular barrel-playing pianos and street pianos to the great era of the Reproducing Piano that could bring a famous artist's interpretation of a musical classic into your own drawing-room. The inventors, their perpetual quest for perfection, and their successes and failures are related in this new and fully-illustrated history. Just how the automatic piano works is described in both words and the author's own clear line-drawings, together with 603 b/w and 43 full colour photos. Also, a guide to servicing, maintaining, and playing player pianos and the magnificent Aeolian Orchestrelle roll-playing reed organ is included. Illustrated appendices include a list of makers, brand-names, and a modern-day valuation guide.

This lavishly illustrated book treats the history of the piano from its invention in 1700 to the present in terms of its technology. Looking at the technologies of design, materials, and manufacture, and focusing its description on specific existing pianos, it describes the changes in pianos from the earliest days to contemporary instruments. This revised edition incorporates the results of recent research that increases knowledge of the work of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the piano; changes perceptions of how eighteenth-century pianos were made and used; adds to the available information about the important contributions of the Steinway Company; and describes the most recent changes to the piano. The first edition of this book received the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society as the best musicological book in English published in 1982-83. Reviews of the First Edition "If you have ever looked under the lid of a piano and wondered about the technical how and why of it all, this is the book to sate your curiosity. . . . Good's vigorous prose breathes life into the technology . . . and brings forward the people involved, with humor and sensitivity." -Los Angeles Times "This is a fine book. Accurate technical description, an abundance of photographs and drawings, and a very readable text complement a provocative thesis." -Technology and Culture "Intriguing reading. It turns out that the story of the piano and its evolution . . . is rife with human interest, at least when Good relates the details." -Keyboard

Developing Expression in Brass Performance and Teaching helps university music teachers, high school band directors, private teachers, and students develop a vibrant and flexible approach to brass teaching and performance that keeps musical expression central to the learning process. Strategies for teaching both group and applied lessons will help instructors develop more expressive use of articulation, flexibility in sound production, and how to play with better intonation. The author shares strategies from today's best brass instrument performers and teachers for developing creativity and making musical expression central to practicing and performing. These concepts presented are taken from over thirty years of experience with musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Barbara Butler, Charles Geyer, Donald Hunsberger, Leonard Candelaria, John Haynie, Bryan Goff, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic and from leading music schools such as the Eastman School of Music, The University of North Texas and The Florida State University. The combination of philosophy, pedagogy, and common sense methods for learning will ignite both musicians and budding musicians to inspired teaching and playing.

No single American could personify what Henry Luce called the American Century but Isaac Stern came closer than most. Despite modest origins as the child of Jewish immigrants in San Francisco, by the early 1940s talent and practice had brought him a Carnegie Hall debut, critical acclaim and the attention of the legendary Sol Hurok. As America came of age, so too did Stern. He would go on to make music on five continents, records in formats from 78 rpm to digital, friends as different as Frank Sinatra and Isaiah Berlin, and policy from Carnegie Hall to Washington, Jerusalem and Shanghai. He also loaned instruments to young players, brokered gigs for Soviet emigres and replied in person to inquiring fans. Wide-ranging yet intimate, The Lives of Isaac Stern is a portrait of an artist and musical statesman who left a profound musical and cultural legacy.

The Faber Music Christmas Piano Anthology is an essential collection of the greatest Christmas songs and carols, specially arranged for solo piano, for the intermediate pianist. The perfect gift for Christmas, this beautiful anthology includes favourites such as O Holy Night, Sleigh Ride and It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas alongside arrangements of Winter (from the Four Seasons), Troika (from Lieutenant Kije), and more.

First Published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This is the first history of the harp in Scotland to be published. It sets out to trace the development of the instrument from its earliest appearance on the Pictish stones of the 8th century, to the present day. Describing the different harps played in the Highlands and the Lowlands of Scotland, the authors examine the literary and physical evidence for their use within the Royal Courts and "big houses" by professional harpers and aristocratic amateurs. They vividly follow the decline of the wire-strung clarsach from its links with the hereditary bards of the Highland chieftains to its disappearance in the 18th century, and the subsequent attempts at the revival of the small harp during the 19th and 20th centuries. The music played on the harp, and its links with the great families of Scotland are described. The authors present, in this book, material which has never before been brought to light, from unpublished documents, family papers and original manuscripts. They also make suggestions, based on their research, about the development and dissemination of the early Celtic harps and their music. This book, therefore, should be of great interest, not only to harp players but to historians, to all musicians in the fields of traditional and early music, and to any reader who recognises the importance of these beautiful instruments, and their music, throughout a thousand years of Scottish culture.

"Maybe you won't like steel band. It's possible. But it's been said that the Pied Piper had a steel band helping him on his famous visit to Hamelin." When the US Navy distributed this press release, anxieties and tensions of the impending Cold War felt palpable. As President Eisenhower cast his gaze towards Russia, the American people cast their ears to the Atlantic south, infatuated with the international currents of Caribbean music. Today, steelbands have become a global phenomenon; yet, in 1957 the exotic sound and the unique image of the US Navy Steel Band was one-of-a-kind. Could calypso doom rock `n' roll? Band founder Admiral Daniel V. Gallery thought so and envisioned his steelband knocking "rock 'n' roll and Elvis Presley into the ash can." From 1957 until their disbandment in 1999, the US Navy Steel Band performed over 20,000 concerts worldwide. In 1973, the band officially moved headquarters from Puerto Rico to New Orleans and found the city and annual Mardi Gras tradition an aptmusical and cultural fit. The band brought a significant piece of Caribbean artistic capital-calypso and steelband music-to the American mainstream. Its impact on the growth and development of steelpan music in America is enormous. Steelpan Ambassadors uncovers the lost history of the US Navy Steel Band and provides an in-depth study of its role in the development of the US military's public relations, its promotion of goodwill, its recruitment efforts after the Korean and VietnamWars, its musical and technological innovations, and its percussive propulsion of the American fascination with Latin and Caribbean music over the past century.

SamulNori is a percussion quartet which has given rise to a genre, of the same name, that is arguably Korea's most successful 'traditional' music of recent times. Today, there are dozens of amateur and professional samulnori groups. There is a canon of samulnori pieces, closely associated with the first founding quartet but played by all, and many creative evolutions on the basic themes, made by the rapidly growing number of virtuosic percussionists. And the genre is the focus of an abundance of workshops, festivals and contests. Samulnori is taught in primary and middle schools; it is part of Korea's national education curriculum. It has dedicated institutes, and there are a number of workbooks devoted to helping wannabe 'samulnorians'. It is a familiar part of Korean performance culture, at home and abroad, in concerts but also in films and theatre productions. SamulNori uses four instruments: kkwaenggwari and ching small and large gongs, and changgo and puk drums. These are the instruments of local percussion bands and itinerant troupes that trace back many centuries, but samulnori is a recent development of these older traditions: it was first performed in February 1978. This volume explores this vibrant percussion genre, charting its origins and development, the formation of the canon of pieces, teaching and learning strategies, new evolutions and current questions relating to maintaining, developing, and sustaining samulnori in the future.

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto is of supreme importance as his last instrumental work. Yet there are a number of special problems surrounding the piece, since the autograph is lost and the unique instrument for which it was written has not survived. This book presents a wealth of background information, an analysis of the Concerto, discussion of performance practice and details of surviving relevant instruments.

A fascinating history of the piano explored through 100 pieces chosen by one of the UK's most renowned concert pianists "Tomes . . . casts her net widely, taking in chamber music and concertos, knotty avant-garde masterworks and (most welcome) jazz."-Richard Fairman, Financial Times, "Best Books of 2021: Classical Music" "[One of] the most beautiful books I got my hands on this year. . . . About the shaping of this maddening, glorious, unconquerable instrument."-Jenny Colgan, Spectator, "Books of the Year" An astonishingly versatile instrument, the piano allows just two hands to play music of great complexity and subtlety. For more than two hundred years, it has brought solo and collaborative music into homes and concert halls and has inspired composers in every musical genre-from classical to jazz and light music. Charting the development of the piano from the late eighteenth century to the present day, pianist and writer Susan Tomes takes the reader with her on a personal journey through 100 pieces including solo works, chamber music, concertos, and jazz. Her choices include composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Gershwin, and Philip Glass. Looking at this history from a modern performer's perspective, she acknowledges neglected women composers and players including Fanny Mendelssohn, Maria Szymanowska, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach.