Kelly Schmidt MUS 335 Methods Book Project Standard of Excellence Standard of Excellence is a good book for beginning

band students. The cover is the same among all of the instruments, where it has pictures of several different instruments surrounding a medal. It is not necessarily very eye catching, as even some of our group had not initially noticed the medal in the middle of the cover. The cover is dark, but is still fairly appealing to a student to look at. The inside pages include some colors including orange, red, and green, but not too much as to distract the student from what they needed to get done. The introductory pages include color drawings of the embouchure and how to hold the instrument. They also include diagrams of the instrument with instructions on how to put it together, information on preparing to play with pictures of posture and instrument carriage, and instructions on instrument care. There are also pictures and instructions on how to oil the valves and grease the slides of the instruments that require this. However, the drawings they include have limited amount of detail because they are not actual photographs. The pages are not cluttered, and the information that is included on the pages is just enough for the students to have access to what they need to hopefully succeed on the specific pages. There is a glossary in the back of the book that includes relevant information that is presented throughout the book, so that students do not need to necessarily seach throughout the book to find specific definitions or ideas. While the measures are numbered in the full band arrangements in the book, the individual exercises for the different instruments do not have measure numbers, which could get

confusing for beginning students. However, there are fingering charts in each book that even include alternative fingerings to show the different ways to play each note. The percussion book is for both drums and mallet instruments, but does not include timpani. The percussion book layout is a little different than the other instruments, in which the mallet instruments are always on the right side of the page, and the drums are always on the left side of the page. Musical Concepts: Something interesting about this book is that it starts with standard notation. In some of the other books we reviewed, a nonstandard form of notation was used to begin with and then moved into standard notation. Standard of Excellence, however, introduces the first note with standard notation and continues to do so throughout the exercises. The first rhythm that is introduced is the whole note, and then followed with smaller and smaller rhythmic durationsfrom the whole note, to the half note, to the quarter note, and to the eighth note. However, no counting system is used. When the book is describing the note length, they tell how many beats that particular note receives, with the quarter note getting the beat. New pitches are initially introduced in groups. After the students learn about 5 notes, each new note is then added on one at a time. An interesting concept to note is that for the brass instruments, page 4 and 5 of the student book say that the student will probably play one of two notes. It says to ask the teacher which notes the student is playing and then they move to either page 4 or 5 depending on which note they naturally play first. This allows for more natural learning. The key signatures used in the exercises in this book are Concert Bb Major, G Major, and F major. In the back of the book, the

keys that are included are Concert Bb, Eb, F, Ab, and the chromatic. In terms of articulations, slurs and accents are specifically introduced. Although they are followed with one or two exercises that utilize these articulations, they are only then occasionally used throughout the rest of the book. While the book does not encourage singing, it does have numerous opportunities for theory exercises. Exercise 40 in the student books is Balance the Scales, in which a measuring scale is given with a specific amount of notes are given on one side, and the student is expected to put a number of different notes on the other side that are of equal value. Exercise 90 has instructions that say, using the given rhythms, draw in notes to complete the melody. Exercise 137 gives the students the chance to compose a variation of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. This book also includes the concepts of dominant, subdominant, and tonic chords. Book Use: These books are meant to be used with beginners who are brand new to a band program. These books are set up in a way that students do not need to have much musical background. The books explain what clefs are and help teach how to read music. This book does not provide much in terms of aural and oral training, so if a teacher wanted to include this in their teachings, they would have to find other resources in order to do so. This book encompasses the see portion in the Do-Say-See sequence. If one wanted to incorporate more of this sequence with this book, there are some options that could be done, but the teacher would have to be creative. The teacher could do a call and response with some of the exercises before introducing the notated form, or the teacher could play or sing an exercise and then have the students find the tune in the book.

The tunes in this book are pretty standard for those in a method book, but are still satisfying for a student to play at the beginning level. Because the tunes are standard, and the notes are fairly common starting notes, it is very easy for a teacher to use supplementary pieces along with this book in their beginning band. Overall, this book is good for a beginning band. The teacher would need to use outside resources in order to have a balanced learning environment. This book contains good information for students, along with an accompaniment CD that is satisfying and helpful for those who listen to it. This book is great to help students prepare for their works that they do outside of method books. Individual Texts: Flute: ! Pitch range: C below the staff to F above the staff. ! Alternate Fingerings: Bb Oboe: ! Pitch range: low Bb to high C above the staff ! Alternate Fingerings: forked F, Left Eb Clarinet: ! Pitch range: E below the staff to D above the staff ! Alternate Fingerings: Low E, Low F, F#/Gb below staff, B below staff, D#/Eb just below staff or 1st line of staff, F#/Gb on staff, B/Cb in the staff, C in the staff, C#/Db on staff, F#/Gb on the top of the staff, A#/Bb above staff Saxophone: ! Pitch range: Bb below the staff to F 3 ledger lines above the staff. ! Alternate Fingerings: F#, Bb, C in the staff, F# at the top of the staff, Bb above the staff, C above the staff, F above the staff Trumpet: ! Pitch range: F# below the staff to G on top of the staff. Trombone: ! Pitch Range: E below the staff to F 2 ledger lines above the staff. ! Alternate Fingerings: F in the staff (1 or 6) A above the staff (2 or 6) D above the staff (1 or flat 4)

Horn: ! Pitch Range: E#/F 3 ledger lines below the staff to G above the staff ! Alternate Fingerings: Double Horn stuff Tuba: ! Pitch range: E 4 ledger lines below staff to F in the staff. ! Alternate Fingerings: n/a Percussion: ! Rudiments Covered: Paradiddle, Multiple Bounce Stroke, Flam, Flam Tap, Flam Paradiddle, Roll, Nine Stroke Roll, 5 Stroke Roll, Rim Shot, Plus rudiment studies and a rudiment chart in the back of the book ! Melodic Learning: Mallet instruments are always on the right side of the page and drums are always on the left ! Timpani: Timpani is not addressed in this book. ! Pace of Learning: Pace of learning is good for the students, and works to help the percussion students gain the knowledge they need to advance to further works that they may play in.