Dear Flutists,
I recently received this wonderful and useful etude book in the mail from Australia that arrived within a week! How entirely excellent a book it is! (and I'm not related to the flute teachers who created this study book, of course.)
Usually, when you buy a book of flute etudes, you find two to three great etudes, and all the rest are uphill work, unattractive to the ear, or diabolically difficult for no apparent reason. Well the Australian flute teachers who compiled this lovely new book of etudes have finally ended that reign of terrible (or as we say "terri-blech!") etude books !
The three flute teachers who compiled this book extracted all the most gorgeous etudes from Novice to Advanced (Canadian grade 3 to 10+/ARCT) and put them all in one book for $48.
Now you may say: "OMG - that's a whole lot of cost for one etude book, and I already have nine thousand etude books, and I hate them all except for a dozen or so Bach, Drouet, and Hughes studies that are truly helpful and beautiful to listen to."
Well, I've just finished playing twice through the whole of 99 Solos and Studies for Flute and it's the equivalent of five excellent etude books, with only all the good etudes from each of dozens and dozens of etude books! 99 Solos and Studies has great pages, eliminating page turns, great readability, intelligent pedagogy, and inspiring, progressive challenges. The new-to-me celtic tunes found in the novice grades are simply gorgeous, and the combination of familiar and beautiful etudes that have been collected togher are musically rewarding. The whole book is super-inspiring and head and shoulders above standard etude books.It's going to become my new "must have" for all students.
It's that good. Use the comment button; give your own opinions when your copy arrives.
This one book would be especially good for high schoolers, amateur adults, and of course, University music majors who would use the easier level etudes as their daily warmups, (using "outlining" and tonguing patterns to vary the melodies a la Moyse 24 Petite Melodies), or creating their own work plan for inspring summer practice sessions. For intermediate flutists it would be perfect for learning the technical challenges through melody. And knowing that all the solos and studies are presented in graded order of difficulty, the student can progress at their own pace.
And are there between-lesson flutists out there who looking for practice inspiration over the summer? Great tunes? Great workouts? Great lift in the spirts? Then...get this book. And as a gig book for solo performances? Fantastico! You could play for two or three hours out of this book, just as solo material for any kind of gig! Fabulouso osso-mosso.
Love it and huge thanks to the caring flute teachers who wrote it. This collection is marvellous. (And I haven't said that since Cohen's "Rampal School"!)
These creative Australian pedagogues also have a beginner flute book and repertoire collection for beginners which I'll be checking out in the coming month. See all books here. So cool. It's about time we banished the bad rep(ertoire)! hahahaha!
Jennifer Cluff
Principal Flute
Vancouver Island Symphony
99 Solos and Studies for Flute | edited by Christine Draeger, Jocelyn Fazzone and Lamorna Nightingale