Product Description

The All Music Guide says that pianist and composer George Winston is "among the earliest and most successful proponents of contemporary instrumental music." Here is the first songbook ever notating his beloved piano pieces. Winston himself chose the songs and cover art, wrote the preface, and approved every note. Features 20 of his most-requested favorites: The Black Stallion * Joy * Longing * Prelude/Carol of the Bells * Thanksgiving * Variations on the Kanon by Pachelbel * and more. Includes a biography, discography, and discussion of chords. First Fully Authorized Songbook Featuring Winston's Esteemed Compositions and Arrangements!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54837 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

Customer Reviews

Long awaited ...
Get ready to play like George Winston ... The description does not provide a full list of scores that are included in the book, so here are the rest of them: The Cradle, Graduation, Loreta and Desiree's Bouquet Part 1, Lullaby, New Hopes Blues, Reflection, Stevenson, Thumbelina, The Twisting of the Hay Rope, (Variations on) Bamboo, The Velveteen Rabbit, Walking in the Air, Building the Snowman, and The Snowman's Music Box Dance. In my opinion, the scores seem like they are technically accurate (i.e. unabridged). And it's going to be a wonderful challenge to make them sound artistically accurate.

Thanksgiving For Sure
At last, George Winston publishes his arrangements of Thanksgiving, Carol of the Bells, Pachabel's Canon, some blues and lots more. You don't have to be a concert pianist to play any of these arrangements. Some of the music is "made" by the pedaling and sustaining of the notes - this is awesome if you ever wondered,"How does he get that sound?" The notation is clear and composed to the CD. This is a wonderful musical buffet of George Winston's styles and sound. Truly enjoyable. I do hope he will publish more.

Good, but transcribed by someone else...
I was very glad to see that George Winston finally published some of his arrangements, mainly because I have had the benefit of other transcriptions that have been circulating the Internet for at least 10 years. So, I figured I owed Winston the purchase.

I am (just mildly) disappointed in the book, only because Winston say he plays by ear and the music was transcribed by someone else, with Winston reviewing the transcriptions. The Internet transcriptions that were already available for Carol of the Bells and Joy are actually slightly "better" than the ones in the book (especially Joy). I was also hoping for a fingering hint here and there -- there are some difficult parts in Carol of the Bells in which proper finger selection can make the difference between it being playable or not, and the right choice isn't at all obvious. The books only has the notes and chord symbols, which I suppose is fine for the advanced piano player.

Still, if you have never had the benefit of seeing any of this music in print and have wanted to play Winston's music, this is a very nice book. There are some pieces in here I've never seen before that I'm sure I will enjoy.