Customer Reviews

The First Book of Baritone/Bass Solos

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an outstanding collection of songs for the young baritone or bass singer. Joan Frey Boytim has excellently compiled many songs in many styles from many different historical eras, all of which make a great learning experience.

In response to the reviews above, the CD is not supposed to play the vocal part or have someone sing it. It is meant to play just the piano accompaniment so that you have something to practice your own vocal part with. It is an excellent tool toward vocal independence.

This book and others like it (First Book of Tenor Solos, Soprano Solos, etc...) are not book intended to teach singing to people who have never had any professional training. The previous reviews of this book on Amazon have unfairly deemed this book as being too complicated for people who do not know how to read sheet music.

There are a wealth of resources for those who cannot read sheet music, or who do not intend to be professional singers. They should not buy this book, or any book in the series.

What this book is intended for is for singers who are already involved in professional vocal training or who intend to enter professional training. It requires that you be able to read music, which is like knowing how to walk for humans. It is intended to expand ones repertoire for auditions, and for possible gigs as a trained singer.

That being said, this is an excellent book to consider buying if you are a beginning bassist/baritone and need help finding songs to sing at auditions or recitals. The repertoire for bassists is limited in contrast with the wealth of arias and oratorios for tenors and sopranos (the "preferred" voice if you ask me). But Boytim does a very good job of going through the library of solos and finding ones that are basic enough to give one a chance to focus on pitch, intonation and rhythm, but challenging to an extent that you'll expand your range and be able to work on sight-reading.

Again, do not buy this book if you have never had any training in music or in singing because it is not intended for you. Also, do not malign this book because you bought it anyway and it is too complicated for you.

I agree with the rebuttals to the original review...the book is not marked "Very Basic Songs for the Beginner," it is rather assumed that the person has SOME musical experience, and the CD would provide accompaniment to aid in learning the piece. You do not have to be a 'professional singer' to plunk out the tune; everyone I know has found this book to be extremely useful, and it is worth the price.

These books are a great resource for voice teachers and young singers. I knocked off one star because some of the songs only offer the English transliteration of the text. But they do have good selections for introductions into English, German, French and Italian, and they even have a few Spanish. I use this and the 24 Italian Art Songs in my class nearly every day to teach high school aged singers.

What a crock. I'm not a professional singer. I used to sing back in school and I still sing for pleasure. I was looking for a book/cd combo that I could sing along with to help me strengthen my voice. I've used a lot of Hal Leonard books over the years for several different instruments and this is the first book that didn't come with a companion cd/cassette of the exercises in the book. Of course the companion cd can be purchased separately which doubles the cost. Ok, so I buy the companion CD. There's no vocals on the cd, just piano. I guess if you're a professional singer that can read the sheet music in the book then you're ok. If you can read sheet music then you really don't need the CD. If you can't read sheet music then you're out of luck. I used to have a high opinion of the Hal Leonard series but it's really taken a nose-dive with this offering.