My 101 Sheet Music Collection

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about the 101 series of books from Hal Leonard that are in my collection.

The 101 series of books from Hal Leonard are an excellent series of books, especially if you just starting learning an instrument and are looking to add a bit of variety into your music journey. 

The arrangements are on the easy to early intermediate standard, and they are printed in a large format to make it easier for learners to read from the stave. You also have a lot of variety to choose from within this series of books from Hal Leonard.

The books that I have from the 101 Series are :-

- 101 Disney Songs

- 101 Movie Hits

- 101 Broadway Songs

- 101 Classical Themes

- 101 Most Beautiful Songs

- 101 Christmas Songs

101 Disney Songs

This is a great book for anyone whose just starting out learning a new instrument, as its filled with well known songs from Disney. Also, with this book being filled with Disney songs; it should help to make your practice more fun.

101 Movie Hits

This is great one for anyone who loves film, as its filled with songs and themes from well known films.

101 Broadway Songs

This is good one for anyone who loves musical theatre, and who would like to explore the world of well known musical numbers from well known musicals. 

101 Classical Themes

This is a great book for anyone whose interested in the world of classical music. It features of variety of classical music from a wide range of well known composers.

101 Most Beautiful Songs

This book is filled with well known songs and pieces of music that have a more relaxed feel to them.

101 Christmas Songs

This book features a wide variety of well known Christmas songs and Carols. There's also some Christmas songs within this book that I never heard of.

Taking Your Scales & Arpeggios Even Further

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about taking your scales and arpeggios even further from the basic scales and arpeggios.

I will be focusing on the flute for this post, but this can be done for any instrument. You just might have to do some research to find out what books would be best for you to enable you to take your scales and arpeggios even further.

Start Off with the Basics

Before going deeper into your scales and arpeggios; its important that you know and understand basic scales and arpeggios. Once you feel comfortable playing your basic scales and arpeggios, you can then start to incorporate additional exercises to enable you to develop further into your understanding of scales and arpeggios.

'The Flute Scale Book' by Patricia George

'The Flute Scale Book' by Patricia George has loads of different ways to work on your scales and arpeggios; and get the best out of your scales and arpeggios. The book starts off with Whole Tone scales and arpeggios, and these are your basic scales and arpeggios; and then it just progresses from there. You have a lot of variety to choose from within this book.

Moyse 'Beginning the Flute'

With Moyse 'Beginning the Flute' you get a two in one, as not only does it help you to develop your scales and arpeggios; but it also focuses on developing your tone throughout the low and middle registers on the flute. The scales and arpeggios exercises start from Exercise 7 through to Exercise 13, and these exercises work through all of the different key signatures and they take you through the low to middle range of the flute.

Reichert Seven Daily Exercises

The 'Seven Daily Exercises' from Reichert are scales and arpeggio exercises that are in every key signature. This book with help you to delve deeper into the world of scales and arpeggios, as its a completely different way of playing scales and arpeggios; and these exercises will push you. Some of these scale and arpeggio exercises can be a little tricky; but they are some easier options for you to start on.

I hope that this post will give you some inspiration for you to develop even further on your scales and arpeggios. There's loads of resources out there to help you to progress and to also give you a more in depth understanding of scales and arpeggios.

Deep Dive Studies: 100 Classical Studies for Flute

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about 100 Classical Studies for flute.

I would say that the 100 Classical Studies is aimed at anyone whose around Grade 3 and above. Compared to the 125 Easy Classical Studies, this is on the more trickier side. 

Also, this book can be found on the extended repertoire lists for Trinity College. I'm aware of this, as I learnt I study from this book to form part of my Grade 4 development; and I'm currently working on one as part of my Grade 5. I'm not too sure if it forms part of any other exam boards extended reprtoire lists, but it might be worth a look.

Some of the studies towards the back of the book are definitely on the more trickier side, and they also feature a few key signatures that are on the more advanced side.

This is really handy book to have, especially if your exam board has it has an option for their extended repertoire. 

The composers that are featured within this book are :-

- Gariboldi

- Toulou

- Andersen

- Kohler

- Demersseman

- Furstenau

- Berbiguier

- Frederick the Great

- Drouet

- Hugot

- Devienne

I had no idea who 'Frederick the Great' was, but the studies that he composed that are within this book are on the short side, but they are on the nicer side and look to be a little bit tricky.

Frederick the Great was the King of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786, and he was also a musician who played the keyboard and the flute. He also composed a number of works during his lifetime.

100 Classical Studies for flute covers a period of over 200 years, and it covers the 1700s through to the 1900s. So, you also have a different styles of studies to choose from; depending on which composers studies you choose to learn and explore.

Music Exams: What Do You Need for Your Practical Music Exams

Hi everyone,

I will be talking about what you need to help you to plan and prepare your practical music exams. This will vary depending on the exam board you are taking your music exams with.

Exam Pieces

This is usually from a graded exam pieces book that has been compiled together for all relevant grades, but another option is choosing your exam pieces from an 'extended repertoire' list which can usually be found on the exam boards website. You can choose three pieces for a face to face exam, or four pieces for a digital exam. These pieces can be either all from the core pieces of music from the graded exam book, all pieces from the 'extended repertoire' or a combination of pieces from both the core and extended repertoire. You have a quite a range of pieces to also choose from, and you can also tailor the exam pieces to your liking due to the fact that there's now a lot more variety for practical music exams.

 The four exam pieces form part of the 'Repertoire only' exam option for Trinity College. If you wanted to do the 'Technical' exam option with Trinity College, then its three pieces of music. 

Scales, Arpeggios and Exercises

You will need to learn all of your scales and arpeggios from memory for your exams, if you are doing as part of your exam. For the exercises; you can take the pieces into the exam with you.

Scales, Arpeggios and Exercises form part of the 'Technical' exam option for the Trinity College exams; and this option can be done either face to face, or digital.

Aural

Familiarising and developing your aural skills should be done with your music teacher, and this can take time for you to develop your ear. But, you can buy books to help you to improve on your aural skills. Aural forms part of the face to face exams from both ABRSM and Trinity College. Even if you don't do aural as part of your exam; it's still a very good skill within your musical journey for you to develop.

What You Need for Your Practical Music Exams

- Exam Pieces (either from your graded pieces book, from the 'extended repertoire' list; or combination from each

- Scales, Arpeggios & Exercises; or just Scales and Arpeggios for your relevant grade

- Developing your aural music skills with your teacher

Also, once you have got all of your pieces, scales and arpeggios up to standard before you take the practical exam; another thing you can do is get yourself into a routine for how you would like to play the pieces for the exam. By doing this before the exam, it will make it easier for you on the day of the exam as you will already have the routine practiced and you will be more familiar in what you are doing on the day.

Trinity College - Mosaics Books 1 & 2

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about the Mosaics books for woodwind players by Mike Mower for Trinity College.

The Mosaics books for woodwind players is made up of two books. These books are available for flute, clarinet and saxophone. The clarinet and saxophone editions are a mixture of compositions by Mike Mower and James Rae.

Book One is for beginners through to Grade 5; and Book Two is for Grades 6 - 8.

Book One features 65 solo pieces, and these pieces vary in length depending where you are in your musical journey. In this book the pieces are no longer than a page in length.

Book Two features 42 solo pieces, and this book is aimed at the more advanced player. Another addition to this book is that includes notes from the composer at the back. I'm not too sure if this is a more recent thing that they have included, because it isn't in my edition of 'Mosaics: Book One'. Most of the pieces that are within this book are a page in length, but some of the pieces go over two pages in length.

What I really like about this series of books by Mike Mower are the daft titles that he has come up with for the pieces. It gives the books some light heartedness, even some of the pieces can be on the more trickier side; especially in the second book.

I can only give my opinions based on the Mosaics books for flute, as they are the only ones that I own. I also don't play either the clarinet or saxophone, which is another reason why I don't have those editions. So, I have no idea on what the books are like with the collaborations between Mike Mower and James Rae.

Tackling Sight Reading

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about tackling sight reading.

Sight reading is a skill within music that needs to be developed over time. In some cases, learners can get it straight away; but more often than not, it doesn't naturally come to others - and thats okay. There's no right or wrong way to develop your sight reading skills, but all I can say is just keep working at it, and it will happen.

Scales and Arpeggios

Before you even tackle sight reading make sure that you have practiced a few scales and arpeggios, just to warm up and familiarise yourself with the scales and arpeggios that you are working on.

Keep it Simple

If your just starting out developing your sight reading, please keep it simple to begin with. If you are learning a one octave G Major scale, then choose a sight reading exercise that also has the one octave G Major scale. 

Graded Sight Reading

If you are doing sight reading as part of your graded music exams, then start sight reading one to two grades below the grade that you are working on. This will enable you to gradually build up your sight reading skills up to the grade that you are working on over a period of time. By doing it this way, you also won't get as much of a shock, as if you would jumping straight in to the grade that you are working on.

You Can Always Go Back

If you aren't happy you can always take it back to basics and start again at a lower grade. There's nothing wrong in taking things back slightly to help you to progress a little further. Sight reading can be tricky to grasp and understand, especially in the beginner stages of learning a musical instrument. You can go back as many times as you want throughout your musical journey. You might also want to reinforce an unusual time signature or a more advanced key signature.

The 30 Second Rule

Don't throw yourself into this straightaway. For some exam boards, as part of their sight reading element of the exam; they will ask you to look at a piece of music that you have never seen before, and look at it for 30 seconds before they will then ask you to play that piece of music. 

Once you have become more familiar with doing sight reading, you can have a go at reading a new piece of music for 30 seconds and then have a go at playing it. Just to give you a feel of what it would be like during the exam, and get yourself more comfortable with the exam sight reading process.

Sight Reading Books

- Trinity Sight Reading (Initial - Grade 2)

- Trinity Sight Reading (Grades 3 - 5)

- Trinity Sight Reading (Grades 6 - 8)

- Improve Your Sight Reading (Grades 1 - 3)

- Improve Your Sight Reading (Grades 4 - 5)

- Improve Your Sight Reading (Grades 6 - 8)

- Schott Sight Reading Book One

- Schott Sight Reading Book Two

- ABRSM Sight Reading (Grades 1 - 5)

- ABRSM Sight Reading (Grades 6 - 8)

* The 'Improve Your Sight Reading' books by Paul Harris varies in the number of books, depending on the instrument you are learning. In some cases, its one book per grade.

 

Deep Dive Studies: 125 Easy Classical Studies

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about 125 Easy Classical Studies for flute.

This book is a great start for beginner/ intermediate flute players who would like to get into learning studies. 

This book starts off fairly easy, but it does get a little more tricky the more that you progress through the book. Most of the flute studies featured within this book are fairly short, but they are a few towards the back of the book that go up to two pages in length.

The book starts off with really easy studies that are suitable for flute players who are just starting learning the flute, and then progresses up to around Grade 6/7 standard. Towards the end of the book the studies also start a few tricky techniques such as octave leaps, and also more advanced key signatures.

The composers that are featured in this book are :-

- Devienne

- Drouet

- Furstenau

- Gariboldi

- Hugot

- Wunderlich

- Kohler

- Nicholson

- Popp

- Soussmann

- Tromlitz

I would recommend this book for anyone whose just starting out on the flute, and would like to explore the world of flute studies. There's also some really nice studies for you to learn and explore from beginner level right the way up to advanced level. Also, don't let the more complicated studies put you off from buying the book, as the more you progress through your own learning; the easier it will become to understand the studies and the benefits of learning studies. 

Another thing you can do with the easier studies, is to incorporate them as part of your scales and arpeggios section of your practice routine. To do this, all you need to do is find one or two easy studies to work alongside the scales and arpeggios that you are working on. What I mean by this is; if you were learning the G Major scale and arpeggio, you find find an easy G Major study to learn alongside that scale. If you would like to do this, but are unsure; ask your flute teacher as they will be able to advise you on what study/ies would be suitable for your level of playing.