Music

Rapturous in its ability to depict the creative process, Words Without Music allows readers to experience that sublime moment of creative fusion when life merges with art. Biography lovers will be inspired by the story of a precocious Baltimore boy, the son of a music-shop owner, who entered college at age fifteen, before traveling to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger; Glass devotees will be fascinated by the stories behind Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha, among so many other works. Whether recalling his experiences working at Bethlehem Steel, traveling in India, driving a cab in 1970s New York, or his professional collaborations with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing, and Martin Scorsese, Words Without Music affirms the power of music to change the world.

As they embark upon the fourth decade of the career, Metallica's legacy is as unique as it is remarkable: having sold over 100 million albums their status as the biggest Metal band of all time is indisputable. Following the acclaimed first volume, which chronicled the band's rise to international stardom, the authors now explore the challenges and tensions that ensued for the band.From the phenomenal, breakthrough, success of 1991's 'Black' album to the band's reinvention with the 'Load/Reload' albums; bassist Jason Newsted's shock exit in 2001 and the group's subsequent meltdown, as laid bare in the unvarnished fly-on-the-wall documentary Some Kind Of Monster, to the divisive 'St. Anger' and 'Lulu' sets (recorded with Rick Rubin and in collaboration with Lou Reed respectively), they brilliantly capture this unique bands epic, louder than life saga.

No other jazz musician has proved so inspirational and so fascinating as Coltrane. Ben Ratliff, jazz critic for the New York Times, has written the first book to do justice to this great and controversial music pioneer. As well as an elegant narrative of Coltrane's life Ratliff does something incredibly valuable - he writes about the saxophonist's unique sound.

Johann Joachim Quantz's On Playing the Flute has long been recognized as one of the primary sources of information about eighteenth-century performance practice. In spite of its title, it is not simply a tutor for the flute, but a fully-fledged programme for training musicians of all types, with detailed information on intonation, ornamentation, dynamics, the 'duties' of the various accompanying performers, including the leader of the orchestra, and the principal forms and styles (French, Italian and German) of the time. Although Quantz is most often identified as the teacher of Frederick the Great, his musical roots were in Dresden, the most brilliant musical establishment in Germany; and his travels and studies in Italy, France and England gave him direct experience of most phases of European musical life in the 1720s and 30s. This reissue of the second edition provides a wonderfully complete and detailed picture of musical taste and performance practice in the 18th century, and includes a new introduction by Professor Reilly, drawing attention to recent research on Quantz. Whether you want to learn to play the flute and be taught by the teacher of Frederick the Great, or just to gain a first-hand insight into the history of classical music, On Playing the Fluteis an essential and entertaining read.

Miles Davis is one of the most revered artists of the last 100 years, regardless of the art form. Credited with ushering in a new age of jazz more than once, Davis’s unique perception of the world is best known through his memorable music and is arguably more popular now than ever. In later years, he earned additional acclaim as an abstract painter, with many of his originals selling for thousands of dollars and continuing to escalate in value.  But his sense of personal expression didn’t stop with music and painting. Miles Davis’s restless, rebellious personality found an additional creative outlet through his interest in fashion.  From the big shouldered, pleated suits of the forties, to the Ivy League look of the fifties, the sleek Italian suits of the sixties and the more avant-garde looks of the last twenty years of his life, Miles Davis blazed a fashion trail whose impact is still being felt today.MILESSTYLE is the first book to examine Miles Davis, the artist, using himself as a creative canvas.  MILESSTYLE features observations from notable fashionistas like Lenny Kravitz, Bryan Ferry and Lloyd Boston, as well as friends and bandmates like Quincy Jones, Ron Carter, Clark Terry and more regarding his sartorial evolution as well as what his style said about the music and the man.  

The Ultimate Guide to Blues Guitar SoloingAre you struggling to learn the authentic language of blues guitar soloing? Joseph Alexander has helped over 500,000 guitar players improve their skills with his practical, step-by-step guitar guides and his blues books are among his most popular. Finally, he's released his exclusive guide to learning authentic blues guitar soloing from scratch.Far more than a book of licks, this guitar method will help you learn the language of the blues soloing and speak it fluently. Beginner Blues Guitar SoloingThis book will teach you how to play meaningful blues guitar solos from the ground up, with the minimum of theory. Here's what you get:¿ An easy reference guide covering every aspect of blues soloing for beginners¿ Simple but effective lead guitar riffs you can use immediately¿ 160 musical examples, with studio quality audio FREE to download¿ Full-length solos to learn that demonstrate each technique and add to your arsenal of blues licksCan you speak blues?An entire chapter is dedicated to one of the most important aspects of blues vocabulary: question and answer phrasing. Guitar players are often guilty of noodling with scales - which demonstrates their knowledge but lacks real musicality. In this chapter you'll learn how to tell a story with your playing and master the art of phrasing. Great question and answer phrasing is making your music speak so that people will listen - and the techniques you learn here won't only help you play the blues, they'll make you a better all-round musician. As well as ensuring you have good phrasing, you'll also learn a host of expressive articulation techniques.

'ABBA Song by Song' takes a detailed look at every single song by Swedish supergroup ABBA. All of their worldwide hits, the gems hidden on their albums and B sides, and lost songs performed in concert or hidden in the vaults for decades.

In 1721 a 20-year-old soprano employed at the princely court in Kthen married the courts Kapellmeister, set to become the greatest composer of the age. As his second wife she married into a young family with four children, and a busy household filled with music. The music book that Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his new wife Anna Magdalena in 1722, and replaced more lavishly in 1725, treats us to a tantalizing glimpse inside this unique family, allowing us to sit beside Bach as a composer, teacher, husband and father. Over the years, these notebooks became a place for the family to share instructional exercises, favourite pieces

The Pet Shop Boys are one of the most successful and unusual bands of the last five decades. They are the pop duo that proves pop music can be modern, ecstatic and playful as well as serious and intelligent, winning them legions of devoted fans throughout the world. In 1989, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe invited journalist Chris Heath and photographer Lawrence Watson to shadow them around Hong Kong, Japan and the UK as they embarked on their first-ever tour. This book is the result: an immersive portrait giving access into the duo‿s inner sanctum, showing them in brilliantly observed detail as they work, relax, gossip, argue and occasionally try to make sense of what they do. ‿As clear a picture as could be wished for of the seething mass of elegant contradictions that is the Pet Shop Boys‿ on-the-road experience.‿ Independent on Sunday‿This superbly reported book transcends tired rock journalism cliché. It‿s about what it means to be a pop star, what it means to be a Pet Shop Boy‿ how to love pop, hold it to a higher standard and subvert its expectations.‿ Laura Snapes

No other pop group in recent history has faced fame with such intelligence, humour and shrewdness as the Pet Shop Boys. it is an unusually intimate portrait of two maverick British musicians always reluctant to compromise. 'There was a time when the Pet Shop Boys seemed to exist entirely on radio, television and in magazines.

Me and My Piano is the best-selling series by the distinguished authors Fanny Waterman and Marion Harewood, that has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Designed especially for the needs of the younger beginner and delightfully illustrated throughout, the series makes learning the piano an enjoyable experience for both pupil and teacher.This Complete Edition combines Parts 1 and 2 in one book. Part 1 takes the young pianist step by step through the earliest stages of piano technique, leading to very easy pieces for hands together using a constant five-finger hand position in C major. Part 2 builds on these foundations by extending the compass of notes, introducing new rhythms, note values, chords and changes of hand position. Games and puzzles throughout give elementary theory a new lease of life, and children will love the rhymes, songs and Monkey Puzzles pages.

During a seven-decade career that spanned from 19th century Vienna to 1920s Broadway to the golden age of Hollywood, three-time Academy Award winner Max Steiner did more than any other composer to introduce and establish the language of film music. Indeed, revered contemporary film composers like John Williams and Danny Elfman use the same techniques that Steiner himself perfected in his iconic work for such classics as Casablanca, King Kong,Gone with the Wind, The Searchers, Now, Voyager, the Astaire-Rogers musicals, and over 200 other titles. And Steiner''s private life was a drama all its own. Born into a legendary Austrian theatrical dynasty, he became one of Hollywood''s top-paid composers. But he was also constantly in debtΓÇöthe inevitable result ofgambling, financial mismanagement, four marriages, and the actions of his emotionally troubled son. Throughout his chaotic life, Steiner was buoyed by an innate optimism, a quick wit, and an instinctive gift for melody, all of which would come to the fore as he met and worked with luminaries like Richard Strauss, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, the Warner Bros., David O. Selznick, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra, and Frank Capra. In Music by Max Steiner, the first full biography of Steiner, author Steven C. Smith interweaves the dramatic incidents of Steiner''s personal life with anaccessible exploration of his composing methods and experiences, bringing to life the previously untold story of a musical pioneer and master dramatist who helped create a vital new art with some of the greatest film scores in cinema history.

Walking Bass for Jazz and Blues is a complete method to help beginners master each element of Blues and Jazz walking bass. It is designed to develop strong harmonic skills, rhythm, phrasing and note choice.

This perfect resource for any country guitar player contains three bestselling country guitar books in one complete volume. You'll go from absolute basics to playing astonishing country guitar solos. Contains Country Guitar for Beginners - Country Guitar Soloing Techniques - 100 Licks for Country Guitar

This 3-book compilation is filled with over 360 musical examples. Every concept and technique is demonstrated with stylistic licks and riffs - No mindless exercises! Throughout, creativity and understanding is prioritized to you with the knowledge and confidence to get playing immediately Audio is included for all the 360+ examples, including nine extended solo studies and backing tracks. The first two books provide an easy-to follow-method for learning heavy metal guitar from the ground up. For the beginner, with the fundamentals in place, each book starts from the classic rock influences of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, before charting a course through metal's varied development.

“Sting’s gift for prose and reverence for language, nearly the equal of his musical gifts, shine on every page. Even when Broken Music addresses the quixotic life of an aspiring rock & roller, it reads like literature from a more rarified time when adults didn’t condescend to the vulgarities of pop culture.” —Rolling StoneHaving been a songwriter most of my life, condensing my ideas and emotions into short rhyming couplets and setting them to music, I had never really considered writing a book. But upon arriving at the reflective age of fifty, I found myself drawn, for the first time, to write long passages that were as stimulating and intriguing to me as any songwriting I had ever done. And so Broken Music began to take shape. It is a book about the early part of my life, from childhood through adolescence, right up to the eve of my success with the Police. It is a story very few people know. I had no interest in writing a traditional autobiographical recitation of everything that’s ever happened to me. Instead I found myself drawn to exploring specific moments, certain people and relationships, and particular events which still resonate powerfully for me as I try to understand the child I was, and the man I became.

From dealing blackjack in the small-time gangster  town of Steubenville, Ohio, to carousing with the  famous "Rat Pack" in a Hollywood he  called home, Dean Martin lived in a grandstand,  guttering life of booze, broads, and big money. He  rubbed shoulders with the mob, the Kennedys, and  Hollywood''s biggest stars. He was one of America''s  favorite entertainers. But no one really knew him.  Now Nick Tosches reveals the man behind the  image--the dark side of the American dream. It''s a  wild, illuminating, sometimes shocking tale of sex,  ambition, heartaches--and a life lived hard, fast,  and without  apologies.

James Newell Osterberg Jr., better known by his stage name Iggy Pop, is an American singer, songwriter and musician, widely acknowledged as the "The Godfather of Punk". From Raw Power to Lust for Life, he has written a number of influential albums and iconic singles both as the vocalist of The Stooges and as a solo artist who collaborated with David Bowie, Debbie Harry, Alice Cooper and many more.

Published to coincide with the twenty-fifth of the band's founding, an insightful and visual look at the rock survivors' journey so far.

The book offers readers a deeper understanding of Ambisonic technologies, and will especially benefit scientists, audio-system and audio-recording engineers. In the advanced sections of the book, fundamentals and modern techniques as higher-order Ambisonic decoding, 3D audio effects, and higher-order recording are explained.

A great companion for both guitar and piano players, this book places the most popular chords in context. Includes clear diagrams and concise information on what chords are, how they can be used, and what they can be used alongside, with guidance on chord progressions.

Featuring a foreword by Suggs and jam-packed with iconic images, this is the definitive visual history of the Suedehead way of life.

Frank Zappa was an unremitting musical innovator and experimenter always looking for ways to exploit the latest advances in technology. His working life coincided with the explosive development of music technology that ran from the 1960s through the following three decades. Without such inventions as the Marshall amplifier the Gibson SG the wah-wah pedal and the Synclavier¿much of it modified to his requirements and used in ways for which they had never been designed¿Zappa's air sculptures as his music has been described would have had a significantly different shape and texture. Lavishly illustrated¿including over 180 unique photographs of Frank Zappa's guitars and equipment taken by the author at his UMRK studio in LA and featuring a foreword by Dweezil ZappäZappa's Gear offers an unprecedented inside look at the machinery behind the legendary music. In addition to a detailed presentation of the equipment Zappa's Gear also introduces some of the pioneering inventors, engineers and entrepreneurs without whom the instruments would not exist. Zappa's Gear is an official Frank Zappa book produced and written with the full cooperation and endorsement of Gail Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust.

From one of the greatest rappers of all time, comes a revealing look at the dark side of hip hop's Golden Era.

Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans who thought they knew something about Robert Johnson.

MR. TAMBOURINE MAN THE STORY OF THE BYRDS GENE CLARK

The first behind-the-scenes look at one of the most popular bands of the 21st century.

Lifting Shadows is the authorized biography of Dream Theater - the American progressive-metal band & traces the band's history from their mid-1980's Long Island origins through to the arena filling act that they are today. This revised and updated edition features all-new interviews & covers the departure drummer Mike Portnoy. -- .