In a message dated 16/04/2005 14:19:15 GMT Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
"first, the students you cite are taking private lessons, which the vast majority of middle and high school instrumentalists do not."
No - I teach in high schools, not private lessons.
We used to run an internal exam system - when our students reached our Grade
5 (the equivalent of Grade 4 of the Associated Board) those trombone players
who had started to learn in treble clef had to present one piece in bass clef and vice versa. For those who had started in treble clef, tenor clef was
not a problem - they simply read it as treble clef and change the key
signature.
Since you write through AOL, I didn't know what country you were in, but now I see your web address below is .uk. We do not, over here, have the equivalent of your Grade system of the Associated Board. Pity, too; we should have!
Though it was a bit parochial of me (OK, a LOT parochial!), my reference was to U.S. schools--those I am familiar with. But such differences there still are between UK and U.S.! Here, no trombone player would start reading treble clef, at least not on trombone. None of the usual band method books used in the schools would support such instruction, especially since your kids are clearly NOT reading concert pitch treble clef, but Bb-transposed treble clef. Heritage of the brass bands, I would guess. And you're right, they would require only a trivial mental adjustment of two flats to read tenor clef (at concert pitch; I think I have that correct). So in fact, your students read bass clef and tenor clef at concert pitch, but not treble clef at concert pitch. Still, they're well ahead of students the same age in the U.S., who wouldn't recognize a tenor clef if it bit them on the spitvalve!
Our only inheritance from the treble-clef brass band system is the duplicate parts for treble clef (Bb-transposed) and bass clef (concert pitch) baritone/euphonium parts, both of which are still required in band arrangements. And I believe the justification is exactly the same as the justification for treble-clef brass band notation: baritone players are often recruited from supernumerary trumpet players.
Thanks very much for the clarification.
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
