[Table Of Contents]
[Original Manuscript]
[Bechtel -- Lead Sheet 1]
[Bechtel -- Lead Sheet 2]
[Bechtel -- Lead Sheet 3]
[Fingering Diagrams-1]
[Fingering Diagrams-2]
[Fingering Diagrams-3]
[Cohan Medley Chord Chart]

Take a Look Inside

David Frey and Susanne Sangiacomo

The Perry Bechtel Manuscripts For Tenor Banjo

PRICE: $45.00

"The Man With Ten Thousand Fingers" This book doesn't just put Perry Bechtel at your fingertips. It puts Perry into your fingertips!

Dave Frey and Sue Sangiacomo bring Perry's sound back to life.

A Message From Dave Frey

Dear Fellow Strummers,

Several years ago, I was given a portfolio of Perry Bechtel's hand written manuscripts. These historical documents came from a very special tenor banjo student Perry had taught for many years, Marion Reinhart.

While Perry was mainly known as a plectrum banjoist and guitarist, he was also an accomplished professional musician and wrote very interesting tenor banjo charts.

I had approximately 150 of Perry's manuscripts. I charted them out by putting the tunes into my Finale music program. From that, I created banjo fingering charts note by note. Sue Sangiacomo then input them into book format fingering charts along with Perry's scores for publication. We have incorporated 23 tunes in this first volume, written for tenor banjos.

Because Perry wrote these charts like a piano score, all the individual notes per chord are there.

The original Perry Bechtel scores have been donated to the Banjo Hall of Fame and Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma, for preservation.

Always,

Dave Frey

Perry Bechtel, with his unique style, his perfectionism and his amazingly nimble fingers, remains a standard for all 4-string banjoists. The Bechtel style continues to be one of the major influences on banjoists today.

With "Play It Like Perry," it is possible for today's banjoist to reproduce the talent and technical skills of Perry Bechtel, "The Man With Ten Thousand Fingers."

You will also find tailored side-bar information for each and every tune, written by Dave Frey, discussing the complexities within that tune and pointing out trademark "Perry Bechtel techniques". These informative blurbs provide invaluable additional assistance in playing like "the master."

Reader Reviews

We're not in a world where we pick up book lists, look at which texts are required for a course, gasp and then one way or another come up with the money for the absolute musts on the lists. How long has it been since some of us saw the cost of such books? Some of the ones my students were buying several years ago were priced at $100 and over! Hard to believe isn't it? But required for nursing courses.

What's my point? "Play It Like Perry" by Frey and Sangiacomo, would be required course material if we were students majoring in banjo. For it's musical applications, for it's historical content, for it's being the best the market has to offer when it comes to four-string banjo. So be prepared because the next folks that tell me they want to play better banjo, I will tell them that if they are serious they will be obtaining and digging into what this book has to offer. Yes, the "dots" (chord diagrams) are for tenor. But the printed music (Perry's and Finale versions) is in music language, and the explanations are in English. (LOL) Just demands the plectrum player be a bit scholarly and do a bit of translation when it comes to dots.

-- Ginny Luetje, St. Lous

Dave and Sue,

I just received my copy of "Play it Like Perry." It is, indeed, a masterpiece. Thank you and all who helped for all the work you put into its production. You've made the legacy of Perry Bechtel available for all of us, and his incredible artistry even to seem somewhat attainable by us mere mortals.

Now I have to get to work and learn all these arrangements, a daunting task, but it'll be fun.

--Bill Brisotti

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