Customer Reviews

The Great Family Songbook: A Treasury of Favorite Show Tunes, Sing Alongs, Popular Songs, Jazz & Blues, Children's Melodies, International Ballads, ... Jingles, and More for Piano and Guitar

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

 

 

I haven't seen this book of sheet music, so I can't evaluate it--that's why I'm giving 3 stars--but here is its table of contents, thanks to the library at stonybrook.edu.

Table of Contents:
American patriotic songs. Battle hymn of the republic ;The caisson song (The caissons go rolling along) ;The star-spangled banner ;Dixie ;America, the beautiful ;Yankee Doodle ;When Johnny comes marching home ;Anchors aweigh ;You're a grand old flag ;Over there ;Marines' hymn ;This land is your land ;America (My country 'tis of thee)

Western, cowboy, & hoedown songs. Red River Valley ;Buffalo gals ;The farmer is the man ;Git along little dogies ;The old Chisholm trail ;Home on the range ;Oh! Susanna ;Sweet Betsy from Pike ;She'll be comin' round the mountain ;Clementine ;Turkey in the straw ;Jesse James

Children's songs. Hush little baby ;Twinkle, twinkle, little star ;The wheels on the bus ;This old man ;Old MacDonald ;Eency weency spider ;B-I-N-G-O ;All the pretty little horses ;If you're happy and you know it ;The noble Duke of York ;Skip to my Lou ;Brahms's lullaby

Blues, jazz, & ragtime. Careless love ;Alexander's ragtime band ;House of the rising sun ;Bill Bailey ;Frankie and Johnny ;St. Louis blues ;Pretty baby ;Swanee ;Put your arms around me, honey ;Lonesome road

Film & show tunes. Meet me in St. Louis; Give my regards to Broadway ;The aba daba honeymoon ;Ain't we got fun ;Look for the silver lining ;Alice blue gown ;I'm just wild about Harry ;For me and my gal ;As time goes by ;When Irish eyes are smiling ;You made me love you

Barbershop & sing-along songs. After the ball ;A bicycle built for two (Daisy Bell) ;The band played on ;By the light of the silvery moon ;Carry me back to old Virginny ;Paper doll ;Moonlight Bay ;In the good old summertime ;My bonnie lies over the ocean ;Down by the old mill stream ;Sweet Adeline ;When you were sweet sixteen ;Take me out to the ball game ;It ain't gonna rain no mo'

Hymns, gospel songs, & spirituals. Jacob's ladder ;Amazing grace ;He's got the whole world in his hands ;Nobody knows the trouble I see ;All my trials ;Simple gifts ;Swing low, sweet chariot ;Shall we gather at the river ;Joshua fit the battle ;This little light of mine ;When the saints go marching in ;Gimme that old time religion ;Rock of ages

Christmas & other holiday songs. The first Noël ;Adeste fideles ;Silent night ;Deck the hall ;Joy to the world ;We three kings ;Jingle bells ;God rest ye merry, gentlemen ;The twelve days of Christmas ;We gather together ;O little town of Bethlehem ;The dreidel song

American folk songs. Aura Lea ;Shortnin' bread ;The blue-tail fly (Jimmie crack corn) ;Shenandoah ;Buttermilk Hill ;I've been working on the railroad ;Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah ;On top of Old Smoky ;Down in the valley ;Poor wayfaring stranger ;Camptown races ;Old folks at home (Way down upon the Swanee River) ;Erie Canal ;Banks of the Ohio ;The yellow rose of Texas ;If I had a hammer (The hammer song) ;Tom Dooley ;Goodnight, Irene ;Oh, them golden slippers! ;The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald ;Bottle of wine ;Blowin' in the wind

International folk songs. Ach! du lieber Augustin ;Black is the color ;Cockles and mussels (Molly Malone) ;All through the night ;Alouette ;Mary Anne ;Blow the man down ;Auld lang syne ;Greensleeves ;Danny Boy ;La cucharacha ;Hava nagilah ;Loch Lomond ;I know where I'm going ;Drunken sailor ;Scarborough Fair ;The John B. sails ;Those were the days ;Michael, row the boat ashore ;Kum ba ya ;Barbara Allen.

This treasury is exactly what I was looking for when I began searching for an accompaniment sing a long book to use with my kids. It has almost every song I wanted, and plenty more I wouldn't have even thought of.

The book itself is high quality - heavy card stock pages, spiral bound, beautiful pictures and clear typeset. The arrangements are easy to read and the lyrics are a decent size for most eyes. Each song has a paragraph of history/explanation at the top and these are filled with gems in and of themselves.

The quality of the musical arrangements is also top notch - they are simple enough for most pianists to play without much rehearsal (early intermediate in difficulty) but written in such a way that the greater mood of the song is really captured. The harmonies are well selected to deliver maximum musical impact with minimal difficulty. Almost all of these songs are set in very easy keys as well, which is a bonus for sight reading without much preparation.

My only criticisms, and they are small, are that there are no suggested fingerings on any of these pieces and that some verses are missing from a few of the songs. With the fingerings, it would do any pianist well to go through the songs before playing and write in a few - a lack of fingerings can unnecessarily stumble sight readers. With the missing verses, all the most popular refrains are represented and most pieces are complete as written (to the best of my knowledge) so this quibble is minor. If I really want the fifth verse of random-patriotic-anthem, I can pull it up on Google easily enough and just play another repeat of the score.

For families who want to spend some time singing old favorites together, to charity playing in nursing homes or even as a supplement to a homeschool unit on a historical event, "The Great Family Songbook" is a phenomenal addition to any sheet music library. Our family will be enjoying this for many years to come!

This is the best collection of familiar songs that I've found. The arrangements are easy enough to learn quickly, but don't sound simplistic. I play the piano at nursing homes, and encourage the residents to sing along. These selections are perfect.

This is a great songbook for singalongs. It has the songs that "everyone" knows written in easy keys to play in. Worth every penny!

I am a music teacher, and I love this song book. It has very playable arrangements with all the top songs that Americans should know. One of the best compilations of this kind I've seen.

For some reason, I'm not as impressed with this book as I thought I would be, but I think that is MY fault, not the fault of this very nice resource.

Most of these songs were completely unfamiliar to me. A few I'd hoped to find were missing from the pages as well. I was pretty unimpressed with the songs available here as 'show tunes', to be honest.

But there are many, many old favorites here as well. I love the setup, and the binding is wonderful. The inclusion of a brief history of the songs was a special bonus.

I love the book... lots of great, easy to play and sing songs! I almost gave it a four star rating because the cover is not real sturdy. But even at that, I would highly recommend purchasing it, because the price was right!!! It's a wonderful book of oldies but goodies!!! It would be well worth it even at a higher price.

This is an interesting collection of songs, but it could have been a lot more comprehensive. There are plenty of songs in the public domain that are available, and it would have been nice to see them here.

The inside is nicely illustrated (my 3-year old loves it), and I like the way the songs are grouped. A lot of the songs are unknown to us, in particular some of the old show tunes. It would have been better with more songs and fewer illustrations.