The Music Center Handbook

SKU: CF.WF230

ISBN 9781491153741. UPC: 680160911240.

Ever since he was honored 50 years ago as a top prize-winning graduate of New England Conservatory and a Fulbright scholar at the Paris Conservatoire, flutist Robert Stallman has drawn accolades around the world as a performer and recording artist who “dazzles because of his penetrating artistry” (Sunday Times/London). Also known internationally for superior flute editions, including numerous transcriptions that have greatly expanded the repertoire, Stallman now offers flutists an appealing collection of original melodic warm-ups. With The Flutist’s Handbook, he shares his fresh approach to staying in shape and maintaining his reputation for “consummate virtuosity” (Repertoire/France).
P refaceOne morning many years ago I opened my flute case and suddenly found myself questioning the wisdom of having scales and long tones come first in my practice session. Of course, these are essential to daily practice, but I wondered if there might be a better way to begin the day—with something more melodic and engaging, something to really inspire me.The Flutist’s Handbook emerged from a stream of musical ideas I began to jot down during practice sessions after that “aha” moment. As I worked with them, I noticed a more spontaneous interest in practicing. In fact I even looked forward to starting my day this way. As a result, my work on scales, arpeggios and long tones followed with more enjoyment and focused attention.In creating many of the détaché warm-ups found in Part I, I was drawn to the musical sequences of J. S. Bach, particularly those developed in his keyboard works. Bach had discovered the most satisfying musical patterns on which to build his music, so here was a treasure trove of invigorating melodic material. I also borrowed apt détaché passages from C.P.E. Bach, Schubert, Dvořák and others.Part II includes more musical quodlibets and echos in a collection of fifteen short melodies designed to open and center the tone, while encouraging full breath support. These melodies also concentrate on developing our sostenuto, or true legato playing—the foundation of a beautiful sonority and natural vocal expression. Except for final cadence notes, these warm-ups should be practiced without vibrato, to create an even and seamless instrument, bottom to top.All of these warm-ups are to be played forte and piano in every major key, proceeding chromatically by rising half-steps. Tempo indications are given in the headings, as are optional rhythmic and articulation variants. Suggested breath marks are in parentheses.The Handbook opens with détaché warm-ups for a good reason. It is vital to begin our practice with tonguing, as a clean attack is essential to producing a beautiful tone. Also, in working on tonguing (single, double, triple and tremolando) we stimulate and strengthen the jaw muscles that support the embouchure (which must remain supple and flexible). As we fine-tune these muscles, we gain tonal center and clarity, qualities that may elude us at the beginning of our practice. Of course, we also need to wake up the air stream and deepen our breath support. Once the tongue is alive and the tone is centered, we are ready to work further on our sonority with the melodic warm-ups in Part II.This book is meant for professionals, students and amateur flutists alike. I offer it to all as a companion that invites more pleasure and vitality into our daily practice. It is my firm belief that by aligning ourselves with our love of music and its energizing patterns each day—from the very first moment we pick up the instrument—we will bring more ease and focus into our lifelong task of staying in shape. This in turn will support the heightened inspiration we want to take into rehearsals and performances. Enjoy!—Robert StallmanMarblehead, MassachusettsApril 20, 2018.

SKU: HL.118

ISBN 9780931759338. UPC: 073999255065. 9x12 inches.

Clawhammer Style Banjo - A Complete Guide For Beginning And Advanced Banjo Players| From Ken Perlman, here is a brilliant teaching guide that is destined to become the handbook on how to play the banjo. The style is easy to learn, and covers the instruction itself, basic right and left-hand positions, simple chords, and fundamental clawhammer techniques; the brush, the 'bumm-titty' strum, pull-offs, and slides. For the advanced player, there is instruction on more complicated picking, double thumbing, quick slides, fretted pull-offs, harmonics, improvisation, and more. The book includes more than 40 fun-to-play banjo tunes.

SKU: HL.354792

ISBN 9781574243932. UPC: 840126937657. 8.5x11 inches. Steve Barden Foreword by David William Hearn.

This complete reference guide takes you through StaffPad, the music notation and composition app available for Microsoft Surface and Apple iPad tablets. This phenoenal app allows you to write music notation naturally – as if it were pencil and paper! – and hear back your compositions in all its glory with professional music sound libraries.

SKU: AP.1-ADV11400

ISBN 9783892210610. UPC: 805095114003. English.

Contempora ry Harmony: Romanticism Through the Twelve-Tone Row is by Ludmila Ulehla. The understanding of the musical techniques of composition cannot be reduced to a handbook of simplified rules. Music is complex and ever changing. It is the purpose of this book to trace the path of musical growth from the late Romantic period to the serial techniques of the contemporary composer. Through the detailed analysis of the musical characteristics that dominate a specific style of writing, a graduated plan is organized and presented here in the form of explanations and exercises. A new analytical method substitutes for the diatonic figured bass and makes exercises and the analysis of non-diatonic literature more manageable. The explanations describing each technique are thorough. They are designed to help the teacher and the student see the many extenuating circumstances that affect a particular analytical decision. More important than a dogmatic decision on a particular key center or a root tone, for example, is the understanding of why such an underdeterminate condition may exist.

SKU: FG.55011-523-1

ISBN 9790550115231.

Colo ur Keys Piano ABC is designed for young beginners. Piano ABC is suitable for both private and group lessons. This method book applies the ideas of Zoltan Kodaly who believed in the importance of developing the inner hearing skills through audio-visual means. A child-centered Colour Keys method, which is based on the Colour Strings approach, introduces new musical concepts in the simplest manner possible. The different octave ranges of the keyboard are illustrated with a coloured slip that is placed behind the keys. In addition, a different character represents each octave. The staff is constructed gradually from a single-line staff into a five-line staff. The method uses relative solfa. Little do wandering on the keyboard suggests transposition. A transparent transposing slip will guide transposition and functions in every key. The pieces present a collection of folk songs and children's songs from many different countries. This separate Teacher's Guide (also available in Finnish) offers pedagogical information about the teaching material as well as the lyrics to the songs.

SKU: FG.55011-414-2

ISBN 9790550114142.

Colo ur Keys is designed for young beginners. As a child-centered method it introduces new musical concepts in the simplest manner possible. The coloured staff is constructed gradually from a single-line staff into a five-line staff. The teacher's guide is now available in Finnish and in English.

SKU: GI.G-9968

ISBN 9781622774500.

This book serves to be a road-map for today’s music educators who are tasked with promoting and fulfilling a rich arts curriculum, while still understanding and incorporating the realities and skill sets required in current and future job markets. Aligning Music to STEM challenges teachers and administrators to rethink the structure of traditional music education, as well as encourages universities to reimagine how they train music educators. It motivates schools and universities to explore their curricula designs and how ideas and lesson plans are being differentiated to promote the integration of STEM in the music classroom. This text outlines ways that we can carefully redesign curricula and explore new approaches that aim to provide students with new opportunities to problem-solve, create, collaborate, and experience the world. Abrahams concludes that as current educators, it is our responsibility to promote new ideas for teaching and learning that lead students to a successful, creative life. —Jamie Sokolowski     Vice Principal, Molin Middle School     Newburyport, Massachusetts Frank Abrahams is Associate Dean and Professor of Music Education at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. His most current research centers on aligning music instruction to STEM. These are described in his books Planning Instruction in Music and Becoming Musical, co-authored with Ryan John and published by GIA. With Paul Head, he is the author of Case Studies in Music Education, published by GIA, and the Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy (Oxford University Press).