ISBN 9781610652445.

The non-jazz improvisation series is a concept that germinated in Dick Weissman's mind while he was attending music school. He wrote a 15-piece arrangement of the old square dance tune, Cripple Creek, and wanted the trombone to take a solo as part of the arrangement. When the trombonist kept playing a bebop solo that was totally unsuitable for the chart, Dick realized that - in addition to the many musicians who do not improvise - there are even jazz musicians who don't know how to improvise outside the limits of their own stylistic backgrounds.This book approaches the five-string banjo as a musical instrument freed from the prison of specific musical genres. Old-time music, clawhammer, bluegrass and many eclectic adaptations of the banjo are utilized to demonstrate a variety of musical styles. A number of the selections are in different tunings. All examples are written out in traditional and tablature notation.

ISBN 9781619118898.

If youave ever felt compelled to play Flight of the Bumblebee on the 5-string banjo, this is the book for you!Challenging banjo transcriptions of classical masterpieces may seem like a humorous anachronism to some, but not for Italian master Claudio Parravicini, a conservatory graduate who, while majoring in French horn, always believed that the banjo was aa virtuoso instrument capable of enriching any musical genre.aIn the authoras words, aI chose the classical pieces in this book on the basis of how they might advance right and left-hand banjo technique and even refine the playeras musical sensibilitya\| Some pieces, like Flight of the Bumblebee will challenge your ability to play rapidly, while others like Beethovenas Moonlight Sonata, are much slower, but will test your musical abilities in other ways.a The other pieces in the book are: Prelude No. 2 in C minor and Inventions No. 4 and No. 6 by J. S. Bach, Flight of the Bumblebee by Korsakov, Perpetual Motion and Carnival of Venice by Paganini, and Toccata for Piano or Harpsichord by Paradisi. Classical Masterpieces for Banjo is written in tablature only in standard G tuning [gDGBD] using three-finger banjo technique in the traditional, melodic and single-string style. Each selection is guaranteed to further your technique and delight your audience, or simply expand your vision of what is possible on the 5-string banjo.