(Faber Piano Adventures ). Book B of the Fabers' method for the young beginner moves the student into staff-reading. Music notation is explored through stepwise directional reading, pattern recognition, and changing hand positions, all in the context of engaging songs, games and creative exploration at the piano. Maintaining the child-centered philosophy of the series, the "friends at the piano" from the A Books introduce students to the music of two new composer friends Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Classic themes share the stage with contemporary pop and jazz sounds for young ears to absorb and enjoy. The Book B CD presents a vibrant mix of sounds, from boogie to Beethoven. It serves as a listening CD which educates and as an accompaniment CD for play-along.

Specimen Aural Tests provide teachers and students with many practice examples of the tests to use as part of a music lesson or when preparing for an exam. This volume covers Grades 4 & 5 and includes all new practice examples for each test in a range of musical styles including answers where appropriate, and the examiner rubrics (the exact words that will be used by the examiner to deliver the tests), so that candidates can be fully prepared for what will happen on the day. The Specimen Aural Tests volumes are each available in versions with or without practice CDs.

This practical guide treats the mechanics and evolution of the instrument and offers a survey of its literature. The author discusses touch and technique, including articulation and fingering, and the issues involved in historical performance practices. She also provides suggestions on selecting and maintaining a harpsichord.

The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan’s first book of new writing since 2004’s Chronicles: Volume One — and since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.

Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over 60 essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyses what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.

In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years and, like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.