A Burnham Publishers book

This is a collection of essential interviews and how-to articles from Guitar Player magazine. It is a must-have for serious guitarists and guitar aficionados, and for the 160,000 readers of Guitar Player magazine. A best-of collection from the magazine's four-decade history, the book gives guitarists invaluable information for improving their playing and understanding the instrument's history, construction, and care. The exclusive interviews include words of wisdom from past masters such as Chet Atkins, Duane Allman, Jimi Hendrix, and Frank Zappa, as well as from six-string stars like Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Eddie Van Halen, Keith Richards, and B.B. King. Readers will sharpen their technique in master classes with players such as John Scofield and Larry Carlton, learn the basics of repair, get pro advice on recording guitar, and learn about the 50 greatest guitar tones of all time and the 101 greatest moments in guitar history.

Anton Rubinstein, a seminal figure in Russian music, was not only a great pianist but also a monumental influence in Russian music education. Rubinstein is responsible for laying the groundwork for Russia's tertiary educational system for the training of musicians and for establishing the use of Western structural forms in Russian music. He later became the foundation director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Detailing Rubinstein's pianistic and conducting repertoire, this work provides insight into Russian nineteenth-century performance practice, and the biography presents a sober assessment of Rubinstein's place in history. The author has researched valuable Russian sources to make this assessment of Rubinstein available in English and has provided informative guidelines for further research.

In attempting to reinstate Rubinstein as an important figure in the history of Russian and international music, this study makes available to conductors and musicologists updated information on an important nineteenth-century music figure and an aspect of Russian music that has either been forgotten or ignored. Researchers and scholars will appreciate the annotated thematic catalog that includes all of Rubinstein's many works for piano, the extensive repertoire lists, and the extensive bibliography.

With clear and easy-to-understand exercises, The Piano Handbook is perfect for anyone interested in learning the piano. It provides fresh material and techniques, and gives brand-new players everything they need to learn and enjoy the piano. This book's innovative tutorial approach to piano covers classical and contemporary music styles in an integrated way. Instead of limiting students to one type of music and one style of playing, author Carl Humphries draws connections between various genres and techniques, highlighting the principles and history they share. Performance, improvisation, and composition are treated as interrelated skills that can be learned together. Featuring a mix of repertoire and freshly composed study pieces, The Piano Handbook demonstrates that learning different kinds of music at the same time can be a positive and enriching experience.

A new addition to the successful Michael Aaron Piano Course lesson books. These new Technic books are centered around Michael Aaron's original Lesson books and are focused on his original teaching concepts.

This is the first book to develop both the theory and the practice of synthesizing musical sounds using computers. Each chapter starts with a theoretical description of one technique or problem area and ends with a series of working examples (over 100 in all), covering a wide range of applications. A unifying approach is taken throughout; chapter two, for example, treats both sampling and wavetable synthesis as special cases of one underlying technique. Although the theory is presented quantitatively, the mathematics used goes no further than trigonometry and complex numbers. The examples and supported software -- along with a machine-readable version of the text -- are available on the web and maintained by a large online community. The Theory and Techniques of Electronic Music is valuable both as a textbook and as professional reading for electronic musicians and computer music researchers.

This innovative survey of large choral-orchestral works is a continuation of the author's previous study of twentieth century works with English texts. Green examines nearly one hundred works, from Rachmaninov's Vesna to Penderecki's Song of Songs. For each work, he provides a biography of the composer, complete instrumentation, text sources, editions, availability of performing materials, performance issues, discography, and bibliography of the composer and the work. Based upon direct score study, each work has been evaluated in terms of potential performance problems, rehearsal issues, and level of difficulty for both the choir and orchestra. When present, solo roles are described. The composers represented in this work include Bela Bartok, Leonard Bernstein, Ernest Bloch, Maurice Durufe, Hans Werner Henze, Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Leos Janacek, Gyorgy Ligeti, Gustav Mahler, Carl Orff, Krzysztof Penderecki, Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and Kurt Weill. Written as a field guide for conductors and others involved in programming concerts for choir and orchestra, this text will prove a useful source of new repertoire ideas and an invaluable aid to rehearsal preparation.

Wail on your harmonica! The harmonica is one of the most popular and versatile instruments in the world. There are several reasons harmonicas are awesome--you can play them anywhere, they're inexpensive, and you can show off in dozens of musical styles. The friendly and pleasingly tuneful Harmonica For Dummies is the fastest and best way to learn for yourself! You'll find an easy-to-follow format that takes you from the basics to specialized techniques, with accompanying audio and video content included to make learning even more simple and fun. Before you know it, you'll be playing jazz in your living room and the blues on your way to work or school--and that's just the prelude to mastering classical riffs. That's right, the humble harmonica has graced some of the grandest concert halls on planet Earth! Choose the right harmonica Enhance your sound with tongue technique Develop your own style Perfect your live performance The harmonica is awesome to learn, but even more awesome to&nlearn well, and Harmonica For Dummies will get you on the road from being an occasional entertainer to becoming an accomplished live performer. P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, you're probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Harmonica For Dummies (9781118880760). The book you see here shouldn't be considered a new or updated product. But if you're in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. We're always writing about new topics!

In Sonata Fragments, Andrew Davis argues that the Romantic sonata is firmly rooted, both formally and expressively, in its Classical forebears, using Classical conventions in order to convey a broad constellation of Romantic aesthetic values. This claim runs contrary to conventional theories of the Romantic sonata that place this nineteenth-century musical form squarely outside inherited Classical sonata procedures. Building on Sonata Theory, Davis examines moments of fracture and fragmentation that disrupt the cohesive and linear temporality in piano sonatas by Chopin, Brahms, and Schumann. These disruptions in the sonata form are a narrative technique that signify temporal shifts during which we move from the outer action to the inner thoughts of a musical agent, or we move from the story as it unfolds to a flashback or flash-forward. Through an interpretation of Romantic sonatas as temporally multi-dimensional works in which portions of the music in any given piece can lie inside or outside of what Sonata Theory would define as the sonata-space proper, Davis reads into these ruptures a narrative of expressive features that mark these sonatas as uniquely Romantic.

Steel Drums and Steelbands: A History is a vivid account of the events that led to the "accidental" invention of the steel drum: the only acoustic musical instrument invented in the 20th century. Angela Smith walks readers through the evolution of the steel drum from an object of scorn and tool of violence to one of the most studied, performed, and appreciated musical instruments today. Smith explores the development of the modern steelband, from its roots in African slavery in early Trinidad to the vast array of experiments in technological innovation and to the current explosion of steelbands in American schools. The book offers insights directly from major contributors of the steelband movement with sections devoted exclusively to pioneers and innovators. Drawing on seven years of research, repeated trips to the birthplace of the steel drum, Trinidad, and interviews with steelband pioneers, Smith takes readers far beyond the sunny associations of the steel drum with island vacations, cruise ships, and multiple encores of "Yellow Bird." Digging deep into Trinidad's history-a tale of indigenous extermination and African slavery, of French settlement and Spanish and British colonialism before mid-century independence-Smith weaves an unforgettable narrative of talking drums, kalinda stick fights, tamboo bamboo bands, iron bands, calypso, Carnival, and the U. S. military. Together, all played major roles in the evolution of today's steelband and in the panman's journey from renegade to hero in the steelband's move from the panyards of Trinidad's poorest neighborhoods to the world's most prestigious concert halls. The reader will discover how an instrument created by teenage boys, descendants of African slaves, became a world musical phenomena. Steel Drums and Steelbands is the ideal introduction to the steel drum, steelbands, and their history.

In this book, Ronald Ebrecht has meticulously studied each of Durufle's works and put together the first book to discuss in detail all of Durufle's music. With encouragement from Durufle's editor and the foundation established in his name, Ebrecht has compiled copious examples from manuscript sources to be published for the first time along with the little-known contextualizing works of Messiaen and Barraine. Most widely known for his masterpiece Requiem, the composer's orchestral gems are analyzed alongside his delightful miniature: the orchestration of the Sicilienne. The organ works which set the standard for virtuosity at conservatories around the world are given new insightful and thorough evaluation by Ebrecht, whose long association with late 19th and early 20th century France and French music affords illuminating connections between Durufle and his predecessors and successors with sweeping insight and minute detail.

No musical entity has been more closely associated with EGuitar WorldE magazine over the years than Edward Van Halen a the man who in the late seventies and early eighties changed the course of guitar history. This collection of classic and new interviews with the great Edward tells the real story behind his earth-shaking technique brilliant songwriting and relationship with both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. This is the authoritative book a revised and updated with new exclusive interviews and information on one of the greatest rock bands of all time and the guitar god at the center of it all.

When F. E. Kirby published A Short History of Keyboard Music in 1966, scholars and keyboard players welcomed it as the first detailed historical interpretation of music for organ, harpsichord, clavichord, and piano. In this book, which is comparable in length but substantially different in content, Kirby focuses on music for the piano "in the fine-art or classical tradition", providing an in-depth survey of music for piano solo, and including discussions of important compositions for piano duet and two pianos. Beginning with early types of keyboard music that influenced the first music for the instrument in the seventeenth century, and ending with the bold, iconoclastic works of the late twentieth century, Kirby provides a scholarly yet readable overview of the literature, drawing on the results of the most recent research. Concerned with the historical context of the works, the author traces the development of the composers' styles in light of the times in which they lived. With an emphasis on principal composers and important compositions, the book is an excellent introduction for anyone interested in the development of the great repertoire of piano music. Incorporating an extensive topical bibliography of more than 1100 sources for further reading - likely the largest ever compiled - and illustrated throughout with music examples, this volume is indispensable to students and teachers at both the graduate and advanced undergraduate levels, music historians, and anyone interested in music literature.

(Book). This expanded edition for beginners to experts is a step-by-step manual to maintaining and repairing electric and acoustic guitars and basses. Players learn how to set up a guitar and keep it in top form by mastering basic maintenance. Features an essential DVD that makes guitar maintenance easier than ever. New features include set-up specs of leading players; stronger coverage of guitar electronics, including pickups and wiring diagrams; and expanded coverage of acoustics.

for organ solo The syncopated Toccatina is influenced by pop music as well as the music of South America, while the use of repeated notes is derived from Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. The piece will be effective on any size of instrument, providing a joyous lift at the end of a service or in a recital.

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.

An instructional book that helps rock guitarists of all levels hone their chops and learn from the masters. Offering lessons, licks, and tips drawn from rock guitar masters, this how-to guide boosts players' soloing techniques, rhythm playing, and understanding of rock theory. Fully updated and expanded, it reveals secrets of nu-metal stars such as Rage Against the Machine, provides lessons on roots-rock legends including Carl Perkins, teaches riffs from rock gods such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen, and spotlights the latest on gear and recording. This book is like taking a private lesson with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, or Keith Richards. Beginners get how-to guidance plus notational symbols for building a solid rock 'n' roll fretboard foundation. Experienced players will find insights from guitar greats to use at the next gig. Outlining the basics as well as some of the masters' techniques, the easy-to-use book covers pentatonic scales, double- and triple-stop approaches to chords and solos, open tuning, wah-wah, the Hendrix rhythm style, and more. With the online recordings bringing these lessons to life, players can pick apart the music by string, fret, and finger while hearing exactly how it should sound.

This volume contains valuable practice material for candidates preparing for the ABRSM Grade 8 Piano exams. The book is written in attractive and approachable styles and representative of the technical level expected in the exam.

This volume contains valuable practice material for candidates preparing for the ABRSM Grade 5 Piano exams. The book is written in attractive and approachable styles and representative of the technical level expected in the exam.

The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of guitar exercises, etudes, and pieces organized according to technique or musical texture. Expert author Christopher Berg, a veteran guitar instructor, bring together perspectives as an active performing artist and as a teacher who has trained hundreds of guitarists to encourages students to work based on their own strengths and weaknesses. The book opens with "Learning the Fingerboard," a large section devoted to establishing a thorough knowledge of the guitar fingerboard through a systematic and rigorous study of scales and fingerboard harmony, which will lead to ease and fluency in sight-reading and will reduce the time needed to learn a repertoire piece. The following sections "Scales and Scale Studies", "Repeated Notes", "Slurs", "Harmony", "Arpeggios", "Melody with Accompaniment", "Counterpoint" and "Florid or Virtuoso Etudes" each contain text and examples that connect material to fingering practices of composers and practice strategies to open a path to interpretive freedom in performance. The Classical Guitar Companion will serve as a helpful companion for many years of guitar study.

The second half of the twentieth century saw vast changes in all aspects of percussion - the instruments themselves, playing techniques, and percussion writing - plus the huge influence of pop music, jazz, and film scores. Additionally, the revolution in travel and communications has meant that composers have become much more aware of a seemingly endless variety of ethnic instruments from around the world. Holland aims to show the world of percussion as it is today, and to answer some common questions about it. Today's professional players frequently find themselves performing in many countries where the availability of percussion instruments can vary widely. Practical Percussion contains a section on manufacturers and suppliers all over the world. In addition to this list of manufacturers, the percussion requirements - both instruments and players - for some 1500 works are also listed. The foreword by Pierre Boulez further assists the reader in appreciating and understanding the richness, variety, and function of percussion instruments the world over.

Creative Health for Pianists: Concepts, Exercises & Compositions is a practical method book for musicians of all abilities. It provides a new way of thinking about the piano, emphasizing the pianist-reader's innate capacity to respond creatively to a musical and technical stimulus. Author and veteran educator Pedro de Alcantara suggests that every pianist, from a complete beginner to a concert artist, may approach the instrument with the frame of mind of an improviser and composer, in which curiosity, inventiveness, and technical skills are inseparable. Throughout the book, original music snippets that encapsulate one or more aspects of piano playing are presented and explained, then developed through tweaks, variations, and compositions of increasing complexity. Every chapter contains variations suited to a complete beginner, as well as musical challenges that will capture the imagination of advanced players. Most chapters contain improvisational prompts and games with step-by-step rules, leading to the development of new creative skills combining musical depth and technical intelligence. Creative Health for Pianists is supported by a dedicated companion website with 48 pedagogical video clips.