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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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  • Save 10%
    - A Decade of Unstoppable Hits
    by Jim Beviglia
    £32.49

    Celebrating one of the last great glory eras of pop music, Playing Back the 80s features original interviews with over sixty artists, producers, session players, writers and others who were directly involved with the most memorable songs of the decade.

  • Save 13%
    - Riding with the Ghost
    by Erin Osmon
    £12.99

    With a new foreword by Will Johnson, this book presents a detailed account of the Rust Belt-born prolific and at times cantankerous singer-songwriter Jason Molina. As the first authorized account of this self-mythologizer, the book provides unparalleled insight into Molina's tormented life and the Midwest musical underground that birthed him.

  • Save 15%
    - A Steely Dan Companion
    by Barney Hoskyns
    £10.99

    A Rock's Backpages anthology, edited and introduced by Barney Hoskyns, of Steely Dan, one of the defining and bestselling American rock acts of the last half-century.

  • Save 16%
    - The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon
    by Maxine Gordon
    £20.99

    Sophisticated Giant presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923-1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his "solo" turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter's personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, "Man, you ought to leave your karma to science." Dexter Gordon the icon is the Dexter beloved and celebrated on albums, on film, and in jazz lore--even in a street named for him in Copenhagen. But this image of the cool jazzman fails to come to terms with the multidimensional man full of humor and wisdom, a figure who struggled to reconcile being both a creative outsider who broke the rules and a comforting insider who was a son, father, husband, and world citizen. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.

  • by Paul Harris
    £7.99

    Paul Harris's brilliant series of workbooks contains finger fitness exercises, scale and arpeggio studies, key pieces, simple improvisations and composition to help you play scales and arpeggios with real confidence.

  • by Bill Hilton
    £13.49

  • by Jaron K Eames
    £27.49

  • by Martin Huxley
    £13.99

    Sound, throb, and a long low wail of pure, hard pain...Nine Inch Nails. The world's most disturbing rock band is in effect one man singer and songwriter Trent Reznor. Since stealing the show during the original Lollapalooza tour in 1991, NIN has limned the hard edge of the techno revolution. In Reznor's desperate, combative persona and disarrayed melodies the musical community has finally found a band that appalls, confounds, and undeniably attracts. Horrified yet entranced, NIN's fans are like moths drawn toward the disfiguring flame of their music. From a well of previously unpublished research, Huxley has carved out the history of this improbable hero: Reznor's rise as an Appalachian outcast to dyspeptic sex symbol; his connections to Courtney Love; and his relationship with his spasmodically fixated fans. Ricocheting wildly between goth rock and industrial grunge, Nine Inch Nails has achieved a legendary sound. Here, Martin Huxley digs hard and deep to unearth the truth beneath the ultimate noise.

  • - Vocal score
    by Ludwig van Beethoven
    £9.49

  • - Study Score
    by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
    £12.49

  • Save 20%
    - Rock'n'Roll War Stories
    by Allan Jones
    £11.99

    Now collected in a single volume for the first time, journalist Allan Jones selects his favorite columns from Uncut magazine's 'Stop me if you've heard this one before' feature. It covers the highs and lows (mostly lows) of being a music journalist in the 1970s and 1980s.

  • Save 20%
    - Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977
    by Val Wilmer
    £11.99

    An essential masterpiece of jazz history by the renowned photographer and music historian, with a new foreword by Richard Williams.

  • Save 22%
     
    £32.99

    Piano, Voice, Guitar

  • Save 20%
    - Find the warehouse. Lose the hitmen. Pump the beats.
    by Wayne Anthony
    £11.99

    Organised crime puts on a smiley face. When the Summer of Love hit Britain in '88, Wayne embraced the bright new world of dance music, MDMA and all-night celebrations.

  • Save 13%
    by Christopher C. King
    £20.99

  • Save 20%
    by LUDWIG VA BEETHOVEN
    £22.49

    Nos 115 Opp 228.

  • by EDVARD HAGER GRIEG
    £7.99

    Written as a 25th wedding anniversary for his wife, Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen is one of his most famous and popular Lyric Pieces.

  • Save 24%
    - How to get the best from your vinyl records and kit
    by Matt Anniss
    £18.99

    The sales of vinyl in the UK has been growing over the last seven years, with over 2 million sold in 2015. Vinyl and CD sales in the UK are worth over GBP0.5bn. There are now over 14,000 physical shops in the UK which sell records and CDs which i

  • by Nina Ortner
    £23.99

    NOISE MUSIC und die Tradition künstlerischer Avantgarden des 20. Jhdts: Das einleitende Kapitel beginnt mit einem kulturhistorischen Überblick über die Herausbildung geräuschhafter Musik im 20. Jahrhundert. Das nächste Kapitel befasst sich mit dem primären Ort moderner Musikproduktion- der Stadt. Der urbane Raum wird dabei sowohl als reicher Pool außermusikalischer Klänge diskutiert, als auch als Produktions- und Konsumstätte von Musik verstanden. Im Kontext der Club Culture wird besonders auf die Etablierung des turntablism und der DJ culture eingegangen. Anhand dieser Subkultur wird ein neuer, postmoderner Zugang zu hochkulturellen Technologien beschrieben, der auch in der glitch und noise music aufgenommen werden wird. Im vierten Kapitel wird die technische Entwicklung, vom frühen 20. Jahrhundert bis zur Einführung digitaler Medien, und deren Auswirkungen auf den kreativen Schaffensprozess von Musik nachgezeichnet. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ökonomischer Verfügbarkeit hochkultureller Technologien und dem Entstehen neuer Distributionswege, wird die gegenwärtige Musikproduktion beleuchtet. Das fünfte Kapitel ist medientheoretischen Überlegungen und den Auswirkungen des mediatisierten Alltags auf den Produktions- und Rezeptionsprozess von Musik gewidmet. Im sechsten Kapitel werden die unterschiedlichen Stile einer post- digital music erläutert (cracked media).

  • - Study score
    by Sergei Rachmaninoff
    £14.99

  • Save 21%
    - The Life of Edith Piaf
    by Carolyn Burke
    £13.49

    A fascinating new biography of singing legend Edith Piaf

  • by Chris Cowlin
    £10.49

  • - There's Life After Rock 'n' Roll
    by Roland Orzabal
    £10.49

  • Save 23%
    - Die Idee des Gesamtkunstwerks
    by Peter Schnur
    £33.99

  • - Vocal Score
    by Antonio Vivaldi
    £10.49

  • - Celebrating 30 Years of Rap Music
    by Sean Xlg Mitchell
    £25.49

  • - The Rise, Fall and Rise of Death Row Records
    by Jake Brown
    £30.99

    "An intriguing look at the life and times of Marion TSuge' Knight, the controversial rap mogul whose 'gangsta' persona and stable of hard-core artists changed the face of American music."

  • by Bill Bruford
    £17.49

  • - Vocal score
    by Claude Debussy
    £27.99

    Debussy's sole completed opera was given its premiere at Paris' Opera Comique on April 30, 1902. It was the culmination of an eight-year effort on the composer's part. Though not an immediate sensation like Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" two years later in Milan, the five-act lyric drama, after the identically titled play by Maeterlinck, enjoyed a successful run in the first two decades of the 20th century. This new vocal score is a digitally-enhanced reprint of the one issued in Paris by A. Durand et Fils in 1907, with an English translation of the text by Harry Grafton Chapman appearing beneath the original French. Now available in a convenient, readable A4 format at an affordable price. In contrast to so many of the on-demand scores now available, this one comes with all the pages and the images have been thoroughly checked to make sure it is actually readable. As with all PLP scores a percentage of each sale is donated to the amazing online archive of free music scores and recordings, IMSLP - Petrucci Music Library. Wikipedia article IMSLP page

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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