Song Sheets to Software: A Guide to Print Music, Software and Web Sites for Musicians. . - Books - book review

American Music Teacher, Feb-March, 2002 by Ouida Thomas

Song Sheets to Software: A Guide to Print Music, Software and Web Sites for Musicians, by Elizabeth C. Axford. Scarecrow Press, Inc. (4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706), 2001. 304pp., $36.95.

The idea for this book came to the author while she was working on a recording project and discovered that the sequencing program she was using required the ability to read music. Although she has a master's degree in music, she realized that many musicians who do not read music might wish to use this sequencing program. Furthermore, she realized that music education has not always been a top priority in the American educational system, and there has not been a standardized method of teaching music in school. The purpose of this book is to give help to those who may or may not read music, yet want and need to know more about music. It is about learning and teaching music through stimulating new ways involving computers and the Internet.

The first chapter contains a history of printed music and of early American religious, folk and popular music. There are composer profiles and histories of Vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, popular song sheets, musicals, silent films, talkies and, finally, the print music business today. This chapter is written in prose paragraph form and is delightful reading.

The next chapter deals with copyright laws and print music royalties, and terms and formats of this aspect of the print music business.

Chapter three catalogues an enormous list of software for musicians. The list is categorized by intents and purposes, particular skills, instruments and musical styles. Each piece of software is described in an abbreviated prose paragraph.

In the fourth chapter, there is a list of websites helpful to musicians. This chapter contains a wealth of information in a very concise form, carefully labeled by categories.

The fifth chapter is a dictionary of technical Internet terms--very clear and concise.

This highly organized publication is a very useful resource for those of us who teach and/or perform music. Reviewed by Ouida Thomas, NCTM, Grenada, Mississippi.