A flavorful account of New York City politics during the 1920s Jazz Age centering on the intersecting careers of the citys popular "Night Mayor;" Jimmy Walker; and the states patrician governor; Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mitgangs extensive use of newspaper quotes and legal transcripts helps paint vivid portraits of Walker; Roosevelt and the large cast of characters who played a part in Walkers fall from grace and Roosevelts meteoric rise to four-term president.
#720822 in eBooks 1986-11-01 1986-11-01File Name: B009CO9TEI
Review
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful. This represents Bill Levitts goal to make a pick style guitar "legitimate".By Low HertzFirst of all. I was a student at Berklee and studied with Bill Levitt. Bill Levitt createdgreat methodologies for pick style guitar. However. I say this with fondness. he hada religious attitude that nothing was played with fingers.I grew up studying with a great Jazz player. Lenny Frank who taught using a pick. using fingers and pick and fingers. But not Bill Levitt. Using the right hand fingers was treated as something evil.While Classical Guitar was finally considered a "legitimate" instrument. there was a schoolof mostly arch top players that were incredible musicians. An example that Bill Levitt selectsas one of the best would be Johnny Smith. Its not unlike Benny Goodman playing a clarinet concerto to get jazz accepted by serious musicians. You have to realize this was all coming from jazz musicians from the bebop era and the great arch top chord solo guitar players.Bill obviously researched through thousands of classical studies for guitar. or in some casessingle note studies for cello or other instrument. He found ones that could be playedwith a pick. Yes. they are great pieces. Yes. they are great for developing clean amazingtechnique. Yes. you should understand the underlying chord theory. best accomplished bystudying the book with a knowledgeable teacher.Its a great book. Its also a great book to play with your fingers but you couldnt saythat to Bill.Bill ran the guitar department with no variations permitted. Students went through theBill Levitt series of books. though very few guitar students ever graduated. To get college credit you had to be able to start at page 60 of book 1. Should a teacherimprovise and teach other stuff. that was outlawed. One should keep Bill Levitts philosophies and goals in mind to better understand and play the pieces.Each semester a student had to give a recital. selecting a piece from this book. memorize itand perform it before a group of professors for a grade.Bill was a great arranger and all the pieces are sequentially organized in difficulty and learning experiences.All of them are worthy performance pieces. I use the book with students that generallyplay them with their fingers. For example. many of the early pieces are Carcassi studiesand were written to teach how to use ones fingers. Playing them on a pick. great practice.another sound. but many are obviously designed for the use of fingers. Bills not looking.you can use your fingers too.This book is first and foremost an attempt to help arch top guitar players legitimate acceptance. In the process he created a fine book.I highly recommend it both to pick style players but also for classical studies.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This is a great book for working on puck hand technique and you ...By solarwindThis is a great book for working on puck hand technique and you also can be musical at the same time. its a real fun way to work on chops and learn a piece of music. You cant beat it for the price. I had the chance of meeting Mr Leavitt who builded that guitar program at Berklee and he was a genius. this book has help my chops so much.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. one of the best for pick style guitarBy Thomas A. Denglera classic. i took lessons from one of Leavitts students from Berklee. he recommended this book ofcourse. when I was looking for a book to learn classical on. but I was still a picker on electric. this is great material. a bit difficult in places. but awesome. my only problem with it is that it has duets. i feel all books like this should be written for solo. but the Bach arrangements. and the Sor and Carcassi are enough material to learn for a while. not to mention the Moto Perpetuo of Paganini. check out Mel Bay modern guitar method. vols. 5-7. which also have great picking classics.
