Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-01-28 03:25
I too have no teacher, and have been doing this for three years in March.
And I too worked my way through the Essential Elements books, mainly because my daughter plays clarinet and I was familiar with the format, and because I liked the playalong CD. And I too already knew all the "music" stuff.
It wasn't until I'd finished with all three books that I realized that I'd missed something: I felt a lack of technical exercises, and after I'd amassed a comprehensive collection of all the mainstream methods for the last 50 years or so, I realized that the EE books are intended to get a kid up to speed on his instrument quickly so he can play with his beginning band. But comparing the EE method with other methods, it's glaringly obvious that yeah, my gut feeling was correct and it's short on technical exercises.
So what I'm getting around to saying is, don't rely totally on EE as your be-all and end-all method book, because you're missing out on some of the depth that the other method books will give you. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I'd done that myself.
I'd definitely start amassing your own collection of Gekeler, Belwin, Rubank, and the Blaine Edlefsen books, and use a little bit out of those every day in addition to the EE books.
And there's one other thing that I've found essential: I absolutely HAVE to practice every day with another musician (i.e. with a playalong CD), even if it's only a few minutes. I've found out the hard way that if I just focus on scales, etudes, and other stuff, and don't ever have to match a pitch, that when I do come back to the playalong CDs, I have a terrible time playing in tune. It's like a step backward.
So start amassing your own collection of playalong CDs, and don't focus too much on just learning scales--also play with the CD.
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