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Music

Music speaks directly to your feelings and comes in many forms. For that reason Tales have selected some of the finest music books just for you. You can for example find a biography of your favorite music idol, but you can also find music theory books that will help you become your own musician. Whether you like rock, pop, musicals or classical music we have the books for you. Find your inner melody with a music book from Tales.
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  • by Martin Clancy
    £37.49

    Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem highlights the opportunities and rewards associated with the application of AI in the creative arts.

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    by Harry Shapiro
    £13.49

    The first official biography of the last great guitar hero.

  • by Michael Frizell & Jayfri Hashim
    £9.49 - 16.99

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    by Kid Congo Powers
    £10.99 - 15.49

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    by Rick Buckler
    £18.99

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    by Sun Ra
    £51.99

    Drawn from private collections around the world, this is the first comprehensive collection of the Saturn label's printed record covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels decorated by Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra.

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    by Chuck D
    £27.49

    "In Livin' Loud, Public Enemy founder, hip-hop pioneer and revolutionary activist, Chuck D, presents a body of art, each piece reflective of the man behind the music, alongside a biographical commentary tracing his musical and artistic trajectory. From his early roots and the central figures that critically shaped him and his voice, to the formation of Public Enemy, from his Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction through to his time with Prophets of Rage and current day world affairs. Chuck D has been creating musical and cultural observations that challenge public opinion since 1985 and his visual compositions continue to interpret and question the world around us. Chuck D pays homage to his musical influences and peers from James Brown and Woody Guthrie to Def Jam labelmates Run-DMC and Beastie Boys; a host of the most influential hip-hop artists from Ice Cube to Run the Jewels; his twin passions of baseball and basketball; creating a collection of landscapes on tour with Prophets of Rage, and a range of sociopolitical pieces that explore the issues continuing to shape our culture. With a foreword by Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and featuring over 250 of Chuck D's paintings, sketches and drawings, Livin' Loud includes a commentary of over 13,000 words in which he offers unprecedented insight into his life and work."--Back cover.

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    by David Sinclair
    £20.49

    By Philippe Margotin with a foreword by David Sinclair. Pop Rock Icons takes us into the extraordinary world of London, England at the time of the greatest countercultural upheaval that the country has known.

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    by Tony Marnoch
    £9.49 - 15.49

    As one of club culture's most notorious - and best loved - figures, Tony is a complete force of nature. Here he tells the most extraordinary stories of depravity and hedonism, of week-long benders and extreme self-destruction - and of recovery, redemption, friendship and the joy of a good tune.'If you want to change your life but can't.. I strongly advise you read this book' TRACEY EMIN'This is a story that should never have been told' KATE MOSS 'I love this man so much. He was, and always will be, my knight in shining Westwood.' DAVINA MCCALL'Anyone can get a party started, but no one keeps it going like Fat Tony, the energy never dips andwhat a life he's lived.. He's a tosser but we still love him.' ELTON JOHN & DAVID FURNISHDJ Fat Tony has been described as 'the closest thing that club culture has to a national treasure' and the 'unlikely cult hero of quarantine'. Few people have crammed so many lives into one: when your first line of cocaine is aged 16 with Freddie Mercury, where do you go from there?I Don't Take Requests is Fat Tony's breathtakingly candid and outrageous memoir of a life of extremes. From his childhood on an estate in Battersea where he honed his petty criminality, was abused by an older man and made friends with Boy George, to his teenage years spent parading the Kings Road in his latest (stolen) clobber, working as a receptionist for a prostitute, hanging out with Leigh Bowery and Sue Tilley and creating his drag persona, to his life as DJ to the stars and his spiral into serious drug addiction. Now, he is 16 years sober and, alongside working to help others overcome addiction, DJing for everyone from Elton John to Louis Vuitton and the Beckhams - and running one of lockdown's most popular Instagram accounts with its wickedly funny memes. It is all here in horrifying, glorious, heart-breaking detail.'Whenever we host a party, Tony is our first port of call. He'll have everyone dancing, guarantee great memories, and the stories he tells... Just don't f*****g ask for any requests!' DAVID & VICTORIA BECKHAM'There is nobody in London, let alone the world who has lived a more extraordinary life... his journey from villain to real life hero is one of the most beautiful examples of humanity I have ever witnessed. I wouldn't be without this c*nt.' KELLY OSBOURNE'Hearing Tony's story is brutal and shocking. He is nothing short of a miracle and his willingness to be of service to others seeking sobriety is testament to how far he has come from the days of pulling his own teeth out.' MARC JACOBS

  • Save 19%
    by Peter Gallagher
    £12.99

    They pulled on their platform boots and slapped on the makeup when everybody else was discarding theirs. Their albums were subject to poor production, scathing reviews, and commercial indifference. Other bands refused to have them as their opening act. Their record company was up against the wall. By all reasoning, they should have become one of the 'lost' bands of the 1970s, like the Harlots of 42nd Street or the Hollywood Stars. Yet in 1975 Kiss unexpectedly came Alive! and by the following year, they were the biggest rock and roll band - and brand - in America. This is a journey through Kiss's first and most storied decade. It is the story of the four men behind the masks, and the music they made, the studio albums, the legendary live albums, and of one of the greatest rock follies in music history, the four simultaneously released solo album. Along the way, it tells of the costumes and the concerts, the merchandise and the Marvel comic books, the television appearances and the disastrous 1978 movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. And having bestrode the 1970s like an unstoppable colossus, it ends with Kiss under siege, beset by changing public taste without, and combustible personalities within.

  • Save 24%
     
    £17.49

    Illuminating the post-industrial underground. Noise Receptor Journal: sound with impact -- analysing the abstract is one of the most well-respected underground zines dealing with post-industrial music, with a particular focus on dark ambient, death industrial, heavy electronics, and power electronics. Archive Volume 2 compiles Noise Receptor issues 4, 5 & 6, originally published 2016-2018. Featured artists and labels: Anemone Tube / Armour Group / Concrete Mascara / Damien Dubrovnik / Detrimental Effect / Hospital Productions / Human Larvae / Inade / Kevlar / John Murphy / Posh Isolation / Trapdoor Tapes / Ulex Xane / Young Hustlers

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    by Lyndsy Spence
    £14.49

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    by Jeff Apter
    £13.49

    Bon Scott was once asked if he was AC or DC. ''Neither,'' he grinned, ''I''m the lightning flash in the middle.'' And that''s how he lived his life.No one had the same skill with lyrics as Bon, who called his words ''toilet poetry'', his ''dirty ditties''. He could also vividly depict life on the road, best heard in the AC/DC classics ''Long Way to the Top'' and ''Highway to Hell''.When Bon appeared on Countdown in March 1975, the impression he left was indelible. The ugliest schoolgirl to ever grace the small screen, Bon was a mess of tattoos and pigtails, wearing an awkwardly short skirt, all the while puffing on a ciggie. His bandmates, not just the audience, were in hysterics. The video quickly became part of Oz rock folklore.Bon was always the joker in the AC/DC pack. He''d happily pose for a photograph with a joint dangling from his lips or be interviewed in cut-off shorts with a banana provocatively stuffed into his waistband. Anything to elicit a laugh. The off-stage stories surrounding Bon are legendary. After spending a lively couple of days with Bon, Ol'' 55 singer Jim Manzie said, ''My rock-and-roll education was pretty much complete.''Bad Boy Boogie is the first biography to focus on Bon''s remarkable gifts as a lyricist, frontman and rascal. In short, the real Bon Scott.

  • Save 26%
    by Michael Tau
    £21.49

    Expand your aural and sensory experiences with Extreme Music. An exploration of tomorrow's sounds (and silences) today. Michael Tau had spent years obsessed by the extremes of musical expression. Extreme Music: Silence to Noise and Everything In Between is the culmination of decades of research into the sounds (and silences) that comprise the outer limits and conceptual expressions that stretch the definition of music. Tau defines and categorizes these recorded sounds into sections that allow fans and newcomers to explore the fascinating world of musicians who defy convention. He explores a wide range of extremes including volume, speed, and vulgarity to packaging, recording methods, unplayable media, outdated technologies, and digital pioneers. He asks and answers the questions: Are all sounds music? Is silence music? Is a plate of rotting food once cataloged, packaged and sold by a distributor qualify as music? Extreme Music includes over 100 interviews with makers and musicians as Tau uses his background in psychiatry to help readers understand what motivates people to create and listen to non-mainstream music. As a fan of multiple avant-garde musical genres, Tau uncovers the pleasures (and sometimes pain and frustration) found at the outré fringes of music. Extreme Music is the ideal guide for curious seekers, die-hard fans, and cultural investigators. Features images and curated links to samples of music.

  • by Mike Haskins
    £6.99

    Explore 'Beatle Land' and the iconic sites associated with their fame, revealing why the city of Liverpool was crucial to their success.

  • by Tony Rose
    £21.49

    Amber Communications Group, Inc.'s imprint Colossus Books has published Before the Legend: The Rise of New Kids on the Block and...a Guy Named Maurice Starr - The Early Years, a remarkable true story as told by author and former record producer Tony Rose, the primary architect along with Maurice Starr of the Roxbury/Boston Black Music Scene. On July 20th, 21st, 23rd and 24th at a sold out Giants Stadium, (1990), the New kids On The Block with their record producer and manager Maurice Starr, made a triumphant entrance into new York city. Their lives had been filled with hard work, determination, dedication, confidence, success and many failures, but they never lost their belief, love, and loyalty for Maurice Starr and one another. Theirs is a history filled with respect for people of all backgrounds, cultures and colors. This is the true story of the mean streets of Boston, its rappers, singers and dancers; the funk, pop, blues, rock and soul..the back alleys, down south and the recording industry. Five working-class boys living in the "blue collar districts" of Boston, called North Dorchester and Jamaica Plain, and a record producer from the black ghetto of Roxbury would go to the dizzying heights of the music world at a speed so phenomenal, that it shattered all existing record sales and concert tour sales. From the bottom, to the top, this is the true, undoctored, hard-hitting, fact-filled story of Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood, Joe McIntyre.............. New Kids On The Block.........and a guy named Maurice Starr. "Come with me and let me tell you the true story, the real story, the only story. I was there"..Tony Rose. Tony Rose, was born and raised in the Whittier St. Housing Projects in Roxbury/Boston, Massachusetts. During the eighties, he held production deals with Virgin Records, Atlantic Records and Pavilion / CBS / Sony Records through his Solid Platinum Records and Productions, recording, producing and licensing numerous top ten records and albums throughout the world. His over thirty year friendship and musical collaborations with the legendary Maurice Starr and Boston music legend Prince Charles Alexander resulted in the albums "Gang War" and "Stone Killers" produced by Rose, sharing the charts with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" for six consecutive months in the number one, two and three positions throughout the world, and receiving a Gold and Platinum Albums and two Ampex Golden Reel Awards for recording and engineering, in his Boston-based Hit City Recording Studio, New Kids On The Block.

  • by Ami Sarasvati
    £13.49

    "This little book is the perfect place to start your journey of learning to play the Native American style flute (NAF). No musical experience is necessary. In fact, for many people, learning to play the NAF is their first experience playing an instrument. This book will guide you through the basics of playing your flute right away. For those who want to continue building their skills, this book provides plenty of material to do that."--Back cover

  • by Johann Sebastian Bach
    £9.49

    Die 15 Inventionen, die nach wie vor zum grundlegenden Repertoire eines jeden Klavierunterrichts gehören, werden hier nach aktuellem Forschungsstand in modernem Notenstich vorgelegt. Auf der Grundlage von Bachs Autograph und seinem selbst verfassten Vorwort, bereinigt von Fingersätzen und Zusätzen aus Quellen zweiter Hand.

  • Save 16%
    by Edvard Grieg
    £15.99

    Die drei Violinsonaten von Edward Grieg nehmen eine wichtige Stellung im Schaffen des Komponisten ein. Zusammen mit seinen anderen Kammermusikwerken zeugen diese bemerkenswert originellen Sonaten von Griegs Fähigkeit, die klassisch-romantische Form wirkungsvoll durch norwegisches Nationalkolorit zu bereichern.

  • Save 20%
    by Ludwig van Beethoven
    £22.49

    Contents: Nos.16-32 Opp.31-111

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    by Georg Friedrich Händel
    £12.99

    George Frideric Handel's most famous work, The Messiah in English. Comprises 11 versions, 1742-1754 (main text 1752) with keyboard reduction by Kurt Soldan and revised by Donald Burrows. The work is divided into three sections based on biblical texts. The first section deals with Old Testament prophecies of the birth of Christ, the second deals with the life of Jesus and the third part deals with redemption and resurrection.Messiah (Der Messias) HWV 56 (Klavierauszug)Georg Friedrich Händels berühmtestes Werk Der Messias, engl. Messiah, wurde 1742 in Dublin zu einer Wohltätigkeitsveranstaltung uraufgeführt und erfreut sich dank ihrer prachtvollen Gestaltung bis heute größter Beliebtheit. Das Werk teilt sich auf in drei Abschnitte, die auf biblischen Texten basieren. Der erste Abschnitt befasst sich mit alttestamentarischen Prophezeiungen der Geburt Christi, der zweite handelt vom Leben Jesu und der dritte Teil von Erlösung Auferstehung.

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    by Johann Sebastian Bach
    £12.49

    The complete Flute Sonatas of J.S. Bach in two volumes. This first volume contains the Sonatas BWV 1030, 1031 and 1032 in an Urtext edition by Konrad Hampe. Cembalo (piano score) and separate flute part included. With a preface in English and German and critical report, the edition contains a convincing completion of the missing section from the A major Sonata BWV 1032.Flötensonaten, Band 1: BWV 1030-1032 für Flöte und Cembalo (Klavier)Bd.1 Sonaten h-Moll BWV 1030, Es-Dur BWV1031, A-Dur BWV 1032, Flöte und Klavier.

  • Save 23%
    by Romuald Ollivier & Olivier Roubin
    £34.49

    This first-of-its-kind catalog of Elton John's decades-long career tells the story of one of rock's all-time greatest artists, album-by-album and track-by-track.Organized chronologically and covering every album and song that Sir Elton Hercules John has ever released, Elton John All the Songs draws upon years of research to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of how each song was written, composed, and recorded, down to the instruments used and the people who played them. Spanning more than fifty-years of work from Elton and his longtime collaborator, Bernie Taupin, this book details the creative processes that resulted in seminal albums like Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, Madman Across the Water, and Tumbleweed Connection, as well as Academy Award wins for 1995's Lion King and 2020's Rocketman. Newer work like The Lockdown Sessions, which released in 2021, is also featured alongside Billboard stats, tour dates, producing and mixing credits, and other insider details that will keep fans turning pages. Starting with the artist's early days working as a studio musician in London, and featuring interviews with actors, musicians, collaborators, and confidantes, Elton John All the Songs offers readers the most detailed portrait of the artist and his creative process that has ever been produced. Featuring hundreds of vivid photographs that celebrate one of music's most visually arresting performers, Elton John All the Songs is the authoritative guide to one of rock'n'roll's greatest stars.

  • by Brooks Chris Brooks & Alexander Joseph Alexander
    £15.99

  • by Terumi Narushima
    £38.49 - 123.99

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    by Jennifer Lucy Allan
    £8.99

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    by Bob Stanley
    £15.49

  • Save 23%
    by Igor Levit
    £15.49

    Igor Levit ranks among the greatest pianists of his generation, described by The New York Times as 'one of the essential artists of our time'. But his influence reaches far beyond music: he uses his public platform to speak out against racism, antisemitism and all forms of intolerance and prejudice. Convinced of the duty of the musician to remain an engaged citizen, he is recognized and admired for his willingness to take a stand on some of the great issues of our day, even though it has come at considerable personal cost.When the pandemic broke out and Levit was unable to give live concerts, he switched his piano recitals from concert halls to his living room and gained a huge international following. This book opens a window onto Levit's life during the 2019-2020 concert season, charting the transition from his whirlwind life of back-to-back live concerts in packed concert halls to the eerie stillness of lockdown and the innovative series of house concerts livestreamed over Twitter. A year in which Levit spoke out against hate and received death threats in response. A year in which he found his voice and found himself - as an artist and as a person.

Music
Music has that special connection with our feelings. It can both make us happy and sad, help through a crisis and through all the difficult feelings we need to acknowledge. Life is not just about being happy, and music can take you on a journey through all those different feelings. In that way music can function as a form of therapy. Music can comfort you and the lyrics can make you feel embraced and recognized. Some of the songs we love most are those, which have that universal feeling and message in them. Those songs that cover all the different and conflicting feelings of life in a verse. You can learn the secrets behind some of the biggest hits or most beautiful ballads in our selection of music books. 
You could also get to know your biggest idol in our icon books. Some of the music icons have lived an inspiring and sometimes hard life, and you can learn a lot from there stories. We have biographic music books with musicians from different genres, all with their own fascinating story. We have multiple music books about the extremely talented singer Freddie Mercury - the frontman, pianist and songwriter in the legendary band Queen. Freddie Mercury had an amazing career and a magnificent voice, and he was at the same time a huge inspiration for homosexuals and generally everyone, who felt different. The singer must tragically lost his life to AIDS and the world lost one of its biggest stars to date, but you can revisit Freddie Mercury’s amazing talent and read his story in the music books Bohemian Rhapsody - The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury, Freddie Mercury - the Biography, Somebody to Love - The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury, and many more.

Music books for students
If you are studying the wonderful world of music or just wants to improve your performance you should look at our music theory books. They will help you with all the different techniques no matter the instrument. At Tales you find music books for piano, music books for keyboard and music books for guitar. They will all help you in your musicology study or on your journey to becoming an amazing musician yourself. 
We also have music history books that will take you on a journey with all the greatest from Beethoven and Mozart to Tjajkovskij and Stravinskij. When you travel through the history of music you will also visit different music periods and get a better understanding of why the music sounds so differently throughout history. The music is formed by its time and the historical events of that time. If you are interested in the history of music we will recommend the music history book by Cecil Gray called History of Music. The music book moves in the crossfield between the elementary, educational and tries to give answers to some of the things we do not yet understand. It starts with the Gregorian Chant and moves through investigations of both French, Italian, English, and Russian music. 

Musical
If you like to visit the theatre for a musical you can take some of that magic with you home by finding the books, scripts and lyrics of all the biggest hit shows on Broadway and West End. Experiencing a live performance is something unique, but it is over too fast. That is why we recommend you to dive deeper into your favorite musicals with the music books on Tales. You find the lyrics and story behind the world’s nr. 1 hit musical Hamilton that changed the world. The show won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2016 and tells the story of one of America’s Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton. The musical contains an amazing Grammy award winning soundtrack with the most brilliant lyrics telling the story of the American civil war. The man behind it all is the extremely talented Lin Manuel Miranda, who tells the story of American then, but with the sounds and faces of modern times. You can dive into the fascinating story of Alexander Hamilton and the musical in the book Hamilton: The Revolution or you can learn how to perform the amazing songs yourself with the music books Hamilton - Vocal Selections & Piano or Hamilton - Easy Piano Selections

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