The Unsung Heroes of Sher Music Co.

Folks - it has occurred to me that there are multiple people crucial to Sher Music being the high-quality publishing company that we are, who do not see much of the public limelight. Nonetheless, without them we'd be hard pressed to function as we do. In no particular order they are:

1) Bob Afifi - Bob is our webmaster, which entails dozens of different tasks to keep www.shermusic.com up and running smoothly, to deal with customer questions, get the digital books ready for publication, make sure the email communications with our customers get out every month, and much more. He is super-knowledgeable about tech questions and I can't overstate his value to our company.

2) Attila Nagy - Attila is our in-house graphics person and is responsible for all our advertising graphics, and many of the graphics in our books, including many of our beautiful book covers. He and I go back many decades and it is a real boon to Sher Music that he is available to fix minor graphics problems on a moment's notice, as well as his more substantial work. 

3) Larry Dunlap - Larry has been our transcriber and musical editor for almost 30 years and our music engraver for the last 20 years. He is also my "go to" guy for all musical questions. All the fake books from The New Real Book Vol.3 on are his work and I am super blessed to have him be part of our efforts here. The Practice Notebooks of Michael Brecker is almost entirely his doing and a great job he did on that landmark publication!

4) Doug Morton - is my tech guru and creator of our spiffy new royalty system. A big help in many respects, as well as a superlative musician. 

5) Other important contributors to one book or another include David Demsey, Matt Heister, Rick Margitza, Art Khu, Ian Carey, Chris Volion, Dan Greenblatt, Ken Cook, Rebeca Mauleon, Kendrick Freeman, Gayle Fulton, Bonnie Comerford, Michael Aragon, Drake Bolt, Annalisa Sher, Ben Sher, Jonathan Sher and many more.

6) Of course, Sher Music wouldn't exist without the contributions of all the authors of our method books and the composers of the songs in our fake books. They are the meat and potatoes of Sher Music Co.

7) And lastly, my lovely and hard-working wife, Sueann Bettison Sher, is my rock and forever love and keeps me sane amidst all the ups and downs of keeping Sher Music Co. afloat.

 THANKS UPON THANKS TO ONE AND ALL! - Chuck Sher 

  

"The Practice Notebooks of Michael Brecker" is in the world!

After many months of hard work, today we finally released "The Practice Notebooks of Michael Brecker." As you might know, during his whole career Michael kept extensive notes on noteworthy things that came up during his practice regime. These notes were just for himself and were not publication-worthy in their original form. But after we graciously got permission to publish them from Michael's widow, Susan Brecker, we went ahead and re-engraved everything that we could from his original notebooks. So now they are supremely legible and easy to use to guide your own practicing. The url for the book's webpage is https://www.shermusic.com/9780991077359.php.

Michael was, of course, one of the greatest saxophonists in the history of jazz and his innate talent was linked with a serious work ethic, fueled by his conviction that he never sounded as good as he wanted to. There's a story in Bill Milkowski's wonderful bio of Michael, "Ode to a Tenor Titan," about the time Michael called Will Lee to come be the bassist in one of his early fusion bands. Will was from Tennessee and had never been in a big city in his life, so when he got to Manhattan he couldn't tell one street from another and all the buildings looked the same. But when he went out to the store, all he had to do was put his ear to the wind and he could get back home by following the sound of Michael's practicing!

In any case, everyone here at Sher Music did an incredible job on this project and big thanks to every one of them:

Larry Dunlap for his world-class music engraving and the musical intelligence to figure out ambiguous passages in the original notebooks. David Demsey and Tim Armacost for figuring out the saxophone fingerings from Michael's cryptic notes - now a "Saxophone-Specific Appendix" in our book. Art Khu for his expert proofreading. Our graphic artist, Attila Nagy, for making it all look as beautiful as it sounds. Matt Heister for great help getting the digital version to work correctly and Bob Afifi for everything under the sun. We sincerely hope you enjoy this real labor of love! - Chuck Sher

April Discounts on all Sher Music Digital Songbooks

Folks - continuing monthly sales on our digital books, here's the books that are on sale for the month of April - Enjoy! - Chuck Sher

- "The New Real Book, Vol.1 - Digital Edition"

- "The Digital Standards Songbook" (complete books only)

- "The Jazz Songbooks Series" - separate books of songs by Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Alan Pasqua, Carla Bley, Randy Brecker, Benny Golson and many more

- "The Digital Real Book" over 600 songs from all our fake books

- "Jazz Arrangements of Public Domain Songs" by Chuck Israels

Expand your iPad library with selections from the greatest jazz songbook collections ever created. 

Books endorsed by Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, Mark Murphy, Maria Schneider, Jamey Aebersold, Down Beat magazine, etc.

Prices reduced to half the cost of the physical books (with equivalent savings on digital-only songbooks).

Discounts on all Sher Music piano books

 

For the month of March, all our world-class piano method books (digital versions only) will be discounted so that they are half the price of the physical book. (This is way below the industry standard!)

• Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book, The Drop Two Book, and How to Voice Standards at the Piano
• Rebeca Mauleón's 101 Montunos
• Jeb Patton's An Approach to Comping: Vol. 1, An Approach to Comping: Vol. 2 and Introduction to Jazz Piano: A Deep Dive
• Marius Nordal's unique treatise on pentatonics, The Wisdom of the Hand
• Mike Greensill's Playing for Singers, invaluable for piano accompanists
• Metaphors for the Musician by Randy Halberstadt - thought-provoking!
• The Jazz Solos of Chick Corea, transcribed by Peter Sprague
• Inside the Brazilian Rhythm Section by Cliff Korman and Nelson Faria

We hope you will take a look at the webpages of each book to see how you can benefit from the expertise of these great jazz and Latin pianists! See www.shermusic.com. Enjoy! - Chuck Sher

Discounts on all of Sher's Latin Music books

 

For the month of February, all of Sher Music Co's world-class digital method books on Afro-Cuban Music, Brazilian Music and Latin Jazz will be on sale for half the price of the physical book! (This is way below the industry standard.) This includes:

• The Salsa Guidebook - by Rebeca  Mauleón
• 101 Montunos by Rebeca Mauleon
• Decoding Afro-Cuban Jazz by Chucho Valdes and Rebeca Mauleón
• The Brazilian Guitar Book by Nelson Faria
• Inside the Brazilian Rhythm Section by Nelson Faria and Cliff Korman
• The Conga Drummer's Guidebook by Michael Spiro
• Language of the Masters by Michael Spiro
• Music of the Arará Savalú Cabildo by Michael Spiro
• Contemporary Latin Jazz Guitar by Neff Irizarry
• The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro
• Afro-Caribbean Grooves for Drumset by Jean-Phillippe Fanfant
• The True Cuban Bass by Carlos del Puerto
• Muy Caliente! Afro-Cuban Play-Along CD/Book

If you haven't been bitten by the Latin bug yet, here's your chance to learn this incredible, exciting music from the masters of the genre. And if you are already a pro, each of these books will be invaluable in teaching Afro-Cuban or Brazilian music to your students.

Sher Music Co. is also the creator of the only professional-level Latin Music fake book - THE LATIN REAL BOOK (https://www.shermusic.com/new/1883217059.shtml). If you buy this amazing 550-page labor of love from www.shermusic.com, just send the receipt to shermuse@sonic.net and we will send you a free PDF of any one of the Latin music books on sale. Gracias!

 

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Sher Music sale on books for student musicians

Music Teachers take note! For the month of January 2023, Sher Music will be discounting our world-class digital books designed especially for student musicians. For this month only, they will all be half the price of the printed books! These prices are way below the industry standard. The sale includes:

• The Real Easy Ear Training Book
• The Blues Scales
• The Guitarist's Introduction to Jazz
• Rhythm First!
• Foundation Exercises for Bass
• Walking Bassics

With practical exercises and step-by-step progressions, these books will make music lessons more fun for you and your students both, and the prices will never be lower! Enjoy, and here's to a great 2023! - Chuck Sher