I'm just trying out my Music: An Appreciation book and CD. I read on the back that the CD-ROM "adds dimensionality to your listening experience, with many outstanding resources including ChartPlayer listening guide software... [and] Opera Video Clips."

What isn't so clear is that this CD has very little music on it, and none of the music from the Listening Outlines. The CD has additional selections at times, keyed to the book, but not the selections that are so helpfully commentated in the text.

There is software that you can download, and I thought that would have the musical selections, but apparently that only has the listening outlines, which will be coordinated with the music so that you can look at the outline on the computer screen and see where you are at all times. It doesn't have the music itself, and if you haven't purchased a 4-CD or 8-CD set, you're out of luck.

I wish I had known that what I was buying didn't include the specific music described, since I already had some books that don't include music and could have done the general correlations myself.("This is a Gregorian chant. Let's listen to it.")

Beth

Hi Beth,
I'm in a state of puzzlement because everything in this book, and even on the CD Rom, points to being able to listen to music on the CD. Then to actually do it, it references a 4-CD set. Ugh. I'll check into this and see what I can learn.

Thanks for your patience!

Blessings,

Thank you Beth and Dana for this. I look forward to much more information. I have been trying to figure out what to purchase first for our school year and this was at the upper end of the cost spectrum, I was looking into finding it used. The problem is that even when I put the ISBN # in the search I get many hits that do not add up to the same thing, I am afraid to purchase anything. Some with CD, without CD, with CD's, without CD's (the problem is that I don't know if I need one or more CD's). And the cost is anywhere from $11 to more than list price.

I am just not sure I want to purchase it if I am going to have to purchase a bunch of other things.

Michelle

Your question prompted me to look at what I really have. My kids have started using it, but I haven't really looked at it yet. I ordered the book Music: An Appreciation (Fifth Brief Edition). I ordered it used from Amazon for around $14.00. It is a paperback book (ISBN: 978-0-07-296655-8). I believe that it is supposed to come with a Multimedia Companion CD-ROM, but I did not receive this. According to the book, this CD-ROM includes "a wide variety of reinforcement and enrichment material." There are "animated demonstrations, audio examples, and quizzes", "video demonstration of instruments in orchestra, interactive lab ..." It seems that there is only a "visual illustration of every Listening Outline and Vocal Music Guide provided in the text." It doesn't seem to indicate that there are audio portions to go with the listening guides in the book.

I was fortunate to receive (without knowing that it was part of the deal) the 4 CD Brief Edition of CDs. According to the book, "the Brief Set of four compact discs contains almost five hours of music and includes ALL of the works covered by the Listening Outlines or Vocal Music Guides in the book. This Brief CD Set provides all the listening material needed to make effective use of the Brief Edition." The Basic Set contains most of the works discussed in the Brief Edition as well as most of the works discussed in the larger hardcover edition of Music: An Appreciation, 8th Edition. Instructors who wish to draw on listening examples beyond those covered in the shorter text might prefer the Basic Set."

In the book, beside each Listening Outline and Vocal Music Guide there is a track number for both the Brief edition and the Basic edition. I believe that if you order the brief edition (ISBN referenced above) the 4-CD set will really be helpful. The 8 CD set would give additonal examples beyond the text of the paperback edition.

All that to say that I have no idea if the Companion CD is necessary or helpful. I'd love it if someone could chime in on this so I can determine whether or not to hunt down a copy of this.

Blessings,
Kim
Mom to 9 great kids,
ages 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 20 months

I also have the companion cd, but not the 4 cd set (purchased mine used off ebay.) I also haven't used this yet, but have just briefly glanced at it.

The companion cd does have some useful aspects, for example, your student can use the cd as he reads the text and much of what is described in the elements section can be heard (e.g. ch. 1 - student listens to "Oh say can you see" and "do re mi fa so la ti do.") There's a quiz after each section. I'm not sure if it is necessary, but I would say it is helpful.

I have found an interactive student site over at McGraw-Hill. Click here.

HTH,
Karen

I was fortunate enough to receive both the CD rom AND the 4 CD set, and I can say that the 4 CD set is the one that would be needed to go along with the book. Actually, I suppose you could do without even that, if necessary, but it would greatly diminish the value of the text if the students can't actually listen to the samples being discussed. Or you, as the mom with lots of time on your hands , could spend lots of time trying to coordinate the classical music you probably already have in your collection with the music discussed in the text.

As someone already mentioned, the CD rom looks very helpful and interesting, but it does NOT have all the music tracks, which is far more important, in my opinion.

I also found the same puzzling results when I tried to buy this from Amazon - it was very difficult to tell what I would actually be purchasing with most of the used copies. Fortunately, I was able to find one seller who specifically specified that his book came with a 4 CD set and a multimedia CD rom. So I paid $30 for that one (which was more than many were being sold for, but way less than full price) just for the assurance that I would be getting what we needed to make the text as helpful as possible.

Don't know if that's helpful for anyone still trying to decide what to buy. The 4 CD set is the one to get, if possible, and the CD rom would be a fun go-along.

I just want to share my experience with used versions in case it would help anyone trying to decide what to buy or use.

I have a used version of both the book and the 4CD set. Neither is the version referenced in Tapestry, and they are not the same version as each other. We are soooooo frustrated with trying to figure out what we should be reading and listening to, especially since the CD does not have names for the tracks - just "Track 01, Track 02", etc. I found that you can get a listing on the McGrawHill site, but not for the 4th edition of the CDs, which I have, just for the 5th and 6th.

I see my choices as two - either make my own reading and listening plan, or buy a newer coordinated set.

Bookshelf and/or Dana-
I am so frustrated with my used versions, I am considering buying a new version. However, I can not tell from the Bookshelf which version is being sold (and referenced in the Tapestry pages), so I can not tell which 4 CD set to buy with it. The ISBN number in the Excel resource list does not give me the same book as is pictured on the Bookshelf, and as a matter of fact, is not recognized at all by one book source. ALso, the resource list says it is copyrighted 2006, but I can only find 2005 copyrights on Amazon and others.

Can you tell me what edition your materials reference? And have you found out about the 4 CD sets? Thank you so much! It looks like a great reference and we want to get the most out of it.

TIA,

Hi,
In doing research about the 4 CD set, it is my understanding that the set will work with any of the editions of this book. I do understand your frustration if the tracks aren't titled. Does your edition of the book tell, in the text, which track number?

In deciding page numbers for a different edition that the one we suggest, look at the time line dates in the yellow-borderd Weekly Overview pages. Although some weeks have some time overlap, this will give you a good guide for figuring out page numbers. Please don't stress if you aren't 100% sure which week. If you get it close, you are good to go.

The edition we sell on the Bookshelf is the "Fifth Brief Edition." ISBN-13: 978-0073043883

I hope this helps, and I'm sorry that it's frustrating.

Blessings,

Thanks for all your help and the encouragement not to stress. I guess I can just do the section on the Middle Ages in my book and do the best we can coordinating with the CD set.

The currently published CD set should be usable. The problem is that I have an older version - 4th edition - which is different. I just talked with McGrawHill, who said that the edition I have is not supported, but he is trying to get at least a listing of the track titles for me. The 5th edition tracks do not match up with the 4th edition CD tracks.

Also, I was blessed to be given a used version of the book - but it is VERY old - the 1992 original edition. The CD track numbers do not match with the ones listed in this book.

FYI, the ISBN on the resource list is different from the one you gave me just above. I downloaded the list awhile ago, and tried just now to see if the ISBN is different now, but I could not find Music Appreciation in the Unit 1 resource list.

Thanks again for your quick response and help.

Dana,

Okay, so the currently published CD set will work - but I'm still concerned that what the Bookshelf sells isn't a complete program, and yet the text in the Bookshelf still doesn't indicate that the purchaser will either need to purchase a set of CDs or do without music. As best I can tell, that 4-CD set costs $56, which brings the cost of this music resource up to more than $135, plus aggravation. Surely I'm not the only person who has been - or will be - surprised at all this, so it seems to me like it would be a good idea to add a note to the book description, right?

I will be scrambling through other resources to find works to match the time periods, I guess - actually, I guess I should return the product entirely, because as I said before, I already had music resources that I could have used if I had to do the correlating myself. I was paying the $80 to have it all done for me. But I really wanted my kids to be able to do this - grrrrr! Is it worth another $56 to me????

I sound like I'm very unhappy. And with this, I am indeed frustrated. In general, I'm thrilled - our year of Tapestry has gotten off to a great start, and I'm thrilled with Redesign. I can't express enough gratitude to everyone there at TOG.

Beth

I'm with Beth here-this adds up to be a bit costly, doesn't it? It seems as though nobody realized that the book was not complete without the music CD's-an honest mistake, but I wish it had been "tried out" by someone. I certainly understand though, with as much as everyone at Tapestry has on their plate! However, now we are stuck with a costly curriculum that is not much use w/out the costly CD's. I wish I had known so that I could look for it used or put together some of my other resources to use. Can we return this to the Bookshelf?

One alternative is to check out the 4 CD set used on Amazon.com. I saw at least 25 of these CDs offered used for under $12 (plus $3.99 shipping). Some of them were under $4.00. The ISBN # for the fifth brief edition (4-CD set) is 9780072966572.

Blessings,
Kim

I purchased the 4 cd set from a dealer at Alibris for $9.19 including shipping.

Hi,
Again, I'm sorry for your frustration.

Personally, we've used several books very similar to this one without the CDs. I typically put something of the time frame in the van and as we drive, we listen. We also listen to music while doing our history and literature assignments. Even if it's not the exact some work listed in the book, we go ahead and listen to some of Bach's music and try to appreciate it more.

Very often, however, we've not had anything even remotely adequate to listen to for a given composer. Instead we just read the information in the text and discuss his life and influence in the culture.

(When we're pursuing a Fine Arts credit, I have my student outline information about the artist, composer, or architectural structure and put it in his notebook.)

Of course, yes, ideally, having the excerpt or work that is listed in the book would be nice. However, it is easily doable without it and does not make the book at all unusable.

That said, we do have a 30-day money back guarantee. You may return it for a full refund provided corners aren't bent, there isn't anything written in it, and you return the CD too. It is okay that it is out of the shrink wrap.

I will change the description on the Bookshelf so that others aren't taken by surprise. Again, I apologize that this has been a source of frustration, but I do hope that some of the above suggestions will relieve you.

Blessings,