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Re: Best beginner method books

Author: Djudy
Date: 2022-12-16 17:27

The Jazz Method for Clarinet by John O'Neill (Schott)

While this book is unconventional, simplistic and probably only interesting for teens or the dabbling adult, certainly not those looking to quickly develop the technique needed to play classical music at a good level, it has the merit of keeping the music in context and allows the student to acquire a feel for jazz/blues/New Orleans swing that motivate many to take up the instrument.

The simple pieces are immediately accessible and actually can sound like something you can easily hear in recordings by jazz greats. It should be paired with other exercise books to develop good clarinet technique and exposure to other musical forms but with help from the teacher the student will come away with a greater understanding of the relation of melody to harmony and a develop of ear that just scales and interval exercises alone won't provide, as well as the joy of playing the instrument.

I am always amazed at the lack of understanding of harmonic structure by "melodic" (one note at a time) instrument students whose tools don't allow them to easily explore these concepts; they are just reading the page thoughtlessly and not thinking of the piece as a whole because they don't know how to. I play guitar and concert harp and just love to experiment with harmony on these, I think of them as my calculators, even though they too are not as accessible as the piano. All instrumentalist students should be encouraged to work on the piano as well as their instrument, imho.

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