Klarinet Archive - Posting 000344.txt from 1998/03

From: Rich & Tani Miller <musicians@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Band Method Books
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 14:43:27 -0500

I teach elementary school band and orchestra and a whole lot of other things. I
myself started out in good old Breeze Easy and proceeded through the Rubank
books and the Belwin books. With my students I started using Standards of
Excellence. I switched to the new 21st Century Belwin Band Method this year
with my beginners. I teach in an urban school and many of my students are very
academically low compared to their suburban counterparts. I like the 21st
Century Belwin books because the information is simple, clear, and logical. I
think that most of the books were written by people who actually play the
instrument that they are writing for. In addition, the performance CD's are
great--Larry Combs performs on the clarinet CD! It also has videos with great
practice, assembly, etc. type of info. Next year I may be getting the Vivace
accompaniments for this method also. I like the STandards of Excellence books
but I think , through my own experience, that they give too much information at
one time. My kids can't handle it--they need something more simple. My goal
with them is quality, not quantity. Oh yes . . . the percussion in the Belwin
books is better than percussion in any other band method I've seen.

I've used the Jump Right In books also. I love the accompaniment tapes--the
quality is excellent. All performers are Eastman faculty I believe. However, I
also teach Gordon music learning theory in my general music classes. If you
haven't been trained in music learning theory, the Jump Right In books can be
tough to use. They emphasize audiation first and then reading. Students need
to have both the red book and the green book (Iforget what they are called).

The quality of literature in the Standards of Excellence, Jump Right In, and
21st Century Belwin series is excellent.

Personally, there are better books out there then band methods. However, I
teach band class not homogeneous lesson groups. A band method is necessary.
When teaching homogeneous groups, I would be more likely to use different books
for each instrument:

Trevor Wye books for flute, Dale Cleavinger books for f horns, I haven't really
thought about the rest

Incidently, for all you studio teachers and school teachers I just got a great
new book with CD called Creativity in Improvisation. It is published by G.I.A.
It is written by Christopher Azzarra, Edwin Gordon, and Richard Grunow. It
approaches improvisation from the perspective of hearing the chordal functions
and changes. It also emphasizes the fact that you need to know lots of tunes by
ear. There is much more to it than this! It costs under $20 and is really just
awesome. My students are required to improvise melodies and rhythms (all my
students not just band and orchestra students) and this is really working
nicely. You can sing and play instruments (all keys). The emphasis is
LISTENING!

Incidently, with my private studio, I don't use just one method book. I
primarily teach through solos and technical exercises (go Klose with older
kids). I use method books primarily for sightreading.

Hope this helps. I didn't mean for this to be so long.

GombKonen wrote:

> I am writing a paper for graduate school on the development of beginning band
> method books. The paper is about how method books have changed, and stayed
> the same from Rubank to Accent on Achievement. I'm also including Breeze
> Easy, First Division, the Weber-Lowry Clarinet Student, Best in Class, and
> Essential Elements. I'm looking for suggestions from people who have used
> different method books, what you liked about them, and what you don't like.
> Also, if anyone knows of any method book trivia, such as, when the first book
> was published that could with different instruments in the same class, or
> anything else that might be interesting to include in the paper, I'd
> appreciate the input.