With the help of this book and companion CD, anyone can learn to play the ukulele overnight. No prior musical experience is assumed! Includes CD with practice exercises. Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Edition will teach anyone how to play the ukulele overnight. No prior musical experience is assumed. Beginners learn how to hold the instrument, position the hands, strumming techniques, basic chords and beyond. An enclosed CD guides the reader through a series of exercises, which are organized in progressive fashion (practicing one strum and slowly building to more complicated rhythmic patterns). The CD also includes a variety of charming songs that readers will be able to strum along with (starting with one/two chords and progressing on to more complex). Encouraging tips are included as well as fun/interesting trivia and sidebars about the ukulele. Music theory is included, but the emphasis is on getting up to speed and on with the fun of playing quickly.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 128

Dimensions: 204 x 254 mm

Publication Date: 05-10-2018

New Zealanders started hearing things in new ways when new audio technologies arrived from overseas in the late 19th century. From the first public demonstration of a phonograph in a Blenheim hall in 1879, people were exposed to a succession of machines that captured, stored and transmitted sounds – through radio, cinema and recordings. In The World’s Din, Peter Hoar documents the arrival of the first such ‘talking machines’, and their growing place in New Zealanders’ public and private lives, through the years of radio to the dawn of television. In so doing, he chronicles a ‘sonic revolution’ in how New Zealanders heard the world. The change was radical, signifying a defining break from the past. Human experience of the world changed forever during the late 19th and early 20 centuries because we learned to capture, store, and transmit sounds and moving images. ‘Audio’ since then has been a continued refinement of the original innovation, even in the contemporary era of digital sound, with iPods, streaming audio and Spotify. The World’s Din is a beautifully written account that will delight music-lovers and technophiles everywhere. Without further ado, it is time to crank the gramophone, or tune the wireless, or open the Jaffa box as the cinema lights dim, and hearken to the richness and variety of listening in New Zealand’s past soundscapes.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 288

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 15-03-2018

The first major work dedicated entirely to the discography of the maestro Ennio Morricone. Unique in its genre, Ennio Morricone: Master of the Soundtrack originates from the idea of the collector, author, and cinema expert Maurizio Baroni. Baroni draws on his own archive to give life to a rich selection highlighting over fifty years of a prestigious career, largely unseen before, which includes handwritten scores by the maestro himself, the original album and single cover sleeves from his soundtracks, and much more. This book is a definite homage to this great Italian composer of film soundtracks, probably the most famous in the world. Texts included by: Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Liliana Cavani, Lisa Gastoni, Franco Nero, Quentin Tarantino, and many more.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 352

Dimensions: 226 x 310 mm

Publication Date: 01-07-2020

This colourful little book of uplifting quotes and tailored tips delivers motivational sparks and creative signposts for musicians. Read it, play to it, use it as a make shift percussion instrument – whatever you do it, the aim is simple: to get you making music!

Bind: paperback

Pages: 128

Dimensions: 105 x 148 mm

Publication Date: 04-05-2015

The drummer is usually the least well-known member of any band. Yet behind every frontman is the person keeping the beat, and often acting as the music’s driving force. In these incredible portraits, Deirdre O’Callaghan places drummers squarely in the spotlight. Photographing her subjects in their private rehearsal spaces and residences—from studios, bedrooms and basements to garages and gardens—allows her to capture the true essence of their personalities and lifestyles. She has photographed almost 100 celebrated musicians for the book, including Ringo Starr, Questlove, Janet Weiss, Dave Grohl, Bobbye Hall, Lars Ulrich, Jack White, and Leah Shapiro. Each image is accompanied by excerpts from O’Callaghan’s personal conversations with the drummers. The result is a fascinating look at a truly diverse world made up of men and women from every walk of life, united by a single, emphatic passion.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 256

Dimensions: 280 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 13-09-2016

This illustrated survey celebrates the panoramic holdings and colorful history of the Archivio Storico Ricordi, one of the world’s most important musical archives. This comprehensive and captivating book follows the evolution of Milan’s Ricordi archive, from its founding in 1808 by publisher Giovanni Ricordi to its present-day holdings of thousands of scores, letters, libretti, sketches of opera scenery and costume design, photographs, and Art Nouveau and Art Deco posters. In addition, the original manuscripts of nearly all of the operas written by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Paganini are preserved inside its hallowed vaults. The book contains an overview of the archive’s entire collection whilst also examining rare autographs, the often-unacknowledged significance of the libretto, and the phenomenon of Italian opera and its important contributions to the world of music and culture. Revealing fascinating stories of uncovered secrets and biographical insights into the composers this book is a treasure trove of musical ephemera which pays tribute to the glorious, dynamic, and colorful history of making, presenting, promoting, and preserving music for the ages.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 224

Dimensions: 216 x 275 mm

Publication Date: 10-02-2017

This book is a tribute to David Bowie, and to all facets of this magnificent artist, inspiration for several generations. We have brought together 41 artists who have created one or more illustrations of David Bowie, they also express in a sentence what they think about this artist recognised throughout the world.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 112

Dimensions: 180 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 17-04-2017

A passionate tribute to vinyl, spotlighting rock’s most influential records — from The Beatles’ 1963 debut Please Please Me, through the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks (1977) — 101 Essential Rock Records celebrates the “Golden Age.” A thoughtful essay on each album accompanies the original vinyl cover artwork, with rare variations from around the world. Also included are provocative interviews with musicians discussing the albums and artists who changed their lives. David Bowie speaks eloquently about the Velvet Underground’s influence, noting his band, Buzz, performed “I’m Waiting For The Man” at their last gig, and that “it was the first time a Velvet song had been covered by anyone, anywhere in the world. Lucky me.” Susanne Vega, Peter Buck (REM), Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Nels Cline (Wilco), Devendra Banhart, Robyn Hitchcock and more contribute original texts. Pictorial explorations of Jimi Hendrix’s personal record collection, and a survey of censored album covers from throughout the rock era are also featured. The sales of vinyl LPs have been growing rapidly while other physical mediums continue to wither, a trend driven in no small part by classic re-issues and the advent of record store day in 2008. 101 Essential is the perfect accompaniment and guide to digging in the bins for that quintessential vinyl experience.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 260

Dimensions: 250 x 300 x 30 mm

One of a handful of artists to emerge from Andy Warhol’s celebrity-focused Interview magazine, Matthew Rolston is a well-established icon of Hollywood photography. Alongside such luminaries as Herb Ritts and Greg Gorman, Rolston was a member of an influential group of photographers (among them, Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz, and Steven Meisel) who came from the 1980s magazine scene. Rolston helped define the era’s take on celebrity imagemaking, gender bending, and much more. Edited by long-time Los Angeles–based gallerist and curator David Fahey, this book—Rolston’s fourth monograph—presents a stunning array of portraits that beautifully and succinctly capture the decade and its myriad talents. From Michael Jackson and Madonna, to Prince, George Michael, and Cyndi Lauper, the selection of images reflects a seamless blend of style, skill, and scintillation. This volume features over 100 mesmerizing photographs selected from Rolston’s extensive body of work, centering on his unforgettable portraits of the era’s most famous personalities. With essays by authors Pat Hackett, Andy Warhol’s longtime biographer and diarist; Colin Westerbeck, noted photographic curator and expert on American photographer Irving Penn; and Charles Churchward, longtime creative director of Vogue magazine and author of The Golden Hour, a definitive biography of Herb Ritts, Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles, paints a fascinating picture of an indelible imagemaker and the movie stars, models, and artists he immortalized during this period. Rolston’s photographs recall the glamour of Old Hollywood with postmodern irony, helping to point the way towards the cult of fame we live with today.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 278

Dimensions: 279 x 380 mm

Publication Date: 01-08-2017

This beautiful and remarkable behind-the-scenes study of dancers, musicians and onlookers offers a social and narrative dimension to the everyday life at the legendary Bolshoi Ballet. “Gusov’s photographs are lightning fissures, apertures, openings. They are neat as the bullet marks made in the moving target of time by a master of the craft, and the weird and hopeless dawn that streams through these tightly clustered pinholes is the light of future.” —Andrei Navrozov Sasha Gusov specializes in portraiture, classical music, ballet and dance photography. He moved to England in 1989, where he got a job with printer Roy Snell who, when not working, allowed him access to the dark room. In 1993 his self-commissioned photographic project Images of the Bolshoi Ballet, published by the British Journal of Photography, earned him international recognition. Gusov’s work has since been widely published throughout the world. Photographic books include 25 years in Photography, 2014; Belarus: Terra Incognita, 2010; Royal Parks, 2011; Locusts, 2008; Italian Carousel, 2003 and Shooting Images, 2001.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 180

Dimensions: 240 x 320 mm

Publication Date: 20-10-2017