Ben, You deserve your own thread mate! Not only because of your music, but because in the pic of your score, you look quite handsome!

So, Ladies and gents,

Teachers and students alike. Since Ben's Swingle Bells came up from Ann, I thought I'd back up Ben's work as a composer (and obviously as a teacher as well), by offering my insights in his book(s) "Get Set JAZZ!"

Well,

I've been playing a few, just for the kicks, since this years I don't have any advanced students, and thus the red books (grades 4-7) is too difficult for them. but not for me! And I've been listening to his playing in the CD.

All the works are catchy, as promised in the book, well thought out and not too difficult, if one grasps the general idea of 'jazz' or 'blues'.

Personal favorite is "Now we're talking" and "The Blue train", though all are quite nice! Especially the 2nd one has some Satie vibes in it!

As far as I know there are two other books, for beginners, and amateurs, so while this may be the most difficult book, I'm sure that amongst the 41 tunes in total, you'll be getting quite a few tunes to use for your students.

The edition itself is very nice and contemporary. Nice coloured cover, the CD is working properly and was nicely tacked in its sleeve, and the music itself is very well laid out.

And, exactly because I have nothing to do with Ben, I'm not getting paid or promoting his work, I'll spam the forums to provide a link: http://www.spartanpress.co.uk/spweb/publ...pdf=Y&mp3=Y I know you can get the scores from there, but I'm not sure if it's anywhere else (sheetmusicplus, etc), so if Ben would be kind enough to provide a link, that would be great!

Other than that... still listening the CD for the third time, while I'm typing this!

Thanks for your music Ben!

Haha! Amazing what you can do with modern technology, eh?

So...yeah. I should probably mention that Nikolas and I agreed to exchange books last week, hence the recent mutual reviews - although I should also hasten to add that the reviews were both spontaneous, and not part of some clandestine prior agreement!



Yes, this is an important point to consider - the perceived difficulty of these works (and those by others in the same genre) is largely dependent on whether the student has a natural grasp of swing and syncopation. However, I consciously avoided using "academic" trickery in the rhythmic devices, and tried to keep everything feeling natural and instinctive.



OK - since you've twisted my arm

Musicroom



Likewise, Nikolas

Edit: Oops! In all my excitement, I forgot to thank you for the review (much longer than my paltry effort!) - so...Thank you!