New synths with unique features and layers of complexity are released frequently, with hundreds of different synths currently available in the marketplace. How do you know which ones to use and how do you get the most out of the ones you already own? The Musical Art of Synthesis presents synthesizer programming with a specific focus on synthesis as a musical tool. Through its innovative design, this title offers an applied approach by providing a breakdown of synthesis methods by type, the inclusion of step-by-step patch recipes, and extensive web-based media content including tutorials, demonstrations, and additional background information. Sam McGuire and Nathan van der Rest guide you to master synthesis and transcend the technical aspects as a musician and artist. Synths are presented using a multi-tiered system beginning with basic instructions for all common synth techniques. Historical information is included for each type of synth, which is designed to help you understand how each instrument relates to the bigger picture. Advanced level instruction focuses on modern implementations and on mobile devices, with special focus on performing and practical usage. The goal The Musical Art of Synthesis is to bring all of the different types of together in the same discussion and encourage you to see the similarities and differences that force you to gain a better overall understanding of the synthesis process. Key features of this title: * This book will teach you how to put synthesizers to use with easy-to-use synth patch recipes * Using a unique, multi-tiered approach applicable to the level of equipment in use, this publication introduces concepts that apply to a wide range of hardware/software synthesizers. * A robust companion website, featuring video demonstrations by synthesizer experts, further supports the book: www.focalpress.com/cw/mcguire

This reference guide to the life and work of the prolific American wind band composer, Alfred Reed, includes a brief biography followed by detailed bibliography and discography sections. The biography traces Reed's life and those experiences that helped to shape his music and philosophies. Attention is given to Reed's popularity with and influences upon bands throughout the world and especially in Japan. A complete listing of Reed's more than 250 works and premiers are categorized by genre. The extensive discography section cites more than 400 recordings, and the bibliography section includes the many writings by and about Reed.

This unique reference will appeal to music scholars and band directors with an interest in Alfred Reed and in wind band music. As a useful research tool, each section of the volume is cross-referenced. Additionally, two appendices list Reed's compositions, one alphabetically and the other chronologically.

Note-for-note transcriptions of all the piano and keyboard parts on 16 of King's greatest songs: Beautiful * Been to Canaan * Home Again * I Feel the Earth Move * It's Too Late * Jazzman * (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman * Nightingale * Smackwater Jack * So Far Away * Sweet Seasons * Tapestry * Way Over Yonder * Where You Lead * Will You Love Me Tomorrow * You've Got a Friend.

What if Bach and Mozart heard richer, more dramatic chords than we hear in music today? What sonorities and moods have we lost in playing music in "equal temperament" the equal division of the octave into twelve notes that has become our standard tuning method? Thanks to How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony, "we may soon be able to hear for ourselves what Beethoven really meant when he called B minor 'black'" (Wall Street Journal).In this "comprehensive plea for more variety in tuning methods" (Kirkus Reviews), Ross W. Duffin presents "a serious and well-argued case" (Goldberg Magazine) that "should make any contemporary musician think differently about tuning" (Saturday Guardian)."

For over a century, drummers have been turning to a variety of percussive traditions as prompts for the creation of new expressive possibilities on the drumset. In this book, Simon Barker sets out in detail the developmental processes he has followed creating an improvisational language for the drumset utilizing Korean rhythm/sticking cells, aesthetic conceptions, improvisatory codes, and developmental procedures. Barker offers historical overviews of Korean traditional rhythmic forms, analysis of rhythmic structures appearing in a variety of styles, an analysis and chronological account of his development of a 'Koreanized' approach to the drumset, a methodology for performing p'ansori accompaniment on the drumset, an introduction to Korean extended techniques, and a large collection of drumset studies based on Korean traditional forms such as tasA rA m, ch'ilch'ae, and ritual music structures from Korea's East Coast. Barker also explores physical practices employed by Korean musicians which aid in the development of a relaxed, dynamic approach to performance. He creates a framework for creating an alternative approach to drumset education and performance through an engagement with Korea's extraordinary rhythmic and aesthetic traditions. The volume includes accompanying downloadable resources featuring recordings of developmental exercises, solo drumset improvisations, and ensemble performances, each track representing a subject of discussion within the volume.

For many years, musicians in Nashville have used a system of numbers, rather than standard musical notation, in playing and singing and at recording sessions. Neil Matthews, Jr., one of the original members of Elvis Presley's back-up vocal quartet The Jordanaires, invented the system and also wrote this book, which teaches the whole system and also includes quotes, stories and photos of country and pop stars. The second edition features 12 songs to play: Beautiful Brown Eyes * Blue * Boot Scootin' Boogie * Crying in the Chapel * Green Green Grass of Home * He Stopped Loving Her Today * Heartbreak Hotel * (Hey, Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song * I Fall to Pieces * King of the Road * Make the World Go Away * Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys.

Contemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians teaches students how to orchestrate for a wide variety of instruments, ensembles, and genres, while preparing them for various real-world professional settings ranging from the concert hall to the recording studio. Unlike most orchestration texts, it includes coverage of contemporary instruments and ensembles alongside traditional orchestra and chamber ensembles.

Features

• Practical considerations: Practical suggestions for choosing a work to orchestrate, and what to avoid when writing for each instrument.
• Pedagogical features
• • In the Profession: Professional courtesies, considerations and expectations.
  • Building the Score: Step-by-step construction of an orchestration.
  • Scoring Examples: Multiple scoring examples for each instrument.
  • Exercises: Analyzing, problem solving, and creating orchestration solutions.
• Critical Thinking: Alternate approaches and solutions.

As the 1970s gave way to the 80s, New York's party scene entered a ferociously inventive period characterized by its creativity, intensity, and hybridity. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor chronicles this tumultuous time, charting the sonic and social eruptions that took place in the city's subterranean party venues as well as the way they cultivated breakthrough movements in art, performance, video, and film. Interviewing DJs, party hosts, producers, musicians, artists, and dancers, Tim Lawrence illustrates how the relatively discrete post-disco, post-punk, and hip hop scenes became marked by their level of plurality, interaction, and convergence. He also explains how the shifting urban landscape of New York supported the cultural renaissance before gentrification, Reaganomics, corporate intrusion, and the spread of AIDS brought this gritty and protean time and place in American culture to a troubled denouement.

Performing in musical ensembles provides a remarkable opportunity for interaction between people. When playing a piece of music together, musicians contribute to the creation of an artistic work that is shaped through their individual performances. However, even though ensembles are a large part of musical activity, questions remain as to how they function. In Embodied Knowledge in Ensemble Performance, Murphy McCaleb explores the processes by which musicians interact with each other through performance. McCaleb begins by breaking down current models of ensemble interaction, particularly those that rely on the same kind of communication found in conversation. In order to find a new way of describing this interaction, McCaleb considers the nature of the information being shared between musicians during performance. Using examples from postgraduate ensembles at Birmingham Conservatoire as well as his own reflective practice, he examines how an understanding of the relationship between musicians and their instruments may affect the way performers infer information within an ensemble. Drawing upon research from musicology, occupational psychology, and philosophy, and including downloadable resources of excerpts from rehearsals and performances, Embodied Knowledge provides an holistic approach to ensemble research in a manner accessible to performers, researchers and teachers.

(Educational Piano Library). Unit 1 of Book 3 begins by introducing eighth notes in 4/4 and 2/4 time. Swing eighths are also presented in the first half of the book. Folk, jazz, classical, and contemporary selections provide students with an interesting variety of repertoire. The second half of Book 3, teaches relative and parallel major/minor five-finger patterns, and students learn to improvise their own songs using these basic patterns. This package includes a Piano Lessons Book and an enhanced CD. The CD works in any CD player but it also contains MIDI files for Windows and Mac computer users.

The author of Beyond the Notes demonstrates how a working musician draws energy from the events of daily life, and sometimes seeks a refuge from them in music. Out of Silence is a diary of a year in Susan Tomes's life as a performer. Taking as its inspiration Schumann's remark that 'I am affected by everything that goes on in the world, and I think it all over in my own way', it aims to show how a working musician mulls over and draws energy from the events of everyday life. We follow this internationally renowned pianist as she prepares for concerts and performs, both as a soloist and as part of a chamber ensemble; we experience the highs and lows of practising and the challenges of live performance, we see her planning masterclasses and interacting with both musicians and audiences. She casts her mind back to her childhood - practicing before school on cold Edinburgh mornings, playing 'Danny Boy' for a relative - and reflects on paintings, dance, books, sport and gardening. 'A delight and a revelation...She writes with Schubertian intimacy, modesty and grace,' said the Independent of her first book, Beyond the Notes. Here Susan Tomes strives to unlock the secrets of great music and to understand its place in the wider world. SUSAN TOMES has won a number of awards for her recordings of chamber music. For fifteen years she was the pianist of Domus, and for another fifteen she has been the pianist of the Florestan Trio, one of the world's leading piano trios. She is the author of Beyond the Notes and A Musician's Alphabet. She writes occasionally for the Guardian and on a blog on her own website, www.susantomes.com.

How did a music instrument transplated to South America by colonial Jesuit missionaries earn the official designation as Paraguay's cultural national symbol? This ethnomusicological and organological study of the Paraguayan diatonic harp in the twentieth century tells its story as an emblematic national musical instrument. First used liturgically by Jesuit missions in colonial times, the transplanted European diatonic harp was transformed and adopted into the folk music vocabulary of Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata region. Following the commercial success of Paraguayan harpist Felix Perez Cardozo in the 1930s in Argentina, the instrument's symbolic value as an icon of social, cultural, and national identity was articulated in local traditions such as popular folk music festivals. It received designation of arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan harp) and, in 2010, official recognition as simbolo de la cultura nacional (cultural national symbol). The author's fieldwork in Paraguay and continuous contact with composers, educators, festival organizers, harp performers, researchers, and festival organizers have provided unique insights into the development of the Paraguayan harp tradition as a cultural icon of the nation.

Brahms' First Symphony has been hailed as Beethoven's Tenth. Its controversial status and relationship in the Beethovenian tradition is considered alongside other important issues in the early reception history of this key work in the symphonic repertory. In this 1997 book, David Brodbeck begins with an account of the lengthy genesis and complicated background to the writing of the symphony, before providing a thorough critical reading of the work, movement by movement. In particular, the author reveals a dense web of extra-compositional allusions - references in the music to works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Robert Schumann - in which, the author argues, much meaning resides.

Specifically designed to teach jazz basics to students with 1 or 2 years playing experience, but with no prior experience playing jazz. Great for individual or classroom use. Teaches the basics of swing style in a step-by-step approach using well-known songs. Improvisation is made easy starting with simple 2-measure phrases. Scales and basic theory are introduced in a simple and easy to understand approach. 2 CD's are included with recordings of all exercises and arrangements. Other features: 7 full band arrangements, sample solos, jazz history and people.

(Instrumental Folio). 12 Disney favorites with a CD that lets you play along with a full band Titles include: Be Our Guest * Can You Feel the Love Tonight * Colors of the Wind * Friend like Me * Let's Get Together * Under the Sea * You've Got a Friend in Me * Zero to Hero * and more.

In this book, scholars and artists explore the relation between electronic music and bodily expression from perspectives including aesthetics, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, dance and interactive performance arts, sociology, computer music and sonic arts, and music theory, transgressing disciplinary boundaries and established beliefs. The historic decoupling of action and sound generation might be seen to have distorted or even effaced the expressive body, with the retention of performance qualities via recoupling not equally retaining bodily expressivity. When, where, and what is the body expressed in electronic music then? The authors of this book reveal composers', performers', improvisers' and listeners' bodies, as well as the works' and technologies' figurative bodies as a rich source of expressive articulation. Bringing together humanities' scholarship and musical arts contingent upon new media, the contributors offer inspiring thought and critical reflection for all those seriously engaged with the aesthetics of electronic music, interactive performance, and the body's role in aesthetic experience and expression. Performativity is not only seen as being reclaimed in live electronic music, interactive arts, and installations; it is also exposed as embodied in the music and the listeners themselves.

The BBC's Jazz Book of the Year for 2008. Few jazz musicians have had the lasting influence or attracted as much scholarly study as John Coltrane. Yet, despite dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and his own recorded legacy, the "facts" about Coltrane's life and work have never been definitely established. Well-known Coltrane biographer and jazz educator Lewis Porter has assembled an international team of scholars to write The John Coltrane Reference, an indispensable guide to the life and music of John Coltrane. The John Coltrane Reference features a a day-by-day chronology, which extends from 1926-1967, detailing Coltrane's early years and every live performance given by Coltrane as either a sideman or leader, and a discography offering full session information from the first year of recordings, 1946, to the last, 1967. The appendices list every film and television appearance, as well as every recorded interview. Richly illustrated with over 250 album covers and photos from the collection of Yasuhiro Fujioka, The John Coltrane Reference will find a place in every major library supporting a jazz studies program, as well as John Coltrane enthusiasts.

Part of the best-selling Improve your sight-reading! Series by renowned educationalist Paul Harris, Improve your sight-reading! Trinity Edition Piano Grade 3 has been specifically written to support the Trinity College London sight-reading criteria and reflects Trinity's parameters for Grade 3. Improve your sight-reading! Series is designed to help you overcome all your sight-reading problems. These books follow the same progressive format as previous editions where technical aspects are introduced step-by-step, firstly through rhythmic and melodic exercises, then by studying prepared pieces with associated questions, and finally by 'going solo' with a series of meticulously graded sight-reading pieces.

Musical instruments, from the simplest pipes and drums to those of the utmost complexity, have formed an integral part of the cultures of all peoples of the world from the beginning of time. Their range and diversity have inspired the skill and genius of maker, composer, and player. This book celebrates that achievement and examines in a single A-Z sequence the astonishing variety of acoustic instruments throughout the ages.

Each entry provides a concise description of the instrument itself, its construction, development, and playing techniques, together with details of its sound and use within the orchestra or, for ethnomusicological instruments, within rites of passage. Musical examples highlight these points, and the whole text is beautifully illustrated with over two hundred photographs and figures.

General articles cover instruments by period, continent, family, and other common groupings, such as orchestra and brass band, while there is wide coverage of related topics, including pitch, chord symbols, forgeries, and oddities.