Book Reviews

The Animusic DVD's are fun animated music videos that transform songs into visual spectacles for the eyes.  Computerized animations and rhythmic renditions of both traditional classical pieces of music (such as Moussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition) as well as original pieces of music that are so well scripted that they actually look like the instruments could actually be playing the notes.

The Finale music notation products are incredibly powerful, flexible tools for writing music, but as a result of their abilities their controls are in some cases equally complex and confusing.  In The Finale Projects, a new tutorial workbook by Tom Carruth, the writer attempts to take Finale users through the program with ten chapters dedicated to the most common and useful parts of Finale.

I was recently given the opportunity to read and review a new book by author Kristen Laine titled American Band:  Music, Dreams, and Coming of Age in the Heartland, published by Gotham Books.  When I first heard the title and saw the cover I was excited to have the chance to take a closer look.  For many years I have hoped to find a book that is both inspirational, educational, and entertaining that also was closely related to teaching band.  I hoped that American Band might provide a glimpse into how high caliber music programs manage to achieve such high marks year after year.  American Band provides such a glimpse into the Concord Band of Dunlap, Indiana, during their 2004 marching season but also goes on to delve into the psychological and emotional issues of its students.

Band members are like a family, and all members of that family regardless of where or when they grew up share similar memories about the years spent with their friends and collegues in the school band.  DJ Corchin takes many of these all too familiar situations and sets them to verse in a funny, light-hearted look at the life and experiences of a true Band Nerd.

In Growing Your Musician, band director Tony Bancroft attempts to help parents make the right decisions when allowing their son or daughter to take up a band or orchestra instrument.  The book, published by Rowman & Littlefield in conjunction with MENC, is 147 pages of information aimed primarily at mothers and fathers that don't know anything about playing an instrument but want to give their child the best possible start.  The information found in Growing Your Musician is pretty old hat for experienced band directors, but even those who have been teaching for decades may find some great new ideas within its pages.

Matt Warnock and Brandon Bernstein recently completed a book of transcribed guitar improvisations taken from Kurt Rosenwinkel’s album “East Coast Love Affair.” Warnock has also provided written analysis for each of the solos supplying further insights. This Mel Bay Publication offers a thorough examination of Rosenwinkel’s guitar work on the inventive and adventuresome album.

 

Dr. Tim has always been a wonderful source of inspiration and innovation when it comes to developing the leadership potential of our students.  One of his latest publications, Leadership: Vision, Commitment, Action (Gia Publications Inc., 2006) is a leadership workbook filled with quotes, thoughts, and focused worksheets developed to help student leaders find and refine their own personal vision of leadership.

For several years now many band. choir, and orchestral directors have sworn by the techniques and concepts outlined in The Breathing Gym, a book written by Sam Pilafian and Patrick Sheridan.  The book and the DVD of the same title help directors teach their students how to breathe and blow properly to support good tone, phrasing, and articulations.  Now the duo have released a new DVD that builds on the concepts and exercises but that is tailored toward being used as a daily warmup routine for use in both ensemble rehearsals or in private lessons and practice sessions.

Fingerpicking Broadway Favorites is a new release from Hal Leonard that contains solo guitar arrangements of fifteen classic Broadway songs. The book contains an introduction, giving a brief outline of how to fingerpick, before diving right into the arrangements that are written in both standard notation and tablature. Though the book suggests that "the arrangements in this book are carefully written for intermediate-level guitarists", anyone who has played the guitar for four to six months would be able to begin working on at least a few of the arrangements in this book.

Jazz Standards for Solo Guitar is the latest book by solo jazz guitar specialist Jamie Findlay. The book contains thirteen classic jazz songs arranged for solo guitar with intros, chord melodies, improvised solo sections and outros/codas. The amount of detail that Findlay contains in each arrangement is commendable, and the inclusion of a full arrangement, including solos, will allow anyone who learns these pieces to immediately take them onto the bandstand or jam session stage. Though some intermediate guitarists may be able to pull bits and pieces from each song to use in their own playing, the level of the arrangements is geared more towards the experienced, advanced, guitarist.