Product Description
String band music is most commonly associated with the mountains of North Carolina and other rural areas of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains, but it was just as abundant in Piedmont region of North Carolina, albeit with different influences and stylistic conventions.

This work focuses exclusively on Piedmont string band music with regard to the history and culture of the area and the music’s development and the changes within traditional communities of the Piedmont. It begins with a discussion of the settlement of the Piedmont in the mid–1700s and early references to secular folk music, including the attitudes the various ethnic and religious groups had on music and dance, the introduction of the fiddle and the banjo, and outside influences such as minstrel shows, Hawaiian music and classical banjo.

It then goes on to cover African-Americans and string band music; the societal functions of square dances held at private homes and community centers; the ways in which musicians learned to play the music and bought their instruments; fiddler’s conventions and their history as community fundraisers; the recording industry and Piedmont musicians who cut recordings, including Ernest Thompson and the North Carolina Cooper Boys; Bascom Lamar Lunsford and the Carolina Folk Festival; the influence of live radio stations, including WPTF in Raleigh, WGWR in Asheboro, WSJS in Winston-Salem, WBIG in Greensboro and WBT in Charlotte; the first generation of locally-bred country entertainers, including Charlie Monroe’s Kentucky Partners, Gurney Thomas and Glenn Thompson; and bluegrass and musical change following World War II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An important book for all interested in TraditionalMusics
A couple months ago, I was discussing an aspect of old time banjo playing with one of the most eminent scholars of the five-string banjo on the planet, someone whose work has literally changed my life, someone who has been based in North Carolina for several decades. I illustrated my point by referring to the pictures alone in this book.She turned to me and said, "I have to read this book."

So do you, if you really want to have an understanding of string band music, not only in North Carolina's piedmont, but throughout the South.He takes you from the 1890s to the 1960s, and without presenting heavy conclusions of his own, presents information that will allow you to see much, learn more, and will treasure forever.

This is an important book, whose relevance may be dimmed by the misplaced expectations of those who have awaited it. With Bob Carlin, master banjoist, accompaniest of John Hartford and Joe Thompson among others, and not a shabby guitarist as I can testify, most folks expected a book about the techniques of band music here. That isn't what this book is.

This book is really about who was and is a string band musician in Piedmont Carolina, although there is also much in this book about other parts of the state, and how this fits in to what was going on in the whole South and the nation.This is about who became musicians, how they grew up, where they played, how it fit into lives farming, factory working, or bumming around, how it changed as we went from the 1890s until the 1960s. I've been reading about Old Time Music for 40 years, but I have never seen this done in such a concentrated way.

One of the joys of this book is the many pictures of musicians, bands, band wagons, bands playing at functions, and of musicians showing off their instruments. For several musicians he has shots of them starting in the 1920 or before on up to the 40s, or 50s or 1960s in which you can see the change or lack of it of selection of instruments that were accumulated.In fact his pictures confirm two of my pet concerns: the inclusion in the old time bands of the cello, and the later involvement of the tenor banjo in the whole deal.
... Read more

Product Description
Succeed as a String Player! can inform, inspire, and entertain. This unique anthology from the publisher of the popular magazine for teen string players - violinists, violists, cellists, and bassists - offers tips on making better use of your practice time, overcoming stage fright, breezing through a music school audition, finding the perfect summer music camp, and much more. There even are helpful hints from some of the violin world's biggest names, including Itzhak Perlman, Hilary Hahn, Joshua Bell, and Nicola Benedetti. So take a bow, you're already on the path to success! ... Read more

Product Description
Since the publication of Solomon Volkov's disputed memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer and his music has been subject to heated debate concerning how the musical meaning of his works can be understood in relationship to the composer's life within the Soviet State. While much ink has been spilled very little work has attempted to define how Shostakovich's music has remained so arresting not only to those within the Soviet culture, but also to Western audiences - even though such audiences are often largely ignorant of the compositional context or even the biography of the composer.This book offers a useful corrective: setting aside biographically grounded and traditional analytical modes of explication, Reichardt uncovers and explores the musical ambiguities of four of the composer's middle string quartets, especially those ambiguities located in moments of rupture within the musical structure. The music is constantly collapsing, reversing, inverting and denying its own structural imperatives.Reichardt argues that such confrontation of the musical language with itself, though perhaps interpretable as Shostakovich's own unique version of double-speak, also speaks poignantly to the fractured state of a more general form of modern subjectivity.Reichardt employs the framework of Lacanian psychoanalysis to offer a cogent explanation of this connection between disruptive musical process and modern subjectivity. The ruptures of Shostakovich's music become symptoms of the pathologies at the core of modern subjectivity. These symptoms, in turn, relate to the Lacanian concept of the real, which is the empty kernel around which the modern subject constructs reality. This framework proves invaluable in developing a powerful, original hermeneutic understanding of the music. Read through the lens of the real, the riddles written into the quartets reveal the arbitrary and contingent state of the musical subject's constructed reality, reflecting pathologies endemic to the modern condition. ... Read more

Product Description
Festive Strings is a collection of well-known Christmas and Chanukah melodies arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and orchestras. In order to provide flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations, all of which are compatible with each other. Accessible keys have been used and shifting is kept to a minimum. Titles are: Jingle Bells in D Major
* Joy to the World
* Chanukah
* Away in a Manger
* Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
* God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
* S'Vivon
* Jingle Bells in A Major
* Lo, How a Rose
* O Christmas Tree. ... Read more

Product Description
More Festive Strings is a collection of well-known Christmas and Chanukah melodies arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and orchestras. In order to provide flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations, all of which are compatible with each other. Accessible keys have been used and shifting is kept to a minimum. Titles are: O Chanukah
* Angels We Have Heard on High
* We Three Kings
* Silent Night in D Major
* We Wish You a Merry Christmas
* O Come All Ye Faithful
* Dreydl
* Silent Night in G Major
* Good King Wenceslas
* What Child Is This (Greensleeves). ... Read more

Product Description
Festive Strings is a collection of well-known Christmas and Chanukah melodies arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and orchestras. In order to provide flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations, all of which are compatible with each other. Accessible keys have been used and shifting is kept to a minimum. Titles are: Jingle Bells in D Major
* Joy to the World
* Chanukah
* Away in a Manger
* Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
* God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
* S'Vivon
* Jingle Bells in A Major
* Lo, How a Rose
* O Christmas Tree. ... Read more

Product Description
Here is the most comprehensive banjo book ever written. Tony Trischka and Pete Wernick spent four years researching, organizing and fine tuning this project with staggering results: over 400 pages of interviews, tunes, photos and analysis, covering every conceivable aspect of the three-finger style. Players at every level will benefit immeasurably from the information gathered here. Though not an instruction book, per se, these pages contain a wealth of information and music. This book focuses on eighteen banjoists who have made significant contributions to their field, including the legendary Earl Scruggs. Each chapter contains a short biography, a lengthy interview, illustrative photos (detailing hand position, pick placement and banjo of choice), and a selection of their best-known tunes in tablature (with accompanying analyses). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Masters of the 5 String Banjo Hits the Mark!
I'm new to banjo and bluegrass. Masters of the 5 String Banjo hits the mark for all the things I wanted to know. The writing is excellent. Historical facts, the technique of banjo playing and lives of the "greats" are woven into a text that simply invites you to keep on reading. Included are how long each day people practice, what kind of banjo they play, whether they read tab or even use it. This is not a coffee table book for looks only.Definitely a must for anyone who wants to have a foundation in the history of banjo and bluegrass, both of which are American treasures. Songs to play ( in tab) are included. It's a big book, I put a pillow on my lap!

Valuable reading
For any aspiring banjo picker this book is essential reading. I enjoyed the technical information on instrument set-up as well as the indepth interviews with so many of the people who made bluegrass music what it is today.

It goes beyond the "ten steps to good playing" approach by showing, in great detail, how so many great players think about, practice, prepare for, developed and performed their craft.

Read it from cover to cover then keep it handy as a reference work - excellent. ... Read more

Product Description
Contains measured drawings and detailed instructions for 8 instruments; a classical guitar, mandolin, fiddle, appalachian dulcimer, lute, harp, rote or lyre and a psaltery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not for the Uninitiated.
Making Early Stringed Instruments is a product of its times. Put together just before the whole desktop publishing phenomenon, it doesn't measure up to modern expectations.
I actually *like* the writing style, which is somewhat haughty. As a practicing luthier, I also found several interesting tidbits on construction technique. To suggest that this is in any way a tutor for creating the pictured instruments, is laughable.

-The drawings provided should be seen as a starting-point. I find them to be pretty displeasing, aesthetically.In fact, looking at medieval manuscript sources I have a hard time understanding how Taylor came to produce such "clunky" designs.

-The Panormo-style guitar is nicely drawn, but braced extremely heavily.Throw out the construction sequence. Tayler distills the entire process into 19 steps (19!) with very few illustrations.It's simply impossible for an amatuer to build a playable guitar with this level of instruction.

Taylor's previous book on lute construction is a far superior effort, if you can find a copy.It contains many anachronistic ideas and the instrument portrayed would be deemed unsatisfactory by most modern lutenists, but at least the building process is outlined in full detail.

Very Disappointed
I was very disappointed in this book. I had expected much, much better construction description after reading Taylor's book on building a Lute. These construction descriptions are absolute minimal. Most casual builders will have a lot of trouble building most of these instruments. I build harps professionally and it would not be easy. With just a little more effort this could have been a great book on building a variety of instruments but I think the writing was done in a minimum amount of time.
The Gothic Harp, in which I was most interested, didn't have any info on stringing, the critical part of a harp. Oh, don't expect any info on the harp on the cover, it's not in the book. So why is it on the cover?
As I said, his other book, Make and Play a Lute, is very detailed and has all the info needed. Why this wasn't done here is puzzling,
and disappointing.

A Useful Book
This is a useful book for those interested in musical instrument construction.If you are interested in making musical instruments this is a good book but it's not for those with no experience.

Ths book contains plans and instructions for making eight different stringed instruments: a bowed psaltery, a lyre, a simple lute, an appalachian dulcimer, a flat-backed mandolin, a mediaeval fiddle, a gothic harp and a guitar.All are adaptations of original instruments or are inspired by traditional designs.All of Taylor's designs are aestheitically graceful and elegant.The plans provided are detailed and clear.There are, however, some aspects of the book that I didn't like.I found Taylor's writing style to be rather flowery, verbose and pretentious.Conversely, his sets of instructions for building each instrument are too brief, one reason why this is not a book for beginners.It would have been nice if less space had been given to wordy anecdotes and more to fleshing out the instructions.

There is also a glaring error in the instructions for making the mandolin and guitar.It describes attaching the neck to a flat board when gluing the sides to the neck and bottom block.Doing this will cause problems with gluing on the fingerboard...there will be a step down from the soundboard to the neck surface.I hit this problem when I made a guitar from the book and it caused lots of frustration for me.

Otherwise, this is a fairly good book that would be a useful addition to the library of anyone interested in making traditional musical instruments.I'll give it three stars. ... Read more

Product Description
This clear, effective text provides a comprehensive introduction to teaching methodology and performance techniques.It presents all the concepts and skills a teacher needs to successfully organize and teach string class.Written in a concise, assessable format, and richly illustrated with photographs, musical examples, diagrams, and exercises, this text combines conceptual understanding with practical applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Teaching Strings
I am studying music education and used this book for my class, and recommend this book to anyone looking to play or teach strings. ... Read more

Product Description
All For Strings is a comprehensive three-volume method surrounded by a wealth of supplementary materials for teaching and performance. This complete curriculum covers virtually every aspect of beginning through intermediate string study, emphasizing technical skills, rhythmic understanding, and quality musical experiences. Many of the National Standards for Music Education can be easily implemented into the classroom setting with the varied components All For Strings has to offer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

excellent
My mom has used this book for along time in teaching her students violin. My son is now getting the opportunity to use this book w/ my mom in learning the violin.

Better Than Paying For Lessons
If you want to stop throwing your money away on a twirpy little unhelpful, unprofessional, underfed, cocaine addicted swindler of a violin instructor who ruins your entire week in a mere half an hour and ghoulishly helps himself to your hard earned money just to pay for his own sicko addiction then this is the self-help, do-it-yourself manual you've dreamed of.This one book is pretty straight forward and has saved me hundreds of dollars on lessons.I don't even go to lessons anymore, I just teach myself and I've made great progress.

There's some pictures and diagrams as well in here to help you with fingering but be forewarned that the fingering suggested in this book might be a bit difficult for some.It all depends on how skinny (or how fat) your fingers are and how flexible those muscles inside your fingers are.If your fingers aren't that flexible try wrapping a tight rubber band around them and then trying to spread your fingers, sort of like a spider.After a week or two you'll notice a difference.

Also, for me at least it helps to use only my ring finger to play some notes (G on D string and D on A string) whereas this book suggests you use 3 (index, middle and ring).It just depends on what you're comfortable with, everyone is going to be different and some folks might enjoy the method this book gives the most.Just be aware that there are alot of different fingering techniques to use, not just the ones shown here.

Other than that this is definately self-explanitory enough for you to finish yourself without paying good money for an instructor.Good investment for anyone starting the violin.

~.^
hi there, my teacher is teaching my orchestra with all for strings i havecomplete book one and two this book rocks! i play viola * no really? * thisis a great book it will teach you just what you need! i can't wait tofinish book 3!

*/sj ... Read more

Product Description
The Duets for Strings, Book 2 may be started when the pupil has reached page 9 of Book 2 of the String Builder. They may, however, be used in conjunction with Book 2 of any standard string class method. Published in three levels for violin, viola, cello, and bass. ... Read more

Product Description
Witty and practical, this book is for amateur string instrument players who want to play quartets and other forms of chamber music. It covers everything. The long chapter discussing the "literature" is exceptionally valuable. ... Read more

Product Description
Inspirational memoir readers will love this fast-paced book about the woman who would be a violinist. Against all odds, she succeeded in beating death three times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

DON'T MISS THIS BOOK!
Wow! This is a life-changing, life-saving book that will help soooo many people! Marilyn's story of overcoming adversity in her courageous battle with lupus is a marvelous example for everyone. She exemplifies how we all can master the mind-body connection. The magic bullet for cure (any cure) exists within us, if we can only acknowledge the role of spirit in healing.

Marilyn's story will grip you from the very beginning. Her expertise in writing captures you through her entire book. It's as though you experience everything along with her--from the beginning to the end and back again. Her darkest nights of the soul embrace dialysis, kidney transplant, near death experiences, recovery, and new disease crises and finally cure through spiritual enlightenment, love and acceptance.

Here are some thought-provoking insights you won't want to miss:
. The most powerful healing force is Love.
. Each individual must take responsibility for his own healing.
. Self-hate, fear and guilt must be released for healing to happen.
. It is our destiny to heal ourselves.
. Our Love and creative works must be allowed to flow outward, unimpeded, or everything turns inward, and we create our own disease.

Don't miss the incredible healing message of this book!

Jean Krueger, Author of "WHY THE WEIGHT? DARE TO BE GREAT!" ISBN#: 0972208607

Surviving Multiple Near-death Experiences
"Hanging by a String" offers a poignant rollercoaster ride of human emotions with rare candor and sincerity. It is a true, intimate recollection of one brave woman's battle with a debilitating disease, lupus. Marilyn Gibson's superb book grabs the reader during the introduction and won't let go. From experiments with non-traditional healing methods to multiple near-death experiences, she offers a ringside seat to intimate, painful episodes few people have endured. Her lucid writing style pampers the reader with a thesis of medical, religious, and technical concepts that inform without imposing the rigors of jargon and esotericism.

Gibson believes much about life, including disease, is governed by a lack in our souls. Pain forces us to analyze our actions in quest of the source of our suffering. Diagnosed with lupus erythematosus, she went on a spiritual journey - seeking a cure for a disease that attacked her kidneys and almost took her life. She spent seventeen years trying to cure herself, becoming an expert in the nuances of this and other related diseases.

Viewing music as a transcendent force, this accomplished violinist believes a strong constitution is needed to heal as well as make good music. Physical and emotional stress exacerbates the affects of a disease, leading to a search of the fathomable recesses of her soul for clues that might have triggered it. In the process, she decides if medicine isn't the solution, she will seek answers from a higher power. Triumphantly, her beliefs and commitment move her closer to those answers that may save her life. Her description of the hospital sessions is compelling; the reader can almost feel the pain from the medical devices.

Continuing to perform professionally in spite of the disease, Gibson travels around the nation, as well as abroad - remaining one step ahead of the inevitable. She discovers yoga, becomes a vegetarian; embracing ideals from a new counterculture to open her mind to new healing possibilities. She becomes convinced that lupus can be held at bay if she maintains pure habits. Unlike her mother who suffers with rheumatoid arthritis and believes in doctors and healing through drugs, Marilyn's faith has always been suspect. As her mother becomes progressively more disabled, it reinforces Marilyn's skepticism.

In spite of her quest for solutions, Gibson is diagnosed with life-threatening hemolytic anemia. The prescribed drugs simply delay her destiny. As she lies on a cold table in the emergency room, she feels her life force slipping away: "Suddenly, I found myself in another dimension. A glowing golden tunnel appeared in front of me. Far, far into the tunnel, almost as if at its distant openings, stood a man dressed in a splendid robe. A luminous white light emanated from behind his magnificent form. With a small smile on his barely intelligible features, he beckoned to me gently. There was a transcendent peace about him, yet I sensed incredible power.. . . As I slipped into the tunnel, he pulled me back. . . . I had survived my near-death experience."

After a failed marriage, Gibson finally finds her life's mate. She and husband Tim form a polarity; they are opposites. His pragmatic nature brings her closer to the very world she had wanted to leave. In spite of this new happiness, lupus flare-ups threaten this new security. She soon faces death again when her hemoglobin level registers around four, 36 points below normal. A transfusion is the only thing that can save her life.

Throughout the book, Gibson introduces concepts which, under the circumstances, may be regarded as the actions of a desperate person clinging to life. However, her attitude and candor illustrate that these actions are motivated by strong, often unconventional, beliefs: "My familiarity with Zen Buddhism defied logical explanation. Although I had never studied it, somehow I `knew' the experience of satori. During an experience known as self-regression, I discovered I had been a Japanese man in another lifetime. Another such regression brought images of a former life as a silversmith in Colonial America . . . I knew that each past life was correct."

Gibson later encounters a death-threatening bout with spinal meningitis. Enveloped in an ice suit to control her skyrocketing temperature, she again is barely able to cling to the physical world. "Hallucinations crowded my vision as I floated through a pleasant, ethereal dimension. Returning to reality for a check on my body sent me back up to the stratosphere to escape my physical agony. Hours passed as I slipped in and out of consciousness.. . . As in my previous near-death experiences, it was more difficult to put on the mantle of physicality than to pull it off."

Throughout her ordeal, Gibson retains her innate love for music, and her profession as a concert violinist. "In particularly emotional times, music mingles with life like blood with tears. My violin was like a beautiful lover. I knew every inch of its dark brown varnish and sensual curves as well as I knew my own body. The sides reminded me of an Italian painting, or an ancient map, with snaking lines of age pointing to random destinations."

After spending excruciating, dehumanizing periods on dialysis machines, Gibson receives a gift of life - one that returns her life to normal. Robert, her 71-year-old father, donates one of his kidneys. Prior to the surgery, she makes a decision: "The mind will direct the body successfully if given a chance, but it must be guided to the correct results. My happy result hinges on unswerving faith."

She left the hospital eleven days after the transplant and has experienced no rejection problems. She resumed her music career, playing in such big shows as Shogun, Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon. She also founded and leads a group, the Herrick Trio.

Today, Marilyn Gibson lives a normal life. She resides in New Jersey with her husband Tim Malosh, two parrots, three finches, a shar-pei, a pekingese, and three cats.

Far more than 'just' the story of a struggle against disease
"Hanging by a String" is a many-faceted book which details the author's tumultuous life with lupus, from her first medical confirmation of the disease as a teenager through the several times that, were it not for fine doctors and her own spiritual strength and determination to live, the disease "should" have claimed her. I heartily recommend this well-written labor-of-love which Marilyn Gibson was uniquely qualified to pen.

The author makes bluntly clear at the beginning of the book that she does not believe health and disease to be mere circumstances of luck or genes, and is never timid or evasive about her belief in their spiritual and metaphysical origins, and thus in spiritual and metaphysical solutions. Indeed, lest there be any doubt in the reader's mind, the author makes her premise starkly clear in the first two sentences of the Introduction : "I believe that we choose what we need throughout life to address lack in our souls. This includes disease."This proclamation prepares the reader for often unexpected detours in a book that is far more than a history of one person's fight against a devastating and incurable disease.

While few people today would question the profound effect of state-of-mind in one's physical health, many readers (myself among them) will disagree with the extent to which the author attributes non-medical causes, cures, and indeed the very "reasons" for disease. Yet none of her premises were casually formed. In the course of decades of seeking answers to the origins and remedies for her disease, the author explores Buddhism and other transcendental disciplines, while never abandoning the Christianity with which she was raised. Without pre-judgment, every insight which is loving and beneficial is welcomed and assimilated. Not only her present life is scrutinized for clues to her disease, but also those of her parents and grandparents, and even of her own, previous lives.

Some readers may categorically dismiss such non-empirical observations as previous incarnations and spiritual explanations for disease. Even such a seemingly peripheral event as the manner in which she finds an apartment to share in New York City, is given an explanation which may seem mystical to some. I don't doubt her apartment story; yet even if I did, the straight-forward manner in which it is recounted would allow even the most ardent skeptic to accept it as her own history of herself, and to move forward from there. And although I, for one, did not accept as fact some historical paranormal phenomenon which Gibson cites, these details were nonetheless important in illustrating her literal and inner journey. She expresses her beliefs directly and clearly, without pre-judgment and without requiring the reader to concur.

Since the author is a concert violinist, along the way one gets a sense of the enormous love and passion that are prerequisites for any such monumental pursuit, all of which ultimately tie in to her central theme. She expresses beautifully the concept that for her to play the violin is as necessary as for her to breathe. Indeed, one gets a sense that the violin was part of her life-long cure. "My violin ... was like a beautiful lover. I knew every inch of its dark brown varnish and sensual curves as well as I knew my own body. The sides reminded me of an Italian painting, or an ancient map, with snaking lines of age pointing to random destinations."

In fact, in Gibson's book, as in her life, music assumes the role of a life energy unto itself. Readers, such as myself, for whom such a concept is utterly natural will find her story all the more accessible. Those who begin the book believing music to be the mere juxtaposition of aesthetically pleasing sounds will have that much more to learn from it. Just as music is, symbolically, a life unto itself, so is disease. In recounting several rhapsodic images dancing through her mind when near death and under debilitating drugs, the Disease symbolically takes on the guise of a demon, not merely a biological horror.

Perhaps the parts of the book which most affected me were the occasional unexpected phrases which succinctly convey our great fortune to be blessed with life and sharing this Earth. For example, one such jolting phrase comes when she is in the mountains of Aspen, too ill to truly partake of the miraculous splendor about her : "I felt like an alien who had beamed down into paradise."Equally jarring are the author's hospital recollections when near death, before a kidney transplant turned her life around : "In this distorted world, I lurked in the shadows. Here in the murky recesses of my new life underwater, everyone spoke without sound or meaning. The surface, where healthy people lived, was a place where my admission pass had just run out."

Ms. Gibson extols the Western medical tradition which repeatedly saved her life, while questioning whether it in itself may on another level contribute to disease. These opinions are never expressed as a lack of gratitude of Western medicine, but rather in an effort to improve it. And who else better equipped to compose such a chapter? The author struggled for decades against a hideous disease, and skimmed so close to death that the most subtle thought of acceptance on her part would have effected it. She has endured massive, risky surgery, experienced various hospitals and diverse medical systems, and suffered the excruciating, life-numbing side-effects of the medicines needed to cope with the disease. And all through it, she meticulously explored varied religions and philosophies, evaluating how they might benefit people's physical and spiritual health. Combine the author's rare combination of experiences, expertise, and spiritual quest with her obvious intellect and fine writing, and her book should command wide attention.

No book has better reminded me of our incomprehensible fortune of being alive on this wonderland we call Earth, and of the tragedy that any of us might squander it.

Tom Suarez ... Read more

Product Description
Let's keep our string programs vital, contemporary, and thriving! Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum is the first resource book in the world to offer a comprehensive guide to string educators wishing to step into twenty-first-century inclusive string pedagogy. The "Dear Abby" for string players, Julie Lyonn Lieberman offers detailed descriptions of over two dozen fiddle, blues, jazz, pop, and world styles; bountiful support materials; a massive discography; musical examples; photographs; and audio from master players and clinicians, far exceeding the scope of other books in the field.

About the Audio CDSome of todayÂ’s top alternative string players and clinicians demonstrate rock, jazz, and fiddle styles, present innovative ideas for teaching new generations of string players, and more:

1. Howard Armstrong: My first fiddle2. Geoffrey Fitzhugh Perry: Zydeco Rock3. Daryl Silberman: Through Contemporary to Classical and Back4. Ed Caner: Rock Basics5. Anthony Barnett: Stuff Smith plays "Body and Soul"6. Mark Wood: Evolution, Rock, and Musicianship7. Jesus Florido: Latin and Beyond8. Randy Sabien: Jazz Strings: A Life Inspiration9. Leanne Darling: Arabic Strings10. Bob Phillips: Fiddling in the Schools11. Julianna Waller: Developing Diversity12. Martin Norgaard: Jazz String Pedagogy13. Richard Greene: Moving Forward14. Martha Mooke: Breaking the Sound Barrier15. Claude Williams: Reminiscences 16. Julie Lyonn Lieberman: "Fiddle, Sing," excerpt from Mixing America ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent supplement to music instruction
Written by expert music teacher Julie Lyonn Lieberman, whose programs have aired on National Public Radio, Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum is a resource book especially for stringed instrument music teachers that emphasizes learning to play popular contemporary music as well as the great classics. Chapters address the nuances of fiddle, blues, jazz, pop, and world styles for strings, and an accompanying audio CD demonstrates the work of a wide variety of string players and clinicians. An excellent supplement to the music instruction or even self-instruction of any string player. ... Read more

Product Description
More Festive Strings is a collection of well-known Christmas and Chanukah melodies arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and orchestras. In order to provide flexibility, the collection is available in a number of instrumentations, all of which are compatible with each other. Accessible keys have been used and shifting is kept to a minimum. Titles are: O Chanukah
* Angels We Have Heard on High
* We Three Kings
* Silent Night in D Major
* We Wish You a Merry Christmas
* O Come All Ye Faithful
* Dreydl
* Silent Night in G Major
* Good King Wenceslas
* What Child Is This (Greensleeves). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great basic book full of useful information.
This is "Stinged Instruments 101", a great what-is-this-part-called and how-do-we-fix-it reference for students and parents alike. When the child brings home a stringed instrument for thefirst time, it is difficult to help them, when the parent knows littleabout the instrument itself. Then when the going gets more serious (andexpensive) it's a great resource in how to change/reset the bridge,strings, when to call for professional help...just a good book to keephandy! ... Read more

Product Description
Describes eighteen stringed instruments from all over the world including the violin, mandolin, moon guitar, and koto. ... Read more

Product Description
A brief introduction to the musical instruments of the strings family. ... Read more