Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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118 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is actually a cookbook, July 16, 2003
Many of those who have reviewed this book here mention that it is a book on music theory. Yes there is some theory in this book and some of it is hard to find in other beginning piano books. I find the section on harmonic progression particularly enlightening. But rather than a book on theory, this is a cookbook with recipes for creating full sounding music out the vocal lines of sheet music, lead sheets, and "fake books".One criticism I have seen of this book is that the style of playing is only suitable for playing old standards, like those by Cole Porter or Rogers and Hart. This is partially true, but if you enjoy the kind of music that is the background in so many movies, particularly Woody Allen films, this book is a gold mine. If you have taken lessons, you will find it fairly easy to pick up on the method here, even if you can't sit down an play anything right now. A lot of it will come back quickly. If you are a rank beginner, this will be a lot of work. Even so, if you put the effort in learning this method that you would put into getting through an adult beginning piano book, you will come away with so much more. That said, I will recommend that you also invest in a beginning piano book and work through that at the same time. There is, or was, a companion VHS video for the book. It is extremely entertaining and allows you to see and hear examples of the methods taught in the book. It is about two hours long and very well done. I haven't seen it around lately, but if you get this book, try to find the video also. Same title as the book.
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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ditto: Best Music Book I've Ever Read, August 27, 2000
I just got an older copy of this book (1976) and was looking for more stuff made by these authors. I was hoping to see a newer version of this book that included a CD.Anyway I wanted to "ditto" the sentiments expressed by many other reviewers. This book explains music in a manner I've never seen done so thoroughly and yet simply. Its *perfect* if you have some music background, but never really got past intermediate phase. Rank beginners will have a more difficult time with the musical notation. However, this book is *so* good that I'd still recommend it to beginners as well... you can learn a lot about making music - some will be applied later than sooner, but its better to already have this book than risk going on for years and having forgotten about it. It will become a reference and guide as you get better. The issue of unfamiliar songs is not a problem - they refer to old "standards" which you can easily find mp3 on the net. I'm also unfamiliar with these songs, and having started to listen to the "standards" has opened up a whole new genre of music for me which I really enjoy. The issue of humor is deserved. These guys try to be funny but the puns make me gag more than guffaw. Its getting to point that its funny because its so not funny. But the great content makes up for this. This book has opened up a whole new understanding of music for me. I now see patterns in music I never knew existed (circle of fifths). And it has explained some little things I've always half-wondered about but never could articulate. Like for example, why some notes of a melody will clash with the harmony... should I create chords for these notes? Or do I just let them clash? Exactly how do they relate to the current chordal structure? Which notes should I make chords for? How do I design my bass cleff arrangement? How do I fill in treble cleff harmony with the melody? Etc. etc. These guys rock! (Or at least they do the fox-trot and the swing! Oh god.. that's the same kind of bad puns they use throughout the whole book... now I'M starting to do it!)
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107 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good basics piano book, November 1, 1998
After reading this book, I would have to say that there are some very good things about it, but also some not-so-good things. First the good stuff: good basic approach to explaining things like chord construction, progressions, sheet music, and how music is made. There are excellent illustrations, with many examples. There is particular emphasis on the circle of fifths and chromaticism and how it relates to chord progressions. Unfortunately, the book lacks a lot of music theory that would probably be important to the beginner(like me). I would have liked to see more treatment of scales and how to use them to improvise, as well as more information on voicings and altered chords. The book is focused on playing out of fake books, (i.e., play chords with one hand, melody with the other, which is a good approach, if that's what you're interested in.) But this piecemeal "playing songs" approach is pretty restrictive. The author relies a little too much on "skelton" bass-chord playing with the left hand, with block chords in the right. It's probably not the book for someone who wants to learn improvisation, or jazz. The book takes a very comical, almost flippant approach to music theory in general, which is good in some ways, but can also can be counter-productive. The humor certainly makes the learning easier, but the book continually says, "if it sounds good, play it," Which I see as a little skimpy in the "why" department of music. It seems too much like he's saying, "Well, you can do this, but if you don't like how it sounds, don't do it." A better method would be to say why it might not sound good, and what alternatives you can do instead. But this is still a good book, actually an excellent book, if you want to be able to play your favorite songs from fake books, and is probably a good stepping stone to more advanced music theory(which boggles my mind most of the time anyways).
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Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
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