Two women. Two cultures. One music. The word sensei in Japanese literally means “one who came before,” but that’s not what Janet Pocorobba’s teacher wanted to be called. She used her first name, Western-style. She wore a velour Beatles cap and leather jacket, and she taught foreigners, in English, the three-stringed shamisen, an instrument that fell out of tune as soon as you started to play it. Vexed by the music and Sensei’s mission to upend an elite musical system, Pocorobba, on the cusp of thirty, gives up her return ticket home to become a lifelong student of her teacher. She is eventually featured in Japan Cosmo as one of the most accomplished gaijin, “outside people,” to play the instrument. Part memoir, part biography of her Sensei, The Fourth String looks back on the initial few years of that apprenticeship, one that Janet’s own female English students advised her was “wife training,” steeped in obedience, loyalty, and duty. Even with her maverick teacher, Janet is challenged by group hierarchies, obscure traditions, and the tricky spaces of silence in Japanese life.

Spotlighting the four women of the Lafayette Quartet, a leading Canadian ensemble, Rounds offers both a comprehensive history of the beloved instrumental form and an inside view of the complex world of professional quartet players, revealing the exultation and heatache that are the performing artists' daily fare. A treat for every music lover, whether player, listener or composer.

Long a symbol of American culture, the banjo actually originated in Africa before European-Americans adopted it. Karen Linn shows how the banjo--despite design innovations and several modernizing agendas--has failed to escape its image as a "half-barbaric" instrument symbolic of antimodernism and sentimentalism. Caught in the morass of American racial attitudes and often used to express ambivalence toward modern industrial society, the banjo stood in opposition to the "official" values of rationalism, modernism, and belief in the beneficence of material progress. Linn uses popular literature, visual arts, advertisements, film, performance practices, instrument construction and decoration, and song lyrics to illustrate how notions about the banjo have changed. Linn also traces the instrument from its African origins through the 1980s, alternating between themes of urban modernization and rural nostalgia. She examines the banjo fad of bourgeois Northerners during the late nineteenth century; the African-American banjo tradition and the commercially popular cultural image of the southern black banjo player; the banjo's use in ragtime and early jazz; and the image of the white Southerner and mountaineer as banjo player.

Tune your B and E strings up to C and F respectively and you're in all fourths tuning. The first time I did this it was truly a revelation to me to have a symmetrical fretboard and get rid of that major third 'bump' from the G to B string in standard tuning. Everything suddenly became far more manageable and logical, and I began to experience a freedom on the fretboard that I'd never quite found in standard tuning. To be honest, there isn't much in the way of material for fourths tuning on guitar, so I decided to write a chords and inversions book for anyone wishing to expand their knowledge of chords in fourths tuning, or to help with the transition from standard to fourths tuning. There are over 30 types of chords and inversions in this book, including open chords, closed and spread voiced triads, plus virtually every other type of chord and inversion you'll need to play anything from rock to jazz. You'll find a logical progression of chord types as well as easy-to-read chord diagrams which present the most essential and usable chords in all fourths tuning on guitar.

(Banjo). Tenor and plectrum banjos are key ingredients of Dixieland jazz music. The bright percussive chord strums and flashy tremolo picking glissandos help define the genre. In the 1920s, when Dixieland jazz was at its zenith, the four-string banjo was the fretted instrument of choice because it could easily be heard above the simultaneous improv of the band's clarinet, cornet, saxophone, and trombone frontline. (Electric guitars were not invented until a decade later.) The chord voicings in these expertly crafted arrangements were selected so that the melody notes were always within reach to enable the user to play chord/melody style if desired. The lead sheets consist of lyrics and two sets of chord diagrams tenor and plectrum positioned throughout the arrangements. This collection of 45 songs includes: Ain't Misbehavin' * Alexander's Ragtime Band * Basin Street Blues * Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home * Honeysuckle Rose * I Got Rhythm * Lazy River * St. Louis Blues * Sweet Georgia Brown * 'Way down Yonder in New Orleans * and more.

• Shows how to build cigar box guitars and other amazing musical instruments made from found items. • Step-by-step instructions and color photographs. • Background on the history of cigar box guitars and the golden age of blues and jazz. • Introduction from the New Orleans Museum of Jazz. • Recognized as the creator of the modern cigar box guitar movement and known as the “King of the Cigar Box Guitar,” this author is an active roots music performer with a ready audience of fans on social media.

The Second and Fourth Position String Builder is to be used after the Third and Fifth Position String Builder. However, it is also to be used as a continuation of Book III of any of the standard string class methods. Published for violin, viola, cello, bass, piano accompaniment, and teacher's manual.

The essential beginner's guide to string theory The Little Book of String Theory offers a short, accessible, and entertaining introduction to one of the most talked-about areas of physics today. String theory has been called the "theory of everything." It seeks to describe all the fundamental forces of nature. It encompasses gravity and quantum mechanics in one unifying theory. But it is unproven and fraught with controversy. After reading this book, you'll be able to draw your own conclusions about string theory. Steve Gubser begins by explaining Einstein's famous equation E = mc2, quantum mechanics, and black holes. He then gives readers a crash course in string theory and the core ideas behind it. In plain English and with a minimum of mathematics, Gubser covers strings, branes, string dualities, extra dimensions, curved spacetime, quantum fluctuations, symmetry, and supersymmetry. He describes efforts to link string theory to experimental physics and uses analogies that nonscientists can understand. How does Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu relate to quantum mechanics? What would it be like to fall into a black hole? Why is dancing a waltz similar to contemplating a string duality? Find out in the pages of this book. The Little Book of String Theory is the essential, most up-to-date beginner's guide to this elegant, multidimensional field of physics.

Alfred's Basic Guitar Method has expanded into a library, including theory, chord study, play-alongs and more. This best-selling method teaches the basics in a logical sequence, with concise and complete information that is easily accessible to students. Numerous chord diagrams and fingering photos help students quickly learn how to read music and play chords. Exciting music arranged in pop, rock, blues, country and folk styles makes learning to play the guitar an enjoyable and life-long reward.