Book Description
A complete collection of all three Acoustic Guitar Method books and CDs in one volume! Learn how to play guitar with the only beginning method based on traditional American music that teaches you authentic techniques and songs. Beginning with a few basic chords and strums, you'll start right in learning real music drawn from blues, folk, country and bluegrass traditions. You'll learn how to find notes on the fingerboard, expand your collection of chords by learning songs in various keys, and learn different kinds of picking patterns. When you're done with this method series, you'll know dozens of the tunes that form the backbone of American music, using a variety of flatpicking and fingerpicking techniques. Songs include: Bury Me Beneath the Willow - Delia - Frankie and Johnny - The Girl I Left Behind Me - House of the Rising Sun - Ida Red - In the Pines - Little Sadie - Man of Constant Sorrow - Sally Goodin - Scarborough Fair - Will the Circle Be Unbroken? - and many more.
Customer Reviews:
Let's Play the guitar.......2007-07-06
A practical, simple, and effective method to learn or develop techniques to play the acoustic guitar ithout the need of an instructor.
Great book for the beginning guitarist.......2007-05-22
About a year ago I got a wild hair and decided to buy a guitar. I ended up getting a used Taylor Big Baby. First and only instrument I've really tried to learn how to play. Since I can't afford lessons, I got this book. I'm most of the way through it and am quite happy with the instruction I've received so far. I'm not sure that an intermediate guitarist would get a lot from this book that they couldn't get from better sources, but for a beginner I think it's great.
Unlike another book/CD combo I got, Hamburger has you immediately start playing songs. Very simple songs, granted, but songs nonetheless, which is very satisfying as a rank beginner who isn't sure they want to put the effort into really learning how to play guitar (and it does take A LOT of effort). He teaches how to play some really wonderful old folk songs, mostly American, but also at least one English. I've learned how to play quite a few of them so far, including two of my favorites, Scarborough Fair and House of the Rising Sun. I've also learned a bunch of chords and some strumming and finger-picking patterns, and how to read tablature (I'm afraid I skipped the notation reading part). Am I ready to go on the road? Hardly. But I feel like Hamburger has given me a solid foundation on which to build more advanced skills. I've even been able to jam (sort of) with a friend who's been playing for many years.
I would definitely have liked more strumming patterns. He shows you a couple, but I wish there were more. Learning different strumming patterns from my friend and from websites really added new life to the songs I learned from Hamburger's book. He might also have briefly shown more complex versions of some of the songs. He wouldn't have to break it down step by step like he does with the basic versions, but a taste of what is possible would have been nice. He does at least offer suggestions for albums to buy if you want to hear the professionals play the songs he teaches you---hearing Ralph Stanley sing Man of Constant Sorrow was definitely inspiring.
For a total beginner, I highly recommend this book. It's a lot of fun. I've not only learned how to play guitar, I've learned a lot about American folk music. I definitely plan on checking out his other books once I'm finished with this one.
Great book for beginners and intermediate players.......2006-03-16
This is a great book for intermediate players to brush up on. The song are easy to play and the instructions are very clear. Strongly suggest for any guitar player.
Excellent beginning guitar method (and great teaching tool).......2005-09-19
This is an excellent resource for a beginning guitarist. I've been playing off and on for more than 25 years, but when my 11-year-old expressed an interest in playing guitar, I wasn't sure where to start (after teaching him "Wild Thing" of course). I needed a well structured, engaging instructional set that we could work through together. I headed to the library and a couple of book and music stores to page through everything they had. This was the only book/CD method that really fit the bill. It assumes no prior knowledge of the instrument, has clear, concise lessons that build naturally upon one another, uses real songs rather than just chords and scales and -- as an added bonus -- is based on the styles of music I generally play (blues & bluegrass), so it's pretty familiar territory.
It is working out wonderfully. My son likes the pace and the songs (mostly), I have a good roadmap for teaching him and we're having a great time going through it together.
This would not be a great method for a kid wanting to learn on his own or someone who wasn't into roots music. If you have any prior knowledge of the guitar, the pace is excruciatingly slow, but it is perfect for a total beginner. The only real downside is the binding. It's hard to keep the book open while reviewing the lessons. Spiral binding would have made the book much easier to use.
Solid intro for folk music fans.......2004-11-09
Hamburger does a good job of pacing things for beginners. Enough songs to keep you interested & focused on mastering basic skills, but not so much that you get overwhelmed. A good instroduction to the basic elements that define various folk styles. Also, as another reviewer points out, there are many practice tracks on the CDs, at least one for each exercise leading up to the featured songs and including recordings of simple SLOW strumming of each chord as it's introduced. This might seem like overkill to some, but for anyone who's new to learning to play an instrument, the first great lesson to learn is PRACTICE SLOWLY. Hamburger demonstrates this principle well! Also, playing along with the tracks helps develop solid timing and it's a little more interesting than strumming along to your metronome. If the flatpicking version of Sally Goodin is simple, well, that's because it's for BEGINNING players. Once I mastered Hamburger's simple arrangement, I was able to HEAR better when listening to other recordings of the tune and understand how fiddlers and guitarists and others have embellished and expanded it through improv over generations. It didn't take long before I started experimenting with adding to the arrangement myself--but you have to start at the bottom. He also does a good job of emphasizing the need to learn clear chord changes, something that's best learned a few chords at a time and that can save you a lot of frustration down the road if you focus on it from the start. I appreciate the emphasis on quality of sound in the early stages rather than on pages of chord diagrams.
The layout of the book itself is very clean and easy to read--something many other methods could improve on. My only "complaint" is the stiff binding--spiral would have been nice.
There's not much theory here, but I had theory from other sources before I started learning the guitar. I'm not sure how this method would look to someone who doesn't know music basics already. It's been so long since I had my first do-re-mi lesson that I can't quite picture the world without solfege anymore. As a general intro to folk guitar, this one's as good as the best I've seen.
Book Description
Praise for
No Depression:
No Depression "is in many ways the prototypical peer-group publication that comes along once in a generation and attracts and defines its collective audience of readers, in much the same way that the young rock magazines
Rolling Stone,
Crawdaddy, and
Creem did decades ago."
—Chet Flippo,
Billboard
"For those who crave that tasty trail mix of traditional country, punk, folk, and rock that goes under the moniker alt country or Americana, there is no finer or more thorough source for news, reviews, and profiles [than
No Depression]. We adore the long chewy portraits of the genre's big names, and the dispatches from concertland."
—
Chicago Tribune
"The bible for [alternative country] listeners."
—
U.S. News & World Report
Since the magazine's founding in 1995,
No Depression has reported on and helped define the music that goes by names such as alt.country, Americana, and roots music. Though dismissed by the commercial country music establishment as "music that doesn't sell," alternative country has attracted thousands of listeners who long for the authenticity and rich complexity that come from its potent blend of country and rock 'n' roll and any number of related musical genres and subgenres.
To celebrate
No Depression's tenth anniversary and spotlight some of the most important artists and trends in alt.country music, editors Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock have compiled this anthology of twenty-five of the magazine's best and most representative feature articles. Their subjects range from venerated country artists such as Johnny Cash and Ray Price to contemporary songwriters such as Lucinda Williams and Buddy and Julie Miller to the post-punk country-influenced bands Wilco and the Drive-By Truckers. All of the articles included here illustrate No Depression's commitment to music writing that puts the artist front-and-center and covers his or her career in sufficient depth to be definitive. Alden and Blackstock have also written a preface to this volume in which they discuss the alt.country phenomenon and the history and editorial philosophy that have made
No Depression the bible for everyone seeking genuine American roots music.
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Country: A Regional Exploration (Greenwood Guides to American Roots Music)
Ivan Tribe
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0313330263 |
Book Description
Over its eighty-year history, country music has evolved from little-known local talents to multimillion-dollar superstar musicians. In the 1920s, the first country music was broadcast from WSB radio in Atlanta and WBAP in Fort Worth, and the first records were recorded for Victor. In the 1930s, the first singing cowboys, among them Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, became film stars. After the war years, recordings boomed, and the Country Music Association was founded in 1958. Country music programs began on television with Porter Waggoner's program in 1960, followed by The Johnny Cash Show and Hee Haw. The Nashville Network channel was established in 1993, and from then on, the popular stars of country music have continued to break records, selling millions of copies of their albums. This book examines country music as it developed in regions throughout the United States, noting characteristics of its various subgenres such as bluegrass, honkytonk, and neotraditional music. It provides an indepth look at the people and events that have shaped the industry, and identifies the landmark recordings that old and new fans alike will want to add to their collections. Provides a detailed history of the following subgenres: hillbilly music, cowboy music, western swing, country rock, bluegrass, Nashville sound, and neotraditional, among others. Includes a chronology of country music and an extensive chapter of biographical sketches of all the major songwriters, musicians, and people in the industry.
Book Description
In Hairspray, it's 1962--the fifties are out and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion: to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, The Corny Collins Show, and overnight is transformed from an awkward overweight outsider into an irrespressible teen celebrity. But can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning blond princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in Hairspray!
Based on John Waters's 1988 film, the musical comedy Hairspray opened on Broadway in August 2002 to rave reviews. Hairspray: The Roots includes the libretto of the show--along with hilarious anecdotes from the authors, to say nothing of dance step diagrams and full-color bouffant wigs to copy and cut out--along with all the creative energy, brilliant color, and full-out emotion that have made the musical "a great big, gorgeous hit . . . [that] is a triumph on all levels" (Clive Barnes, The New York Post).
Customer Reviews:
AMAZING Book for all Die-Hard Hairspray fans!.......2007-01-19
I was intorduced to this musical in the Fall of 2006, well after the hoop-la surrounding the original cast. I bought this book and was very happy with the care and detail that went into its production. WHile it focuses on the original cast, any true fan of this show will be amazingly happy to see behind-the-scenes of the show, hear thoughts from the creators and original stars and see pictures, pictures, and more pictures of the Nicest Kids in Town and those close to them!
You Can Get it Cheaper.......2006-01-05
Okay I love this book alot. It includes almost if not the entire show but I think its ridiculous how much they are charging. I bought it for literally $1.07 at the Dollar Tree, so I bought 3 for family and friends.
But I just wanted to say that the book is awesome. If you get the book, you won't regret it. It has so many pictures and little extras so go to the dollar tree and buy it!
Almost as much fun as the show!.......2003-04-23
I have loved this show since I first listenend to the recording, and after seeing the show I think I may be obsessed with it. The show is completely fun and entertaining and this book does a good job at capturing the spirit and energy of the show. I particularly like all the full color photos and candids of the cast offstage as well as the "diary" entries from Marisa Jaret Winokur (Tracy) and Harvey Firestein (Edna). This book is worth it!
Excellent yet imperfect companion to the hit Broadway show........2003-04-17
If you're a fan of the Broadway musical Hairspray, then you need this book. It's really that simple. In addition to a detailed history of the show, tons of photos, insider information, detailed analyses of previous versions of the script and the script that was eventually used, and even more information in general than you could possibly digest in one (or even two) readings, it's full of exactly the same kind of wacky, irreverant style and humor that's found in the show and that's helped to make it such a big success on Broadway. Hairspray: The Roots is hip, hilarious, colorful, and, in its own way, very musical.
Only one thing prevents the book from being the perfect example of its kind and earning a five star rating: it does not preserve the entire complete libretto of the show, choosing instead to eliminate the dialogue in places and replace it with scene descriptions. While this is unthinkable and incomprehensible given the sheer amount of information that was included and the great care that has been put into every other element of it, in the end, this particular frustration remains minor. If you can live with that, you'll find no other flaw in this remarkable, must-own volume.
Book Description
In 1948, the Orioles, a Baltimore-based vocal group, recorded "It's Too Soon to Know." Combining the sound of Tin Pan Alley with gospel and blues sensibilities, the Orioles saw their first hit reach #13 on the pop charts, thus introducing the nation to vocal rhythm & blues and paving the way for the most successful groups of the 1950s.
In the first scholarly treatment of this influential musical genre, Stuart Goosman chronicles the Orioles's story and that of myriad other black vocal groups in the postwar period. A few, like the Orioles, Cardinals, and Swallows from Baltimore and the Clovers from Washington, D.C., established the popularity of vocal rhythm & blues nationally. Dozens of other well-known groups (and hundreds of unknown ones) across the country cut records and performed until about 1960. Record companies initially marketed this music as rhythm & blues; today, group harmony continues to resonate for some as "doo-wop."
Focusing in particular on Baltimore and Washington and drawing significantly from oral histories, Group Harmony details the emergence of vocal rhythm & blues groups from black urban neighborhoods. Group harmony was a source of empowerment for young singers, for it provided them with a means of expression and some aspect of control over their lives where there were limited alternatives. Through group harmony, young black males celebrated and musically confounded, when they could not overcome, complex issues of race, separatism, and assimilation during the postwar period.
Group harmony also became a significant resource for the popular music industry. Goosman interviews dozens of performers, deejays, and industry professionals to examine the entrepreneurial promise of midcentury popular music and chronicle the convergence of music, place, and business, including the business of records, radio, promotion, and song writing.
Featured in the book's account of the black urban roots of rhythm & blues are the recollections of singers from groups such as the Cardinals, Clovers, Dunbar Four, Four Bars of Rhythm, Five Blue Notes, Hi Fis, Plants, Swallows, and many others, including Jimmy McPhail, a well-known Washington vocalist; Deborah Chessler, the manager and songwriter for the original Orioles; Jesse Stone, the writer and arranger from Atlantic Records; Washington radio personality Jackson Lowe; and seminal black deejays Al ("Big Boy") Jefferson, Maurice ("Hot Rod") Hulbert, and Tex Gathings.
Book Description
This classic study of jazz by renowned composer, conductor, and musical scholar Gunther Schuller was widely acclaimed on its first publication in 1968. The first of two volumes on the history and musical contribution of jazz, it takes us from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930's. Schuller explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the twenties--Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and others--and the big bands and arrangers--Fletcher Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington--placing their music in the context of the other musical cultures and languages of the 20th century and offering original analyses of many great jazz recordings. Now reissued in paper, Early Jazz provides a musical tour of the early American jazz world for a new generation of scholars, students, and jazz fans.
Customer Reviews:
essential reference.......2006-07-10
You can argue with Schuller, and in fact, that's half the fun. He's not always right, but he's always interesting. If you're listening to early jazz and an unfamiliar band comes on, you'll be unable to resist looking them up in this book, so put the book next to the radio.
The best musical examination of 20s jazz.......2000-08-14
Jazz criticism tends to run in two groups: one, the biographical/anecdotal (often marvelous to read), and two, word pictures of how the music made the writer feel (often awful to read). Gunther Schuller's "Early Jazz" does what any undergraduate musicology major would do: examine the music note by note, and explain what's going on. While this is not an easy book to read for people like me who have no musical training (or talent, for that matter), it is an absolutely essential book nonetheless. Schuller goes through each major musician and movement of the twenties, and shows exactly what is occurring. What worked best for me was to have the recording he was discussing playing while I read, so I could hear what he was talking about. Anybody in love with the early music of Armstrong or Ellington needs to tackle this book sooner or later.
An American Heritage........2000-05-12
I can't believe that no-one has reviewed this wonderful book until now. It is one of the cornerstones of jazz criticism, and the first one not written by one of these annoying pipe-smoking, foot-tapping listeners you always notice sitting at tables beside the bandstand at jazzclubs, but by a very fine musician who has actually been 'one of the cats'. O.K., he is a French horn-player, but jazz buffs who are 'in the know' with the work of Julius Watkins and John Graas won't mind. But seriously: His chapters on Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton (some thirty years before the Dirty Dozen Brass Band decided to dedicate a whole CD to the music of this first truly 'jazz composer'), but especially Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington will enlighten everyone who is looking for a critical assesment of the music and is tired of the endless re-telling of the phoney 'romantic' stories surrounding this music. And for the people who think they know about everything: One chapter is enirely dedicated to what is known as 'territory' bands, the bands that only played their home town and the region around it. Many a gem of inspired music can be unearthed in this chapter. P.S. O.K., I'm biased. Mr. Schuller autographed my hardcover copy of the book when he was conducting the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra, and I gatecrashed at a rehearsal.
Average customer rating:
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RESOURCES OF AM MUSIC HIS (Music in American Life)
D W Krummel ,
Jean Geil ,
Doris Dyen , and
Deane L Root
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0252008286 |
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The African Roots of Jazz
Fredrich Kaufman
Manufacturer: Alfred Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0882840657 |
Book Description
Klezmer, the Yiddish word for a folk instrumental musician, has come to mean a person, a style, and a scene. This musical subculture came to the United States with the late-nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Although it had declined in popularity by the middle of the twentieth century, this lively music is now enjoying recognition among music fans of all stripes. Today, klezmer flourishes in the United States and abroad in the world music and accompany Jewish celebrations. The outstanding essays collected in this volume investigate American klezmer: its roots, its evolution, and its spirited revitalization.
The contributors to American Klezmer include every kind of authority on the subject--from academics to leading musicians--and they offer a wide range of perspectives on the musical, social, and cultural history of klezmer in American life. The first half of this volume concentrates on the early history of klezmer, using folkloric sources, records of early musicians unions, and interviews with the last of the immigrant musicians. The second part of the collection examines the klezmer "revival" that began in the 1970s. Several of these essays were written by the leaders of this movement, or draw on interviews with them, and give firsthand accounts of how klezmer is transmitted and how its practitioners maintain a balance between preservation and innovation.
Book Description
David Hamburger's supplementary chord book for the Acoustic Guitar Method is a must-have resource for guitarists who want to build their chord vocabulary! Starting with a user-friendly explanation of what chords are and how they are named, this book presents chords by key in all 12 keys, offering both open-position and closed-position voicings for each common chord type. Also includes info on barre chords, using a capo and much more.
Customer Reviews:
Guitar Chords.......2007-06-14
The delivery was well within the promissed date. he publication was another rehashing of guitar cords.
Extremely helpful!.......2005-04-02
As a beginning guitarist with essentially no formal background in music, I find myself frequently at a loss to understand the structure of the music that I'm playing (why is this an A chord and why is that a D?). This book is absolutely outstanding in explaining the nomenclature and structure of chords, even to a relative novice. A couple of hours perusing this and I've developed a MUCH greater understanding of chords and how they are related, how they differ as you move up the fretboard, etc. If you're trying to learn how to PLAY guitar, this book isn't going to be useful, but if you're trying to UNDERSTAND what you're playing and don't already have a musical background, this book is absolutely great!
Books:
- The Art of Spirited Away
- The Book Thief (Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature (Awards))
- The Complete Visual Dictionary of Star Wars: The Ultimate Guide to Characters and Creatures from the Entire Star Wars Saga
- The Enjoyment of Music: An Introduction to Perceptive Listening (Standard Version)
- The Footprints of God
- The Going-To-Bed Book
- The Grammar Bible: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Grammar but Didn't Know Whom to Ask
- The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500-1800 (Critical Issues in History)
- The Jazz Theory Book
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
Books Index
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- 2004 Wisconsin Manufacturers Register
The Acoustic Guitar Method Chord Book: Learn to Play Chords Common in American Roots Music Styles
The Acoustic Guitar Method
Beyond Basics Fingerstyle Guitar (The Ultimate Beginner Series)
The Hal Leonard Acoustic Guitar Method: A Complete Guide with Step-by-Step Lessons and 45 Great Acoustic Songs
Christmas Songs for Beginning Guitar: Learn to Play 15 Complete Holiday Classics (Acoustic Guitar's Private Lessons)
