Best Percussion Instruments
In the words of the author, this is the ideal book for improving "control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution, and muscular coordination," with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"', this book answers that question with pages upon pages of exercises that steadily increase in complexity."
"They don't call it the Drummer's Bible for no reason."
"A must for any drummer for developing stick control whether you play snare drum or timpani."
"My left is catching up to my right very quickly!"
"Yes, I'm begining to use it, practicing the exercises, it will be a lot of fun!!"
"Go through the Bibles of drumming, properly, like everybody else, and you too can get anywhere you want in drumming. Contact me if you want more information on how to study the drums properly."
"Good collection of snare drum exercises."
"And once you start to build up speed, the exercises actually start to sound and feel really cool!!"
However, with the introduction of modern drumming techniques, it has become increasingly necessary to gain complete independence of both the hands and feet.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book has some music made for cello... not just drumset."
"Excellent book to build and develop coordination."
"It's deliciously frustrating as it should be."
"Just what I expected."
"I bought it because, Danny Carey, of Tool, recommended it on his website."
"The exercises are also quite fun to try master, and I found that they helped develop a framework for my own rhythms."
"Just getting started but I can tell this book is going to push me and that's great."
Voted second on Modern Drummer's list of 25 Greatest Drum Books in 1993, Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer is one of the most versatile and practical works ever written for drums.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A classic for syncopation."
"I started with the book 4-Way Coordination to try to get my limbs to work with each other."
"Upon receiving this book, it was in mint condition and the packaging was of good quality as well."
"A "must have" for any beginning drummer."
"great book for beginner like me in the world of music and rhythms."
"I'm convinced both of these books helped with developing my chops and ability to recognize patterns which made learning songs much faster and easier."
"It was great to order from amazon, as the order arrived in just days, and the book did not disappoint."
Best Percussion Instruments
This indispensable book for drummers of all types includes hundreds of basic to advanced rhythms and moves through categories of single-beat combinations, triplets, short roll combinations, flam beats, flam triplets and dotted notes, and short roll progressions.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"', this book answers that question with pages upon pages of exercises that steadily increase in complexity."
"They don't call it the Drummer's Bible for no reason."
"A must for any drummer for developing stick control whether you play snare drum or timpani."
"My left is catching up to my right very quickly!"
"Yes, I'm begining to use it, practicing the exercises, it will be a lot of fun!!"
"Go through the Bibles of drumming, properly, like everybody else, and you too can get anywhere you want in drumming. Contact me if you want more information on how to study the drums properly."
"And once you start to build up speed, the exercises actually start to sound and feel really cool!!"
"Very professional, good book."
Best Brass Instruments
For the first time, Star Wars(R) A Musical Journey (Music from Episodes I-VI): Instrumental Solos includes selections from all six Star Wars(R) movies arranged for flute, clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax, trumpet, horn in F, trombone, piano accompaniment, violin, viola and cello.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It comes with a CD of the songs with full orchestra and the songs violin only."
"My niece can "sight-read" music and the family was so impressed with her first time rendering of the music and subsequent improvement after her listening to the enclosed CD!"
"Got this for my son who wanted to do a sax solo for his 6th grade talent show several months ago."
"Purchased this book for my son who plays the baritone (as it works the same for the trombone)."
"Absolutely a blast to play, and great for sight reading."
"The shipping was quick and my daughter loved the music and book."
"Bought this book to give as a gift to a 2nd year trumpet player."
"I've been hearing my son play the Star Wars theme since he got this book."
Best String Instruments
(Ukulele). Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard Corporation has become the worlds largest print music publisher, representing some of the greatest songwriters and artists of all time.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Some very easy with two cords and others with varying degrees of difficulty."
"Great song book for those looking for repertoire catered to an audience in their 60s-90s or under 10."
"There are a lot of good songs in this book: Popular (Beatles, Everly Brothers, Joni Mitchell...), Christmas Carols, Children's Songs, Patriotic, Show Tunes, Folk, Hawaiian...etc...This would be a great book for school teachers to have on hand."
"This is a great book for the beginner ukulele player like me."
"Great collection of songs including a section for kids music and holiday tunes."
"Great selection of a broad range of music."
"My wife loved the book."
"Not that good on the kindle -- music too small to read, even in the largest font."
Best Woodwind Instruments
With this superb book you get a comprehensive harmonica course featuring step-by-step pictures which take you from first day exercises to playing along with backing tracks. Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard LLC has become the worlds largest print music publisher, representing some of the greatest songwriters and artists of all time.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This accompanied the harmonica I got my son in law for Christmas."
"Love this harmonica."
"Bought as a gift for my son's daughter and she loves it."
"Very helpful for a novice."
Best Pianos
Titles: Alouette * Alpine Melody * Amazing Grace * Au Claire de la Lune * Aunt Rhody * Auld Lang Syne * Aura Lee * The Bandleader * Beautiful Brown Eyes * Blow the Man Down! * Largo (Dvorak) * Lavender's Blue * Lightly Row * Little Brown Jug * Liza Jane * London Bridge * Lone Star Waltz * Love Somebody * Lullaby * The Marine's Hymn * Mary Ann * Merrily We Roll Along * Mexican Hat Dance * Michael, Row the Boat Ashore * Money Can't Buy Everything * My Fifth * Ode to Joy * On Top of Old Smoky * O Sole Mio * Raisins and Almonds * Rock Along * Rockets * Rockin' Intervals * Rock It Away!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It took me about 1 1/2 months to work through the book and I rate it as excellent instruction for anyone wanting to learn or re-learn the piano."
"A little background before I get into the real review: My 14 y/o trumpet player daughter has been wanting to learn the piano for years. Her trumpet teacher disagreed and recommended she start with the Suzuki method as she has and incredibly good ear and quite a bit of natural musical talent. I bought this book to help rectify that, knowing that I'll be sitting in on her weekly lessons and absorbing a lot of information there. It's pretty exciting to go from not knowing where middle C is located to playing Jingle Bells with a bit of harmony in 2 days! I do plan on adding scales and such to my practice sessions, as these are truly the things that will help you progress and give you a more fundamental understanding of how music is put together. I feel like I'm able to grasp the concepts that are introduced and will be able to help my daughter along once her lessons start in a couple of weeks."
"No CD, but Youtube is better than the CD anyway."
"This is excellent book for beginners."
"So far, helping me learn the piano."
"A little bit hard if you are teaching yourself."
"I love this book!!!"
"This is a wonderful book for adult learners and my instructor agrees with me."
Best Guitars
This great collection features all 194 songs written and sung by The Beatles, specially transcribed here for strumming guitarists, from the actual recordings, in the original keys.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is beyond acurate. I am not going to repeat what everyone says about the accuracy of this book, I am rather going to comment on the binding. When I checked it out, this is what it reads: 'Professional Musician Edition - The Spine Of This Book is Spiral Bound (plastic comb) - This Allows You To Lay The Book Flat - Great For Teachers, Skilled Musicians & Students etc...-' i am so glad I saw this."
"Perfect for strumming, and a good jumping off place for working out the actual guitar parts."
"It's great!"
"I'm part of a Meetup group that gets together 1x a month to sing Beatles songs."
"I've found this an issue on Kindle Fire, Kindle PC application, and Amazon Cloud."
"What a great way to have the lyrics and chords of nearly every Beatles song at your fingertips."
"For the price you really cant beat it as a gift for a friend that loves the Beatles and plays guitar."
"He already knew all the songs...just needed a chord guide."
Best Vocal & Singing
Songs include: Amazing Grace * Desperado * Let It Be * My Favorite Things * The Rose * hundreds more. Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard LLC has become the worlds largest print music publisher, representing some of the greatest songwriters and artists of all time.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I love this book!"
"I bought this as it was recommended to me as having all the songs i sang growing up in church, camp, school, and family."
"This book has such a variety of folk songs."
"The clever method of providing a condensed set of chords for guitar accompaniment is useful, although it is not always easy to figure out how the chord pattern is supposed to work."
"I've heard the newer version has less hippie cover, and some of the chords are rectified."
"Even though the book doesn't notate the melody of any of the songs, it is still great for anyone who likes to kick back and play their guitar/whatever... if you need help with the melody, YouTube is a great resource, or go find someone in your community who knows the song!"
"One other word of caution--make sure when you order it that you know if you are getting the smaller size or the larger Leader book--I thought I was getting the smaller size which is more portable and easier to handle while singing (to me), but ended up getting the larger one, which feels a little unwieldy."
"1200 songs worth of sheet music would take a book easily 10 times the size of this one and the cost would be commensurate."