Klarinet Archive - Posting 000923.txt from 2004/10

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] confidence in the band program
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 12:42:32 -0400

<<<The band method we use is the "EASY STEPS TO THE BAND" by Maurice
Taylor. This method produces MUCH better results than anything else we
have seen. (and I have been teaching 41 years !!!!!).>>>

Wow, I didn't really realize that this method book can still be
obtained. That's the one I started in, in 1949! I do a quick survey of
method books in my woodwind techniques class, and I always mention the
Easy Steps method (and Intermediate Steps) to them as one of the best
ones ever written.

In my experience, there is only one problem with this book, and that is
that it is quite slow in introducing clarinet students to the note B
natural on the 3rd line.

There is only one book that I have ever discovered that I like better
than the Easy Steps book, and that is the Master Method series, by
Charles Peters, published by Kjos. Its educational philosophy is very
similar to the Easy Steps book. In both cases, the going can be rather
slow and methodical, but if students are taken carefully through either
book, they will have a really solid background. The reason I like the
Master Series better is that the series is more comprehensive, with more
supplementary materials available.

Both of these books, in my opinion, are so much better than those that
have been written in recent years. And, as schools have tried more and
more to comply with all the requirements being imposed on them by the
so-called No Child Left Behind act, and other politically-motivated
requirements, the method books have become more and more watered-down.
For example, almost every method book, new or old, will have the
students play the French folk melody known as "Are You Sleeping." In
one recent method book, the instructions at this point are, "Speak a
phrase in French," and "Tell three facts about France." Naturally,
there is nothing wrong with any of this, except that performing these
tricks will not help any child know how to finger the notes of the
melody, to be able to breathe or articulate properly, or to make a
beautiful tone. Time taken from the music class to learn to pronounce
(probably inaccurately) some random phrase in French that will soon be
forgotten is time that could better be used to learn more about the
music itself. By the nature of the music world, music students tend to
gain a better sense of the international nature of the art form, as well
as a stronger sense of history than most other students who do not study
music.

Sorry, I guess that I got rather far afield here....

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org