General Books

How to Play Djembe (Book/CD set)

Alan L. Dworsky & Betsy Sansby, Alan Dworsky, Betsy Sansby

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Book is great, CD is pretty good 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As a beginner I find the book to be very good, it breaks everything down and gives you steps to learn the patterns. I would give the book a 5 star rating.
The CD is pretty good. The first song, Kuku, is easy to play along with as are some of the others. But on some of the songs, the patterns are played too fast, and I could not keep up, I even had trouble hearing all the drum beats. It would have been very helpful to me if the patterns were played more slowly at first.
The final 5 tracks, Jaguar at Half Moon Lake (parts 1-5), are nice, there is music, singing and drumming. But, I would have preferred something in the style of what was taught in the book, maybe even the same songs that were taught with a full drum circle.

Editorial Review:

This book is a complete, step-by-step, user friendly course on how to play djembe. Right from the start, in addition to learning how to make all the basic strokes, you'll be learning interlocking parts for some of the most popular West African rhythms; Kuku, Djole, Kassa, Madan, Suku, Sunguru Bani and Thiba. After working through only a few lessons, you'll be able to put the parts together and start playing these irresistible rhythms with your friends. The rhythms are written in simple charts, so no music reading is required. The CD that comes with the book gives you a chance to hear how each part sounds separately and how the parts for each rhythm fit together. It was recorded by John Camara, a master drummer from Bamako, Mali. Each rhythm lasts at least five minutes, so you'll have plenty of time to play along. And when John solos during the final three minutes of each track, you'll feel the thrill of playing your part along with an ensemble and lead drummer.

Flamenco Guitar Method Volume 1: Book/CD/DVD Pack

Gerhard Graf-Martinez

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Progressively Wonderful 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I started with this DVD two months after I started playing the guitar. I found the DVD very helpful, and kind to myself as an ultra beginner (although I do read music).

PROS:
*Martinez plays a song in its original speed; then, with tabs and music available to the viewer, he plays it much slower.

*The DVD starts with easy techniques, working its way to more difficult ones. The techniques are shown in regular speed, then a much slower speed.

*The camera gives close-up angles of right-hand techniques.

*Tabs are available.

*After a technique, a song follows using only that technique.

*A highlighted bar moves across the music showing where Martinez is playing. This also serves somewhat as a metronome.

*Great songs

*Wide range of techniques introduced and explained.

CONS:
*The translator for Martinez sounds a bit awkward; nonetheless, every word translated is very comprehensible.

*Sometimes the tabulature (i.e. the actual numbers themselves) is hard to read.

*Rarely is there a close-up on the fingering hand of Martinez.


Overall: I cannot recommend this DVD enough for beginners--it has been immeasurably helpful for me, and has turned me into an intermediate player.

Editorial Review:

Gerhard Graf-Martinez is a passionate flamenco guitarist and teacher. The wealth of his knowledge is captured in this two-volume work, which also reflects valuable experience gained from his activities as a tutor at national and international seminars and workshops. The CD included with volume 1 contains all the pieces and musical examples for Volumes 1 and 2. Besides being a pure pleasure to listen to "Flamenco puro," it also conveys the authentic sound and the pulsating "compas" of this music. This is the only way to learn to play the music properly yourself. The DVD will take you to the passionate world of Flamenco, and you will quickly immerse yourself in this Spanish musical phenomenon.

Practical Method of Italian Singing: For Soprano or Tenor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An excellent systematical method for training the voice. 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful.

The premise behind Vaccai's method is similar to that of the great Corri. While the latter tunes one's intervals through the correlation between various chords and the messa di voce, Vaccai composed short songs to guide the voice. Corri trains the voice; Vaccai leads one to sing, say, a trill, in the context of a song; and the end result is singing Verdi with ease.

about the ricordi edition 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In Italy Vaccaj's volume is available in a Ricordi edition edited by Mr Battaglia, but I guess and hope the real content, meaning the wonderful little arias, is just the same.

First of all, unless you already have a clearly defined vocal range, I suggest you buy the edition for mezzo/baritone, whose range is really a medium one and is good for nearly every voice. Later on, you can buy the edition more suitable to your register.

This small booklet is small in size only.
A beloved textbook, it should be the basis for anyone wishing to train as a singer.
The short, apparently simple arias, are the masterpiece of a genius didactitian: every note, every interval, every sillable of the text is perfect and perfectly suited to educate the inexperienced singer. Those who despise the text as too simple should be ashamed of their musical skills: there is nothing simple here. The arias can be sung by beginners but to sing them properly you have to be a perfectly accomplished artist.
Once you have completed the course you will be able to declare yourself competent in singing.

Another fact is that the arias are beautiful. Vaccaj was not a great composer but he was a wonderful craftsman. All the short arias are small gems, very pleasing to the ear, with nice piano score.

Last but not least this method will be extremely useful to pianists too: technically it is not difficult but it is a wonderful way to learn how to accompany a singer, a very difficult skill.

I have been using this method for the last couple of months and I cannot get tired of it. You will have the most useful buy of your singing career for a couple of dollars. Do not miss it.

Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo

Ned Sublette

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chicago Review Press Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $12.22

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This entertaining history of Cuba and its music begins with the collision of Spain and Africa and continues through the era of Miguelito Valdés, Arsenio Rodríguez, Benny Moré, and Pérez Prado. It offers a behind-the-scenes examination of music from a Cuban point of view, unearthing surprising, provocative connections and making the case that Cuba was fundamental to the evolution of music in the New World. The ways in which the music of black slaves transformed 16th-century Europe, how the claves appeared, and how Cuban music influenced ragtime, jazz, and rhythm and blues are revealed. Music lovers will follow this journey from Andalucía, the Congo, the Calabar, Dahomey, and Yorubaland via Cuba to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Saint-Domingue, New Orleans, New York, and Miami. The music is placed in a historical context that considers the complexities of the slave trade; Cuba's relationship to the United States; its revolutionary political traditions; the music of Santería, Palo, Abakuá, and Vodú; and much more.

In Search of the Craic: One Man's Pub Crawl Through Irish Music

Colin Irwin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beats the Duval crawl hands down(!) 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

My only regret about this book is that I didn't find it before I went to Ireland in 2005 in search of "the music". While my daughter and I did find lots of great traditional music in Cork, Galway, Dublin and other places, Mr. Irwin's book provides as close as you can get to a guide to something as fluid and out of the spotlight as Irish session music and musicians. In the guise of a funny (and it truly is funny) series of musings, Mr. Irwin manages to put together a non-academic, but relatively exhaustive overview of the development and then current state of Irish traditional music. His biases are laid out clearly, many times to be auto-debunked as his travels open his eyes to the precursors of his heroes of the '70's and '80's, like Planxty, Bothy Band, etc. Mr. Irwin's research would be of great benefit to anyone traveling to Ireland for the music, or just interested in Irish traditional music.

Editorial Review:

There's nothing quite like hearing Irish music in Ireland. Not on big concert halls or grand arenas, but in the small pubs in remote areas where the locals habitually gravitate for those informal sessions that invariably develop into a serious social occasion universally known as the craic. For those who play it, it's not a style of music, but a way of life, producing its own culture and characters. After 25 years visiting Ireland both as a music writer and a tourist, Colin Irwin goes in search of the craic. He talks to some of the leading Irish musicians like Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Paddy Moloney, Martin Hayes, Andy Irvine, Cara Dillon, Paul Brady and Frankie Gavin about their experiences and they direct him to places where the craic is mightiest. This is the story of his journey into Ireland's musical soul and the extraordinary characters he meets along the way.

The Native American Flute: Understanding the Gift

John Vames

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Native American Flute: Understanding the Gift 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

We highly recommend this book for the beginner. This is the best beginning Native American flute book to get you started. It is easy to follow and has you playing quickly, so you do not become discouraged. Then you can graduate up to R. Carlos Naki's The Art of the Native American Flute.

Very thorough! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

John Vames describes everything in great detail.
the CD that comes with the book lets you know what all the exercises should sound like. it's a very good Starter Book.

Perfect for a beginner 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I have never played an instrument before. I was looking for a book that started from the beginning with good explainations of how to play the NA flute. This book is just what I was looking for. The CD does a good job of demonstrating what the drill should sound like. It goes slow and has good drills and explaintions. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to learn to play the NA flute.

Editorial Review:

A comprehensive step by step guide for learning how to play Native American Flute as well as the "basics" of making music. Interactive with 39 track audio CD demonstrating all instruction. You will learn: Proper finger and breath control, how to ornament melodies, how to understand Pitch and Rhythms, How to practice successfully, How to creat your own songs, Useful scales to develop technique and How to read printed music and Nakai Flute Tablature

French Song Anthology: The Vocal Library, High Voice

Various

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The largest, most comprehensive collection of French art songs ever published, with 60 songs by 24 composers. This wonderful anthology, with newly researched editions in clean new engravings, includes interesting notes about the composers, poets, facts about the composition and performance history for each song, and new line-by-line translations for study. Some songs are published in transpositions for the first time. This is the ideal collection for teachers to assign to voice students. Includes the complete Le Bestiaire (Poulenc) and Five Greek Songs (Ravel). A CHLORIS (HAHN) AIMONS-NOUS (SAINT-SEANS) AUTOMNE (FAURE) Après un reve (G. Fauré) Beau soir (C. Debussy) CHANSON D'AMOUR (FAURE) CHANSON D'AVRIL (BIZET) CHANSON TRISTE (DUPARC) CINQ MELODIES POPULAIRES GRECQUES (RAVEL) CLAIR DE LUNE (FAURE) DANS UN BOIS SOLITAIRE ET SOMBRE (MOZART) FLEUR DESSECHEE (VIARDOT) GUITARE (BIZET) HEBE (CHAUSSON) JE TE VEUX (SATIRE) L'ABSENT (G0UNOUD) L'ATTENTE (SAINT-SAENS) L'ECREVISSE (POULENC) LA CARPE (POULENC) LA CHEVRE DU THIBET (POULENC) LA SAUTERELLE (POULENC) LA STATUE DE BRONZE (SATIE) LA VIE ANTERIEURE (DUPARC) LAMENTO (DUPARC) LE BACHELIER DE SALAMANQUE (ROUSSEL) LE BESTIARE (COMPLETE CYCLE) (POULENC) LE CHARME (CHAUSSON) LE COLIBRI (CHAUSSON) LE DAUPHIN (POULENC) LE DROMADAIRE (POULENC) LE TEMPS DE LILAS (CHAUSSON) LES CIGALES (CHABRIER) LES CLOCHES (DEBUSSY) LES HIBOUX (DE SEVERAC) LYDIA (FAURE) Lydia (Fauré) MADRIGAL (D'INDY) MANDOLI...

Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset (with CD)

Duduka da Fonsceca, Bob Weiner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

More than one note Samba. 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I am not a drumset player (Yet !) but I'm interested in the rhythms of the world and Brazilian Rhythms are Fantastic, this book is quite good, it has sections on Samba, Bossa Nova, Baiao, Maracatu, Marca and Frevo, and patterns in odd meters.

The book starts with a short introduction on Brazilian music and then explaines the traditional Rhythms and the traditional Brazilian instruments and then demonstrates how to apply those rhythms to the drumset, the book comes with two C.D's which demonstrated most of the musical samples in the book.

Great book for drumset players and ALSO for those who want to understand Brazilian Rhythms.

Also recomended are Airto Moreiras great Videos, C,D's and books, and see also Brazilian Percussion Manual by Daniel Sabanovich and Brazilan Music Workshop by Antonio Adolfo.

For other types of rhythms check out these authors, Alan Dworsky, Reinhart Flatichler, Sule Greg Vilson, Yaya Diallo, Peter Magadini, Robert Starer and Gary Hess.

"The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor"

L. E. McCullough

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Good buy 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book itself is very helpful and has many different type of songs to learn from. However if you don't know how to read music it can by difficult to follow because it doesn't go over in detail how to read music. The Cd is also very helpful, it lets you hear what you need to play.

Not the best teacher... 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Irish tinwhistle music, as it is played, is very different from how it is written on the page. It has a beautiful, lilting sound that you can't get by simply reading the notes and playing them. I've played tinwhistle for almost thirty years, but I've always been a slave to written music, and bought this book because it seemed to show how a good Irish whistle player takes a basic tune and gives it that sound.

McCullough's first full example of an Irish tune, in the chapter "Putting It All Together," is a great example of why this book doesn't do that. The goal of the chapter is to start with a simple, unornamented tune and embellish it, step by step, with grace notes and other ornaments. However, his version of the unornamented tune on the CD is nothing like its written version. It already has that great, lilting Irish sound. I can't even come close to copying what he is doing in an example that he presents as dead simple. He does things involving phrasing and rhythm that he hasn't tried to teach. This is really the essence of the music, and anyone who hasn't grown up listening to Irish music everyday will have a hard time picking it up without some instruction.

Editorial Review:

This best-selling pennywhistle method is a comprehensive, detailed approach to playing Irish music on the tin whistle. There are 72 dance tunes and airs suitably arranged, including some recently composed pieces. Information on technique an dstyle that more advanced players will also find useful.

Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization

Ian Condry

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Editorial Review:

In this lively ethnography Ian Condry interprets Japan’s vibrant hip-hop scene, explaining how a music and culture that originated halfway around the world is appropriated and remade in Tokyo clubs and recording studios. Illuminating different aspects of Japanese hip-hop, Condry chronicles how self-described “yellow B-Boys” express their devotion to “black culture,” how they combine the figure of the samurai with American rapping techniques and gangsta imagery, and how underground artists compete with pop icons to define “real” Japanese hip-hop. He discusses how rappers manipulate the Japanese language to achieve rhyme and rhythmic flow and how Japan’s female rappers struggle to find a place in a male-dominated genre. Condry pays particular attention to the messages of emcees, considering how their raps take on subjects including Japan’s education system, its sex industry, teenage bullying victims turned schoolyard murderers, and even America’s handling of the war on terror.

Condry attended more than 120 hip-hop performances in clubs in and around Tokyo, sat in on dozens of studio recording sessions, and interviewed rappers, music company executives, music store owners, and journalists. Situating the voices of Japanese artists in the specific nightclubs where hip-hop is performed—what musicians and fans call the genba (actual site) of the scene—he draws attention to the collaborative, improvisatory character of cultural globalization. He contends that it was the pull of grassroots connections and individual performers rather than the push of big media corporations that initially energized and popularized hip-hop in Japan. Zeebra, DJ Krush, Crazy-A, Rhymester, and a host of other artists created Japanese rap, one performance at a time.