Movie Duets for All: B-flat Trumpet, Baritone T.C. (For All Series)

First off, the kids were tickled by these, the song selection was good, and certainly the price was right, but the thrill faded pretty fast: when they say the songs are arranged for all levels, what they mean is that the first songs are level one, the last songs are top level, and so for kids that means there are only a few out of the set that they will, or can, actually play. I'm not sure what could be done about this and I suppose I was expecting too much to think that the songs could be written such that beginners could play from the same score as intermediates (using ghost-notes?) although to be fair, if the intermediates are being taught correctly, they can be coaxed into simply filling out the simplified songs with their own embellishments. I'm still working on that coaxing (you know how schools tend to stress all that "play what's written" nonesense)On the plus side, the books do include both parts for all songs, so the kids can mix and match, the trumpet on line one here, the baritone there, and if you have a beginner ensemble you can experiment with tone-colours shifting sections between the lines, or even pull an Esquival and have them just shift more or less randomly ;) Also on the plus side is Michael Story will likely be known to your kids, his arrangements are all over school-band level folios, and he's one of the better arrangers for junior bands; the arrangements here maybe aren't up to what you'd find in a home-player book of duets from 1920 (we have one, it's great!) they are pleasant to hear and clever in parts, and hey, it is movie themes, so already assured to be an audience pleaser. Our boys play these duets out at the outdoor market and usually return with a pocket of busker earnings ;)Bottom line, we're still glad we bought them (for $7 how could it fail?) although the shipping charges to Canada were absurd (amazon.ca said 3 MONTHS to delivery!!) and we'd buy his trio books in a flash if we could just find them somewhere at a price like this where shipping didn't exceed the book costs!

Great book, great price

Fun tunes, gradings seem accurate. A bit of the bolder numbers sound a bit unusual in duet form but that was only to be expected.