Compatible Duets for Winds

Description

Clarinet in Bb, Trumpet in Bb, Bb Euphonium, Tenor Saxophone — In my experience as an instrumental music teacher, I found that having students playin small chamber-music groups was a very beneficial exercise to improve the student’soverall musicianship. The simplest form of chamber music is the duet. It is an opportunityfor the student to play with a teacher or to play with another student of similar abilities.Aspects of playing such as tone quality, intonation, technique and ensemble skills canbe developed during the process of studying duets.These duets are different in that they have many different performance options, sinceall of the books in this series are compatible. As a former middle-school band directorI always had students that wanted to come to the band room during lunch or afterschool; eager students who simply wanted to play music with their friends. However,that was not possible at the time, since there was very little duet material available thatwas compatible with all of the wind instruments. This book takes care of that. A studentcan now grab a fellow musician, no matter what instrument they might play, and havehours of fun playing duets together. Most importantly, they will learn a great deal aboutmusic-making in the process.The duets have been generally arranged in the book in order of difficulty and cover arange of keys that are appropriate for this ability level. Special care was given to makesure that both of the duet parts were on a similar ability level and that each line wasgiven an opportunity to play a lead role at some point during the arrangement. Also,most of the musical markings are attached to both systems and the point size of themusic was considered for ease of reading.It is my hope that this collection will help to stimulate and enhance the musicianship ofthe performers. It was a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to put together thiscollection. I hope it is a useful tool for you for years to come. These invaluable collections contain 31 duets in a variety of styles (classical, folk music, new original pieces) that can be played with any combination of two wind instruments. Students can develop their chamber ensemble skills while playing with their friends, no matter what instruments they play. Ranging from grade levels 2-3, Compatible Duets for Winds is perfect for band directors to buy for use in the classroom, and its flexibility makes it a must-have for any wind player.