When it comes to beginner saxophone music, the choice is endless. The ‘Team’ still reigns supreme even after 20 years as a top choice for woodwind, brass and strings due to it's no-nonsense book that promotes incremental progression from absolute beginner to sufficient working knowledge, one or two lines of music at a time, across a multitude of well-known tunes. What happens after that? Most young students these days want the likes of Clean Bandit, Ariana Grande, and others with obscure names so imagine my surprise when one of my students came to her lesson, fresh from her Grade 2 exam, asking if we could do some classical music. ‘I like Mozart – “Moonlight Sonata” and “Für Elise” – can we play that?’ she asked. This is where I struggled. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing in Top 100 Jazzy tunes or 10 melodic studies for saxophone but in quite a timely fashion, I received Easy Classical Themes for Instrumental Solos in the post from MT to have a look over. Pitched perfectly for a Grade 1-3 player, I thought I'd trial it in this very lesson.
The book contains 15 recognisable tracks with a play-along CD. I'm a little apprehensive about students relying on such CDs as it's slowly created a culture of just learning by ear, at the detriment of learning to read music. As a result, it's not a book I would use for an ultra-beginner player who has yet to learn how to read music properly.
Like many other beginner books, it starts with the easier, lower demanding tunes such as ‘Spring’, ‘Ode to Joy’ and others, all mostly recognisable from most recent TV advertising. As the book progresses, we get into the territory of ‘Für Elise’, ‘Habanera’, and concluding with the ‘Can Can’ at the end of the book. An amazing introduction to the greats of classical music, which would hopefully inspire a young learner or encourage a teacher to create engaging lessons that play on these themes.
The key signature doesn't get any harder than two sharps, and spares the use of accidentals throughout the book. Given that the ABRSM scales syllabus requires up to two sharps for Grade 1, I feel that this is sufficient enough for a player of this standard. However, as I would pitch this at a player up to Grade 3 standard, I would have liked to see a little more complex key signatures and wider use of accidentals.
This is an ideal book to add to the collection of the budding young player at the beginning of their studies, or as respite between grades. It's the perfect introduction to classical music that encourages engagement pitched at just the right level.
