Customer Reviews

Simply Gershwin the Music of George & Ira Gershwin: 20 of Their Most Popular Works (Piano - Personality Book, Easy Piano)

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I'm going to sound like a broken record, because I have basically the same review to report for this book as I did for Simply Brubeck - The Music Of Dave Brubeck - 26 Of His Top Jazz Classics. That is to say...

The arrangements are very well done--definitely on the intermediate side, but not terribly so. A student who has been playing for 1-2 years should be able to reward themselves with at least the main theme after a few hours of work. And for this reason, I'd give to book a solid 4 stars.

But the binding...it's the opposite of "lay flat", and woe unto anybody who tries to play from it without serious mechanical help. We have a page-spreading device, and it is barely a match for the binding, even though I have broken that binding in three places--near the beginning, in the middle, and near the end. The book binders were obviously oblivious to the considerations of how the book would be used.

So...wonderful content, but not wonderfully executed as a book meant to rest open on a piano.

This book is amazing. When you start playing any piece, you can immediately hear the Gershwin Sound. Of course, the student has to work at it and understand what the arranger, Tom Gerou, is trying to help you with. Sometimes, it's understanding the use of a moving baseline under the melody. Sometimes, it's getting better at playing right hand chords or left hand harmony. Sometimes, it's getting a more precise sense of the rhythm. Each song is arranged to teach the student something important about playing the piano, and also learning something about George Gershwin's melodic genius. Songs in the Gerswhin songbook number into the hundreds, but Mr. Gerou has selected some of the very best. I truly believe that if the student wants to learn to play Gershwin and have fun doing so, this is a great book for pianists of modest skill like myself. You'll only get better by using it! Bravo to the Publisher and Bravo to Mr. Gerou, the arranger!