Product Description

A work that has stood the test of time by one of the brass world’s most important pedagogues, Character Studies for the Cornet should be part of any trumpet student’s library. Within its pages, the student will gain valuable insight on tonguing and the 24 characteristic studies will help the student to gain absolute control of technique, articulation, slurring and endurance. This work will prove helpful and beneficial to the developing student.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #375732 in Books
• Published on: 1935-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Customer Reviews

Challenging but rewarding trumpet/cornet etudes
First a word of warning: don't confuse this book with Clarke's more famous work Technical Studies for the Cornet which I also recommend most highly.

While even a relative beginner can get some benefit from "Technical Studies", this is instead a book of 24 challenging etudes which require pretty good chops from the outset. As a bonus, after the etudes you get a number of Clarke's famous solo pieces, including his fabulous version of the Carnival of Venice. This is great value. The solos are a subset of the ones in The Herbert L. Clarke Collection.

While it is not an instructional book, at the beginning there is a a useful discussion on how to improve your tonguing speed with a few exercises as an aperetif to the etudes themselves. He has exercises for single, double and triple tonguing.

The etudes themselves are all very musical and all require roughly the same level of technical mastery. I find the etudes difficult and currently they are still a bit too advanced for me to play perfectly. The 24 pieces cover each of the major and minor keys. The range requirements are fairly moderate (you'll need a comfortable high C but not much beyond), but where they get challenging (for me at least) is that often Clarke doesn't leave you much time to breathe. As a result you need to have considerable endurance to get through these pieces as well as good lip flexibility for jumps and lip slurs. You need to be quite an advanced player to tackle these pieces and they always leave me out of breath.

This book was recommended to me by my trumpet teacher who is a well-known studio musician and band leader. He also recommended W.M.Smith's "Top Tones for the Trumpeter" which is at a similar level, though perhaps more directed towards high playing. My teacher says that he plays out of both of these books regularly to keep his chops in shape. This shows that even if you are a strong player, these books will give you a good work out to build your endurance and fluency.

If my description of "Characteristic Studies" sounds too daunting for you, you may want to build up to it with something a bit easier (that's what I did). I can recommend Sigmund Hering's Thirty-two Etudes for Trumpet or Cornet for this purpose.

Essential Tools to Master the Trumpet
This book along with Arbons, Claude Gordon books and Saint-Jacome books are essential method books to master your trumpet or cornet. These courageous men gave their lives in pursuit of musical perfection. Get the books, put the time in and see the dramatic improvement in note recognition, precision and overall confidence. We depend on music teachers in the system who are driving the masses of students toward something they themselves may never have known. If you have an itch this book will satisfy your thirst for first chair, for mental clarity and for confidence.