Good collection of progressive rhythm exercises for beginners
587074
But I can't for the life of me figure out what the songs on the CD have to do with the exercises in the book. If that connection were made clear to me I would change this to a five-star rating.
2637780
The reading exercises cover the gamut of scales and key signatures.  The book is very good for solidifying your finger-eye connection for notes.  The weakness of this book is that nearly all the reading exercises are rhythmically simple, mainly constant streams of eight notes.  It would have been a stronger book to include more complicated rhythms, with rests.  The other William Leavitt book, "Melodic Rhythms for Guitar," covers some of this.  But MRfG's weakness is that it's too jazz centric, written primarily with 8th notes, rather than 16th notes.  Where are the 16h notes?  There should be another volume of one of these books that addresses rhythms more comprehensively.
2467754
This is my favorite rhythm teaching tool. It is clear and concise and much enhances my students' skills. The exercises progress from the simplest rhythms to those that are quite complex. I always keep my students rhythmically a step or two ahead of their note-reading ability. Rhythm is the foundation.
3135963
I am just starting out and this book has tunes that I know the melody so it make it a little easier to play. I am sure it is not a book for advance players but it worked for me.
547865
This is a set of exercises, based on standard progressions, to develop single note reading and improvisation. The author does not provide a list of the standards used, so here they are, in the order in which they are presented:

Blues in C
Minor Blues in C
Blues in F
Rhythm Changes
All of Me
Here's That Rainy Day
Black Orpheus
It's You or No-One
All the Things You Are
Someday My Prince Will Come
Giant Steps

This book has had two publishers and two titles, "Metamorphosis : Transformation of the Jazz Solo" (PMP Professional Music Products 1980), and "The Best Way to Develop Solos over Classic Changes" (Alfred Publishing 1996), so it has stood the test of time. This (PMP) book has some pages of basic theory, which were omitted from the Alfred version, but apart from this, the content is exactly the same. These theory pages were more of a distraction than a help, so there removal has increased the focus of the book and is a welcome edit. There is a CD with some editions, which consists of backing tracks for the eleven progressions. I have this (PMP) version of the book without the CD. Highly recommended.
1603310
The variety and number of different rock hits in this book are sure to please a various tastes and skills.  I selected this book to help with my personal and instructor-led guitar instruction, and am pleased that it will  be a good accompaniment to my learning.  If you are unexperienced at  reading guitar tab, the book could be somewhat challenging since  instructions on how to read the guitar tablature are not included.  For the  price, you can't go wrong.
1862649
The term "easy" implies songs someone who is just starting out would be able to master. I am a proficient piano player who teaches and I bought this so I'd have easy versions of popular songs to pass out to my students.
In two years, I have been able to pass out 3 songs; my students are primarily grade school aged and have been taking about 2-3 years. This is a good collection - but it is clearly arranged for intermediate players. Both hands play together at all times and there are usually 2-3 notes for each hand to cover. There are also some more challenging rhythms than one would expect for an easy collection.
4591170
Great Value.  Backing compositions in many keys, A, Bb, C, Db, D, E, etc.  Many start with a lead example, and then turn it over to you.  Lots of good notes/lick examples, both with the backing example, as well as in the appendix.  The solo guitar examples are clean, not too fast or complex, and demonstrate the key and modes that would go well with the practice.  At various points you are encourage to practice the rhythm, and the leads that are used are documented.  That helps with understanding the opportunity to use of Major, Minor modes, etc.

For the student guitarist (most levels that I can see--advanced beginner on up) who wants to work out with a band. Quality of the CD and the band--since these are backing tracks--are very good.  At least a couple of the slow blues selection even provide a horn section (how cool is that?).

This is a lot like when you go to a lesson, and the instructor shows you a lead example, and then encourages you to practice soloing while the instructor plays rhythm.  The examples are long enough, and you have plenty of space to hash out your own leads.

I 've worked on a couple of examples and plan to keep using this as part of my standard practice.  It is a good addition to my instruction library.
2267653
Ive just started to practice with this book and really enjoy it!  For someone starting in the middle the logical progression makes these exercises both interesting and encouraging/engaging.  Learning this way was so much easier than just doing drills.  And most of the exercises are quite melodious with the occasional discord thrown in!  I highly recommend this for anyone interested in improving their skills.
4744666
An excellent transitional book to bridge the gap between the beginner and the intermediate students vocabulary of 8th and 16th note beat patterns. The 2 & 4 beat fill exercises as well as opening hihat exercises along with step by step patterns to spicing up a beat with more density are most pragmatic. Brief inclusion of the 16th note triplet in a fill context, but not much, nor any eigth note triplet beats, 12/8 shuffles,latin, jazz or any other genre but straight ahead duple pop style. Despite Bobby's command of double bass drum,and limb independence, none here. Despite all it fills the niche nicely. The cd is marginally helpful as well.
1473973
The author, Stanford King, studied piano and theory at the Manhattan School of Music and the Institute of Musical Art of the the Julliard School of Music. He studied composition with Aaron Copland, and his published works include educational books and hundreds of piano pieces. He was also an orchestral arranger in the Big Band era.

In this book, the author covers 20 easy progressive solos for piano, with fingerings. It's all in the key of C, F or G.

The songs:
Curtain Raiser
Cotton Belt Boogie
Rug-cutting Boogie
Boog It, Brother
Kansas Ditty
Trixie from Dixie
Hep-chick Chatter
Solid Ivories
Definitely Dynamite
Jivin' in the Jungle
Lulu the Zulu
Deep "C " Blues
The Professor Gives Out
Doin' on the Delta
Doodle-Boogie
Eight-Beat Bounce
Date with an Eighty-eight
Knight in Harlem
ST. Louis Sizzler
Frankie and Johnnie

This 1944 book indicates that it's book 1. There is also a book 2. If there is a book 3, then I hope that someone will mention it in a review.

Verdict:
This is a 28 page book with easy and progressive songs. See my other reviews if you also want to learn about books that tell you how to create Boogie Woogie. It can be more rewarding to create your own tune than to copy it... ;-)
3360873
Enjoying this book.  I started lessons and can already play the songs.  Not too complicated, but the songs sound great.  Good variety.
1455994
Like other reviewers wrote the arrangements were pretty good. I consider myself an advanced piano player, and I thought they were sight readable level of difficulty but beautifully done.  I recommend this book for people who is good at counting rhythm well, but it does not require nimble fingers.
Beginners need a lot of practice, but intermediate people can perform well within a couple of days of good practice.  The last page of the book had Josh's personal message, autograph and small illustration done with Sharpies like black pen.  I guess Josh gave this book to someone special.
It was a nice surprise.
156951
A selection of tunes that move progressively at a reasonable pace. Some may not be something you will keep in your repertoire but they are actual musical statements that help you develop specific techniques as opposed to rote exercises removed from a "real-life" musical situation. I'm an experienced guitarist but always played plectrum-style. Most fingerstyle or fingerpicking educational material I found was either too rudimentary or too advanced but Mr. Grossman hit the right combination for me on this set.
1627177
This book offers great exercises and educational information for beginner and intermediate Marimba players.  It includes some very nice solos to help inspire percussionists to get into keyboard percussion.
4398959
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK
===========================
1. It teaches how a few note patterns (referred to as "Roadmaps") form the basis for numerous music styles, including blues, rock, jass, etc.

2. The lessons introduce some music theory, along with practical fretboard implementation.

3. It demonstrates how to play various styles for each roadmap. You can use this book to learn the basics of Rock, 50's rock, rockabilly, jazz, blues, etc.

4. It progresses from simple/easy to intermediate difficulty. I have only gotten up to the third chapter so far, and am finding it very challenging as a beginning bassist.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE
-----------------

1. It is very light on music theory. I was already introduced to Bass music theory from the 5 page appendix of "Mel Bay Country Bass Made Easy", but otherwise I think I would have found this book confusing.

2. The riffs that are introduced are very short, and are only repeated for a few bars on the CD, making it challenging to actually master them.

3. It does not teach how to read music, nor offer resources. I am using a "Bass Clef Notes on the Bass Fretboard" [pdf available on the web], but if I did not have this I would have found this book much less useful.

SUMMARY
=======
Kudos for easy to read and easy to follow format, and making bass patterns (roadmaps) accessable. However, a beginner will need a few outside resources to get the most out of this book.
1065601
As an amauteur drummer, this book really a very good one for learning basic exercises to practice the instrument I love. From the beggining the exercises seems easy, but not at all, so it became a relatively hard work fome. Well it really doesn't matter very much cause I enjoy it a lot, and I think that i will become a better drummer I hope!!! If it wasn't for Amazon, I will never have the chance to buy this, and I will be looking fothers in the future. Thank you Amazon people!!!