I received an email the other day about an article I had written just over 3 years ago. The article was about the Boots Randolph Music Minus One (MMO) play-along book, Nashville Classics.
Source: Amazon.com
The email was actually very timely, since I had been meaning to write about the other Boots Randolph books in the MMO series that I picked up. As Gandalfe mentioned in a comment to my original post, there is a book of spiritual songs out as well.
In when the spirit moves you, you have a chance to listen and play along with Boots and his band as they perform some of the most beloved gospel, and also patriotic tunes from the American song book.
Source: Amazon.com
The next 2 books are, I believe, the newest in the MMO Boots Randolph series. I bought both of these books about a year ago. They are both jazz oriented, and feature some great jazz standards.
Source: Amazon.com
Source: Amazon.com
So as you see, there are lots of Boots Randolph play-alongs to choose from, which cover a variety of music styles. These books are available through online sources like Amazon.com and Sheet Music Plus. (The Sheet Music Plus link is much more informative, and provides song lists and even audio and 1 page samples for some books.)
Local brick and mortar stores will likely sell the MMO books as well. As a matter of fact, that is where I bought mine. I like to support my local businesses for fear that if more of us don’t, one day they might go **poof**, and vanish into oblivion. Then all we’ll be left with is online warehouse stores… And as so many of us found out with WWBW, that’s not always a good thing… But I digress…
Something I really like about MMO is that you get both Bb and Eb parts in the same book. I’m not a fan of having to decide which horn I want to play on (bari or tenor), or spending double the money when I buy a play-along CD.
Oh, and in case you are not familiar with how MMO works, there are 2 tracks for each tune. The first track is a complete version with Boots and the band playing. In this track you can hear exactly what he is doing, and follow along in the written music. You can of course also play along and work at achieving the Boots Randolph style.
The second track is what Music Minus One is all about. In this track the band plays, but Boots’ horn track is silenced. Now it’s your turn to play along with Boots’ band, and try to incorporate—or not—just as many Bootsisms as you want/can.
All in all, these 4 play-along MMO books are a great tool. But be advised, they are geared toward the intermediate player.
