The Bee Sides

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Tori piano book
Review: I've been a Tori fan for around a year and a half, and I didn't know too many of her b-sides when getting this book, so I didn't know what to expect. I was most looking forward to finally being able to play Sister Janet because I love that song.

Reading through, this is Tori's most difficult piano book that I have (I have the anthology, Under The Pink, Boys For Pele, and this), but once you get the flow for each song, it comes naturally. A lot of the songs have a different personality from her album songs, which is why some Tori fans end up liking her b-sides more than most of her other stuff. My particular favorites from this book to play are "Here. In My Head", "Butterfly", "Sister Janet", "Black Swan", and "Honey". They all sound beautiful with just the piano, even with no singing. "Ode To The Banana King" is fun to play too. I've finally heard all of those songs, but for a while I was playing them without having heard them and they're still great when you don't know how Tori plays and sings them.

Not only are most of the songs in this book great, but the transcriptions are some of my favorites from the four books I have of hers. Some of those are really poorly transcribed, some of it because they feel the need to incorporate the melody into the piano part, and other times they just skip on stuff they put, like the intros to Mother and Icicle in their respective books, and they simplify the remaining piano parts. But the ones I've heard of these, which by now is almost all of them, aren't missing much and are very fun and beautiful to play.

A big problem I have with the book is a few of the songs are already in the Tori Anthology. While I understand this for the album songs that are in the anthology, Tori has come out with a ton more b-sides that haven't been in anything, like Graveyard and Frog On My Toe. And why include Song For Eric, which is a capella, in a piano book? There's no piano music for it. But oh well, it's just a page anyway. But songs that are in both this book and the anthology are "Honey", "Take To The Sky", "Sweet Dreams", "Mary", "Etienne", and "Baltimore", which is pretty disappointing considering that's a big chunk of the book (and those are some of the least fun to play without voice in the book, excluding Honey.. wonder why they chose those for the anthology). But still, I think it's worth getting this book if you already have the Anthology for those other songs that aren't in it. And with the To Venus And Back book, which comes with the live CD songs too, you get some more b-sides which aren't included in this, like Purple People and Cooling. very cool. I'm gonna get that one next, hehe. Now I just want Upside Down without having to buy the whole Little Earthquakes book. :(

So yeah, this is a very good piano book.

Rating:
Summary: i like
Review: lets see...where do i begin? since i am not a die hard fan of tori amos yet, although i love her very much as a person and a musician, some of the songs were not noticable yet to me. i will learn the song and when i do, i know i'll learn to love 'em. i just got the book today so it'll take while...you know? anyway, my favourites must be kinda "home on the range" (i like it because it's noticable) and i love "black swan". "here in my head" also is nice, but since i'm not the greatest at the piano, and it has 6 flats, i just play the music with the f's #. it's kinda hard at first, but after...man, it's a beautiful song. oh yeah, and if you decide to do it my way, make sure that when there's a natural sign, play the note sharp. you do the math...BOTTOM LINE: GREAT BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: My favorite of all Tori's songbooks
Review: This book was printed after Under The Pink was released, so her later b-sides are not represented here, but this songbook is still a gem. Also Paulina Stuckey's artwork is superb! Tori and her dad chose from among her drawings, and they fit so well with the songs they are paired with. Anyway that's all I'll say since other reviews deal with the music itself and I'd just be repeating..