Woodwind Methods: An Essential Resource for Educators, Conductors & Students

I have taught Woodwinds Methods at the university level for twenty-five years, and I am always looking for a comprehensive text that will not only meet the needs of my class, but also feel the need for a strong resource for my students as they graduate and begin teaching in the public schools. I have found this very book in Charles West’s new book, Woodwind Methods: An Essential Resource for Educators, Conductors, and Students. An outstanding educator and musician, Dr. West’s method is the most realistic for most university pedagogy classes, as well as for the real world of teaching in the public schools, as all five woodwinds are approached at the same time, instead of in individual instrument segments. The book is extremely user-friendly with clear instructions, easy-to-read fingering charts, and a huge amount of excellent information presented logically. I was very happy to see that Dr. West includes very helpful and useful specific information about each of the woodwinds concerning common problem areas- and what to do to fix the problems. I haven’t found any other books that have such great detail and helpful hints…so important for young teachers to have at the ready. The areas of assembly, intonation, building the embouchure, hand and body position, articulation, teaching and learning the first sounds, are all covered with excellent depth and good photos to use as a guide. I also like that the book can be used as a stand-alone text, as there are several musical exercises that can be played with all five woodwinds together. The lists of equipment, as well as the maintenance suggestions, are incredibly helpful- and something else that I have not found in other texts of this nature. Dr. West has developed what I consider to be THE best text out there for training future educators to play and teach the woodwinds- it has everything that the student and the teacher needs to be successful. I will definitely be switching to this book for all my future Woodwind Methods classes.

Bought this when I was learning bassoon. Loved it :)

As someone else noted a spiral binding would be useful, but for the price I don't expect that. It is a basic book, but useful and well laid out. I am going to be using it in teaching a WW techniques class this semester. I haven't thoroughly checked the fingering charts yet, but I did see that the high D, D#, and E fingerings on the sax chart have the palm keys reversed. Hopefully that will be fixed in the next edition.

Overall, a decent textbook for a college woodwind methods class. Readers should be careful to check fingering charts, though, and many seasoned players offered different advice than some of what was suggested in the text. The only major issue I had was that this book is not spiral bound; the glue binding makes it near impossible to lay the music flat without breaking the binding.

This is an excellent resource for educators both in a classroom setting and in private lessons. There is detailed information on how to form the embrochure for each instrument, how to assemble, maintain, and play each instrument. There is also a fingering chart and trill chart for each instrument.

Great

Excellent resource for any musician/educator!