With the growing interest in hand horn (natural horn) and jazz horn, Extended Techniques for the Horn by Douglas Hill is an important text in horn repertory. Virtually all the sound possibilities of the horn are included in this one book, with clearly and concisely organized descriptions, notation and comments to both performers and composers of horn music.

Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor of music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician: A Scarecrow Press Music Series is designed for instrumentalists, singers, conductors, composers, and other instructors and professionals seeking a quick set of pointers to improve their work as performers and producers of music. Easy to use and intended for the advanced musician, contributions to the Music Secrets series fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners and intermediate practitioners need. In Oboe Secrets: 75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player, Jacqueline Leclair tackles the oboe’s reputation as an especially difficult instrument and illustrates how oboists and English horn players can overcome common challenges. Leclair draws on her experience as a performer and instructor, offering practical tips and sometimes revolutionary ideas for rethinking oboe pedagogy. Leclair also looks at performance strategies in the areas of equipment maintenance and management, physical health, and performance technique. Her secrets focus on such matters as how to optimize practice sessions, build endurance, improve use of the body when playing, work with reeds, and apply extended techniques. Oboe Secrets provides oboists and English horn players a quick and efficient path to significant improvement—both technically and musically—in their playing.It is the perfect resource for advanced high school oboists, professional performers, music instructors, and avid amateur musicians.

After decades of experimentation, musicians have begun to utilize a strikingly colorful palette of sounds on woodwind instruments. Flute, clarinet, and saxophone players, in many different musical settings, regularly use sounds that were unheard of in the middle of the twentieth century. Oboists, in comparison, have lagged somewhat behind their more adventurous colleagues. In writing Oboe Unbound: Contemporary Techniques, author Libby Van Cleve opens up the tradition-bound assumptions of the instrument’s capabilities. Not only does she include descriptions of the instrument’s standard technique from range and reeds to the use of vibrato, but she also discusses recent techniques, such as multiphonics, microtones, altered timbres, and extended range, to name a few. Van Cleve bolsters this book with numerous music examples and professionally-tested fingering charts, and concludes with basic information about the use of electronics for amplification, recording, and sound enhancement. The book’s appendixes include a substantial bibliography of music and literature and a discography including jazz, non-western, and art music recordings. The revised edition incorporates new information about resources now available through the internet and marks the launch of a website that includes examples of all the contemporary sounds as well as audio and video recordings of unreleased compositions.

First to be published in the series was The Art of French Horn Playing by Philip Farkas, now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music at Indiana University. In 1956, when Summy-Birchard published Farkas's book, he was a solo horn player for the Chicago Symphony and had held similar positions with other orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Kansas City Conservatory, DePaul University, Northwestern University, and Roosevelt University in Chicago. The Art of French Horn Playing set the pattern, and other books in the series soon followed, offering help to students in learning to master their instruments and achieve their goals.

Phillip Rehfeldt has assembled here techniques of dealing with clarinet performances as they have evolved since 1950. He catalogs contemporary practices that differ from those formerly standardized, provides perspective on performance capabilities and limitations, and includes suggestions for performance based on his own experience. The new edition has been completely rewritten, corrected where necessary, and updated. Rehfeldt has added the complete list of William O. Smith's clarinet compositions and recordings to the previous listing of his early multiphonic fingerings. The new edition also includes an appendix containing Eric Mandat's quarter-tone fingerings; a second, extensive music bibliography, the "International Update"; and an updated and annotated bibliography of music literature.

Der Gitarrist Seth F. Josel und der Komponist Ming Tsao geben in ihrem gemeinsam geschriebenen Buch einen umfassenden Überblick über zeitgenössische Spieltechniken der klassischen Gitarre. Prägend war hierbei eine neue Generation von Gitarren-Solisten, die durch ihre außerordentlichen technischen und virtuosen Fähigkeiten einem neuen Verständnis von instrumentaler Aufführungspraxis den Weg geebnet haben. Detallierte Erklärungen über das, was technisch auf dem Instrument möglich ist, werden präsentiert und im Hinblick auf die traditionelle Gitarrentechnik in einen historischen Zusammenhang gestellt. Für Komponisten interessant sind die ausführlichen Analysen von zeitgenössischer Gitarrenliteratur, die viele Beispiele aus Kammer- und Ensemblemusik mit einbeziehen. Vier Hauptkapitel beschreiben - Techniken der rechten und der linken Hand - Besondere Harmonien und perkussive Techniken - Die Hauptinstrumente der Gitarrenfamilie und ihre Möglichkeiten - Notationsmöglichkeiten für zeitgenössische Gitarrenliteratur Detaillierte Grafiken zu Multiphonics-, Bitones- und Perkussions-Techniken sowie Audio-Tracks, auf die aus dem Buch heraus verlinkt wird, ergänzen die im Buch beschriebenen Beispiele.

This comprehensive, annotated resource of solo repertoire for the horn documents in detail the rich catalogue of original solo compositions for the instrument. Intended as a guide for practical use and easy reference, it is organized into three large sections: works for unaccompanied horn, works for horn and keyboard, and works for horn and ensemble. Each entry includes publisher information, a brief description of the form and character of a work, technical details of the horn writing, and information on dedication and premiere. The authors also include commentary on the various techniques required and the performance challenges of each piece. Representing over ten years of careful compilation and notation by an expert in horn performance and pedagogy, and by a seasoned music librarian and natural horn performer, Guide to the Solo Horn Repertoire will be an invaluable resource for performers, educators, and composers.

Teaching Woodwinds: A Guide for Students and Teachers is a comprehensive resource perfectly suited for university woodwind technique classes, band directors needing woodwind details, or anyone looking for in-depth information on how to play flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, or saxophone. Teaching Woodwinds is the only resource of its kind: a book and a website. The book contains playing exercises for each instrument, group exercises in score form, and fingering and trill charts. The website contains information about how to play each instrument including sub-chapters on getting started, technique, intonation, tone and much more, and offers over 300 full color images, 130 videos, audio files, PDF downloads, PowerPoint/Keynote quizzes, and hundreds of links. Designed to be a lifelong resource, the platform of a book and website has provided the authors with a rich palette with which to deliver the content with clarity and precision. This format serves as an effective woodwind methods curriculum, and will continue to be a valuable resource for music educators long after graduation.