The balalaika is most often associated with Russian folklore. In this comprehensive method book, concert and recording artist Bibs Ekkel shares his extensive knowledge of the balalaika as taught in Russia today. This 160-page book is divided into four sections: an extensive Foreword, the Tutor, A Brief History of the Balalaika, and a Repertoire Section. Unlike many Mel Bay books, the Complete Balalaika Book does not begin with the rudiments of music notation. Rather, the 20-page Foreword offer insights on the tunings of all the instruments in the balalaika family, hand positions, string sources and height adjustment, and chord shapes. The author even describes how to make a bass balalaika pick from shoe leather. The Tutor or instruction segment is written for the 'prima balalaika' which is correctly played with the fingers only rather than with a pick. The Tutor jumps right in with exercises and tunes in quarter, eighth, and sixteenth-note values with occasional dotted notes and syncopation. Perhaps half of the music in this section is shown in both standard notation and tablature. A glossary of musical signs and Russian musical terns is included. A Brief History of the Balalaika is well written and nicely illustrated. Very few Mel Bay books contain such a comprehensive historical overview of the subject instrument. The Repertoire Section offers a valuable resource of Eastern European folk tunes. All but two selections in this section are written in both notation and tab with suggested guitar chords, the exceptions being an arrangement for balalaika and piano, and a balalaika orchestra score. More than simple melody chord leadsheets, these are the author's own arrangements of tunes for solo balalaika and balalaika orchestra. A companion CD with selections performed by the author completes this highly effective instructiona

The balalaika is most often associated with Russian folklore. In this comprehensive method book, concert and recording artist Bibs Ekkel shares his extensive knowledge of the balalaika as taught in Russia today. This 160-page book is divided into four sections: an extensive Foreword, the Tutor, A Brief History of the Balalaika, and a Repertoire Section. Unlike many Mel Bay books, the Complete Balalaika Book does not begin with the rudiments of music notation. Rather, the 20-page Foreword offer insights on the tunings of all the instruments in the balalaika family, hand positions, string sources and height adjustment, and chord shapes. the author even describes how to make a bass balalaika pick from shoe leather. the Tutor or instruction segment is written for the 'prima balalaika' which is correctly played with the fingers only rather than with a pick. the Tutor jumps right in with exercises and tunes in quarter, eighth, and sixteenth-note values with occasional dotted notes and syncopation. Perhaps half of the music in this section is shown in both standard notation and tablature. A glossary of musical signs and Russian musical terns is included. A Brief History of the Balalaika is well written and nicely illustrated. Very few Mel Bay books contain such a comprehensive historical overview of the subject instrument. the Repertoire Section offers a valuable resource of Eastern European folk tunes. All but two selections in this section are written in both notation and tab with suggested guitar chords, the exceptions being an arrangement for balalaika and piano, and a balalaika orchestra score. More than simple melody chord leadsheets, these are the author's own arrangements of tunes for solo balalaika and balalaika orchestra. A companion CD with selections performed by the author completes this highly effective instructional package.

Translated from Russian by Simeon N. Jurist. An elementary method in one volume consisting of four parts. Part One introduces all the fundamentals including note reading and chordal accompaniment. Each succeeding part advances the player through the positions. Part Four contains supplementary repertoire.

It was my friend, Howard Roby, who first talked me into starting my memoirs. It is largely his fault, as well, that I have dwelled upon myself for not just one, but two books that make up this tome that is my life. Because I pledged to myself that I would always keep my eye on the facts and would not be carried away with any "bull", whatsoever. I have kept the famous saying by the tennis player, John McEnroe, in mind throughout: "The older I get, the better I was," Today, in spite of all the ill winds that circulate among businesses, I am in my seventieth year with no financial worries and am relatively healthy to boot. This results from my lifetime habit of hardwork, long hours, and continual challenges as I have made sure that I am providing well for my family. Has it been worth it? What do I have to show for it besides the material comforts? Was my life a success? So finally, I would like to see us play on the same side together, family, friends and world. After all, everyone's a mate!

Provides headings for topics, literary and organizational forms, and names of individuals, corporate bodies, places, works, and so on, that might be needed to catalog a general collection used at least in part by children and readers or viewers interested in popular topics.

As Bing Crosby once put it, Tiny Tim represents 'one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business'. In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the forty-something falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-toe Thru' The Tulips With Me', catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of those attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. But while he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Here, drawing on dozens of new interviews, never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music.

An easy-to-use dictionary of over 80,000 rhyming words.