Harmon, Daniel E. Managing Your Band.

Harmon, Daniel E.  Managing Your Band.                  Rosen Publishing Group                 64p        $31.95  978-1-4488-5659-6    2013  ms/hs  E-BN                   series: Garage Bands     Nonfiction           

For all budding musicians, this book provides solid information for those groups that are ready to play gigs outside of the garage and family events.  The concerns that often go overlooked as young people start their music careers are fully explored, with excellent advice provided on duties, responsibilities, ownership, managers, roadies, security, insurance, money issues, and the need for advice in legal contracts and copyright issues pertaining to original and prerecorded music.  It is a must-read for all young people who envision a career performing music.  This book presents the up-and-coming band with good questions that should be discussed with all band members prior to issues arising that could tear a band apart or catch them unaware.  A glossary, list of resources for further reading, and an index complete this book, which is full of interesting color photos.  Unfortunately, quotes and statistics are not sourced in the text nor in an addendum.  

Bands, Popular music                                                                                                                            --Lois McNicol

 

Payment, Simone. Taking Your Band Online.

Payment, Simone.  Taking Your Band Online.  Rosen Publishing Group     64p  $25.00 978-1-4488-5660-2    2013  ms/hs    VG-BNS                  series: Garage Bands     Nonfiction           

This book provides an overview of marketing music via the internet.  Years ago, anyone could start a “garage band”.  Most local bands developed local followings but were rarely heard outside of their region.  Today’s new bands take advantage of internet technology to develop a following and be heard.  Bands may never play a live gig and yet have an international following. 

Savvy promoters with a little online marketing know-how can promote their group so that their band’s music is heard around the globe.  Simone Payment offers readers practical information on how to promote and distribute their music using websites, social networks, and file-sharing software, so that they can become music stars with the click of a button.

Colorful photographs in a dynamic layout are accompanied by engaging text and helpful peripherals (glossary, suggested reading lists, and an index).  The list of organizations that help young talent get started is also useful.       

Music-Internet marketing, Music-Vocational guidance                                                                   --Hilary Welliver

 

Dunlap, Suzanne The Musician’s Daughter

Dunlap, Suzanne The Musician’s Daughter
Bloomsbury see St. Martins 2009 322p 16.99 978-1-59990-332-3 ms/hs
Set in eighteenth-century Vienna, this spellbinding mystery brings the private lives of both the Court and the Orchestra into focus. The death of her father and the theft of his violin has left Theresa determined to unravel the puzzling events and bring his murderer to justice. Set in eighteenth-century Vienna, this spellbinding mystery brings the private lives of both the Court and the Royal Orchestra into focus. Fifteen-year-old Theresa is waiting for her father, a violinist, to return after the court concert on Christmas Eve. Instead, his body is discovered in a gypsy camp and brought home by his fellow musicians but without his precious violin. Unusually well educated, especially in music, Theresa must now care for her very pregnant mother and younger brother. Virtually destitute, she goes to her godfather Franz Joseph Haydn and is given the position of music copier. As she becomes more involved in the lives of the musicians, she discovers that her father was part of a group dedicated to stopping the persecution of the Gypsies by Hungarian nobles. Her father’s missing violin becomes the key to many doors as Theresa and her friends, both high and low, begin to unravel the dark and tangled threads that had led to her father’s death. Rich in plot and characterizations, this enthralling book will appeal to those fascinated by historical fiction and a strong female protagonist. The story is interesting, the locations are beautifully rendered, and the characters are very three-dimensional. They come from different places in society and have different points of view but seamlessly join together to help each other. The author mixes adventure, political intrigues, and a little romance into this very well done book. Ogintz, Susan