This book is designed for beginning instrumentalists, current students and advanced players who would like to improvise and compose. A Score of Ideas can by used as a companion book to supplement instrumental tutor and band books. It will assist music teachers to help their students experience creative activities.
20 Ideas to Explore
Investigate concepts based on the fundamental elements of music:
rhythm, expression, tempo, dynamics, pitch, duration, tone, form, phrasing, articulation
20 Performance Activities to Do
Each idea includes a practical Performance Activity, designed to help students experience the creative idea being explored.
A Score of Ideas... the very essence of what good music teaching practice is all about.
Gary McPherson
Ormond Professor and Head, School of Music
The University of Melbourne
Contents: Herbie's Journey, Heaven's Steps, Dracula's New Shorts, Cha Cha Boom
I Wonder Why, Eat My Shorts Dance, My Neighbour's Pool, Half a Dozen
Contents: Shuffle Over Here, We Don't Tango Here, The Minor Issue, The Boogie Woogie Woogie, Funkability , Be Bopaphobia
This piece, a flight of fancy for clarinet and piano, comprises three sections, each lasting about a minute or so. The first section kicks off in an energetic and cheerful way with the bright, upper registers of both instruments at play. Also evident in the opening section are ideas such as angular melodic lines played in unison, a little harp-like piano accompaniment texture and a contrasting theme fashioned atop a jazzy, dance-inspired bassline. The middle section of the work is perhaps the more unearthly music of the work. Little updrafts and whirlwinds of tinkling, glockenspiel-like piano figurations add a haunting quality to a chromatically inflected clarinet melody, evoking, for me, images of night and a kind of magic. The final section of the piece – which brings us back to earth with its recapitulation of earlier material – is characterised by the sound of its ‘slow-to-start’, hand-cranked engine.
This CD is no longer available. It is now available as a free digital download.
Please visit My Favourite Tutor Books for further information on this popular series.
My Favourite Tutor Books for woodwind and brass.
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Piano accompaniment
Written by pianist/arranger Graeme Vendy, these piano accompaniments give a contemporary feel to the traditional tunes used in My Favourite Tutor Books.
Key Features
Play-along Tracks
Digitally recorded from a Steinway D piano, these play-along CDs are for students to play with at home or for teachers who do not have access to a piano during lessons. Each tune has a musical introduction, so no count-ins are needed. Students can quickly learn correct pitch, precise rhythm and harmonic awareness. Recordings match exactly My Favourite Tutor Book piano accompaniment books.
I wrote this in 1995 (at a time when my Mum was sick) and I'm delighted that so many people have enjoyed playing it since, hopefully to their Mums too. I've heard many renditions and have enjoyed the diversity of interpretations people have brought to it. It is best to practise it slowly with the metronome, learning the tricky bits separately at first. Don't make too much of the semi-quavers as they are ornaments to the main melody but do try to be accurate with them and don't swallow them. Latch on to the accents as they really bring out the Latin-Jazz feel of the piece. The dynamics help create more emotional ebb and flow in the music.
