Drill & Excel On the Piano Book 3 is a 145-page book for the early intermediate student. This includes everything a student will need for their lesson and learning the skill and concepts of playing the piano. It starts with 2 assignment pages for the week?s assignments. Followed by note pages for the student or the instructor to make. The first chapter starts with a recap for books 1 and 2, so no important foundational steps are missed if the intermediate student starts with this book. Then starting with chapter 2, Drill & Excel On the Piano Book 3 introduces new rhythms, the 16th notes and rests, and triplets. The exercises get more challenging for the intermediate student, with lots of special exercises for skills needed. Special exercises include dynamic training, finger independence, finger pedaling, and more. For the scales, playing them in multiple octaves are introduced, along with the 2 new scales, A and F. What?s new in Drill & Excel On the Piano book 3 is TONS of new theory! Diatonic intervals were introduced in the 3rd chapter of book 2, so chromatic (altered) intervals are introduced in the 2nd chapter, along with triads and triad numbers in the 3rd chapter. It doesn?t stop there; it also includes plenty of assignment worksheets, so the student has a repetitive written assignment for deeper learning! And the best part, 60 original songs beautifully written to teach what is taught in each chapter. Songs are melodic and fun to play, introducing a new style of music with each song. The author gives commentary for each song. Most method books merely offer songs with little information, but the ?Drill & Excel On the Piano? book series offers not only plenty of songs, but everything the student needs for all concepts, information, and skill needed to take the early intermediate student to the next level.

Contains:
"En Face Du Miroir (Facing The Mirror)"
- taken from the Isadar solo piano complete collection, "Red" (also available on SMP)

Sounds like: Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Vince Guaraldi, Liz Story, George Winston, early Windham Hill solo piano artists

Transcribed by: David Shenton ( https://www.shentonmusic.com/ ) verbatim to the sound recording

Album & Songbook Review by: Kathy Parsons

Red is pianist/composer Isadar?s genre-defying tenth solo piano album and seventeenth independent release from the past twenty years. It is also the third installment in a trilogy of solo piano albums released in the past year - Reconstructed, a Will Ackerman-produced anthology of some of Isadar?s best piano pieces; O Christmas, Isadar?s second piano Christmas album; and now Red, a bittersweet love-themed album that took seven years to produce and that consists of the first new original solo piano material Isadar has released in more than ten years.

I have been reviewing and thoroughly enjoying Isadar?s releases since his second piano album, 1999?s Active Imagination, which still stands as one of my favorite recordings. Even though I have been a big fan for many years, I was still blown away by Isadar?s live performance in my house concert series in July 2010. The man has magic fingers and an extraordinary piano touch that are perfectly suited to express his imaginative, distinctive, and emotionally powerful music.

Isadar is also a singer/songwriter and an electronic musician who creates the music videos for much of his music, dramatizing the stories that inspired the songs. I will always be partial to Isadar?s piano albums because his voice and vision are unique, incorporating jazz, new age, pop, and classical stylings into a musical language all his own.

Red opens with ?Broken Valentine,? a free-flowing expression of heartbreak and the broad range of emotions that go with it, alternating between grief and confusion then shifting to perhaps anger and resignation - a great beginning. The title track conveys the freedom of an improvisation while weaving together a variety of upbeat themes. ?The Man Who Broke My Heart? is energetic and in constant swirling motion - also very free and from deep within. ?The Stairwell? is darker and much more mysterious, overflowing with Isadar?s intriguing accented rhythms and picturesque compositional style. My favorite track is the almost nine-minute ?Letting Go,? a piece that intertwines a series of musical vignettes into a powerful, colorful musical collage. I love the way Isadar seamlessly goes from flowing and smooth to a bouncy jazz style to high drama without missing a beat. Great stuff! ?En Face Du Miroir (Facing the Mirror)? is much lighter, with fingers dancing nimbly around the piano keyboard. The album closes with ?Blood ... Thicker Than Water,? again a combination of changing themes that could well be a musical family portrait - different personalities working separately and as a unit, bound together by the unseen ties that keep families together through thick and thin.

Isadar has created another piano masterpiece that should be more widely heard than his previous releases due to the success of Reconstructed. I hope so, anyway! Red is available from isadar.com, Amazon, iTunes, and CD Baby. Very highly recommended!

Isadar?s Red: Solo Piano Sheet Music Collection is a note-for-note transcription of all seven pieces from Isadar?s 2013 CD/download release by the same name. The music was transcribed by David Shenton (shentonmusic.com) with clear, concise notation that includes dynamics, pedaling and metronome settings.

Isadar is an amazing pianist with a style all his own, so this isn?t a book that most pianists will be able to just sit down and play. It will take some work and attention to detail to get this music right, but it will be well worth the effort. Having the recording for handy reference would be a big help.

Rhythms are often complex and syncopated, but are usually repeated within each piece, so once you have them, the rest will follow fairly easily. There are only a few chords with a reach of more than an octave and none of the key signatures are terribly difficult. The layout and spacing of the music is excellent, and the paper stock is a bright white 9?x12? format with a stapled binding.

If you enjoy listening to Isadar?s music, I?m sure you will enjoy playing it, too! This songbook is available from isadar.com. Recommended!

The songs with their key signatures and the number of pages is listed below:

Broken Valentine - C minor (3 flats) - 4 pages
Red - A minor (0 sharps or flats) - 5 pages
The Man Who Broke My Heart - A minor - 6 pages
The Stairwell - F# minor (3 sharps) - 7 pages
Letting Go - F minor (4 flats) / C minor (3 flats) - 8 pages
En Face Du Miroir (Facing the Mirror) - Ab (4 flats) / F minor/ Bb minor (5 flats) / Db (5 flats) - 7 pages
Blood ... Thicker Than Water - A Minor/ C (0) / F (1 flat) - 7 pages

Isadar is an artist on both Enlightened Piano Radio & Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, the latter featuring some of today's biggest names in solo piano music, including Ludovico Einaudi, David Nevue, Brian Crain, Kevin Kern, Robin Spielberg, Michele McLaughlin, Philip Wesley and over 300 more...

Also available as sheet music in physical songbooks, digital downloads, as well as software for Yamaha Disklavier player-pianos.

For more information, visit his website at: http://www.isadar.com

Here are nine original piano solos for the early advanced student from the "Drill & Excel On the Piano" series Books 3 & 4. Rhythm includes up to sixteenth notes, all triplets, and triplets against even notes. Keyboard signatures include F, B flat, E flat, D minor, G minor, and C minor. Each song includes a summary from the composer. Download the full volume, or each song individually.

Song List: A Balm in Gilead All Hail, King Jesus (Dave Moody) As the Deer (Marty Nystrom) Awesome God/I Exalt Thee (Richard Mullins/Pete Sanchez, Jr.) Emmanuel (Bob Mcgee) Gesu Bambino (Pietro A Yon) Glorify Thy Name (Donna Adkins) God So Loved the World (John Stainer) Grace Greater Than Our Sin (Daniel B Towner) Halle, Halle, Halle Have Thy Own Way, Lord (George C Stebbins) He Has Made Me Glad (Leona Von Brethorst) He Is Exalted (Twila Paris) His Is Lord Here I Am, Lord (Dan Schutte) Holy Ground (Geron Davis) How Excellent Is Thy Name (Dick & Melody Tunney, Paul Smith) Hymn of Promise (Natalie Sleeth) I Exalt Thee/Awesome God (Pete Sanchez, Jr./Richard Mullins) I Surrender All (Winfield S. Weeden) I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked (Geoffrey O'hara) I Will Call Upon the Lord (Michael O'shields) I Wonder As I Wander (John Jacob Niles) I'll Fly Away (Albert E Brumley) In the Garden (C. Austin Miles) Jesus, Name Above All Names (Naida Hearn) Just As I Am (William B Bradbury) Lord, Be Glorified/Sanctuary (Bob Kilpatrick/John Thompson & Randy Scruggs) Morning has Broken Old Friends (William J Gaither & J D Miller) On Eagle's Wings (Michael Joncas) Open Our Eyes, Lord (Bob Cull) Our God Reigns ( Leonard E Smith, Jr.) Pass It On (Kurt Kaiser) Praise the Name of Jesus (Roy Hicks, Jr.) Sanctuary/Lord, Be Glorified (John Thompson & Randy Scruggs/Bob Kilpatrick) Shine, Jesus, Shine (Graham Kendrick) Sing Hallelujah to the Lord (Linda Stassen) This Is the Day (Les Garrett) Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Helen Lemmel) Victory in Jesus (Eugene M Bartlett, Sr) We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise (Kirk Dearman) We Gather Together What A Mighty God We Serve When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder (James M Black) Wonderful Grace of Jesus (Haldor Lillenas) Be Thou My Vision LORD'S PRAYER, THE (ALBERT HAY MALLOTTE) LOVE OF GOD, THE (FREDERICK H LEHMAN) MAJESTY AND GLORY OF YOUR NAME, THE (TOM FETTKE)