ISBN 9781619115453. 8.75 x 11.75 inches. If you've heard jazz guitarists like Joe Pass play chord melody, you may think that the style requires an encyclopedic knowledge of music theory, musical super-powers, or making a deal with the devil. But fear not! This book will show you how to create your own satisfying chord melody arrangements on the mandolin...and will do so in a practical, applicable, non stroke-inducing way. "Aaron Weinstein has many musical accomplishments. I am very proud to have played a small part with some of them. When he was only 12 he made his first recordings and asked me to play mandolin on them. I was knocked out to encounter someone that young that was conversant in both old-time or contest fiddling and Joe Venuti style jazz. Not long after that Aaron became interested in the mandolin and chords and he came by every so often to play and discuss voicings, improvisation and the like. I showed him some of the Jethro Burns chord melody arrangements that Jethro showed me. I've been teaching those for decades in hopes of one day playing them smoothly myself! Fast forward a few more years and Aaron has a Berklee degree, traveled the world playing hot violin music and is hobnobbing with the greatest NYC jazz stars. And oh yeah, one other thing: he took the art of chord-melody mandolin style to an entirely new level! The rich harmonies of the standard jazz and show tune repertoire, the swinging bass lines and connecting chords and independent voice movements (doing more than one thing at a time) are all present in Aaron's style, thanks to his great ear, open mind and gift at locating things on the fretboard. And now Aaron has documented, explained and shared his discoveries and approach with all of us in this book. Thank you Aaron! This is truly a step-by-step method that you will enjoy. You'll find yourself saying 'oh, of course!' as the author gets you playing and understanding things that sound very detailed and complex. The first section I would call the mandolinistic stuff: the how-to on getting things moving and connected on the fretboard. This part is laid out in a very logical manner with clear explanations and fun activities. After working through these etudes you will know the fretboard better and be a better mandolin playing musician regardless of what style of music is your favorite. As I looked this part over I recalled the parable about 'give someone a fish and he will have a meal. Teach him to fish and he'll eat the rest of his life..' The second part puts your new-found chops to work playing some great solo chord melody tunes Weinstein style. Again the author walks us gently into the material by providing two versions of each piece, the basic structure followed by a more developed version. In the history of mandolin playing there have been many examples of techniques, arrangements and music that might be thought of as 'chord-melody' style. Consider works by Raffaele Calace, or 'Duo' style from the early twentieth century American stylists and then again as modernized by Evan Marshall in the current era. Bach on the mandolin, as played by virtuosi such as Caterina Lichtenberg, Mike Marshall, Carlo Aonzo, Chris Thile and others also illustrates harmony and melody simultaneously. And of course Jethro Burns did so much in the way of bringing jazz and standards to life with chord-melody mandolin that it is often referred to as 'Jethro Style'. The book you have in your hand presents a unique and accessible route to these types of techniques and sounds. Bravo, Aaron! And thank you, my friend." Don Stiernberg.

Here's how to play "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur on piano!

With this piano sheet music, you get an accurate arrangement of the full song which is not too hard to play, and sounds fantastic!
These piano sheets come with an extra system for the singer, as well as the song's full lyrics. However, the full melody is included in the piano part, so it makes for a great instrumental (piano solo) version, too!

"Say You Won't Let Go" is the lead single from James Arthur's second studio album, "Back from the Edge".
It became one of his most successful songs, and has been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify!

Here are the full lyrics to James Arthur's "Say You Won't Let Go":

I met you in the dark, you lit me up
You made me feel as though I was enough
We danced the night away, we drank too much
I held your hair back when
You were throwing up
Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stone-cold sober
I pulled you closer to my chest
And you asked me to stay over
I said, I already told ya
I think that you should get some rest
I knew I loved you then
But you'd never know
'Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go
I know I needed you
But I never showed
But I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed
I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head
And I'll take the kids to school
Wave them goodbye
And I'll thank my lucky stars for that night
When you looked over your shoulder
For a minute, I forget that I'm older
I wanna dance with you right now
Oh, and you look as beautiful as ever
And I swear that everyday'll get better
You make me feel this way somehow
I'm so in love with you
And I hope you know
Darling your love is more than worth its weight in gold
We've come so far my dear
Look how we've grown
And I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
I wanna live with you
Even when we're ghosts
'Cause you were always there for me when I needed you most
I'm gonna love you till
My lungs give out
I promise till death we part like in our vows
So I wrote this song for you, now everybody knows
Finally it's just you and me till we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go

Here's how to play "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur on piano!

With this piano sheet music, you get an accurate arrangement of the full song which is not too hard to play, and sounds fantastic!
The full melody is included in the piano part, so it makes for a great instrumental (piano solo) version!

"Say You Won't Let Go" is the lead single from James Arthur's second studio album, "Back from the Edge".
It became one of his most successful songs, and has been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify!

Here are the full lyrics to James Arthur's "Say You Won't Let Go":

I met you in the dark, you lit me up
You made me feel as though I was enough
We danced the night away, we drank too much
I held your hair back when
You were throwing up
Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stone-cold sober
I pulled you closer to my chest
And you asked me to stay over
I said, I already told ya
I think that you should get some rest
I knew I loved you then
But you'd never know
'Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go
I know I needed you
But I never showed
But I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed
I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head
And I'll take the kids to school
Wave them goodbye
And I'll thank my lucky stars for that night
When you looked over your shoulder
For a minute, I forget that I'm older
I wanna dance with you right now
Oh, and you look as beautiful as ever
And I swear that everyday'll get better
You make me feel this way somehow
I'm so in love with you
And I hope you know
Darling your love is more than worth its weight in gold
We've come so far my dear
Look how we've grown
And I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
I wanna live with you
Even when we're ghosts
'Cause you were always there for me when I needed you most
I'm gonna love you till
My lungs give out
I promise till death we part like in our vows
So I wrote this song for you, now everybody knows
Finally it's just you and me till we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go

This is the collection of classical piano repertoire I created for work with my own students, most of whom were not primarily interested in "classical" music.

In my experience, every elementary piano student should be given the opportunity to successfully play:
Spinning Song (even if you leave out the middle section at first)
Minuet in G (page one)
Fur Elise (page one)

Eventually, they should experience (if not master--that's ultimately up to them) each piece in this collection.

All hand positions and finger numbers are presented so that students can spend their time preparing successfully--not "figuring out" with endless frustration and incorrect solutions.

"Minuet in G" from the Bach notebook is a great example. Let's consider just the first page. Many (most) elementary students would love to play this piece. The RH by itself is easy. The LH is also "not difficult", but it's not self-evident, either. The notes are easy enough, and the fingering choices seem inconsequential. You could play it with several different fingering solutions.

Hands Together: Humans can pay attention to only one thing at a time: in this case, the RH or the LH. Whichever hand is receiving the attention, the other must be on "automatic pilot". You can switch focus rapidly to give the appearance that you are paying attention to two things equally, but that is not what is happening.

So... both hands need to be rehearsed (better word than "practiced") until the correct execution is the "default" behavior.

If that (sufficient correct repetetition) has not happened, then consistent successful performance with both hands is never achieved. Students complain that they wish they could be more "consistent". They don't have a chance, sadly.

"Practice Makes... "

If you said "Perfect" then you've fallen into a sinister trap.

"Practice makes Permanent." When a student actually does what has been assigned, in many cases that is the beginning of the end of their piano career.

Here's the process in general:
Students "write in their own fingering" and then, and then practice (repeat) their incorrect solutions. They are unable to perform the desired piece consistently and don't know why. How long can a student tolerate this ineffective approach?

That's something for us professionals to consider.


Perfect for introducing classical repertoire (similar to Suzuki, Bastien Piano Literature, etc). The advantage here is that all fingering is included so that students play more!

Contents

Minuet in G from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Minuet in G from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Minuet in G minor from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Musette in D from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Minuet in F Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ecossaise in G Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonatina in G Ludwig van Beethoven
I Allegretto
II Romanze
Sonatina (In the Antique Style) Op. 157, No. 4 Fritz Spindler
I Allegro
The Wild Horseman, Op. 68, No. 8 Robert Schumann
Fur Elise (Famous Page 1) Ludwig van Beethoven
Spinning Song, Op. 14, No. 4 Albert Elmenreich
Arabesque, Op. 100, No. 2 Friedrich Burgm�ller
Ballade, Op. 100, No. 15 Friedrich Burgm�ller
Solfeggietto Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Toccatina, Op. 27, No. 12 Dmitri Kabalevsky
Fur Elise (Complete) Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonatina, Op. 55, No. 1 Friedrich Kuhlau
I Allegro
Sonatina, Op. 36, No. 3 Muzio Clementi
I Spiritoso
La V�locit�, Op. 109, No. 10 Friedrich Burgm�ller


These are the documents that I have used to introduce classical music to my piano students. No note is presented without its corresponding proper fundamental technique (fingering). In other words, there is no such thing as a note separate from its hand position and fingering.

The hand position notation is used to better communicate what exactly is being demanded of the student. Students? repertoire is no longer limited by their music staff reading ability. Nor do they suffer from their own painful inability to solve technical issues. This approach restores ?playing music on the piano? to primacy and supports ?helping a student play music on the piano? as the central activity of the piano lesson.

Weak students are able to play real (not simplified) music and not feel penalized. Strong students complete their preparation even more efficiently. In all cases, spending less time on fingering means more time for higher levels of musicianship: coordination, pedaling, physical technique, control, tone, dynamics, tempo, rhythm, articulation, phrasing, expression, emotion, drama, compositional analysis, and historical context.

Good luck!
Scott Camp
scottcampislandpiano@gmail.com