Description

This book contains nine original songs, in this case formatted for banjo (with a separate staff for voice). It is appropriate for Advanced Intermediate/Advanced level players.

It is the third of my three song books, each initially developed and arranged for use by my students to provide them with interesting and challenging material to play. It continues and advances the attitude behind Emergence and Discovery, the first and second of these song books.

All songs remain of a contemporary nature, with an emphasis on tuneful melodies, intelligent yet poignant lyrics, varied and appealing harmonies and a host of different time signatures and related rhythms. While the overall style of song is contemporary, each has its own unique feel. These songs are set in a more demanding range of musical keys and rhythms and written to encompass a fairly extensive pitch range.

Through the course of the book, the songs progress through different note registers, gradually introduce new key signatures, employ a variety of tempos, incorporate more complex time signatures and rhythms, and develop the melody within each song by adding harmonic material to them. Technical skills appropriate to the banjo are written in to the scores.

You will find that the entire book is more sophisticated and involved than its predecessor.

The material in this (and all of the books) have been uniformly well-received by those who have had an opportunity to work in it.

I have been engaged in a life-long study of songwriting. Over this time, I have read many books, articles and workbooks on the subject, watched a wide variety of related videos and tutorials and learned to play thousands of highly-regarded songs, drawn from different times in history and from diverse genre. I have attempted to embed the results of my on-going study into the songs presented here.

At present, no companion CD is available for the Discovery songbook.

One is under development, however, and is targeted for release by the fall of 2014.