The Easy Way to Play: 100 Unforgettable Hits (Reader's Digest Songbook)

Rating:
Summary: Great songs - Great format!
Review: If you like the classic songs from popular music to show tunes in an easy to read format, this is for you. It gives suggested settings for keyboard and melody line with chords. It also has easy to play treble and bass, but experienced musicians will be able to fill in as desired.

Rating:
Summary: Easy way to play 100 unforgettable hits
Review: There are a hundred reasons why I love this book and would recommend it to anyone. 1...It has the notes, the chords and best of all it has the easy numbering system where c is 1 ; d is 2; e is 3 ; f is 4; etc........2...don't let the easy numbering system discourage you.....the opposite is true......if you have some initial success playing show tunes and old favorites you will continue playing music.........3.....Your success will motivate you to practice without noticing how much work you are doing....it will be fun..........4.......You will do songs like THE WAY WE WERE, I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO, STARDUAST, SEPTEMBER SONG, FLY ME TO THE MOON, APRIL IN PARIS, DIXID, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, GOD BLESS AMERICA, ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT AND SO much, much more.......5......the idea with music is to have fun.........6......to be able to gather around the piano and play some tunes is a real confidence builder.......7......like exercise equipment, language courses and so many other activities, if you don't have success along the way you will give up.......you have success which motivates even more success............8....even more remarkable is that from playing these show songs you develope a feel or style of your own and you get a "sense of music" that is invaluable..........9.......I like the idea that with a few hours of practice on a song you can have fun with it.........10......maybe your classical music teacher will shake his head, but you will make more progress on the time put in than with so many of the other courses or books......11....Here is the sad and funny part to the whole review....something this wonderful is out of print.......it shows you that people in our society often fail to appreciate wonderful and simple pleasures............It was written in 1991........12.....the reason I would buy and own one or more of these books is that they will help you in family and social situations.....suppose you want to meet that cute girl or handsome guy........being able to sit down and play EMBRACEABLE YOU, FOOLS RUSH IN , GREENSLEEVES, I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU OR IN THE MOOD can be very useful............it is great to be able to teach others to play, to share this book, for romantic moments, .......it is useful to play the piano the way knowing how to dance is useful...........13....nearly all of us have taken a few piano lessons and we learned dumb, go no where songs.....when we see someone who can play great show tunes, great film memories, look back fondly tunes or inspiration, country or special songs at Christmas a sense of fun, envy and wanting to hang with that person happens.........14.....In several instances when I sat down with this book, girlfriends were impressed, wanted to hear more or we just had fun with the words and melodies.......15............In today's rushed world where time is at a premium, learning 100 old standards can be a priceless tool...........Instead of spending weeks learning Topcatta and Fuge in D minor which is great, learning a half dozen or two dozen show tunes can be priceless.........16.....not only does the book have words, but a little history of each song..............17.....finally, for the serious musician you will appreciate the fact that you can do blending......by that I mean you can effortlessly shift from THE WAY WE WERE to AS TIME GOES BY..... and then back again.......18.....also I found that as I learned these songs I learned a lot about logical chord progressions that make the songs work.......19....they picked easy to play but hard to forget melodies.....20.....once you mastered the melodies you were doing amazing chordal changes and fancy fingerwork............21.......I think of Liberace and other musical masters like Elvis and this book lets you build your own style...........22.......this book is great for situations where you sit down, play the piano and have nice relaxed songs that help people feel mellow.........MUSIC SHOULD NOT BE TORTURE ....MUSIC SHOULD NOT HUMILIATE YOU....... this book allows you to make the progress necessary to have fun and feel that future learning is worthwhile...........I was so happy with the book that I called the publisher and wanted to buy all the other easy way to play books and discovered it was out of print.............the old joke that the really great books are always out of print is true..............don't let that discourage you.......this book is great

Rating:
Summary: Easy way to play 100 unforgettable hits
Review: There are a hundred reasons why I love this book and would recommend it to anyone. 1...It has the notes, the chords and best of all it has the easy numbering system where c is 1 ; d is 2; e is 3 ; f is 4; etc........2...don't let the easy numbering system discourage you.....the opposite is true......if you have some initial success playing show tunes and old favorites you will continue playing music.........3.....Your success will motivate you to practice without noticing how much work you are doing....it will be fun..........4.......You will do songs like THE WAY WE WERE, I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO, STARDUAST, SEPTEMBER SONG, FLY ME TO THE MOON, APRIL IN PARIS, DIXID, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, GOD BLESS AMERICA, ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT AND SO much, much more.......5......the idea with music is to have fun.........6......to be able to gather around the piano and play some tunes is a real confidence builder.......7......like exercise equipment, language courses and so many other activities, if you don't have success along the way you will give up.......you have success which motivates even more success............8....even more remarkable is that from playing these show songs you develope a feel or style of your own and you get a "sense of music" that is invaluable..........9.......I like the idea that with a few hours of practice on a song you can have fun with it.........10......maybe your classical music teacher will shake his head, but you will make more progress on the time put in than with so many of the other courses or books......11....Here is the sad and funny part to the whole review....something this wonderful is out of print.......it shows you that people in our society often fail to appreciate wonderful and simple pleasures............It was written in 1991........12.....the reason I would buy and own one or more of these books is that they will help you in family and social situations.....suppose you want to meet that cute girl or handsome guy........being able to sit down and play EMBRACEABLE YOU, FOOLS RUSH IN , GREENSLEEVES, I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU OR IN THE MOOD can be very useful............it is great to be able to teach others to play, to share this book, for romantic moments, .......it is useful to play the piano the way knowing how to dance is useful...........13....nearly all of us have taken a few piano lessons and we learned dumb, go no where songs.....when we see someone who can play great show tunes, great film memories, look back fondly tunes or inspiration, country or special songs at Christmas a sense of fun, envy and wanting to hang with that person happens.........14.....In several instances when I sat down with this book, girlfriends were impressed, wanted to hear more or we just had fun with the words and melodies.......15............In today's rushed world where time is at a premium, learning 100 old standards can be a priceless tool...........Instead of spending weeks learning Topcatta and Fuge in D minor which is great, learning a half dozen or two dozen show tunes can be priceless.........16.....not only does the book have words, but a little history of each song..............17.....finally, for the serious musician you will appreciate the fact that you can do blending......by that I mean you can effortlessly shift from THE WAY WE WERE to AS TIME GOES BY..... and then back again.......18.....also I found that as I learned these songs I learned a lot about logical chord progressions that make the songs work.......19....they picked easy to play but hard to forget melodies.....20.....once you mastered the melodies you were doing amazing chordal changes and fancy fingerwork............21.......I think of Liberace and other musical masters like Elvis and this book lets you build your own style...........22.......this book is great for situations where you sit down, play the piano and have nice relaxed songs that help people feel mellow.........MUSIC SHOULD NOT BE TORTURE ....MUSIC SHOULD NOT HUMILIATE YOU....... this book allows you to make the progress necessary to have fun and feel that future learning is worthwhile...........I was so happy with the book that I called the publisher and wanted to buy all the other easy way to play books and discovered it was out of print.............the old joke that the really great books are always out of print is true..............don't let that discourage you.......this book is great

Rating:
Summary: Great piano for all levels
Review: This book has several levels to play from, two hands, one hand notes, and one hand numbers, all together. This makes it easy to advance with both hands. For the more experienced player the tunes have the chords and enough changes in key to play a lot of nice songs quickly. Has sections for whatever mood you may feel like playing that day, such as show tunes, hits, and seasonal favorites. Large for easy reading and well worth adding to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Great piano for all levels
Review: This book has several levels to play from, two hands, one hand notes, and one hand numbers, all together. This makes it easy to advance with both hands. For the more experienced player the tunes have the chords and enough changes in key to play a lot of nice songs quickly. Has sections for whatever mood you may feel like playing that day, such as show tunes, hits, and seasonal favorites. Large for easy reading and well worth adding to your collection.