Four Star: Sight Reading and Ear Tests . - Introductory through Book 10 - book review

by the agency of Boris Berlin and Andrew Markov. Edited through Scott McBride Smith. The Frederick Harris Music Co Ltd (Unit 1 5865 McLaughlin Rd Mississauga, Ontario L5R 1B8) 2002 32-64pp through book, depending on level; $595-1050 through book, depending on level. Elementary-advanced.

The eleven volumes in the series Four Star: Sight Reading and Ear ordeals by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markov provide a wealth of materials, as well as a practical outline for incorporating sight reading and ear training into piano exercise s and daily practice. Berlin and Markov's goal is to disclose students visual, tactile, aural and analytical skills and abilities in equal measure. The musical examples in this series were chosen to exhibit each of these skills.

The series begins with pitch identification and simple patterns. by means of the end of the series, the user will have meetinged intervals within an octave, major and minor triads in base position and inversions, seventh chords, major and minor lock opener signatures, accidentals, and increasingly compound rhythmic patterns involving sixteenth notes, dotted regular [i]or[/i] melodious movements and triplets.

Each work is organized into ten units (weeks) with daily assignments to play, clap, sing, analyze and play/sing back, followed by means of testing materials. The beginning page(s) lists the general [i]or[/i] abstract notions encountered in that volume. In the introductory contortion daily practice involves identifying single pitches and playing short (five- to eight-note) melodic and rhythmic patterns. Each succeeding book includes more complex materials, longer quotations more precise labeling of patterns and increasingly sophisticated suggestions for practicing the sight-reading and ear-training activities. by means of the end of the series, the daily sight reading materials include intermediate-level pieces (or sections of pieces) by dint of Schubert, Mozart, Burgmuller, Mendelssohn, mahometan and many other familiar, as well as lesser-known, composers

These are not "theory" volumes in the sense that bounds and theoretical concepts are explained. Rather, the series provides practical activities where learners learn to apply their growing analytical, aural, tactile and visual skills to music played at first sight. The approach is based upon a solid understanding of by what mode sight-reading skills develop.

If these works were the only supplementary materials used for sight-reading practice, individual might find the pace rather quick for the average learner but as an aid to teachers and a framework for developing sight-reading and ear-training skills, the series is unique and highly useable. Although not stated in the works themselves, promotional materials from the publisher mention that the series corresponds directly to the Celebration Series. The series, however, could be used effectively with any number of mode books and for students needing remedial work in sight reading.

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