Ladies' Knight: women's chess club

 

The Art, Music and Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library presents

Ladies' Knight: women's chess club

Chess has traditionally been a male dominated game. Renowned chess master Lauren Goodkind will teach women of all levels in a supportive, fun environment. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of every month for instruction and free play.

First Meeting: Wednesday, October 26th, 2016

6pm - 7:30pm

Main Library, Sycip Room (4th floor)

Teach yourself or brush up on your chess skills by checking out these books:

Women in chess: players of the modern age by John Graham; with a foreword by George Koltanowski

The queen of Katwe: a story of life, chess, and one extraordinary girl's dream of becoming a grandmaster by Tim Crothers

Chess and The art of war: ancient wisdom to make you a better player by Al Lawrence, International Grandmaster Elshan Moradiabadi  

100 chess master trade secrets: from sacrifices to endgames by Andrew Soltis 

Tactics time: 1001 chess tactics from the games of everyday chess players by Tim Brennan and Anthea Carson 

Chess for dummies by James Eade 

Lessons with a Grandmaster: enhance your chess strategy and psychology with Boris Gulko by Boris Gulko & Joel R. Sneed 

How to reassess your chess: chess mastery through chess imbalances by Jeremy Silman 

SFUSD Art Teachers Exhibit

The Art, Music and Recreation Center, the Business, Science and Technology Center and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) have collaborated to present a exhibit of the SFUSD Art Teachers. 

The San Francisco Unified School District has a corps of over seventy-five visual art teachers working in the classrooms, supporting teachers and children of all grades.  We are fortunate to be able to exhibit the artwork created by nineteen of these dedicated professionals.

The goal of this exhibit is to encourage our SFUSD Visual Arts teachers to continue their development as artists by creating and exhibiting their artwork.  Students benefit by having their teachers model lifelong learning and their ongoing artistic journey.  Through their artwork teachers refresh and renew their frame of reference and bring new ideas into the classroom, augmenting the curriculum and inspiring all.  We also hope to bring awareness of the resources available at the library that can support the teachers and students on their journey.

The nineteen artists represented are: Jack Alter, Donna Mankus, Staci Kavanagh, Phyllis Ciment, Dawn Weickum, Ingrid Brook-Kothlow, Elizabeth Medrano, Jacqueline Ruben, Lawrence Montgomery, Danielle M. Contreras-Denton, Patricia Copeland, Maria Teresa Rode, Catherine Theilen Burke, Anne Grajeda, Jan Padover, Kirsten Bahrs Janssen, Elahe Shahideh, and Julian Pollak.

The exhibit will be on display from February 7, 2015 - April 30, 2015 in the Steve Silver Music Center on the 4th floor of the Main Library.

The following images were taken of the exhibit:

 

Further reading on art -- study and teaching:

Art beyond sight : a resource guide to art, creativity, and visual impairment / edited by Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel and Nina Sobol Levent

Art Lab For Little Kids 52 Playful Projects For Preschoolers! / [Electronic Resource] : Susan Schwak

The art teacher's survival guide for secondary schools : grades 7-12 / Helen D. Hume.

Composition : a series of exercises in art structure for the use of students and teachers / by Arthur Wesley Dow

Draw It With Your Eyes Closed : The Art Of The Art Assignment / edited By Paper Monument

Living The Creative Life : Ideas And Inspirations From Working Artists / [Electronic Resource] 

Visual Arts Units For All Levels / Mark Gura

A Visual Guide To Classical Art Theory For Drawing And Painting Students / Eric Mantle 

Banjo and Bluegrass Music

The San Francisco Public Library's Green Stacks is a program to promote greener living in our community. What could be greener than going off the grid, sitting on your front porch, picking up a banjo and playing bluegrass music?

The Library has a number of songbooks of contemporary banjo music, as well as instructional material for learning the instrument. Starting Bluegrass Banjo by Robin Roller is a good place introductory method book.

With the Parking Lot Picker's Songbook: Banjo Edition you can learn the standards of the banjo repertory including song made popular by Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson, and many others.

The Peter Rowan Songbook is a collection of songs by this well-known folk revivalist. Rowan also participated in the bluegrass "super-group" Old & in the Way, which has included such luminaries as Jerry Garcia, Dave Grisman and Vassar Clements. The Old & in the Way: Banjo Songbook includes transcriptions of Garcia's banjo solos.

Béla Fleck's The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales From the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 includes tablature transcriptions of the music of this Bay Area banjo virtuoso.

The latest treat we have for the banjo aficionado is The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo by actor and comedian Steve Martin, and transcribed by banjo great Tony Trischka. Martin's recording of these songs won the Grammy Award for Bluegrass Album of the Year in 2009.


If you're looking to put it all together with your unplugged friends, the library also offers Best of Bluegrass: 10 Must-know songs Arranged for Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar, Dobro and Bass.

Bibliography:

Béla Fleck's The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 transcribed by Ian Perry (Homespun Tapes, 2002)

Best of Bluegrass: 10 Must-know Songs Arranged for Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar, Dobro and Bass, music transcriptions by Pete Billmann (Hal Leonard, 2006).

The Crow: New Songs for the Five-string Banjo by Steve Martin & transcribed by Tony Trischka (Homespun Tapes, 2009).

Old & In the Way: Banjo Songbook, transcriptions by Alan Dalton (Alfred Pub. Co., 2005).

Parking Lot Picker's Songbook: Banjo Edition by Bill Evans & Dix Bruce (Mel Bay Publications, 2007).

The Peter Rowan Songbook, music transcription, Leo Cavanagh (Homespun Tapes, 2005).

Starting Bluegrass Banjo: The Definitive Step-by-step Guide to Playing 5-string Bluegrass Banjo by Robin Roller (Oak Publications, 2007).


Black and white banjo images from Catalogue of Musical Merchandise (C. Meisel, 1894).

Singing for Pleasure or Profit

"Anyone can sing" is a popular saying. And it's true to the extent that anyone endowed with a set of vocal cords can create some sort of musical utterance.

Singing is something that people can do naturally and spontaneously. But it is also a skill that can be learned and cultivated, in many styles and at all levels.

We provide instructional, vocational, and recreational books for vocalists ranging from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Singing to Advanced Vocal Technique.

A work like The Handbook for Working Singers provides practical information for the professional vocalist. There are chapters on live, choral, and studio singing. There are others on performing, touring and vocal fatique and even on overcoming stage fright.

Books like Find Your Voice, The Singer's Companion, and The Performer's Voice take a holistic approach looking at "vocal mechanics"--how the vocalist's or speaker's entire body can be used to produce a full and beautiful tone. These titles look at how the bone and muscular structure, larynx, chest and vocal cavities all interact to produce the vocal tone. The latter two titles also look at vocal health--issues like sleep, nutrition, exercise, and how to cope with illness and hoarseness.

Singing and Communicating in English is a meticulous explanation of precise vocal diction. This work looks at the interaction of the larynx, vocal cavity, tongue and lips and provides charts and drawings that explicate proper pronunciation. It also provides exercises to help the vocalist or speaker perfect their pronunciation.

If these titles are too difficult and technical there's always Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Karaoke Domination. This book says very little into vocal technique, but instead focuses on many extra-musical aspects of performance working the set-up of equipment, the room, dancing to the music, etc... It also includes repertoires of songs to help singers to
express themselves.


Reading List:

Advanced Vocal Technique: Middle Voice, Placement & Style by Dena Murray and Tita Hutchison. (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2008).

The Complete Idiot's Guide To Singing by Phyllis Fulford and Michael Miller. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha, 2003.

Find Your Voice by Jo Thompson & Nigel Nelson. Iver Heath, UK: Artemis, 2004.

The Handbook For Working Singers by Roma Waterman. (London : Schirmer Trade Books, 2008).

Hit Me With Your Best Shot!: The Ultimate Guide to Karaoke Domination by Raina Lee. (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008).

The Performer's Voice: Realizing Your Vocal Potential by Meribeth Bunch Dayme. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005).

The Singer's Companion: A Guide to Improving Your Voice and Performance by Brent Jeffrey Monahan. (New York: Limelight Editions, 2006).

Singing and Communicating in English: A Singer's Guide to English Diction by Kathryn LaBouff. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

Multi-Cultural Music Instruction Books

The Bay Area is a musical melting pot with a wide range of musicians and styles. At the Library we try to reflect this musical diversity in the instructional material we buy for our musical score collection. Here are some titles for the globe-trotting musician:

Balalaika playing technique: scales and exercises,method for all levels compiled by I. Inshakov, A. Gorbachev. The balalaika is a Russian three stringed lute.

An introduction to the gu-zheng by Angela Jui Lee and Mark Gresham. The zheng is a 16 to 21 string zither from China.

Introduction to sitar by Harihar Rao. Learning the tabla by David Courtney. The sitar and tabla are both instruments of Indian classical music.

You can teach yourself pan flute by Costel Puscoiu. Sukay workbook and how to make and play the flutes of the Andes, Kena & Zampoña. Both of these works teach the panpipes - the former according to Eastern European tradition and the latter according to South American tradition.

Didgeridoo: ritual origins and playing techniques by Dirk Schellberg. The didjeridu is a blown hollow tube played by the Aborigines of Australia.

Logan's complete tutor for the Highland bagpipe. This book provides instruction in Scottish bagpiping.

Reggae drumming by Peter Epting. Tito Puente's drumming with the Mambo King by Tito Puente and Jim Payne. These books explain drumming techniques in the Jamaican and Cuban popular styles respectively.

Illustrations from Lavignac’s Encyclopédie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire and the Lyon & Healy Complete musical merchandise catalogue.