Popular Sheet Music Hits: Easy Piano [Paperback] Review

Like the songs in many other piano books Dan Coates has arranged and edited the pieces included here are easy to play.The book has twenty-five compositions all with complete lyrics which makes it a good book for a beginning voice student as well.Some of my favorite standards are in this book including THE WIND BENEATH MY WINGS, SOMEWHERE OUT THERE, THE ROSE, THEME FROM NEW YORK, NEW YORK and MY WAY. Country hits like GOD BLESS THE USA are here as well as Elton John's 70's hit YOUR SONG plus many other well loved songs to make a total of twenty-five selections.Great collection that is fun to play and not too difficult.

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Product Description:
Easy Piano Arrangemnts. Titles include: Foolish Games * The Greatest Love of All * I Will Always Love You * My Way * Over the Rainbow * The Prayer * There You'll Be * A Thousand Miles * Time to Say Goodbye * Your Song and more.

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Dan Coates Complete / Advanced Piano Solos (The Professional Touch Series) [Paperback] Review

This book contains some of the most beautiful arrangements of popular music I have ever heard. Many of the pieces were unfamiliar to me when I bought the book, and others were songs I didn't particularly like. But Coates's arrangements are so beautiful that I love almost all of these songs now. This book is honestly titled: it is for advanced players. This does not mean that it is Rachmaninoff, but most pianists will find it challenging. Determined intermediate pianists can reasonably expect to memorize, play, and enjoy many of these pieces...but it will take some serious practice. Many of the arrangements make extensive use of the keyboard's higher registers -- where many pianists have limited experience.And some songs contain multi-measure passages where 3 are played against 2. Large leaps are common (including in some arpeggiated chords), as are chords with 6 or more notes.The book is well bound (so that it lays fairly flat), and the printing is generally clear and well formatted.Most of the pieces are 3 to 5 pages long.These pieces are worth the extra effort they require, and once the skills are learned, they'll be available forever.

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Product Description:
Arranged by Dan Coates for solo piano.Intermediate to advanced arrangements. A collection of great songs for all occasions, Includes:love and wedding favorites, Broadway standards, pop and country ballads, movie and TV hits. 79 Songs!

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Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: All-Time Favorites [Paperback] Review

This book covers everything in an easy way.Perfect if you are learning on your own with out a teacher.I love using it and never find myself frustrated with lack of understanding.

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Product Description:
Designed to supplement Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course, but may also be used to supplement any piano course. Rich collections of popular folk and country songs, sing-along favorites, holiday songs and arrangements of well-known classics.

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How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home (Instructional) [Paperback] Review

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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Product Description:
This method is a truly entertaining approach to learning how to play the piano. Written by Ward Cannel of the Piano Consortium, the method breaks down music theory into visual concepts which are fun and easy to grasp, so you can learn to play the music you want to play! Perfect for those piano lesson dropouts!

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Alfred's Basic Piano Course: Lesson Book - Level 3 [Paperback] Review

The item took almost 3 weeks to arrive.Other than that, it was fine.

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Product Description:
This easy step-by-step method emphasizes correct playing habits and note reading through interval recognition. Lesson Book 3 introduces ""overlapping pedal""; new time signatures 3/8 and 6/8; and the primary triads in Major and Minor keys. Concepts include: passing one under two and one under three; playing major scales in contrary motion; the chromatic scale; the minor scale.

For reinforcement of each principle as it is introduced, supplementary material is carefully coordinated, page for page, at each level of instruction. Coordinating supplemental books for Level 3 include: Classic Themes
* Composition
* Duet
* Ear Training
* Ensemble
* Fun
* Hymn
* Merry Christmas
* Merry Christmas Ensemble
* Musical Concepts
* Notespeller
* Patriotic Solo
* Recital
* Repertoire
* Sight Reading
* Technic
* Theory and Top Hits! Solo, Christmas and Duet Book.

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Jazz-Blues Piano: The Complete Guide with CD! Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series [Paperback] Review

I've been playing jazz piano for about two years now, and have had great success with The Jazz Piano Book (as one might imagine). The next book that has served me well is Post-Bop Jazz Piano - The Complete Guide with CD!: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series, which is from the same series as the Jazz Blues Piano book under review. So, when I began looking for a book to help me sound bluesy, something noticeably lacking from my skill set, I gravitated toward this book for that reason and because my piano instructor didn't have this book (although he had many others in the same series). I have to say, that overnight, this became my favorite book to work from. There are a lot of reasons for that. First is that this book contains a good dose of easy-to-digest jazz music theory and explanation. The student can choose to skip over this and concentrate on playing the exercises, but I chose to read everything carefully and to try and understand and apply it, and I found it very useful. I was also quite pleasantly surprised when I found myself playing a ii-V-I progression (the backbone of jazz music) in a fashion I had never been shown before (with a moving bass note changing the mode of the chord). I was fascinated, and it made it easy for me to work on doing it in all twelve keys (which is normally drudgery), and to quickly press on in the book. As I played through the exercises, read through the material, then reached the exercises that are on the CD, I kept working on the suggested chords. Because I'm not a raw beginner, the first twenty pages went very quickly, and all of a sudden I found myself at about twenty pages in on exercise 9practicing a straight up blues lick. That's right: two hours and I was playing blues. Very, very exciting. Like all piano books, including a number I have reviewed, this still requires practice and stick-to-itive-ness, but this book provides some small rewards on every page, which I find quite motivational and desirable. I can easily picture myself working through this entire book in a relatively short period of time. Beginning piano students will still need to work on some of this material with an instructor, but anybody with a good technical foundation in piano and at least a small amount of jazz knowledge should be able to work through most of this by themselves, thanks to the useful and well executed CD. Although there are many options and levels available, if you want to sound jazzy or bluesy, without a lot of fuss and without spending a lot of money or time, I really think this book is the best and simplest place to start.

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Product Description:
This comprehensive book/CD pack will teach you the basic skills needed to play jazz-blues piano. From comping to soloing, you'll learn the theory, the tools, and the tricks used by the pros. The accompanying CD features many of the examples in the book performed either solo, or with a full band, including a full chapter of complete songs. Topics covered include: scales and chords * harmony and voicings * progressions and comping * melodies and soloing * characteristic stylings.

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Alfred's Basic Piano Library All-in-One Course, Book 2 [Paperback] Review

I use this book to teach my students, ages 5-11 how to play piano from the most basic level.It has been wonderful.Not only are the songs fun to play, but a lot of them are tunes that the kids know, which makes it more fun for them.It also incorporates the theory in with the playing, so my students never get too bored!I highly recommend these books to any piano teacher looking for a good book to start their students on!

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Product Description:
The Universal Edition is designed for all English-speaking countries outside of the United States, including Canada, the U. K. and Australia. This edition uses the British system of terminology for rhythmic values such as ""crotchet"" for quarter note.

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