The Best Performing Arts Audiobooks for Beginners

Finalist, the Arts Club of Washington Marfield Prize. A look inside a dancer’s world. Inspiring, revealing, and deeply relatable, Being a Ballerina is a firsthand look at the realities of life as a professional ballet dancer. Through episodes from her own career, Gavin Larsen describes the forces that drive a person to study dance; the daily balance that dancers navigate between hardship and joy; and the dancer’s continual quest to discover who they are as a person and as an artist.

Starting with her arrival as a young beginner at a class too advanced for her, Larsen tells how the embarrassing mistake ended up helping her learn quickly and advance rapidly. In other stories of her early teachers, training, and auditions, she explains how she gradually came to understand and achieve what she and her body were capable of. Larsen then re-creates scenes from her experiences in dance companies, from unglamorous roles to exhilarating performances. Working as a ballerina was shocking and scary at first, she says, recalling unexpected injuries, leaps of faith, and her constant struggle to operate at the level she wanted—but full of enormously rewarding moments. Larsen also reflects candidly on her difficult decision to retire at age 35. An ideal read for aspiring dancers, Larsen’s memoir will also delight experienced dance professionals and fascinate anyone who wonders what it takes to live a life dedicated to the perfection of the art form.

Unique, practical and straightforward way to learn music theory and discover how music really works. Newly updated and massively expanded edition with new content, exercises and images. Make learning music theory easy. This book also features the links to audio examples (hosted on external website). These examples allow you to hear the relevant music theory concepts and understand them better! Have you ever wanted:To know how music theory can make you a better player on any instrument? To understand how music works, why there are 12 notes, how they relate to each other, and why we use intervals with imperfect resonance?

To understand why something sounds good? To understand how music theory is not just some made up rules we invented out of thin air; 'what sounds good' is based on the natural laws and stems from natural occurrences. To unlock the mysteries of notes, intervals, music scales, modes, keys, circle of fifths, chords and progressions, rhythms and other important concepts in music, and how they all relate to one another? To get a deep understanding of scales, modes and chords, where they come from, what are the different types that exist, how they're built, and how to use any chord or scale in your playing? To learn how to form, name and play any chord that is possible to play? To learn how rhythm works and how to master your timing skills that will make you sound like a pro on any instrument? To understand harmony and the magic behind all the beautiful music that you love and how you can (re)create it by yourself? To get a wider perspective on tonal harmony and how melody, harmony, and rhythm work together? To understand composition and improvisation, and how to use voice leading and chord inversions to create beautiful harmonies? To get a grasp on the advanced concepts (such as modal playing, atonality, polychords and polytonality, free music) that usually only advanced jazz musicians may consider using?But...Have you ever had trouble learning music theory or thought that it was unnecessary, boring or too hard to learn? Have you perhaps thought using intellect will be bad for your playing? If you find yourself in any of this, then this book is the answer you’ve been looking for. It covers pretty much everything that anyone who plays or wants to play music should know. It is the book to have if you want to become a better musician, and have by your side as an immensely useful reference of knowledge. This book is structured in a way that makes it very easy to follow, digest and internalize all important concepts that constitute music theory. What's great is that you don't have to be a college musician in order to understand and use any of this – anyone can do it, even a total newbie. It also doesn't matter what instrument(s) you play, nor your current level of knowledge and playing ability, because music theory is universal and all about what sounds good together! Anyone can benefit from it. It explains the WHY and HOW, and it is your roadmap - a skill and a tool, guided by your ears, for creating your best music. This is the most comprehensive and evergreen book on music theory that you can find – a book you'll wish to study and refer to often, and keep it forever. You’ll also wish to gift it your friends and discuss about its content with other musicians. It will give you what is necessary to become an expert in music theory without frustration and feeling overwhelmed in the process, and this in-turn will have immense benefits to your playing and musicianship! But don’t take my word for it, use the Look Inside feature by clicking on the book cover to get a preview of what you'll find inside. Get this book now and solve all your problems with music theory!

The idea of American musical theatre conjures up images of bright lights and big city, but its lifeblood is found in local and amateur productions at schools, community theatres, summer camps, and more. In Beyond Broadway, author Stacy Wolf considers the widespread presence and persistence of musical theatre in U.S. culture, and examines it as a live, pleasurable, participatory experience of creating, watching, and listening. Why does local musical theatre flourish in America? Why do so many Americans passionately engage in a century-old artistic practice that requires intense, person-to-person collaboration?

Why do audiences flock to see musicals in their hometowns? How do corporations like Disney and Music Theatre International enable musical theatre's energetic movement through American culture? Touring from Maine to California, Wolf visits elementary schools, a middle school performance festival, afterschool programs, high schools, summer camps, state park outdoor theatres, community theatres, and dinner theatres, and conducts over 200 interviews with practitioners and spectators, licensors and Disney creatives. In Beyond Broadway, Wolf tells the story of musical theatre's abundance and longevity in the U.S. as a thriving, joyful activity that touches millions of lives.