EG Books

I've looked into essentially all rhythmic training methods currently available - including Paul Hindemith's monumental and impenetrably pedantic 'Elementary Training for Musicians' - and Mark Phillips' common-sense system is without a doubt the most cogent and practical approach that I have found. His book dispels the paralyzing haze surrounding the study and mastery of rhythm.

Mark's book is OK up to a point, what is lacking is a CD so we hear as well as see the rhythms, after all music is an aural experience. If Mark make a CD please let me know. Ken Nielsen

This book delivers what it says. Combine it with some rhythm exercises such as "Encyclopedia Of Reading Rhythms", and you will be a monster rhythm reader in a matter of weeks.

Sight Read any rhythm instantly means just that. Explains really well, and the content is the best; the author emphasizes on counting beats. None of that 1 e n a 2 e n a etc... that will only slow your learning.

Counting beats, instead of notes, in the beginning of this book is easy. Whenever the author starts to introduce eighth and sixteenth notes, his method of reading rhythms gets confusing. A CD would help to clear any confusion about what the rhythm sounds like.

Gorgeous, inspiring, excellent hands-on guide. Even those lacking artistic skill will love the broad array of prints in the book, especially the concluding gallery. The prints are elegant, funny, warm, vibrant. A treasure I am so grateful to own.

This book is well set out with plenty of colour photographs stepping the reader through the processes of screen printing. Written instructions and advice is thorough and simple to understand. Projects are ideal for a novice and provide ideas for imagination. The inclusion of the gallery of other works is inspiring.

I've been reading a lot about screenprinting and wanting to try it, but the part that always baffled me was how best, at home, to do photo emulsion stencils. This book explained it really well with photos and lists of easy to get equipment to do it at home. It took the intimidation out of it for me.
The projects in it are great. I would have liked more cloth projects, but even with that, the ideas were good, and the explanations for how to do layered prints were really well written and easy to understand.

I own this book, it's a decent book but I wouldn't recommend it to someone that's looking for basic information. I do like this book and found things that were of help to me but I was looking for a step by step how to and this simply isn't it.

[...]Have you ever tried the silkscreen printing process? An excellent, well thought out book that can get you started is Simple Screenprinting (Basic Techniques & Creative Projects) by Annie Stromquist, published by Lark books in 2004. (ISBN 1-57990-490-4). The eye of an artist is evidenced throughout this book, which is a visual joy, filled with clear, colorful photographs and appropriate use of "white space."

Assuming the reader is a total novice to screen printing, Ms. Stromquist begins with a brief history of screen-printing, then describes the tools and inks that are used. Next, selection and preparation of the screen itself is clearly described. This is followed by an illustration showing attachment of the frame to special hinges and backboard. As the method is further developed, a paper stencil for defining the printed image is shown and the first project, a stenciled postcard, is begun. The more advanced printmaker will find later in the book that photo emulsion preparations allow a simple and accurate means to create a screen that offers the ability to print photographically derived images. The reader is shown how to register the print so that multiple screens may be used in order to print with different colors and to ensure the image is properly aligned. A very clearly descriptive section shows exactly how to use registration pins and tabs to maintain correct and accurate image registration. The reader quickly discovers that many parallels exist between overcoming screen-printing problems and intaglio or lithographic printing problems that use multiple color plates. This book goes beyond printing only on paper by exploring and explaining how screen-printing is done on fabric. One such project shows how to create place mats or even how to print aprons for a group (maybe even Maryland Printmakers print shop aprons!)

Traditionally, this method had been called "silk screen" printing, but polyester material is now used in place of silk simply because polyester is more readily available and far less costly. Density of the weave of the fabric will dictate the screen's ability to register detail and the system of grading the screen fabric densities is also explained.

Opaque or transparent inks used for screen-printing may be either water- or oil-based. Ms. Stromquist explains how to test the inks using colors with different levels of transparency and shows how the colors combine to create different color results when they are printed one color over another.

There are twenty-six screen-printing projects included in the book. Each one uses a different method to produce the image. The projects begin with a simple single color stenciled post card. This teaches the basic skills and acquaints the user with the tools and technique. Each project requires using a new technique, and as the artist proceeds through the book, competency is developed as the level of sophistication in printmaking increases. Each new technique becomes the basis for learning the next level. T-shirts, Aprons for a Group, posters, a greeting card, and photo-booth portrait are all part of the succession of learning projects. By the time you have walked your way through the projects, you will be a well-qualified screen-print maker and well on your way to producing some interesting new art.

Making difficult and complex concepts so very easy to understand are hallmarks of an experienced and skilled teacher / author. It is a joy to discover a book that is useful, friendly, and easy to understand, and this book is all of that.

Very technical, obviously. Not for the faint of heart. But if you have some theory background and want to fill in some of the gaps, this is a great resource. I am still learning from it.

This book is a collection of phrases and scales with the purpose to present some raw material for modern/avantgarde composers, or etude material for the musician preparing themselves to play such ouevres. From a contemporary composer's view, it's probably old news. If you are an improvisor, it is quite interesting stuff, because it contains mainly stuff beyond what you might know as scales from jazz theory. On the other hand be warned, there is nothing of "real" musical "meaning" in it - most of it is just symetrical, mathematically constructed stuff, similar to the diminished scale or whole tone scale. Up to you how to make sense of this material and incorporate in your playing.

I purchased this for a friend, so I know very little about the book. All I can comment on is the reaction I got when he received it. He was quite inpressed by the book and it's detail. He spends hours going over the book and using it as a practise guide. I can only assume that it's helping him in his quest to master "Scales And Melodic Patterns".

I am an extremely serious composer and theorist. The ONLY reason one would be impressed by this book is because they don't understand its contents and therefore assume it must be saying something profound. I do understand its contents and can attest to the fact that Slonimsky has created a book which hides his intentions behind big words of his own design. Ex: he says "dodecaphonic" instead of 12 note scale. Other ridiculous terms are "intra-ultrapolation" and Sesquiquardritone progression which means "Major 6th". I can assure you that while many talk about how wonderful this book is, no one is using it. They are merely leaving it on they're coffee tables for people to talk about. Aside from severely inflating the books worth with big words, the drills themselves are useless. He has deliberately sought out every obscure and "bad" sounding pattern for the sake of making the book modern. None of the patterns are usable. Even on the chance that there is a pattern or two that is usable, the book is so long at 244 pages with literally THOUSANDS of thorny, awkward tongue twisty patterns, you will never find those few examples that may be useful. I dare anyone to say that they have really spent time practicing with this book, or have done more than one or two of the exercises. This is the single worst example in history of a man who was a musicologist yet dreamed of being a composer. He applies his mathematical ability to the task yet reveals that he possesses not taste or sense of art whatsoever and therefore did not bother to edit his ideas.

Nicolas Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" is a mind-bending book filled with harmonic morsels for the curious and self-motivated musician.

Although this book is usually described as a musical "reference" book, it is much more than just a few hundred pages of specific licks to spew over specific chords. There are plenty of books in print today to buy if that is the type of book you are after. Slonimsky's "Thesaurus," however, is in a totally different vein. The concepts are just as deep, interesting, and fresh today as they were in 1947 when the book was first published. For anyone who has tackled the ins and outs of conventional harmony and wants something more interesting to think about, this is the book.

It is true that Slonimsky does not come right out and say how to specifically apply these concepts and phrases. Instead, he leaves little clues (many of which are in the Introduction) to help guide and provide the reader with a few different options of harmonizations and applications. Quite simply, with the "Thesaurus," you get what you put into it. If you spend time analyzing, applying, and considering the things in this book, it will over time become clear as to what it is all really about. One of the great things about this book is it inspires an individualistic approach; you learn to develop your own way of thinking as you work through it. This makes everyone's appplication of the scales just a bit different from the next person. Two people might approach the same pattern in a totally different way, therefore making the applications constantly evolve and change.

A few things should be said to those who might be thinking of purchasing this book. First of all, if you can't read musical notation (treble and bass clef), learn that first, as you will get nothing out of this book if you can't. Also, if you are thinking this book will provide a "quick fix" for your playing, or make you sound like Coltrane, don't bother buying this book either. One should also be well aquainted with both classical and jazz harmony before working through this book (for those interested in jazz theory, a good place to start is "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine).

Besides the contents of the book there are a few other nice things about it. There is an explanation of terms, which is most helpful as the musician learns Slonimsky's terminology. It is also extremely well organized which lends itself well to an individual curriculum.

For the musicians that are ready, and are motivated enough to put in the required time and effort, it will be well worth it, and the musical rewards will compensate the price of buying the book many times over. Slonimsky states in the Introduction, "There are 479,001,600 possible combinations of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. With rhythmic variety added to the unbounded universe of melodic patterns, there is no likelihood that new music will die of interval starvation in the next 1000 years." Good news for musicians and audiences, eh?

Also recommended: For a book in a similar vein, check out Wayne Krantz's "An Improviser's OS," available through his website.

I think despite being an update to Viktor Frankl and carrying the same existentialist message, this is a much better book than Frankl's classic, man and Meaning.

I want to address a few comments below though.
1-- similiar to Julia Cameron.
The only similiarity to JC is that they have the same publisher, Jeremy Tarcher. Other than that, I don't see much overlap. While the problems they address are the same, you could say that Maisel is the reason, the logic behind what JC does.....JC is plan but VGB the plan, her Sound of Paper is one of her best btw (yes I've read them all).

2-it doesn't given an action plan.
Well actually it does. And the plan is to act. The plan is to plan often, badly, constantly and ongoingly. The plan in this book is do something not anything, but something like Don Juan says in Castaneda's books, something that has heart. Maisel makes it very clear that without that, that meaning which is personal like Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus, you are lost and depressed. He actually makes his goal clearer than Frankl does.

So what's wrong with the book. It's got an odd style that takes some time to get used to. The name VGB is total koan, vg has nothing to do with the book and Maisel admits that. Most of what Maisel does write about VG shows he knows little about the art and history of VG, he just likes his work. That's cool and it's a great name for a book...hey I bought it. And finally, its oddly organised. I think someone has to work that out a bit better. There is room for improvement there.

One caveat, if you are religious you may have trouble with Maisels gods and such. It's only in the beginning of the book but I think some monotheists could be put off by this. I know I did not like it, but that's Maisel's issue not ours. He's obviously an existential atheist but don't kill the messenger because you don't like his garb; the message is solid.

And finally, one book that does dovetail well with this and gived you an action plan is Stephen Covey's Putting First Things First and/or the 7 Habits. I like the first one better personally. Whatever your religious persuasion using the two together would really get results as the important thing is to keep going, and never give up hope. Good luck and keep reading -- its the only game in town.

I love this book! It addresses how depression differs for creative people who are trying to make meaning of life and their lives. I always had this kind of depression and remember trying to explain this concept to a therapist many years ago. He just didn't understand. I wish I'd had this book to show him then.

Although there is, strictly speaking, nothing new in this book, it is somehow packaged in such a way that it made me sit up and really think about the meaning of my life. I have read a lot of inspirational books, a lot of them crap, others that briefly sparked me. None of them, however, really made me look at what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Not a panacea, and probably not for everyone, but worth checking out.

Acclaimed singer Alanis Morissette, promoting her album Jagged Little Pill in 1995, reported feeling a "dissonance in the midst of all the external success.. I was expected to be overjoyed by it, and at the same time I was disillusioned by it."

This kind of "crisis of meaning" - which many highly talented and creative people experience - is addressed in the book as a key element in depression.

Psychotherapist and creativity coach Eric Maisel acknowledges that medication or biological treatment, as well as therapy may help in alleviating depression, but he emphasizes that "Creators have trouble maintaining meaning... Not creating is depressing."

In addition to a number of perspectives and insights by artists, the book provides information and cognitive behavioral strategies from a variety of psychologists and creativity coaches to help deal with meaning crises that can erode creative expression and mental health.

"THE VAN GOGH BLUES" tells us that there is another route to the one that van Gogh took, and that is by creating meaning or rather meaningfulness in our own lives. I especially got a lot out of reading the exerpts from other people about depression, creativity and the meaning of life. Meaning is a difficult concept, and I think Eric Maisel makes a brave attempt to break it down and pull it apart from all directions. However, towards the latter end of the book, I felt that trying to label everything with a "meaning" label, lost meaning for me. Nevertheless, the main thing I got from this book is that there are a lot of people out there trying to make sense of their lives, artists or not, and finding ways that give us pleasure in creating things or admiring others' creation is one way to achieve this. I feel the core message of this book is that when you feel depressed, identify it, accept it and find your own personal way out, whatever that may be, to deal with depression when and as it occurs - which it undoubtedly will and on a regular basis for many of us.

This is the best felting book I have seen because it is well organized, well written, and has great photography.

The book is broken down into three sections: Needle felting, wet felting, and felted knitting. Each section has patterns from easy to difficult, and each pattern has complete instructions with plenty of pictures.

I highly recommend this if you are at all interested in felting, or to give as a gift.

Thorough and complete in every category - this book on feltmaking will get everyone interested in felting to explore one or more of the ways to develop quality felt products. The projects provided in the book are great and tempting to do - perfect for those wanting to learn the subject. Plus the dynamic colors used in nearly every project add to the inspiration provided by the author. Get this book and maybe one more if you can only afford a few books on the subject...and remember, other authors may focus on one technique to the exclusion of others, while this author does not. So perhaps, choose this book first and then find another book, more advanced perhaps, in the felting technique you like best. But don't forget, this author includes some unique advanced projects to sink your felting activities into! Excellent!

I have been felt making now for 10 years, so i am most likely being a tad unfair with only giving four stars. I bought this book on the cover as the bag colours and style got my interest. It is a good introduction too the three hobby felt styles- needle , knitting, and wet including nuno felt. Colours are bright and infomation easy to understand.

I was given this book as a gift a while ago and was a bit intimidated to try it out, as I am not the craftiest person around. Luckily I did try, and have been thrilled with the results. The bag I made always get compliments, and whenever I go out people always ask where I got it. It's lovely to tell them I made it, and they can too.

CF is easy to read and the steps are clearly laid out and easy to follow. I also recommend making a cheat sheet of the basic steps, until you are comfortable with them. That way you don't have to keep opening the book/turning pages while you hands are soapy/wet. The design ideas in the book are a good launching point for other designs, so don't be afraid to make to customize the look to your tastes.

I highly recommend this book as a great entry into felt making. I am so excited to try the wall hanging and eventually the slippers for this fall (spoiler alert to my family

This is fantastic book - the handbag on the front cover pulled me in and unlike some books the front cover is indicative of the rest of the projects. The projects are well thought out and interesting. Whilst the colours are not always to my liking a bit of imagination helps fix that anyway. I have to make the pansy table runner, the nuno felt scarf, the baby crib blanket, the trout mobile, the booties - the list goes on - all I need now is to get pregnant before I make the last 3. Love this book and it is fund to just flick through and get inspiration.

It took two, people, to figure out what one illustrations, and we still got it wrong, need better explannation on the visuals.

I am very happy with the speed of delivery, price and condition of the book.Thanks!!!

Great book. It is a must for any sewer of garments. Great tips and good directions.

While many of the techniques are covered in some of the other sewing textbooks you might have read one techique in particular stands out to me as I have never seen this elsewhere is how to sew a all in one facing professionally. Normally the intructions tell you to leave the shoulder seams open and then "hand sew" them. Not this one it shows you how to do the factory way. If you don't own any other sewing books then this is the one to get

This book is GREAT! I use it for my sewing class in college, and it comes in very handy! It's a good reference to fall on even for the expert of sewers! It's a must have for sewers of all levels!

People interested in buying this book must know it is out of date. It was released in the age of Windows Server 2003, without service pack one. So it does not cover WSUS, but SUS. It also does not contain information about SP1 improvements and now SP2, however, it is a book about planning and implementing security strategies, which makes it a book above the time.
If you have money and are interest in security, or if you are intended to pass the exam, buy this book.
The text is clear and comprehensive. The content is pretty amazing which demonstrates de knowledgement of the author about what he writes. Such knowledgement is provenient from his experience working with Windows in exposed environments.
This is not only a theoretical guide of security, but also a practical one. The excercises hep you to understand and record it in your mind.
Finally, buy this book.

I haven't read this yet. I'm still going through the XP book, but if this one is even close, this book is a must. An easy read and well laid out. The accompanying CDs are very beneficial also.

Any book from Tony is probably going to be good. This book is no exception. It is very well written and organized. It covers all aspects of Windows Server 2003 security. It is not quite comprehensive as you'll need the earlier 2003 Server books (or know those topics well enough) to fully cover the test. It includes good chapter summaries and practice labs. This book will also be useful to you as a reference after you have passed the exam.

This book is an excellent resource and preparation for the 70-299 exam. I've read through a lot of exam books over the years and this is the one that prepared me the best. Upon finishing this book, you feel as though you really understand the material, rather than feeling that you still have holes in your understanding, as you often do with other books. This book is comprehensive, well-laid out, and has a lot of good practice questions in the book and on CD. Microsoft Training Kit CDs are often quite meaty, and this is no exception. I highly recommend this book.

This book offers good coverage in some areas and fairly weak coverage in others. I agree with some of the other reviewers that this book should have been marketed as a study guide and not a training kit. It does contain some good to know nuggets of info, however it is far from being a complete guide on security, or preperation for the exam. I bought the book based on the reviews I read on this site and will be returning it. I can only guess that the previous reviewers work for MS Press.

On the 13th page of this book the author mentions how important the steps of kerberos authentication are, after giving an incorrect explanation of them and telling you to memorize them for the exam. (steps 1-3 are incorrect. check pg.245 of the Active Directory Technical Reference for an accurate description) Like most of the self-paced training kits from MS Press there is a certain lack of depth to the information in this book. There is alot of pertinent security information missing from this book both for the exam, and more importantly for securing a network in real life. The book seemed more like a conglomeration of useful facts for the exam than a "training guide".

A much better book in this arena is "Microsoft Windows Server 2003 PKI and Certificate Security" by Brian Komar with the Microsoft PKI Team -MS Press

I would also recommend the Windows Server 2003 Active Directory technical Reference. -MS Press

The two of these books combined will give you a complete and accurate base of information to pass this exam, and several others.

RT
MCT, MCSE, MCDBA, MCSA, Master Instructor MS Office

Excellent source for any notation questions you may have. I took Mark's class at Berklee in about 1991. Great. "A customer" does Mark and his excellent book a disservice. I enjoyed your class Mark... you were tough but fair. The best kind of teacher.
One thing that stuck in my head from your class had nothing to do with notation. You said words to the effect, that as students of music we should strive for greatness not only in music but in our relationships with others. Music may be of some comfort in our lives but it's our friends and family we all should remember to make time for. You cynical Sage... HA!

Last I heard about you Mark you were in New Orleans (Saw the Globe article about musicians and health care in New Orleans). Hope your rockin' good n' strong wherever you may be.
Peace, Harry Fix

I have found that this book is very beneficial to me for my bachelor in music. Its has helped me alot

This is one of those books you wish you came across twenty years earlier. I am not a professionally trained musician, but have been playing music for nearly 28 years, now, and reading (but not writing) music for the past 15 years. Just like a semi-literate native language speaker who kind of knows what's right and wrong by intuition, but still makes a lot of grammar and style mistakes when writing, I found that I could distinguish well written music from that poorly written, but couldn't tell you why.

Recently I was faced with learning five or six tunes and had to make charts for them. Enter this book. It's as thorough a grounding that you will get in terms of the grammar of writing music. The philosophy is that written music is a graphical language, with agreed upon grammar, style, and usage. These rules are spelled out wonderfully in this text, and ample examples of both good and bad practices are shown.

Having used the book as a guide in preparing these recent charts, I have noticed an immediate improvment in my copying skills. Higly recommended to both students and professionals alike.

Excellent book to start with. Altough it is not comprehensive and the exercises get you nothing more than started it covers all the basics well.

Mark McGrain's book is the ideal reference for the musician needing access to the rules of standard musical notation in exact detail. McGrain thoroughly describes the fundamentals of contemporary notation, progressing carefully from the basics into advanced techniques, giving helpful and well-chosen illustrations of every rule along the way. Most critically, the hierarchy of rules and exceptions is laid out in plain English: this is as easy to follow as it gets.

Topics covered include: clefs, note-heads, rests, stem length/direction, the logic of accidentals, barlines, time signatures, tempo markings, flags and beams, placement of ties, holds and pauses, repeats, chord symbols, divisi parts, dynamic markings, articulation marks, ornaments, score layout, instrumental transpositions, and then some. The table of contents is nicely organized so as to allow one to quickly & easily find a specific rule in question while one is writing.

This is the kind of guide we expect to be logical, consistent, thorough, and concise, so that our creativity doesn't get delayed by technical questions for too long; this book succeeds admirably on all counts. Indispensable for the working composer/musician. Highly recommended for its practical utility.

I needed this book for class. It is very informative and answers many questions about the field of Play Therapy. It is by a well-known author, so you can consider any of his books a good choice to purchase.

This textbook gives an excellent overview of client-centered play therapy as well as detailed instructions on how to engage in play therapy, set up a play room, work with families etc. The best textbook I have seen on the topic!

Carolyn

I received the product in a timely manner and in very good condition. Thank you!!!

Much like any other piece of literature the Landreth text tends to hold a bias. Although it adequately accounts for the basic assumptions of other approaches to play therapy this particular text tends to err on the side of the Client-Centered approach. So, if you're not keen on Axline and, to a lesser extend, Rogers, this text may not be for you.

I took a course from Dr. Landreth in the 1980s, and while I respect his perspective on child-centered play therapy, it seems a bit rigid and dogmatic. This book describes his theoretical perspective on working with children -- ONE perspective, which is helpful in many cases, but definitely not for everyone. In working with a diverse group of families and children, I've found the perspectives and techniques outlined in this book to have limited applicability. Landreth would say that's the therapist's fault -- not doing the approach "right." But I think it helps to look at the ideas in this book as ONE approach of many, and to work from the approach that fits you and your families best.

Part of being a good improviser is having a vocabulary of things that you can draw from. This was not that thing. (Perhaps Coker had the idea that you can find all the lick books that you want and deliberately chose to leave licks out of this.)

But what I expected was a book that would have some songs and give three or four different solos for one song for the purposes of comparative study.

The book did teach a few things, such as concretely comparing the difference between modal jazz and the blues form-- and telling how a solo should be built. But it didn't *show* how a solo should be built and provide examples. Now that I think about it: There was not one single treble clef in the whole book. The whole thing was lead sheets and chord symbols.

It also listed several play-alongs that every jazz pianist should have (like we didn't have sense enough to go out and find the playalongs to songs that we liked).

This is definitely not worth a new purchase. Secondhand, maybe. And that is only for music dabblers (=me), because any music major would already know all the theory that he covers.

Good book if you are a jazz student or want to improve your improvising. Work book parts are a bit small. Print could be larger to help us older semi-blind students. Great resource.

I purchased my first copy of "Improvising Jazz" in 1980. I had been practicing and performing jazz at high school for about a year and this book said all the things I needed to hear at that time in my music career.

What's interesting is that the content isn't really meant to be practiced or developed or anything like that. It's more of a general overview of the basic concepts and ideals of jazz improvisation. "Improvising Jazz" explains things like Swing, Melodic Development, the Role of the Rhythm Section, the Diminished scale and Functional Harmony. Thanks to this book, I had a firm understanding of "functional harmony" before I even entered college and this was partly responsible for my success in all of my theory classes.

If you're starting to learn playing jazz, this is *not* the book. There are plenty of others like Amadie's and Ferrara's that are more immediately helpful in this regard.

With that out of the way: "Improvising Jazz" is an excellent source of unique perspective, advice, and experience from a noted jazz educator, Jerry Coker. Coker focuses not only on how to play but, on another level, how to learn and how to develop further. You will want this book in your collection to gain further depth and pespective on the subject.

There is advice on how to approach your first jam session, developing the ear, combining intellect with spontaneity. The later chapters on analysis of melody and functional harmony, first written in 1964, were probably the one of the first systematic attempts to "organize" jazz theory. You definitely get the sense that this is a major source material for reference books such as "Modern Jazz Piano" by Brian Waite.

I had the first edition of this book when I was learning to play jazz piano in the early 1960s. It's a classic that every jazz musician should own, even if it has been superseded by more comprehensive works. It's a little short on piano voicings, and the language is definitely aimed at beginners. But it's a fun read for musicians at any level.

And in the back of the book ...

To avoid paying royalties, Coker prints scores of standard tunes with only the chord changes -- no titles or melodies. It's great fun figuring out what the tunes are. Some of them still have me stumped ...