Customer Reviews

Music from ""The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition""" (Easy Piano)

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

 

 

I hadn't played the piano for about 20 years until I bought this book. I love it. I had a huge grin when I first played The Throne Room, especially The Force theme.

It certainly is easy piano; I could sight read fairly comfortably for the most part, with easy key signatures and rarely more than three fingers used in the bass (which is evenly spread between one, two and three notes at any one time) and mostly single notes in the treble. Being Star Wars, it is easy to recognise a wrong note - these tunes are so familiar.

However, you need to beware. Amazon has posted the same reviews for this book and the one with the same cover - the paperback version. Amazon has also included both song lists in the Editorial Reviews. These two seemingly identical books have a few differences in what songs they include:

1) Cantina Band (Star Wars) and Ewok Celebration (Return of the Jedi) are only in Easy Piano.

2) Ben's Death/Tie Fighter Attack (Star Wars), Han Solo and the Princess (the love theme from Empire), May the Force Be with You (all movies), Parade of the Ewoks (Return of the Jedi), Jedi Rocks (the replacement song for the Max Rebo Band in the Return of the Jedi Special Edition), and Yoda's Theme (Empire) are only in the Paperback version.

So you need to be careful that you buy the one you really want. They are both easy piano. You also need to be mindful that this edition is strictly for piano.

Overall, this product is fantastic. Even the learner can master the tunes within months. If you are adept at the piano, look for one of the more difficult versions.

The last reviewer, Bill Dunham, was incorrect. He said this book had 16 songs and 60 pages. I just received this book in the mail and it actually only has 8 songs, and 36 pages. It does contain some nice photos from the movie. I would recommend it for a beginner piano player who likes Star Wars music who's already had a year of lessons.

I bought this book for my boys 7 and 8 as a step up from a movie tunes book that was a little too easy. This book was the right dificulty level making them have to work a little harder for the finished product but not too hard for kids with only 1 year of piano lessons.

First off, this review is for the regular book, not the easy piano, since I couldn't find a proper page for that book. Star Wars has some of the best music in movies, and most people will recognize the music present from Star Wars. All of the main songs from the original trilogy are in here, including Imperial March, Main Theme, and Force Theme, and even a few unique songs like Jedi Rocks and Cantina Band. The songs appear to be in original key and are really the best songs from Star Wars, and will appeal to original fans. The songs from the original trilogy I feel are more defining and bring back memories for those fans. Sure most of the songs were originally performed by John William's orchestra, but playing them on keyboard is just as musical and brings some of movies best music in a format that isn't too difficult to understand. My only complaint is that a few songs are cut short from their originals, the Imperial March and Emperors Arrival are only a petty two pages, where the full versions of these songs are around 5 minutes.

These are excellent arrangements of the often complex music of John Williams for young players. Although the arrangements are of neccesity simplified, they come across as fairly sophisticated when played and retain the spirit of the originals. "The Imperial March," for example, sounds very impressive, but is not that difficult to play. My son (9), who has been taking lessons for slightly over one year, and is midway through level 2B, was able to easily handle "The Imperial March" with about a week's practice. The kids at school went crazy when they heard him practicing it, and boys, in particular, love it. These are popular recital pieces, judging from the number of recital videos on U-Tube using these arrangements.