First 50 R&B Songs You Should Play on Piano Easy Piano Songbook | Classic and Contemporary Soul, Funk and Motown Hits for Beginners and Intermediate Players | Hal Leonard Sheet Music

Speaking as a new piano player (less than a year as of this review), I've noticed that many books are advertised as being "easy" or "simple" but that's not really the case; they mean "simplified". So if you're actually a NEW player (ie. have a hard time reading sheet music), take this into consideration.As a book the song selection is very good (see attached image of back cover), and while I've only looked at few songs, the arrangements are pretty good. The songs include lyrics, and, like any songbook, vary in complexity, but none of them are nuts (which is the real promise that the book makes). And while they're somewhat simplified in terms of complexity, they are not cut super short; My Girl is 5 pages and goes through the chorus 3 times. Even the shorter songs are 2 pages, but with repeats for a chorus, or other replayed coda etc.Overall I'm satisfied with the book, but I'm still at the point where learning any of the songs is something like a research project.

This is a good collection of R&B songs. The arrangements are not difficult in terms of the notes; however the time signatures are a bit advanced. I think to simplify the arrangements, some chords are not the way you may remember some songs. My only suggestion is that the book should have been spiral binding to sit properly on your keyboard or piano. It's a thick song book! Overall would definitely recommend.

Easy arrangements

The songs are worthy and the book is new, which is what I appreciate.

Nice book to work with.

The skill level was more difficult than I expected.

This is not for true beginners. I had to return because you have to know how to read music. So caution only use if you can read music.

I studied classical piano for 8 years but that was long long ago with decades of not even owning a piano, and today, I often get frustrated learning the "official version" of songs that take forever to master and get pretty boring by the time I do. What I really want to do is take the basics of a few songs I like and then add my own interpretation while getting back some of my old skills. I have several of these books and they give you a nice melody line and some simple left hand interplay that you can easily add your own interpretations to as you progress. Someone commented that they don't teach you to read music. That is very true. There is a difference between a beginner LEVEL song book and one that teaches theory and learning to read music. The book should specifically say it will teach you to read music.

Very good thank you