The Essential Encyclopedia for Every Guitar Player The GuitarHandbook is the complete guide to playing the guitar - from simplechords to advanced improvisations. Its uniquely devised learningprogram combines specially commissioned, step-by-step photographswith a chord dictionary containing over 800 easy-to-followfingerings, and clear, concise text. It is also a comprehensivemanual on guitar hardware and performance technology, soundequipment, special effects, and recording facilities. It examinesevery aspect of guitar maintenance, repair, and customizing, aswell as highlighting over 20 world-famous guitarists. 43 pages withfull-color photos and illustrations.

Few music lovers realize that the arrangement of notes ontoday’s pianos was once regarded as a crime against God and nature,or that such legendary thinkers as Pythagoras, Plato, da Vinci,Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton and Rousseau played a role inthe controversy. Indeed, from the time of the Ancient Greeksthrough the eras of Renaissance scientists and Enlightenmentphilosophers, the relationship between the notes of the musicalscale was seen as a key to the very nature of the universe. In this engaging and accessible account, Stuart Isacoff leads usthrough the battles over that scale, placing them in the context ofquarrels in the worlds of art, philosophy, religion, politics andscience. The contentious adoption of the modern tuning system knownas equal temperament called into question beliefs that hadlasted nearly two millenia–and also made possible the music ofBeethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy, and all who followed. Filledwith original insights, fascinating anecdotes, and portraits ofsome of th

The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing isrepresentative of too many young black men in this country....If wehad lost Oprah Winfrey at 25, we would have lost a relativelyunknown, local market TV anchorwoman. If we had lost Malcolm X at25, we would have lost a hustler nicknamed Detroit Red. And if Ihad left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpetplayer and aspiring composer--just a sliver of my eventual lifepotential. From the Foreword by Quincy Jones The real story of Tupac's murder may not ever emerge. This maybe the only lasting testament to the many faces of Tupac Shakur--ofa life lived fast and hard, of a man cloaked in contradictions. Ayoung man who was just starting to come into his own. "I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. Soeverything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But inmy heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'mgoing to heaven." Tupac Shakur, June 1996

A Tribe Called Quest - Beastie Boys - De La Soul - Eric B. andRakim - The Fugees - KRS-One - Pete Rock and CL Smooth - PublicEnemy - The Roots - Run-DMC - Wu-Tang Clan - and twenty-five morehip-hop immortals It's a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have alwaysbeen reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicityphoto or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That's a damnshame, because few outside the game know about the true creativeforces behind influential masterpieces like PE's It Takes a Nationof Millions. . ., De La's 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang'sEnter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hopnation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling,knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic andiconoclastic art form. The format: One chapter, one artist, onealbum, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from theoriginal sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys-includingBig Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, I

Few artists have created as much controversy or survived itwith greater fame than Edouard Manet. In his day, the avant-gardewas not only a challenge to the traditions of art, but it was alsoa gunshot fired at society as a whole. With his painting Olympia(1869), Manet was to become, to quote Degas, as famous asGaribaldi. Yet how the urbane and diffident son of a bourgeoisfamily became the father of both Realism and Impressionism is acomplex and fascinating story that has too often been reduced totextbook clichés. As Manet has become recognized as a touchstonefor historical change but also for interpretations of how thatchange came about, his individual story has become all the morerelevant to the study of art history. Moreover, far from being anartists to shrink behind his work, one of Manets mostcharacteristic practices was to leave an indelible trace of his ownpersonal identity within his paintings, as illustrated throughoutthe volume by eminent scholar James H. Rubin. This lavishlyillustrated volume

Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (16151868) were the products of a highly commercialised and competitive publishing industry. Their content was inspired by the vibrant popular culture that flourished in Edo (Tokyo). At any given time scores of publishers competed for the services of the leading artists of the day. Publishers and artists displayed tremendous ingenuity in finding ways to sustain demand for prints and to to circumvent the restrictions placed upon them by government censorship. Japanese woodblock prints have long been appreciated in the West for their graphic qualities but their content has not always been fully understood. In recent years, publications by scholars in Japan, Europe and the United States have made possible a more subtle appreciation of the imagery encountered in them. This book draws upon this recent scholarship to explain how those who first purchased these prints would have read them. Through stunning new photography of both well-known and rarely published work

What's the secret to writing a hit song? It's as simple as1-2-3-4-5-6 Innovative, practical, and inspiring, "Six Steps toSongwriting Success" presents a surefire step-by-step approach tomastering the elements consistently found in hit songs. AuthorJason Blume, a songwriter with the rare distinction of having hadsongs on the Country, Pop, and RandB charts simultaneously, haspacked this book with such key aids as the three-step lyric writingtechnique used by the pros; lyric, melody, and demo checklists; andtools for self-evaluation-plus many other exercises that work.Blume's warm, humorous style features motivational anecdotes andentertaining stories of how hit songs came to be written andrecorded. Get "Six Steps to Songwriting Success," and get on thecharts

“The standard of photography is absolutelyamazing.”— Practical Photography The third editionof Reuters: Our World Now captures the key events from2009 in more than 350 powerful photographs. Organized into foursections that represent the four quarters of the year, the imagescover the full range of global reporting: politics, commerce,conflict, the environment, natural disasters, faith andfestivities, entertainment, celebrity, and lifestyle. The photosoffer a fresh take on the year’s most memorable events as well asplenty of less-familiar stories. This completely new edition includes special “Witness” features:in-depth photo essays from around the world, many of them createdby local photographers with unique access and insight. The bookprovides an indispensable visual record of our times. 360 color and10 black-and-white photographs.

When it was originally published in 1970, "How to Draw What YouSee" zoomed to the top of Watson-Guptill's best-seller list--and ithas remained there ever since. "I believe that you must be able todraw things as you see them--realistically," wrote Rudy de Reyna inhis introduction. Today, generations of artists have learned todraw what they see, to truly capture the world around them, usingde Reyna's methods. "How to Draw What You See" shows artists how torecognize the basic shape of an object--cube, cylinder, cone, orsphere--and use that shape to draw the object, no matter how muchdetail it contains.

In 1958, the first edition of Robert Frank's TheAmericans was published in Paris. Les Américains contained Frank's 83 photographs in the same sequence as allsubsequent editions, with the image on the right hand page, butjuxtaposed with historical texts about American society andpolitics, gathered by Alain Bosquet. The following year, in thefirst American edition, the French texts were removed and anintroduction by Jack Kerouac was added. Over the subsequent 50years, The Americans has been republished in many editions,in numerous languages, with a variety of cover designs, and even ina range of sizes. It is the most famous photography book everpublished, and it changed the face of the medium forever. Robert Frank discussed with his publisher,Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new edition using modernscanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was tobring original prints from New York to G?ttingen, Germany, whereSteidl is based. In July 2007, Frank visited G?ttingen. A new forma

One of Victorian Englands most charismatic characters, DanteGabriel Rossetti painted and wrote with equal passion. He wassimilarly passionate in his personal life: his etherealartist-wife, his earthy blond mistress, and the ravishing JaneMorris are al

A beautiful illustrated edition of Henry David Thoreau’s CapeCod, from the photographer of "Walden: 150th Anniversay Edition"."Cape Cod" features the complete 1906 Houghton Mifflin edition textof Henry David Thoreau’s classic work, the stunning photography ofScot Miller, and a foreword from preeminent Thoreau biographerRobert Richardson. "Cape Cod" is a wonderfully written,surprisingly funny account of nineteenth-century life on the Cape,well before it became a major tourist attraction. Many of thesixty-two lush color photographs have a timeless quality and showthings Thoreau himself might have seen: the great beach, imposingcliffs, sand dunes, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, beach grass,and seaweed. Others reflect the unique personality of Cape Cod andits people today, from local artists to modern architecture. Thecombination of Thoreau’s timeless text and Miller’s exquisitelyreproduced color photographs makes this an indispensable editionfor anyone who loves Thoreau’s writing and the perfect gift