El Pasorsquo;s African American community can trace its origins back to the 16th century; when the black Moor known as Esteban roamed the southwest and; more significantly; those Africans in the party of conquistador Juan de Ontilde;ate crossed the Rio Grande in 1598. The modern El Paso African American community began to take shape in the 1880s; as the railroad industry; military establishment; and agricultural community all had black Americans in their ranks. Black leaders and their followers established a school and founded several significant black churches. Texass first state branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is recorded to have been formed in El Paso; the first major court cases that challenged the all-white Democratic primary came from this city; the Texas Western College basketball team won the NCAA championship in 1966 with five starting black players; and today; the city is inhabited by black military retirees; entrepreneurs; educators; and other professionals (each with vibrant and socially conscious organizations); making it a progressive model of community development.
#4441020 in eBooks 2014-10-05 2014-10-05File Name: B00O2AC6J2
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Challenging and fun!By Suzanne TractenbergThis is a wonderful method book for any musician wanting to improve their sight reading. It is fun; extremely challenging; and can be beneficial by just using your fingers to tap the rhythms. It is written for the more advanced player as it becomes challenging very early on. I highly recommend it.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Brilliant book for anyone who needs to improve their reading ...By Steve RobinsonBrilliant book for anyone who needs to improve their reading skills. It covers many permutations of quarter; eighth; sixteenth and thirty second notes as well as quarter and eighth note triplets. An excellent book.9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Absolutely Essential!By David HerringAbsolute beginners; intermediate level players or seasoned pros. On drums; or any instrument; use this marvelous text and improve.I play drums and started 30+ years ago with this book to learn the basics. I followed the lessons as written; logically and sequentially; and did just that. Then; a few years ago I decided to woodshed and clean up my chops. I called a renowned player/teacher in L.A.; and on our first lesson he asks me; "did you bring "Bellson?" I said yes; then reminded him Id been playing professionally for years; and had gone through Bellson decades earlier. "Not like this you havent."He took my new copy and began writing on the very first set of exercises. After a few minutes of notations; he turned a page introducing basic quarter notes and rests into a series of exercises I literally worked on every day until my next lesson two weeks later. By placing some syncopated accent marks; and adding some triplet figures for the hi-hat and bass drum to play; lesson one in Bellson became some of the most interesting and challenging exercises Id ever seen.But even without modifications; beginning players of any instrument can use this book as written and get an excellent sequential understandable grounding in site reading. More advanced players can add accents; read the page as written; then backward; then vertically etc. Drummers can play the snare line on the bass drum and move the hi-hat around from line to line etc. The book is designed for this kind of creative experimentation. As written; or tricked-up with limitless variations; the book is amazing. With practice; this book will do wonders to your playing and sight reading. And as always; a competent teacher will help accelerate this process. Of the few dozen practice books Ive owned; and the probably one-hundred +/- others Ive looked through at drum shops and music stores over the past 30 years. This is better than top-ten. This is in the top two or three! Get this thing.
