Hal Leonard Otis Redding - Greatest Hits

The music is not the music of the piano parts in the music but for the general melody (even the for the singing parts at times) and the chords in the bass, so if you are looking for the actual music of the piano parts in these Otis Redding tunes then prepare to be disappointed.

I play piano a few times a week in a senior residence - and look for wide variety of piano - easy-difficult to add to the mix - I have bought several different composers' works and this had a piece that was not in other Otis Redding books which is a lot of peoples' favorites - Happy to have found it!

Note: I am writing this review as a piano/keyboard player. This book just showed up this afternoon and I am actually upset about it. I was so excited when I got it that I was practically trembling, because Otis Redding is my FAVORITE MUSICIAN OF ALL TIME, EVER, FOR ALL ETERNITY, AMEN. So I ripped the package open, propped up the book on my keyboard, and dug in. About 15 minutes later I threw the book across the room. The music in this book is NOT the music on Otis Redding's recordings. The chord calls seem to be pretty accurate (so far), but for the most part the actual notes have nothing to do with the recordings. The music for the right hand is the melody of the song, written out exactly the same as the vocal melody is written (and neither the piano melody nor the vocal melody is particularly accurate), and the music for the left hand is usually just a triad or a bass note. I have no use for that--I want to play what's on the records. The only redeeming quality of this book is the listing of the chord symbols above the notation--but you can already get many of the chord progressions for free on the internet! What a drag. I'm not sure how common this arrangement style is in the sheet music biz, but regardless, it sucks. I wanted to work on my music-reading skills, but I guess now I will get to work on my transcription skills, because I'm going to have to figure it out myself. PS: The arrangements are simple and easy. I guess that's good.

I'm a beginning piano player, so this book is probably just right for me.

Classic and timeless Otis Redding