Abracadabra Clarinet (Pupil's book + 2 CDs): The way to learn through songs and tunes

A pleasing addition to my self-teaching approach for my clarinet.

Most satisfactory

I bought this to go with another book, in order to teach myself the clarinet.So far it has exceeded expectations, as I’m working my way through and at each new note or type of note it is clearly explained. There are also recognisable tunes very early on.I did learn the piano many years ago so the basics of reading music are still with me, but I think a complete beginner could also have no trouble in picking this up.I’m no spring chicken but definitely enjoying this new challenge

This copy had a strange printing error on only one of the pages, see photograph above, otherwise the booklet is fine.Did not want to return the whole book as my daughter needed it for her first lesson in the next day or so, and we had the benefit of a prime delivery to facilitate that, however I did not see any other way of bringing this anomaly to attention of supplier apart from this review -it would be worth checking the print run to see if others are similarly affected.

I had never picked up a clarinet before, except at school when we all had a blow and I was not allowed to learn as I couldn't get a noise from it. Who would have known that you had to do something special with your mouth? As a somewhat expert pianist, I would have expected the notes on a clarinet to be in the same order as notes in an octave. I was mistaken! In fact, i would still be fannying about with a child on a You Tube video, showing one how to play the Pink Panther, had I not trawled the Internet and found this book! This book has taught me the clarinet in the space of six weeks. I can now play several well-known tunes and a few others, whilst reading the music. Like any instrument, a person can learn by ear, but I would love to be able to pick up any tune and play it, like I can with the piano. This book has it all, broken down into easy lessons. You learn a note, with easy to follow finger displays, and then learns three or four simple tunes with the addition of the new note. This book really makes you feel good about yourself and your playing and really, one does not need to pay out for personal tutoring, when one has purchased the Abracadabra Book for Clarinet! I hope that they have a more advanced book, though i really have a long way to go until then!

This book was recommended by my 8 year old's entry into playing clarinet. Simple tunes to get started, progressing to more challenging tunes. I would recommend this to anyone starting out. Diagrams make it easy to learn which fingers you need to use to play which notes and then these are applied to regular staves of music with tunes that will be recognised.

Brilliant selection of graded songs. I'd recommend it's not used alone to learn, either a teacher or the book absolute beginner clarinet would help, but has been an invaluable source of practice pieces, many familiar tunes included. I wouldn't have progressed so rapidly without it.