Meridee Winters Chord Crash Course: Approved for Singers, Songwriters, Kids and Klutzes
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
Meridee Winters Chord Crash Course: Approved for Singers, Songwriters, Kids and Klutzes Details
About the Author Meridee Winters is a professional educator, musician, author and director/owner of a successful Philadelphia area music school. Meridee began her journey as an educator teaching elementary students in a Florida public school, where she discovered the curriculum and school system left little room for divergence and creativity. She made the bold decision to leave and attend graduate school to study Music Composition, eventually starting her own private music school. Today, that school has spent two decades introducing thousands of students to not just music, but to Meridee's trailblazing method that encourages creativity, play and higher level thinking with each lesson. As a composer and professional musician, Meridee has instructed at all levels -- from professional recording artists working on albums to computer music classes in the recording studio, and from young beginners taking their first steps on their musical path to intermediate students writing their first songs. Meridee is a dedicated advocate of creative intelligence whose foremost passion is empowering creative and authentic self-expression in each individual. She now spends her time developing new materials and books to nurture these. She does her work as an author, as well as director of the school, from her home in Delaware County, PA. Read more
Reviews
As a professional singer myself, I wish this book had been available when I was young and just beginning to learn repertoire and build my piano skills in order to accompany myself. It has been an excellent back-to-basics resource for building my skills as an adult. I've recommended Chord Crash Course to many fellow singers of all ages, and without exception, they LOVE it. My piano skills as a young singer were not great, and having a book like this early on would have given me a solid understanding of chords and melody such that I could have quickly expanded my repertoire and learned new songs a lot faster than I did. I can imagine some other practical applications as well, including as a tool for singer/songwriters who might have a lot of great ideas in their heads, but limited theory and composition skills to get them onto paper and out into the world. A colleague who’s a piano teacher uses this book (on my recommendation) in conjunction with more traditional method books to help his students who want to be able to quickly learn new songs they hear, while still working on the regular technical aspects of their lessons. My favorite part of the book covers transposition (a CRITICAL tool for singers, songwriters, and accompanists, who often need to play and sing songs in very different keys from the original sheet music), how to read and play from lead sheets, and how to create an “open mic” song by choosing a chord progression and pattern from the lessons learned in the book. I think Chord Crash Course is a practical and fun tool for singers, songwriters, piano students, piano teachers, and accompanists of all ages, and I definitely recommend it!
