Klarinet Archive - Posting 000842.txt from 2002/04

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Duet book for flute and clarinet
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:07:18 -0400

> You are right, the "royal blue" rubank books with the 50's styling
> are method books. What I would like to see is someone getting to a
> music store and convincing the music store clerk to BURN them.

May I express an opposing viewpoint? I use the Rubank books for saxophone,
and also for clarinet and flute at times, and I like them. (But I don't use
them for oboe or bassoon, because I think I know things that work better for
those instruments.) I've been teaching from Rubank at all levels from
near-beginner through college freshman, for over 40 years. I like them, and
have never had students complain about them. I'm very glad they are
available, because they provide a very well-organized and systematic
approach to the technique of the instruments.

They can be a little much for some students to take if you don't supplement
them with other things, but I think they are pedagogically sound and can
provide students with a solid background. The intermediate methods aren't
as useful to me as the elementary and the advanced. Depending on the
student, for example for a college student taking a woodwind as a secondary
applied area, I sometimes skip directly from the elementary method to the
advanced one.

I also use the other items in the Rubank series: the Concert and Contest
Collection of solos, and the Selected Studies, the latter beginning when the
student is about halfway through the advanced method. Especially for
saxophone, I also sometimes us the Supplementary Studies starting when the
student is about to complete the Elementary method.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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