SKU: HL.282486

ISBN 9781540034427. UPC: 888680789299. 9.0x12.0x0.597 inches.

64 popular modern classics in our large print E-Z Play(r) Today notation with the note name in the note head. Includes: Billie Jean * Crazy Little Thing Called Love * Don't Stop Believin' * Dream On * Every Breath You Take * Free Bird * Free Fallin' * Hallelujah * Imagine * Landslide * Mad World * Purple Rain * Ring of Fire * Rolling in the Deep * Stand by Me * Tears in Heaven * With or Without You * Yesterday * and more.

About Hal Leonard E-Z Play Today

For organs, pianos, and electronic keyboards. E-Z Play Today is the shortest distance between beginning music and playing fun. Now there are more than 300 reasons why you should play E-Z Play Today. * World's largest series of music folios * Full-size books - large 9 x 12 format features easy-to-read, easy-to-play music * Accurate arrangements... simple enough for the beginner, but accurate chords and melody lines are maintained * Eye-catching, full-color covers * Lyrics... most arrangements include words and music * Most up-to-date registrations - books in the series contain a general registration guide, as well as individual song rhythm suggestions * Guitar Chord Chart - all songs in the series can also be played on guitar.

SKU: HL.277282

UPC: 840126915006. 6.75x10.5 inches.

Program note:

Looking Up is a piece for large chorus and orchestra, and is in three sections, played without pause. In the 16th century, a variety of psalters in meter were printed in England, with the idea of making psalm-singing something that could happen easily at home, with the rhyming meter being an aid to memorization. These translations are wonderful exercises in brevity and sometimes clumsy rhymemaking, and were usually prefaced by a lengthy explanation as to their merits; the title of one of the first such volumes in English is: The Psalter of Dauid newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the mynde, be reade and songe of al men. I thought it would be appropriate to set one of these introductions, and the first section of Looking Up sets the preface to Thomas Ravenscroft's psalter (1621), in which he writes: “The singing of Psalmes (assay the Doctors) comforteth the sorrowfull, pacifieth the angry, strengtheneth the weake, humbleth the proud, gladdeth the humble, stirres up the slow, reconcileth enemies, lifteth up the heart to heavenly things, and uniteth the Creature to his Creator.”

It begins meditatively, but eventually grows agitated and fervent, with a vision of the “quire of Angels and Saints” “redoubling anddescanting” - an ecstatic and terrifying vision of the skies opening up. Ravenscroft then encourages the use of instrumental musicfor worship, at which point, a long, acrobatic orchestral interlude with jagged edges antagonizes the choir, who sing a kind of private, anxious meditation on two pitches.

One of the most delicious biblical texts is an Apocryphal prayer known as the Benedicite or the Prayer of the Three Children (the same who were rescued by an angel after King Nebuchadnezzar tried to have them burnt in an oven for not bowing to his image). The text is repetitive, obsessive, and a gift to composers - each line is an invocation of an element of the natural world, followed by the phrase, “blesse ye the Lord, praise him & magnify him for ever.” In Looking Up, the setting begins with three solo voices, and then grows to include the whole choir, itemizing the whole of creation. The idea that these boys are spared from the furnace and then five minutes later are saying, “O ye the fire and warming heate, blesse ye the Lord...” has always felt very loaded to me, and the orchestra plays with this conflict between joyful praise and a more terrible (in the 16th-century sense) awefor the divine.

The text for the third, and shortest, section is taken from Christopher Smart's (1722-1771) A Song to David, purportedly written during his confinement in a mental asylum. This ode to King David points out how David, as the author of some of the Psalms, observes the whole world from the “clustering spheres” to the “nosegay in the vale.&rdquo.

SKU: HL.346730

ISBN 9781540094797. UPC: 840126925111. 9.0x12.0x0.329 inches.

Do-It-Yourself Guitar is a fun way to get started playing on your own. Using over 90 well-known pop and rock tunes, you will be given step-by-step instructions on what you need to know to get started and sounding like a pro in no time. Includes over 150 audio tracks for demonstration and play-along, plus video instruction that covers all concepts within! Covers: Guitar fundamentals; reading guitar tablature; fret-hand and pick-hand techniques; chords & chord progressions; scales; techniques for acoustic and electric guitar; lead guitar; fingerstyle guitar; playing styles of famous guitarists; demonstraton and play-along audio tracks; video instruction and demonstration; and more! The price of this book includes access to audio and video online, for download or streaming, using the unique code found inside. Includes 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.