Klarinet Archive - Posting 000824.txt from 2000/03

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: good beginner books
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 10:28:34 -0500

----- Original Message -----
From: "John W. Sheridan" <otare@-----.au>
Subject: Re: [kl] re: good beginner books

> For my own 2 cent's worth - I have to agree that Rubank produces some good
> lesson books, but I find that for my beginners it seems to jump pretty
> quickly into the upper range

>From brief questions I have asked in community bands, it generally seems as
if the better players were thoroughly "Rubanked" in their youth. You say it
jumps into the upper range too quickly. However the Elementary book is
intended for *two* years worth of work. There are a total of 38 lessons
(plus of course the tunes, which have no lesson number). That means in the
first year the student would cover lessons 1 through 19. In a typical
school year, that means each lesson should take two weeks to cover. Now the
clarion is introduced in lesson 11. Well that would be the 22nd week of the
school year. This is about halfway into the second semester. This is no
sooner than other beginner books introduce it. In addition, with the Rubank
book, the student has really drilled that lower register before tackling the
clarion. In many other methods, the drilling is quite skimpy.

Now if a teacher tries to get through the entire Elementary book in one
year, yes then Lesson 11 is too soon to introduce the clarion but that is
not the intent of the book.

Here are the "normal" timings for the Rubank series (individual students may
vary of course).

Rubank Elementary - 2 years
Rubank Intermediate - 1 year (personally I feel this volume could be
skipped, it just reviews)
Rubank Advanced Vol. 1 - 1 year
Rubank Advanced Vol. 2 - 1 year

The main drawback to the Rubank series is that it can be boring. There
simply is very little melodic material (especially of the type familiar to
students) in this series. Here the teacher has the opportunity to alleviate
this situation by adding supplemental fun material to the lessons. The
second drawback to the Rubank series is that there are no photos or pictures
so the teacher must be absolutely diligent about providing sufficient
material on correct embouchure, tongue position, hand position, etc.

So take another look at the Rubank bearing in mind that the Elementary book
is a two year book and that you could supplement it with fun material and
pictorial material.

As far as fun tunes for beginners, there are lots of collections down at the
better local music stores. Among the things I purchased for my own
daughters was music from "The Little Mermaid", "Pocahontas", many other
Disney favorites, "Titanic", and other things I can't think of right now.
All of these were arranged for beginning students. My older daughter
mastered crossing the break because she really wanted to play the "Sleeping
Beauty Waltz" in the beginning volume of "Tunes for Technique".

Take a day and go to the biggest band music store you can find within
driving distance and just browse the racks. There's an amazing amount of
material available.

Good luck,
Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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