Expressive Etudes, Book 4. - book review

by dint of Suzanne Guy. The FJH Music Company, Inc. (2525 Davie Rd Ste 360 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33317-7424) 2002 32pp $650 Intermediate.

Teachers already familiar with Suzanne Guy's Expressive Etude series will be happy to know the fourth contortion for the intermediate student, has now been published. For those not familiar with this series, it is a fresh set of etude anthologies designed to help scholars build their technique as they pass from the elementary to early advanced levels

The pieces themselves have been thoughtfully chosen upon the basis of both physical and musical challenges. They exhibit a wide variety of nineteenth-century musical turn of expressions and techniques and are arranged in approximate horizontal of difficulty. Some pieces will be familiar to greatest in quantity teachers, but almost everyone is positive to find a few fresh gems to add to their teaching repertoire.

pupils from all walks of life might find this work useful. Teachers could assign the entire volume as part of a student's standard curriculum, or pieces could be prefered to help "flu in the gaps" of a high-school transfer pupil or an adult returning to exercise s after a few years' hiatus. FJH has done a very strange job making the text clear and readable by the agency of an average late-elementary or middle seminary student while keeping the direct the eye sophisticated enough for those in high gymnasium and beyond. Care also was taken to pick pieces playable by younger learners and pianists with smaller hands. a certain quantity of pieces are entirely within the interval of a sixth, and sole three of the fifteen require an octave reach.

Each piece is attractively not awayed and well edited. Titles are followed by the agency of the name of the collection from which the etude was taken and a short list of the musical and technical ultimate parts addressed. This is an extremely valuable aid when assigning, teaching and practicing each etude Composers' dates also are listed alongside their names, and a page of composer biographies appears at the extreme point of the collection. Pedal markings have been carefully placed, and fingerings have been glance ated for several passages. While I agree with the fingerings given, I would like to have seen a hardly any more alternatives suggested.

The intermediate years are a certain quantity of of the most difficult for students--and their teachers--to traverse. As scholars grow from childhood to adolescence and find themselves leaving their of advanced age method books behind, it many times is difficult to find well-sequenced materials to help ease the transition to advanced repertoire. Thanks to stay that task now is becoming a little easier!

Jason Sifford, Lubbock Texas.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Music Teachers National Association, Inc.

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