Customer Reviews

The Teaching of Instrumental Music (2nd Edition)

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This 450-page book is a music education textbook which covers the basics of teaching instrumental music for would-be or present teachers. It has become known as an essential "core text" for teachers of instrumental music.

The first three chapters of the book discuss general background: Chapter 1 gives a short history of instrumental music, while Chapters 2 & 3 deal with the objectives and evaluation of music. This material is O.K., but wasn't especially useful for me.

The largest section of the text devotes a whole chapter to each of the instruments commonly played in a student band and orchestra. I found this detailed information to be very helpful. The middle section also includes separate chapters on the "Principles of . . . Winds, Brass, Strings, Percussion, etc.," which introduce the chapters about specific instruments in each of these categories.

The most "down-to-earth," practical chapters are Chapters 4 & 5, which discuss how to motivate students and how to work effectively with administrators, and Chapters 24 & 25 at the end of the book about rehearsal routines and how to rehearse concert literature. I read these chapters first because they seem the most essential for a new instrumental music teacher.

This book is full of information, from teaching methods to information on each instrument and instrument family commonly used in school music programs. It has just about all you need to know about each instrument to teach beginning students, and is a great resource for aspiring and current instrumental music teachers, especially at the secondary level (Jr. High/High School). If you're looking for books containing actual music, look elsewhere, but if you want information on the instruments and on teaching music, this is one of the best comprehensive resources.

Lots of useful information to help me add to my knowledge of instruments I know about and those I don't know as much about.

Designed for use in both an instrumental methods course as well as woodwind, percussion & brass techniques courses. Newer edition will include strings and expansion of first 7 chapters.