I live near one music shop which is smaller than my lounge...so looking at the music before you buy it is quite the rarety.

I have the Gershwin Gold which has The Man I love and I Got Rhythm which are both on the Dip syllabus...but they recommend the Meet George Gershwin at the Keyboard edition. Does anybody know if the Gershwin Gold is simplified or whether these two editions are exactly the same.

It's so frustrating not to be able to compare in the Music Shop!

Much appreciated in advance for anyone who may know this...?? (Mad Tom - you know lots of things...I'm hoping this is one of them!)

Sorry, I just have the"Meet Gershwin at the keyboard" book (and Rhapsody in Blue - most of which I can't play) - so I can't say. I'll look out for "Gershwin Gold" and let you know - unless someone else answers.

By coincidence I was in my local music shop this morning looking for these 2 pieces. They didn't have Meet George Gershwin at the Keyboard, but I did look at a couple of others and compared The Man I love in each of them - they were the same. The only downside to this is I can't remember the names of the two books I looked at, mainly because I decided to order the specific book online - sorry, this is really not of much help to you.

A small music shop that also sells online would probably be willing to compare the differences for you. A very good one which says on the web site that both books are in stock is Gillian Greig's in Taunton - they say to email or phone them with enquiries.

Another one which is local to me is Windstruments in Harrogate - they also list both books on their web site and I'm sure they'd be willing to have a look at them for you.

Oooh, I think maybe I shouldn't have been impatient and should have just ordered the book. I got confused in the music shop as there was a meet Gershwin at the Piano and it took a little while to work out why the pieces weren't in it...

Thanks Mad Tom, I don't know why I have made you the fountain of all knowledge in my head...but I'm still sure it's true!!



Thanks Skylark, that's a great idea - I'm on it!

I got confused too cos my local music shop had Meet George Gershwin at the Piano, and I thought I must have written the name of the book down wrong on my list.

Re Gillian Greig - it's a fantastic music shop - not big, but she's managed to stuff the shelves to bursting with music. I live about a 45 minute drive from her shop. I've found her very helpful - last time I emailed with a request about some music the shop rang me back within an hour and put the music in the post that day.

I think I'm very lucky - as well as Gillian Greig being nearby, the music shop I use mostly is only about 15 mins drive for me, and although it doesn't stock as much music as Gillian Greig (they also stock instruments and part of the shop is given over to guitars and electronic instruments), they are very helpful there. I do buy online sometimes but get most of my music locally.

I'm not familar with the book Gershwin Gold either but the pieces in Meet George Gershwin at the Keyboard is an advanced level. It was also orginally known as George Gershwin's songbook.

There are quite a few different arrangements of Man I love and I have seen simplified versions of it. The version in the Meet George gershwin at the keyboard half way through the piece goes into 3 staves and there are two quick runs in the right hand at the beginning and the end of the piece.

The I got Rhythm piece starts in Db and half way changes into the key of F with a stride style left hand. Perhaps the Gershwin Gold book has these versions but this might give you an idea.

You can get this from musicroom.com: http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/033452/details.html

I've just ordered Gershwin Gold because it's listed as intermediate rather than advanced, but both this and Meet George Gershwin have a lovely selection of songs, including 'I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise', which I've wanted for ages
(Inspired to do this by the Rhapsody in Blue thread - that's far, far beyond me, but I remembered that there had been this discussion of books, and finally got on and did it )

I've got the song book The Best of George and Ira Gershwin which has also got in the Paradise song and lots of others like "They can't take that away from me", "Lets call the whole thing off" etc

Oh lovely I can't wait for my book to arrive now

Ahh! I definitely have the wrong editions! I don't think I'm meant to do this diploma...it's not meant to be!!

Of course it is!

My book finally arrived yesterday Lovely arrangements, I think, and I hope they'll inspire me to practise more, as I'm feeling a bit sub-intermediate at the moment