Cherry Lane Music

Cherry Lane Music was founded in 1960 by Milton Okun in the apartment above the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village of New York City. Cherry Lane Music creates a wide range of high quality sheet music, DVDs and educational tools for practicing musicians.

The mission statement of Cherry Lane Music, as stated by John Stix, head of the company and also Senior Vice President of Rights Acquisitions, is to "get sheet music out of the piano bench and onto the piano. By making a pact with our fans, we hope they will come to see our folios as more than just songbooks."^[2]

The print company's portfolio includes a varied group of artists from Barbra Streisand, John Mayer and the White Stripes to the Dave Matthews Band, Metallica and Jack Johnson. The company distributes through Hal Leonard, another US-based music publisher.^[3]

Types of Portfolios

Cherry Lane provides a number of different kinds of personality folios aimed at musicians of all skill levels.

• The Art Of - The Art Of series provides an overview of the style of important contemporary guitarists, from Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica to Steely Dan. The books are written with an educational focus, and include various licks, solos, lessons, interviews, and commentary to help the student understand a particular artist's work and the influence it has had. Topics are related to theory, and include discussions of melody, harmony, form, rhythm, instrumentation, and lyrics. There is a resource guide, for further reading, listening, and research included in the back of most of these books.

• Just the Riffs - Just the Riffs is a series of books that focus on a single artist and provide the player with all of the classic riffs in an artist's repertoire. As put in the Cherry Lane Music 2010-2011 catalog, "... here it is, here's how it sounds, and here's how to play it.^[4]" The books include a brief theoretical background before each riff to give the musician more guidance in its performance.

• Legendary Licks - The Legendary Licks series combines the ease and straightforward nature of the Just the Riffs series with the educational power of the Riff by Riff and The Art Of series. The books contain note-for-note transcriptions, as well as performance notes, of dozens of classic licks, fills, riffs, and solos of artists with as diverse a range as Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne to Dave Matthews Band and Brian Setzer. Each Legendary Licks folio contains a recording that features slowed-down versions of challenging solos and riffs to help musicians get the notes into their fingers. The recordings also are on separate channels, making it possible to listen to all of the instruments at once or to single out instruments with which the student can play along.

• Play it Like it Is and Artist-Approved - These editions boast exact, authentic transcriptions of various artists' folios for guitar, bass, and drums. Guitar and bass books include both notes and tablature. Those books that feature the "Artist-Approved" logo have been personally approved by the transcribed artist.

• Riff by Riff - This series provides an in-depth look at a number of tunes by a specific artist. Rather than picking a mix of riffs, as the Just the Riffs series does, it takes the entire song apart, using almost every guitar part played in a note-for-note transcription. The book examines the theoretical, rhythmic, and harmonic implications of each riff as it ties the song together. The series aims to give all musicians, no matter the skill level, a complete, in-depth, and thorough analysis of the work of an artist. Artists represented include Metallica and Black Sabbath.

• Strum & Sing - The popular Strum & Sing series gives the musician a more pared-down approach to the songs of an artist, including only the chords and the lyrics. The quick, easy-to-play arrangements are designed for both amateur and professional musicians.

• Transcribed Full Scores - The Transcribed Full Scores provide vocal and instrumental arrangements of music from artists such as Guns N'Roses, Metallica, and Joe Satriani. There are transcribed parts for vocals, all guitars, bass, drums, and any other instruments used in the specific recording session as heard on the original album.

See also

• The Cherry Lane Music website
• Music Publisher

References

1. ↑ http://www.bmg.com/category/news/?n=bmg-to-acquire-cherry-lane-music-publishing
2. ↑ Cherry Lane Music
3. ↑ Hal Leonard article
4. ↑ Cherry Lane Music Catalog, p. 27. 2010