Victoria McArthur

Nothing really wrong with this book, I just don't think you need a book to teach this stuff. Most of it is devoted to major and minor pentascales, plus cross-hand arpeggios, broken and blocked tonic chords, and I-V-I cadences. Only a few of the major and minor scales are presented. I start my first year students playing pentascales before they can even read music. They learn to play the proper pattern of whole steps and half steps, then when they learn simple 5-finger pieces in their books, we can transpose them to any pentascale. Later, when they learn to read the notes, I start them writing pentascales. If I'm going to ask them to buy a scale book, I'd prefer that they buy a complete one to keep as a reference throughout their study, not something they'll outgrow quickly.… (meer)