Highlights
Accessible Format
The Fourth Edition is comb bound and set in an 8.5 x 11-inch format for easy use at a desk, music stand, or piano. The large music type is readable at a comfortable distance.
Newly Composed Exercises in a Wide Variety of Styles
Drawing on the experience of four decades of classroom experience and on valuable comments from users of previous editions, the authors have refined many of the exercises and included a wide array of newly composed material. Exercises are written in a range of styles, including popular, jazz, and rock, and use diatonic, chromatic, modal, and whole-tone melodies.
A New Chapter: Melodies from the Literature
Chapter Five offers 154 melodies from the standard classical and folk repertories, enabling students to develop a rich and varied group of pieces to draw on and refer back to throughout their musical careers.
Meticulously Graded Exercises
Chapter One consists of unaccompanied melodies that progressively introduce technical problems. A fresh new design highlights pedagogical headings and sets off melodies that focus on each problem.
Chapter Two presents vocal duets so that students can develop skill in ensemble reading while improving their intonation as they listen to the other part.
Chapter Three introduces melodies with piano accompaniment, including accompanied theme and variation sets. Students sing one part while playing another, sharpening their rhythmic skills and demonstrating the relationship between melody and harmony.
The unaccompanied themes and variations of Chapter Four provide the experience of singing extended compositions while emphasizing various problems of musical interpretation. Because the character of the melodies changes from one variation to another, the student is stimulated to develop a sensitive performance technique.
Chapter Five consists of melodies from the classical and folk repertories. These melodies make a useful transition from the exercises in Chapters One through Four to traditional music literature.
The supplementary exercises provide an assortment of drills in intervals, scales, chords, chromatic notes of all kinds, and advanced rhythmic problems.
Flexible Organization
Each of the five chapters is divided into four sections according to level of difficulty: Section I, elementary; Sections II and III, intermediate; and Section IV, advanced. Each section corresponds to one semester's work, and material in parallel sections can be used concurrently.
Copyright © 2005, W. W. Norton & Company. All rights reserved.
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