The Essential Michael Jackson: Piano/Vocal/Chords

Comments

1. ledge says:
   April 21, 2010 at 12:56 pm

   Rating

   I had the Thriller piano/vocal/chord book already but decided to get this because it also included a few Jackson 5 tunes in addition to songs from Off the Wall, Bad, Dangerous, History, and Invincible. Some songs from the Thriller book have better arrangements in this edition but not all Thriller songs are present. I was impressed that the songs are in their original keys and in several cases the arrangement from the recording is provided with harmonies. Some songs transfer to piano better than others but that’s typical of any pop material. I read through almost the entire book the first day I had it and had a blast. Uh-hee-hee!
2. Jason Weber says:
   April 21, 2010 at 7:50 pm

   Rating

   This book contains a large variety of songs ranging from the earliest songs of the Jackson 5 in the early 70s to more modern songs like Survivor and Black or White from the early 90s, which was when Jackson was in his prime of his career. I feel the book contains appropriate songs, most of his number one hits are included, as well as most of the songs in the Thriller albulm. From what I here, a few songs that were essential from Michael like Earth Song or Never Say Goodbye were not included, but seeing as this book is based strictly on the 2005 CD of the same name, this is forgivable. There are a few songs a do not care about, but like every book, there are always those few songs that make the entire book worth buying and the less desirable songs forgivable. As for difficulty, this book is not for beginner or early intermmediate players. There are a lot of sharps and flats in many of the songs, which are in the original key Jackson sang them in. They aren’t really advanced either like Joplin or Gershwin, but they are on the more difficult side of moderate. One last comment is some of these songs for the piano part include a counter melody to the vocal part rather than go along with the melody, so for those songs you need to play off the top melody and add extra inversions to the notes to add more emphasis if you want to play the main melody, however, most piano parts do go along with the main melody exactly, but Bad and Thriller are some that don’t. Overall, this book is pretty great and offers lyrics and chords, as well as great melodies and counter melodies for the vocals on piano. If you are a fan of Jackson and play piano, this book is a must have. If you like a few of Jackson’s songs and are a pop fan, I still guaruntee you will like this book. It just has a really great variety and his best songs are all in here.

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