View RSS Feed

davewerden

Advanced Fingering Guide for Euphonium - REVIEW

Rating: 2 votes, 3.00 average.
If you are a member of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association (ITEA) you may have already seen this review. It covers my "Advanced Fingering Guide" very thoroughly (and positively!). ITEA allows me to reprint reviews of my content, so here it is! If you are not already an ITEA member, I strongly encourage you to join. There are great articles in the Journal and you are helping the organization support the instruments we love!

ITEA offers print or digital subscriptions, and they have special rates for students and retired folks:

https://www.iteaonline.org/members/J...in-Renew-ITEA/

This review is from Volume 41 Number 4:

http://www.iteaonline.org/members/jo...wmaterials.php

============

Advanced Fingering Guide by David Werden. Cimarron Music Press. (860) 536-2185. Fax: (888) 235- 1772. sales@cimarronmusic.com. www.cimarronmusic.com. CM 2342. 2014. $18.

David Werden's Advanced Fingering Guide, published by Cimarron Music is an insightful resource for euphoniumists, band directors, and composers. David's depth of knowledge about the euphonium from his many years of experience as a dedicated teacher, arranger and as the former principal euphoniumist in the United States Coast Guard Band make this a well-planned and useful guide.

David's guide serves several valuable purposes. It provides important fundamental tools for beginners as well as players switching from other instruments to the euphonium. For the advanced player, it offers numerous suggestions for alternate fingerings (including a few that I had never considered using). For a composer or arranger who needs orchestration information about the euphonium, it displays beneficial material that assists in correctly addressing euphonium's playing tendencies.

Contained in this guide are "easy to read and understand" bass and treble clef fingering charts for 3-valve, 4-valve, and compensating euphoniums. Also included are diagrams of the harmonic series for 3-valve, 4-valve, and compensating euphoniums. In addition to the fingering and harmonic series charts, there are fingering exercises that utilize the theme from Blue Bells of Scotland to teach the various alternate fingerings that can be applied when playing this melody.

One of David's most valuable pedagogical contributions within this compendium is in his "Real-World Examples." This section of the book employs music examples from actual euphonium parts and offers suggestions for more precise playing. A few examples that are included are: several marches by Sousa, Fingals' Cave Overture by Mendelssohn/Seredy, and Pineapple Poll (Suite from the Ballet) by Sullivan/Mackerras.

The print quality and musical examples layout of this guide are terrific. This resource is conveniently the same size as normal printed music and it can be easily carried with other method books and practice materials. My only suggestion would be the inclusion of a table of contents for easier and faster navigation within the book.

~Dr. Gail Robertson, Eastern Michigan University, Willson International Euphonium Artist, SymbiosisDuo


Updated 11-23-2021 at 06:56 PM by davewerden

Categories
Euphonium-Tuba Blog , Performance Tips , General Tuba-Euphonium Blog , Reviews

Comments

  1. iMav's Avatar
    Looking forward to going through it.