Music

Riley “Blues Boy” King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age 10, leaving him more or less alone.... 

This book that I've written is a collection of proven strategies to maximize your success in the music industry presented to you in a no-BS, matter-of-fact manner....

A no-nonsense and helpful guide on how to cope with a slew of mental-health issues that are hell-bent on ruining the lives of millions of people worldwide....

Discover the beauty of music theory and become a better musician through the power of understanding....

Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world....

From a talented young journalist on the rise comes a deeply reported, timely new biography of the Notorious B.I.G., publishing for what would have been his 50th birthday....

From Mozart to Mendelssohn, this comprehensive guide to classical music history and classical music biography is the perfect latest addition to the best-selling Big Ideas series....

Every time we open our mouths, we have an effect on ourselves and the way others perceive us. The ability to speak clearly and confidently can make or break a presentation, an important meeting....

Layne Redmond shows you how to tap in to ancient technology through simple breathing practices combined with movement and syncopated music....

Discover the songwriting technique used in 97% of all hit songs. Learn how to use subtle psychological triggers to captivate any audience....

Oliver Sacks examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians and everyday people....

Who really is A.R. Rahman? We know the music. But do we know the man? For the first time, a nation's pride - winner of National Film awards, Oscars, Grammys and hearts - opens up about his philosophies: hope, perseverance, positivity and love....

Fire and Rain tells the story of four iconic albums of 1970 and the lives, times, and constantly intertwining personal ties of the remarkable artists who made them....

The life, times, and travels of a remarkable instrument and the people who have made, sold, played, and cherished it....

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Megadeth’s iconic record, Rust in Peace, from the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist....

Learn music theory in 30 days or less!  No matter what is your age, no matter what is your musical background, and no matter what is your purpose - you can learn music theory, write beautiful songs, and produce outstanding music! Listen to find out more....

Joni Eareckson Tada has inspired people around the world with her story of faith in the midst of suffering. In this beautiful collection of hymns and devotions, she acts as a “song leader,” guiding listeners through their own painful seasons with heartfelt praises to God....

Great minds have long sought to understand the relationship between music and mathematics. Both involve patterns, structures, and relationships. Both generate ideas of great beauty and elegance....

When Namita is 10, her mother takes her to Dhondutai, a respected music teacher from the Jaipur gharana. Dhondutai's antecedents are rich - she is the only remaining student of the legendary Alladiya Khan....

Hailed as an "indispensable" guide (Forbes), How to Make It in the New Music Business returns in this extensively revised and expanded edition....

Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story....

Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience....

An enthralling investigation into the mysteries of music....

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Tina Turner: My Love Story, by Tina Turner....

On the eve of his fortieth birthday, a professor of no discernible musical talent learns to play the guitar and investigates how anyone of any age might master a new skill.....

The Inner Game of music is that which takes place in the mind, played against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self doubt, and fear of failure. Using the same principles of "natural learning" W. Timothy Gallwey developed so successfully for tennis, golf, and skiing and applying them to his own field, noted musician Barry Green shows how to acknowledge and overcome these internal obstacles in order to bring a new quality to the experience and learning of music. 

Keith Hatschek tells the story of three determined artists: Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Iola Brubeck and the stand they took against segregation by writing and performing a jazz musical titled The Real Ambassadors. First conceived by the Brubecks in 1956, the musical's journey to the stage for its 1962 premiere tracks extraordinary twists and turns across the backdrop of the civil rights movement.

Lesley-Ann Jones's new history tracks this contradictory, disturbing, granitic and unstoppable band through hope, glory and exile, into the juggernaut years and beyond into rock's ongoing reckoning...where the Stones seem more at odds than ever with the values and heritage against which they have always rebelled. Good, bad and often ugly, here are the Rolling Stones as never before.

In 2018, boundary-breaking visual and sonic artist Cosey Fanni Tutti received a commission to write the soundtrack to a film about Delia Derbyshire, the pioneering electronic composer who influenced the likes of Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. While researching Derbyshire's life, Tutti became immersed in her story and uncovered fascinating parallels with her own life. At the same time, Tutti began reading about Margery Kempe, the fifteenth-century mystic visionary who wrote the first English-language autobiography. The connections between the three women soon shifted into focus.

"Enlightenment of Vocal Rhythm" is an enlightenment reading to train children to cope and master vocal rhythm. Arranged according to rhyme, it covers astronomy, geography, flowers and trees, birds and beasts, characters, utensils, etc. From single-character pairs to double-character pairs, three-character pairs, five-character pairs, seven-character pairs to eleven-character pairs, the sound and rhythm are coordinated and catchy, and the training of pronunciation, vocabulary and rhetoric is obtained.

Sondheim in Our Time and His offers a wide-ranging historical investigation of the landmark works and extraordinary career of Stephen Sondheim, a career which has spanned much of the history of American musical theater. Each author uncovers those aspects of biography, collaborative process, and contemporary context that impacted the creation and reception of Sondheim's musicals. In addition, several authors explore in detail how Sondheim's shows have been dramatically revised and adapted over time, bringing together his past with the present, thriving existence of his musicals.

When the Nicholas Brothers danced, uptown at the Cotton Club, downtown at the Roxy, in segregated movie theatres in the South, and dance halls across the country, audiences cheered, clapped, stomped their feet, and shouted out uncontrollably. In Brotherhood in Rhythm, Constance Valis Hill interweaves an intimate portrait of these great performers with a rich, detailed history of jazz music and dance, both bringing their act to life and explaining their significance through a colorful analysis of their eloquent footwork, their full-bodied expressiveness, and their changing style.

From 1969 to 1971, as the United States convulsed with political upheaval and transformative social movements, no band was bigger than Creedence Clearwater Revival. They managed a two-year barrage of top-10 singles and LPs that doubled as an ubiquitous soundtrack to one of the most volatile periods in modern American history, and they remain a staple of classic rock radio and films about the era. Yet despite their enduring popularity, no book has ever sought to understand Creedence in conversation with their time. A Song for Everyone finally tells that story.

This is the impassioned and exhilarating story of the composers who dared to challenge the conventional world of classical music in the twentieth century. Traversing the globe from Ethiopia and the Philippines to Mexico, Jerusalem, Russia and beyond, journalist, critic and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Kate Molleson tells the stories of ten figures who altered the course of musical history, only to be side-lined and denied recognition during an era that systemically favoured certain sounds—and people—over others.

As an author, speaker, and advocate for people with disabilities, Joni Eareckson Tada has inspired people around the world with her story of faith in the midst of suffering. In this beautiful collection of hymns and devotions, she acts as a “song leader,” guiding listeners through their own painful seasons with heartfelt praises to God. Songs of Suffering includes 25 hymns with accompanying devotions to spark hope in hardship. This book is a source of comfort for anyone who needs biblical encouragement, prompting people to seek refuge in the Lord and rejoice in his goodness.

Of all the white American pop music groups that hit the charts before the Beatles, only the Beach Boys continued to thrive throughout the British Invasion to survive into the 1970s and beyond. The Beach Boys helped define both sides of the era we broadly call the sixties, split between their early surf, car, and summer pop and their later hippie, counterculture, and ambitious rock. 

For centuries, opera has used women’s voices to convey male stories. Within an art form dominated by men, the female voice is a means to an end: controlled, denatured, and crafted to carry words and intentions that belie the true depth and complexity of the female experience. Here, author and opera singer Fides Krucker shows listeners what it means to find—and use—our authentic voice, to sing wildly and uninhibited from the depths of our bodies and spirits. 

Claude Debussy is regarded by many as the quintessential French composer, with music that invited both warm applause and frosty criticism in his day. While our ears no longer hear him as controversial, his works heralded the dawn of an artistic period founded on innovation and experiment, and a desire to break with the past in search of new expressive means. With never a dull moment, Debussy went from being a musical misfit at the Paris Conservatoire to bohemian life amongst the Symbolist poets and some scandalous love affairs. 

When we think of Ludwig van Beethoven images of a stormy and passionate but tortured genius are brought to mind, alongside the transformative effect of his work on musical history. All of these things are true, but no artist lives in a vacuum, and even music that opens a portal onto 'the infinite realm of the spirit' has its wider context. 

Tchaikovsky declared that Mozart was 'full of divine beauty', and Schubert's wonder at the 'countless images of a brighter and better world' that Mozart was able to conjure up through his music knew no bounds. Many of us carry the image of Mozart as a transcendent genius, but what do we really know about his life and career, and indeed his music? This entertaining and informative biography takes us from Mozart's beginnings as a child prodigy to his greatest successes and cruellest setbacks.