SKU: CF.BF154

ISBN 9781491162064. UPC: 680160920808.

Learning to play chamber music is an important milestone in the music student’s journey. Playing with a teacher or friend helps develop rhythmic independence, intonation, listening skills, and sense of pulse that are vital to playing in an ensemble. These progressive duets offer beginning and developing players the opportunity to play along with others, or with the helpful support of the teacher in a lesson. Each duet adds new techniques and challenges that align with the natural advancement of lessons, moving from easy rhythms and keys to staccato bow strokes, slurs, accidentals (low or extended finger patterns), and more complex or independent rhythms. While the melody remains in the top line, musicians can alternate playing the melody as all efforts have been made to keep both parts at a similar difficulty level. This book features familiar melodies from traditional, folk, and Classical repertoire including tunes that many string teachers will recognize from Suzuki books. Appropriate for recitals or even small group concerts, there are 30 selections of different tempi, styles, and keys for variety, while remaining in string-friendly ranges. Each duet is one page or less in length, ensuring an immediate sense of success for young players. The perfect supplement to method book exercises and solo repertoire.

SKU: CF.BF118

ISBN 9781491149812. UPC: 680160907311. 9 x 12 inches.

Continuing on the success of the popular Compatible series,Compatible Duets for Strings, Volume II contains 29 duets in avariety of styles (classical, folk music, new original pieces) thatcan be played with any combination of two string instruments.Students can develop their chamber ensemble skills whileplaying with their friends, no matter what string instrumentthey play. Ranging from grade levels 2–3, Compatible Duetsfor Strings, Volume II is perfect for orchestra directors to buyfor use in the classroom, and its flexibility makes it a musthavefor any string player.
Having students play in small chamber music groups is a very beneficial exercise to improvethe student’s overall musicianship. The simplest form of chamber music is the duet. It is anopportunity for the student to play with a teacher or to play with another student of similarabilities. Aspects of playing such as tone quality, intonation, technique and ensemble skillscan be developed during the process of studying duets.These duets are different in that they have many different performance options since all ofthe books in this series are compatible. As former long time music educators we alwayshad student that wanted to come to the music room during lunch or after school and theyjust wanted to play with their friends. That was not possible since there is very little duetmaterial available that is compatible with all of the string instruments. This book and thefirst volume in the series takes care of that. A student can now grab their friend no matterwhat instrument they play and have hours of fun playing duets together. Most importantthey will learn something in the process.The duets have been generally placed in the book in order of difficulty and cover a rangeof keys that are appropriate for this ability level. Special care was given to making surethat both of the duet parts were on a similar ability level and that each line was givenan opportunity to play a lead role at some point during the arrangement. Also, most ofthe musical markings are attached to both systems and the point size of the music wasconsidered for ease of reading.It is our hope that this collection will help to stimulate and enhance the musicianship of theperformers. It was a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to put together this collection.We hope it is a useful tool for you for years to come.