Perfect tool for melodic direction lesson!
590659
I love this book! The illustrations are delightful and the story is endearing. I've added some dotted lines to mark the paths of the characters and I use it in my music lessons for young children to siren the up and down and horizontal directions they take. I also use the inside cover as prompts for making Do Mi and Sol melodies, because the images of the dryers are perfect for that! I got the idea at a music workshop.
3417632
Hello Music has been an absolute Godsend for our family. Using Mary's Method in Hello Music, my three daughters were reading music and understanding music within the first day. They learned in their first few lessons what it took me months to learn in a tradition classroom 30 years ago. Hello Music is a revolutionary way to look at music, and each lesson is quick but thorough enough to make it stick! I highly recommend this book to any beginning student or lover of music, at any age. We are eagerly awaiting the next book in Mary's new series--we hear through the grape vine it might be Hello Piano!

****In addition to writing, I am also a professional musician: bass guitar (25 years), flute (20 years), guitar (10 years), percussion (6 years), singing (whole life!)
4797716
As a professional singer myself, I wish this book had been available when I was young and just beginning to learn repertoire and build my piano skills in order to accompany myself. It has been an excellent back-to-basics resource for building my skills as an adult. I've recommended Chord Crash Course to many fellow singers of all ages, and without exception, they LOVE it. My piano skills as a young singer were not great, and having a book like this early on would have given me a solid understanding of chords and melody such that I could have quickly expanded my repertoire and learned new songs a lot faster than I did. I can imagine some other practical applications as well, including as a tool for singer/songwriters who might have a lot of great ideas in their heads, but limited theory and composition skills to get them onto paper and out into the world. A colleague whos a piano teacher uses this book (on my recommendation) in conjunction with more traditional method books to help his students who want to be able to quickly learn new songs they hear, while still working on the regular technical aspects of their lessons.  My favorite part of the book covers transposition (a CRITICAL tool for singers, songwriters, and accompanists, who often need to play and sing songs in very different keys from the original sheet music), how to read and play from lead sheets, and how to create an open mic song by choosing a chord progression and pattern from the lessons learned in the book. I think Chord Crash Course is a practical and fun tool for singers, songwriters, piano students, piano teachers, and accompanists of all ages, and I definitely recommend it!
2739560
Just a great learning and practice tool and it supports 2 plays at a time , so a lead and rthyem guitar can play together !
3174153
I liked the akai mpk 25 midi keyboard. On installation, everything mapped out perfectly. Here's a bug in your ear.....
If you're sincere about playing the piano or guitar or guitars :-), no matter if you're amateur/novice or professional, this bit of software could be for you and enable you to eventually help you to play like a pro, the easier way!
I'm waiting for EZ STRINGS GUITAR! Comemoan Toontrack! Guitars outsell Pianos 10 to 1! Annie who, back to the message at hand.

EZ KEYS by: Toontrack
EZ Keys should help revolutionize the music business. Why? If you can tap out the melody of a song, you can essentially write beautiful music. Indeed, it's just a matter of time until the major DAW's add this important feature to their software. Although
EZ seamlessly integrates and works well within all of the major programs and hardware.
Don't just take my word for it, uh Forrest:-) Google it and see what you find. I can tell you now, it's gonna be good!

EZ Keys as like having a gifted college music professor sitting beside you everyday as you write and compose your tunes daily, while slowly but surely learning how to write and play. This college music professor is with you everyday while you play, correcting you and helping you to superstardom. or, maybe just stardom. Everyone doesn't want to be a superstar. The beauty of it all is that you don't have to go online to do all this. Learning this way bends the learning curve to shorten the time it takes to become professionally proficient at the keyboard. I love this type of on the job training. Hours go by so quickly...........

Lot's of times I start writing and toying around with this program, look up at the clock and two hours have gone by. What seemed like thirty minutes was actually two hours. I love this program. All you have to do is write or play whatever you can mainly create the melody with your right hand, then compile it, then EZ automatically creates the left hand chords for you. If you want to you can also change those first few notes you've chicken pecked out (that's how I do it everyday) and alter them to triad 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths,... on up to 13ths..... and more. Realistically, rarely do you have to go over 7ths.
After that Keys pops up a circle of 4ths and 5ths and let's to toy around with it to see and hear what the neighboring chords look and sound like, then you write some more then compile again, then repeat, then after doing this a dozen or so times, you've got a complete song that sounds way above your current level of play. These compositions actually makes us sound like we really can play the piano:-) And the best thing, it really does sounds good! It doesn't sound amateurish or hokey like those songs we played out of the music books with the finger numbers over and under the notes, telling us which fingers to use when playing a song. Trust me! It don't get no easier kid:-)

You can play a shoestring, if you're sincere.

  ---John Coltrane---
3868441
This is an amazing gadget! When I first attached it to my guitar's head, I thought my Gibson was already in tune...NOT! Three strings needed serious tweaking and the Poly Tune Clip made it fast, easy and entertaining for the rest of the family to observe. It's going to save me a load of time...instead of tuning, I'll be playing :) What a frustration eliminator for new players, too. Best musical investment I've made. LOVE IT!
2044239
Exceeded my expectation! Just right for teaching a beginner!
588052
I have a 6 string electric guitar with no time, or money to go to a  place and sign up for guitar lessons. That's why I got this item, I did a research on it first before purchasing this (highly recommend doing the research before you buy).

I highly recommend this for people who seriously want to learn. Keith Wyatt is a great instructor, you immediately learn so much with the guitar that it's fun, and encouraging. The lessons are not confusing at all, it's simple and point blank. From my experience and point of view, this is probably the best idea I've made concerning my guitar. This dvd has helped me expand my personality on a musical level.

Overall, Highly recommended !
3735689
Ultimately, guitarists (not to mention all musicians!) have to teach themselves their instrument.  What a good teacher can do is give you a format, an outline to lead you down the road.  Joe's method is easy to follow and his audio files really reinforce what he's trying to show the student.  He is certainly shining a bright light to me to show me the way on my journey.  I'm really thankful for his efforts and appreciative for his clarity and work.

Buy them all, people!  They're a tremendous bargain.......Personally, I'm starting to see and feel my instrument.  Imagine that time and place when you look at your fretboard and you see things that you didn't see before......WOW!  Keep 'em coming, Joe!!
2821452
This is one of the best, if not the best, saxophone tutor I have come across. As a teacher myself, I really appreciate really good teaching materials. There are a series of Funk Riffs or phrases, three per track, so the user immediately is shown the idea of how a theme or phrase can be developed.

Now here is the really clever bit: following each phrase is a section of identical length with the same backing track, so you can play along at once. Then follows the second phrase, the unaccompanied backing track, and so forth.

Then follows an identical backing track, this time without the sax.

Everything, as it were, is broken up into bite-sized chunks. This makes it easier to use than the great slabs of music you are sometimes offered by other publishers(at the end of a busy day as well!)

When I got it I was so impressed I went off and bought another one in the series called Latin Solo Work Out. Amo, amas amant, perhaps not.

Oh yes, if you like me you are based in the Great Wen (London, England) you save seven quid by buying it from our American cousins and letting them post it to you, rather than on the Amazon UK website.
1336703
Like many dudes, I've been strumming a guitar since high school. A decent ear, sense of rhythm and a few chords were all I ever had or needed to strum my way through campfire circles and parties but I was only able to regurgitate what I'd heard and memorized using tablature.

At 34 I've picked up the bass and I want more. This book is helping me get there. Not only is it a good introduction to scales, but its basic principle of "CONTENT OVER PATTERNS" where you learn to play through scales in ANY position on the fretboard, is already helping me develop a fluency that I've never experienced with a musical instrument. The instructions are specific at first, using tablature to show you various paths around a fretboard while playing the C Major scale, but the intent is to leave those instructions behind and find your own way around the fretboard, using NO PREDETERMINED PATTERNS, but rather a natural fluency, knowing where the notes are without thinking about it, and playing them however you chose.

There are hundreds of different ways to play through 2 octaves of a major scale on a four string bass, so why assume you've learned a scale if you can only play it in one or two patterns?!? Using this technique, you'll be playing all the way up to the 24th fret. I always treated that region of the fretboard like it was only for show, but now I hope to wear out the crowns up there as fast as anywhere else!

After LESS THAN ONE HOUR using this approach, I already feel like I can PLAY on the bass, instead of memorize and regurgitate music based on patterns. My fingers are moving freely over the fretboard and finding the right notes without thinking about it!

Yes there is still a long way to go before I'll be fluent in music or on the bass, but this approach is helping me discover the fretboard in my own way, using my ears instead of memorized patterns that have nothing to do with music.

The one thing I think could be improved upon would be the ability to increase the size of musical staff and tablatures using Kindle for PC. I can make the font bigger in the text, but the staffs and tabs stay the same size, which is kinda small. I wear glasses to read, so I have to lean real close to my screen just to read those tablatures. But then again, the overall intent (thus far) is to not read those tabs anyway, so I'm still giving this book 5 stars.

For $9.99, I'm pumped. This rocks.
3383707
I'm a firm believer in learning from recordings as much as possible. I'm an ear musician. Sometimes, though, the recording, or the piano I'm trying to hear isn't as clear as I would like, or the passage is so quick, it's very difficult to pick out all the notes (or even the scale source.) This book/CD combo is a great resource for really breaking down these solos. The playing is clear and prominent, the written music is easy to follow, and I'm able to use both to really add to my musical palate. I don't want to learn the solos note for note so I can play them back just as Peterson played them. I want to get ideas that I can use in any context. This product helps me to do just that.
3060989
These are perfect for teaching! I wrote music notes on each block with paint pens and I use them as manipulatives to compose in the music classroom. My students are counting rhythms better than ever!
1956629
I took a class with Jimmy at Berklee some time ago and enjoyed; he's an excellent teacher and this is an excellent workbook!

If you write pop or folk rock, country or blues (or anything along those lines) and you find your chord progressions are getting stale, this is a great book to give you new ideas or remind you of ones you forgot.

As a songwriter without a "sick amount" of theory ingrained in my brain, I find this a useful tool (so what are the chords I can use in this key? What chord can I spice this up with?). I especially love the very simple transposition chart (great for when you're in a hurry and need to transpose charts). This workbook is my favorite and I keep it handy.

Works well as an idea book or an exercise book. If you can't afford to take a class, it can keep you writing if you go through the book and assign yourself "homework" with each topic.

I imagine even if I had a "sick amount" of theory ingrained I would still consult this book when coming up with new progressions. Very pleased I own this one!
485957
This book is FANTASTIC for any band director. I'm a clarinetist who has been teaching beginning woodwinds for the past 5 years, and my college methods class left a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Bret's book is a great, accurate, concise guide to teaching woodwinds. I especially like the "Gotchas" for each section--things that band directors often say that are incorrect. Thanks for a great resource!
2404075
This is a fantastic book full of simple melodies. They are approachable by second year students and higher. The melodies are lyric and enjoyable to play. For more advanced students, these are great to use to focus on different aspects of playing (tone, intonation, dynamic contrast, articulations, sightreading, etc.). I often use these with my more advanced students to work on basic sight transposition skills. A must have part of any trumpet player/student/teacher's library. Well worth less than 10 dollars!

For middle school directors, these would work great for clarinet as well!
313781
I'm an avid purchaser and i have been looking for ideal tools to teach music to my kids..

This tool is perfect and reminds me of the old school music teacher i had in 5th grade... it has settings to chime for 2 beats per second and 8 beats per second et al....perfect tool...must have