Teaching Genius Dorothy Delay and the Making of a Musician (Softcover) (Amadeus) Review

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(More customer reviews)Barbara Lourie Sand's book about Dorothy DeLay is written by a polished journalist who knows how to tell a good story. The early part of the book is thus the most interesting, tracing DeLay's life and development, first as a moderately successful concert violinist and chamber musician, next as longtime assistant to the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, and finally as legendary teacher and mentor of many of the most successful classical violinists of the 20th century.
Sand mentions in a preface that she shaped this book during the course of a ten-year association with DeLay during which she was also writing articles about some of her well-known students. She obviously had a warm and close relationship with DeLay, her husband Edward Newhouse, and her students, and while this gave her an enviable access it probably hurt her journalistic acumen in the end. Too often, troubling questions are raised and treated dismissively, or quickly dropped--the hardships of raising and nurturing exceptionally gifted children, or outright abuse in the name of discipline and training, for example. Sand treats DeLay's rupture with Galamian in a fair amount of detail, but does not mention that some of DeLay's students have broken very publicly with her as well. Criticisms of DeLay and her style are mostly confined to one chapter and are largely made by unnamed sources. Though DeLay's approach to teaching is discussed in detail, important issues, such as the pros and cons of learning from a teacher who herself never demonstrates, are left untouched.
In short, this book is a good read and intriguing glimpse into the arcane and competitive world of top classical music-making. Because of her unwillingness to "go for the jugular," as she admits at one point, Barbara Lourie Sand loses a chance to make it even more.
Minor quibble: The Accolay Concerto is _not_part of the Suzuki violin literature.

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Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Piano Course: Level 3 (Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am nearing the end of Alfred's All-in-one Book 1, so have only browsed this book. But, I can comment on what I like about the methodology and the books:

1. The progression of theory, exercises, and performance materials is very well thought out. When Palmer says this exercise should be practiced daily, do it. It really helps improve your technical skills.

2. The quality of the construction is high - big easy to read notes and spiral bound so the book lays flat on the piano music stand.

3. The songs are interesting and varied, introducing different genres of music.

The only slight drawback is there is ample opportunity to improvise on a number of the songs and try your hand at composing, but Palmer does not point this out. It is definitely worth doing, really reinforcing a thorough understanding of chords, keys, chord inversions, and other concepts introduced in the text.

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Product Description:
Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course is designed for use with an instructor for the beginning student looking for a truly complete piano course. It is a greatly expanded version of Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course that will include lesson, theory, technic and additional repertoire in a convenient, "all-in-one" format. This comprehensive course features written assignments that reinforce each lesson's concepts, a smooth, logical progression between each lesson, a thorough explanation of chord theory and playing styles, and outstanding extra songs, including folk, classical, and contemporary selections. At the completion of this course, the student will have learned to play some of the most popular music ever written and will have gained a good understanding of basic musical concepts and styles.

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Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course, Book 4 Review

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(More customer reviews)very good book...some nice songs (although I wouldn't play most of these songs at a professional booking). Good for instructional methods though.

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This comprehensive method of music instruction enables the beginner to progress to an advanced stage of technical skill.

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Essential Rhythm Guitar: Patterns, Progressions and Techniques for All Styles (Private Lessons) Review

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(More customer reviews)Nothing special here.It is not a total waste of time, but it is not the most valuable use of time in learning rhythm guitar.There are better books out there.This provides a survey level presentation of various styles.None of the styles are more than cursorily addressed. This really best serves as a introduction to rhythm guitar for someone who has no idea what rhythm guitar is.

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This book/CD pack is based on the concept that, for most popular music styles, there exist a few basic, fundamental rhythm guitar techniques and a set of appropriate chords and chord voicings that determine the sound of each style. This one-on-one lesson with MI instructor Steve Trovato teaches the rhythm guitar essentials for 7 styles: blues, rock, country, fingerstyle acoustic, Latin/Brazilian, jazz and swing, and funk. The CD features 65 full-band tracks. Includes standard notation and tab.

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Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course: Christmas Piano Book (Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm thrilled with the results I am achieving with Alfred's Basic Adult All-In-One Course.
Before starting this course I simply knew what a piano looked and sounded like let alone where Middle "C" was.

Be sure to buy the books with their CD's where provided. It's helpful to hear the pieces played giving one an idea of the appropriate tempo to achieve. Having mastered level one I'm now deep into level two including Broadway Hits, Christmas Song and Alfred's Basic Adult Jazz/Rock Course. I also use Alfred's Basic Adult Finger Aerobics. I've been going it alone now for 15 months.

If you are hiring a piano teacher to help you with this course he/she can guide you with regard to tempo along with much more I presume.

Remember this is the All-In-One Course.There are other and older Alfred's Basic Adult courses be careful to look for this specific course.

[...]

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This collection by one of Alfred's most popular composers is full of easy solo arrangements of favorite Christmas carols for adults who are studying Alfred's Adult All-in-One Course, Book 2.Each selection will bring enjoyment and inspiration to lift holiday spirits!

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Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps Review

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(More customer reviews)Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps by Sylvia Woods.
If you ever had to take a class in music theory in school maybe you are more fortunate than I in that and you can remember and apply some of what youlearned. For the rest of you Ihighly recommendbuying this book ofSylvia's titled; Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps.Written before the "..... for Dummies" series became so popular,this book takes you easily and with lots of examples and illustrations frommajor chords to transposing... and everywhere in between! In theintroduction Sylvia urges the reader to " Have fun with this book. Just goat your own pace, and take it step by step." Presenting concepts and theorystep-by-step is another thing Sylvia does best!!!

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This book teaches harpers step-by-step the music theory and techniques they need to make their own arrangements.Subjects covered include chords, inversions, keys, accompaniment patterns, transposing, and much more.The book gives plenty of examples and includes more than 90 pieces on which the students can practice their newly gained skills as they progress through the book.Spiral-bound.

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