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Thread: The "one book" question

  1. Exercises prepare you for specific situations. Melodies prepare you more generally to be musical. You need both. I think anyone who works one side to the exclusion of the other is going to be lacking in some way. Most of us older folks have played a lot of both. My wife hates to hear exercises, so I tend to play songs and melodies, trying to keep in mind exercises that I should be working on.

  2. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by hyperbolica View Post
    Exercises prepare you for specific situations. Melodies prepare you more generally to be musical. You need both. I think anyone who works one side to the exclusion of the other is going to be lacking in some way. Most of us older folks have played a lot of both. My wife hates to hear exercises, so I tend to play songs and melodies, trying to keep in mind exercises that I should be working on.
    I think about that as well, since when I practice my bell points directly at my wife (through my ceiling/her floor). But some mix & match can work for some things. For example, in the Art of Phrasing (Arban), song #2 (Loving I Think of Thee), play 4 16ths to every beat. That's a great work to work on clean, even tonguing, and you can do it with single or double tonguing. Or song #9 (Blue Bells of Scotland) you can play 2 triplet 16ths per beat and practice triple tongue.

    That won't replace all your exercises, but you can perhaps win a point or two with your wife this way.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
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  3. #13
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    I'm not an expert by any means, but I would probably agree with most opinion expressed here that Arban would be the first choice.

    My euphonium teacher likes Arban, though he assigns more exercises for me to practice from the Fink: Studies in Legato and Clarke-Gordon: Technical exercises books than from Arban. However, he would likely also agree that for a single book Arban would be the first choice. He has commented, however, that Arban does not do much to develop the high range.

    By the way, my euphonium teacher also recommends Vining: Daily Routines, and also recently recommended that I am ready to start some pieces from Bordogni/Rochut/Raph: Melodius Etudes.

  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by massmanute View Post
    ...He has commented, however, that Arban does not do much to develop the high range.
    My thought on that is...
    If a student is advanced enough to need range outside the Arban, then it is high time to get comfortable with transposition. Up and octave and down an octave should come first and the two offer nearly unlimited range development potential. Also, LOTS of the exercises are so well patterned that you can extend them up/down beyond the written limits.

    Once you have the high/low notes (which I do), you can play some of the 150 songs up or down an octave to develop more control over the notes you think you "have in your pocket" (trust me on that!!).

    I have offered a few tips on my "how to" playlist on YouTube for extending the Arban book. Here is the latest. Note that it is SO simple that almost anyone can do it on the fly (i.e. without writing it out). Of course, this tip and the ones above could apply to most method books.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=334zfjsuR78

    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by davewerden View Post
    My thought on that is...
    If a student is advanced enough to need range outside the Arban, then it is high time to get comfortable with transposition. Up and octave and down an octave should come first and the two offer nearly unlimited range development potential. Also, LOTS of the exercises are so well patterned that you can extend them up/down beyond the written limits.

    Once you have the high/low notes (which I do), you can play some of the 150 songs up or down an octave to develop more control over the notes you think you "have in your pocket" (trust me on that!!).

    I have offered a few tips on my "how to" playlist on YouTube for extending the Arban book. Here is the latest. Note that it is SO simple that almost anyone can do it on the fly (i.e. without writing it out). Of course, this tip and the ones above could apply to most method books.
    Excellent advice. Thanks.

  6. #16
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    I started, as an adult with a pretty good stock of musicality, with Arbans, added Rochut about 4 months in, began Horovitz last Fall in my end year.

    Now I’m just starting to do a little practice in treble clef, basically on things I’ve picked for myself, like Haydn Trumpet Concerto, mvt. II.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by massmanute View Post
    By the way, my euphonium teacher also recommends Vining: Daily Routines...
    Yes, for daily use, the Daily Routines are great. This is truly the book I use every day. I've had good results with the Euphonium-version by David Vining, so the first thing I did when I switched to French Horn was buy the French Horn version of Daily Routines (well, the student version), by Marian Hesse.

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