Great Family Songbook: A Treasury of Favorite Show Tunes, Sing Alongs, Popular Songs, Jazz & Blues, Children's Melodies, International Ballads, Folk ... Jingles, and More for Piano and Guitar Spiral-bound – Illustrated, September 15, 2010

This is hands-down the BEST family song book you ever need. This song book has all the most popular songs in American culture, patriotic songs (America the Beautiful, This land is our land, Star spangled banner..) children''s songs (BINGO, twinkle twinkle little star, Itsy bitsy spider..) American folks songs (Red river, Oh Susanna, Home on the Range...) the most popular christmas songs, popular songs from movies, some international folks song (Auld ang Syne... It is cutely illustrated, the musical arrangements are relatively simple. It is a practical spiral bound. I would give 10 stars!!!

This songbook is really great! It’s my favorite by far. It is thick, with a huge selection of songs across all different genres. And they are all written in a pretty easy format, to be easily played by multiple instruments. I mainly use it for guitar.I saw a reviewer complaining that a song or two wasn’t politically correct, or something like that. To me, that’s pretty subjective. What’s offensive to one person is not offensive to another. These are mostly historical folk songs. And U.S. history isn’t perfect. But I’m not a fan of erasing parts of history to make it match today’s cultural norms. You can always just skip songs you don’t like.Also, I like that the book is spiral bound so that it sits flat. Some of the songs are written in keys that aren’t necessarily the easiest for guitar, but it has all the chords listed so that makes it really easy to improvise. Highly recommended!

The arrangements in this book are really great. I am an intermediate player, and I am able to sight read these songs with just a few errors. With a few run-throughs, I should be quite competent. But even though the arrangements are simple, just the right chords have been selected, that still produce a nice overall song. I don't know how to explain it better, but I'm sure most players have purchased some sheet music and then when the time came to play it, it just never sounded great, even if you were playing it exactly as written. Maybe the arranger decided to get fancy on a few chords (to the point where you do a double check and make sure you didn't miss a note, and then wonder whether or not it might be a typo), or maybe they simplified it too much. This book is the complete opposite- it has just the notes you need to capture the essence of each song, and nothing you don't. I have more use for some sections of the book than others (I have a 2 year old, so I'm already getting pretty good at the children's songs, and I anticipate the patriotic and holiday songs will also be in heavy rotation), but they have made some nice, general selections that will appeal to a wide audience. If you have a crowd who wants to gather around the piano and sing, you will get pretty far with this one book. I would recommend this for any piano library.

I love the selection of songs and how they're categorized! They're easy to play and fun to do family sing-alongs with! The sizing is also good for reading the notes while playing. I only have 2 issues with this book... One, the book's creator should have put all of the songs under each category/style of songs in the Table of Contents. Instead, it only has the categories, so it's not easy to get to a specific song. Also, creating small page tabs, in order to more easily get to the different categories/styles of songs faster would have been nice. Secondly, this piano/guitar book's cover is weak and prone to bending, denting and rips. I like that it's spiral bound underneath, but wish that it had a hard cover around it, instead of a flimsier/cheaper one.

Many familiar songs, accessible accompaniments, wonderful for family or group sing alongs.

There is much to like here. Easy to use, well organized, lots of songs. My complaint is the back cover states the "easy to follow sheet music" is simple enough for "even beginning musicians to play along". I very much disagree. The average arrangement in this book is level 3. A level 2 could use it to improve but that would hardly be easy to follow fun. So, if this misrepresentation of the piano skill level does not bother you, this is an excellent book.

This is THE most awesome book ever if you are looking for traditional and campfire songs. I have bought a lot of music fruitlessly trying to find exactly what is in this book. Songs like "This Land Is Your Land," "Home On the Range," "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain," "Old MacDonald," "Bill Bailey," "A Bicycle Built for Two," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Shenandoah," "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad," and many more. I knew almost every song in the book. An amazing collection I have not been able to find anywhere else. Includes guitar chords, beg/int piano (perfect for sing-alongs), and all the verses. Also has spiral binding, although you can't tell from the front. Excellent!!!!

I gave away my older copy (1969 Reader's Digest) when I downsized. I rebought it because the arrangements are quite good and the selections were part of my earliest musical memories. You can use the Index as a sort of table of contents to locate any song that you know is in the book. If you are on a strict DEI diet, you will find lyrics that will probably irk you, but these songs were from a time when more different kinds of people got along better than they do now. I recommend it for its historical value, and it makes no claims to be contemporary .