English Music & Song Books

With the same arranging expertise shown in his other Mel Bay solo ukulele collections, Ondrej Sarek presents these 25 lyrical North American melodies. The selections are derived from popular themes by known and unknown composers from the Colonial Era to the 21st century, including folk ballads, Civil War melodies, songs by Stephen Foster, a 19th century piece by Edward MacDowell, and a half-dozen clearly modern but lyrical compositions by William Bay.  Written in standard notation and tablature for the soprano or concert ukulele tuned GCEA.

This 4-volume teaching series continues to be enormously successful and popular. It aims to stimulate young players in particular, with all the new technical and musical ideas introduced one by one in a lucid and logical fashion.The light hearted illustrations by Peter Nuttall and Gerald Garcia are another attractive feature of the series.

The John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course is designed to present the easiest possible approach to piano playing, complete with an amusing family of characters and illustrations to help emphasize the information being taught.

Part one is devoted to developing fluency in reading by note, the biggest hurdle for most young children. The range is purposely limited. Only five notes up and five notes down from middle C are presented and time values do not go beyond crotchets. Each book of the course contains its own writing exercises, sight-reading drills, review work and later, technical studies. Accompaniments for teacher or parent are supplied with most of the examples.

In celebration of 120 years of Willis Music, the beloved characters in John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course Parts One - Four have been redrawn. The content remains the same, so, like countless others before them, today's young students can continue to benefit from the Easiest Courses's clear and simple approach.

JOHN THOMPSON’S MODERN COURSE FOR THE PIANO is the essential piano method for beginner students of all ages. Clearly written, fun and easy to understand, the MODERN COURSE is a proven favourite with piano teachers and students worldwide, with millions of copies sold. This new edition has updated diagrams, clearer musical notation and access to online backing and demonstration tracks via PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right - available exclusively from Hal Leonard. Coming from John Thompson, the author of still the most widely used Piano method in the world, you can be sure that quality and consistency will be the number-one feature of this tutorial for beginner Piano players. This First Grade Book provides an excellent start to your studies and includes:

- 50 easy-to-play pieces, - Online backing tracks and performances of each piece, - Helpful technical exercises, - Fundamental lessons on scales and music theory
Helping students to both think and feel musically, the Modern Course is the most effective and enjoyable way to learn the Piano.

Another 200 tunes from England, Ireland and Scotland with chords from the vast collection of Peter Kennedy, many unavailable elsewhere. Again, all the tunes are in a single time signature, this time 6/8. You will discover a hoard of uncommon traditional tunes in this book. Once again, these tunes are for all musicians.

The full range of traditional fiddle repertoire is now at your fingertips! Using these generous collections, you can create your own ceilidh, barn dance, jazz club or Sarajevo street-café. Some of this music is familiar, some more exotic, but all of it is absolutely authentic, faithfully arranged and, above all, hugely enjoyable. Each title in the series is available in two formats: the Violin Edition (with an optional easy violin part and guitar chords); or the Complete Edition, which also includes both keyboard and violin accompaniments. Either format is hugely flexible, which means the music can be played as solos, duets or trios as well as with larger ensembles. Edward Huws Jones has travelled extensively researching fiddle-playing traditions. In each book he explains the background of the particular musical style, giving his own suggestions for a lively performance.