Hal Leonard Elementary Band Method

1. Hal Leonard Elementary Band Method By Adam Berndt and Brandon Yahn

2. Preliminary Exercises • 0/5 • No warm-up

3. Mechanical Components • 5/5 • New notes presented sequentially • Special Studies, p. 145 • Open partial slurs for brass • Register key slurs over the break for clarinet • Fingering charts and preliminary lesson plans for each instrument • Material presented slowly

4. Tonal Concepts • 3/5 • Melodies begin rather late in book • Exercise 13 • Words included above exercises until exercise 44 • Counterintuitive?

5. Rhythmic Components • 2/5 • Rhythms presented through use of folk tune lyrics over the notation • No subdivision smaller the quarter note • Definite emphasis on rhythm, however no rests • First rest, p.45 • Exercises do not use multiple notes until #13

6. Expressive Elements • 1/5 • Dynamics—not introduced until #122 • Explained as they appear in exercise • Slurs—not introduced until #108 • Two sentence explanation • Last exercise has definitions of musical terms

7. Musicianship Training • 0/5 • Book emphasizes technical aspects of playing rather than attempting to address all issues of the young musician.

8. Ranges • 2/5 • Flute—mistakenly assumes all beginning players can play above staff • First space F through C above the staff • Clarinet—first note is E • F below the staff to G above the staff • Trumpet—first note is E • C below the staff to top line F

9. Organization of Material • 2/5 • Sequential, but too much focus on rhythm at first and too little later • No history • No in-depth introduction of terms • Elements of music, #40 • Explains note names and time signature

10. Format • 2/5 • No color • Words over rhythms, but stop once melodies begin

11. Supplementary Material • 0/5 • There are no other volumes

12. Overall Rating • 17/50 • No keyboard percussion, only drums • Not organized well • Very out of date • Students may not recognize some folk tunes • Rhythmic counting system presented is limited