Review

Eric Allen
Success in All Keys: for bass trombone

,
Publisher: Better Bands and Orchestras
Date of Publication: 2009

85 pages

Primary Genre: Study Material - method
Secondary Genre: Study Material - etude

In Success in All Keys, Eric Allen isolates the challenges of mastering key signatures by keeping other elements simple. For example, a student using this book to tackle the key of E major will not have to simultaneously cope with awkward leaps, tricky rhythms or accidentals. This “factor isolation” strategy seems to be a logical approach. As one might expect, the book proceeds through various keys, devoting a number of pages to each key; more pages are devoted to the keys with three or more sharps or flats. Allen also includes sections devoted to the enharmonic transpositions of keys, F-sharp transposition of the G-flat etudes, for example. Each section includes four familiar tunes in the given key: Mouret’s Rondeau, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, Handels’ Hornpipe from Water Music and Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Each section concludes with an “All Keys Etude” which is the same melody presented in each key. 

Allen’s one-page etudes lack dynamic markings but do mark articulations. Comparing these etudes to those samples found on his website, it appears that the bass trombone etudes are identical to those found in the tuba edition. The range of these etudes is somewhat limited, staying between C on the low end and rarely leaving the staff on the high end. Personally, I would like to see a wider range for bass trombones. My biggest concern with this book centers on the etudes themselves. Maybe it is the lack of dynamics, but they don’t seem to have much musical direction. Perhaps this is by design so that the student is forced to rely on true reading skills instead of guessing. This book is a good supplement, testing a student’s ability to move beyond memorized scale patterns to a variety of melodies. It might be useful as a sight-reading tool as well.

-Brad Edwards
University of South Carolina