description: Making Notes chronicles Billy Joel's maturation from the boy who improvised at the piano to fool his piano teacher and parents, to a struggling rock-and-roll musician, to the star he is today, who is currently returning to his classical roots. Over the past two decades, Joel has been holding master classes at colleges and universities throughout the country, discussing with students how he composes and offering advice -- both encouraging and cautionary -- to those considering a career in music. Inspired by the enormous enthusiasm for these sessions, which have in turn helped him to better understand his own creative process, he has written an engaging and revealing book of anecdotes and insights.In Making Notes, Billy Joel tells us how he writes his songs, shapes his albums, and then records them; he discusses the process of rehearsing, putting on a concert, and touring; he reflects on his musical background, compositional approaches and styles, piano technique, and how to listen to music. But most of all, this book permits us to experience the inner life of one of today's most important composer-performers.Billy Joel is one of the most successful pop artists of all sixteen of his seventeen albums have reached platinum status, and he has sold close to 100 million albums worldwide. Perhaps the greatest influence on Billy Joel's music has been his classical training. In the last chapter of Making Notes, Mr. Joel's friends Sting, I)on Henley, Bruce Hornsby, and Jimmy Webb have contributed short essays in which they discuss classical music's influence on their own work. Making Notes will enable readers of all musical backgrounds to listen to Billy Joel's music with newunderstanding, and will inspire in them as well an appreciation of classical music.
language: English
title: Making Notes
titlecomplete: Making Notes
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Riverhead Books