Arban vs Clarke

homecookin · Heavyweight Member Joined: 07 Nov 2013 Posts: 868

All of the responses that people have posted so far have been very good suggestions and very helpful.
There is a wealth of material out there concerning method books for trumpet. Of course, the Arban book is THE book that that every serious trumpet player should have in his library, whether he is a student or a professional. I am of the opinion,that it's not necessarily how many books you have but what you do with the books that you do have.
For many years there was a lead trumpet player around town, who has since passed away, but he was an amazing lead trumpet player. He was the kind of guy that you could go to his house at 4:00 a.m. in the morning and wake him up and hand him his TRUMPET, and he'd pop you a DOUBLE C and then go back to sleep.
He had worked with the Dorsey band, The Glenn Miller band, and other bands back in the day. He was a first call lead trumpet player around town for years. I used to go to his house sometimes on Sunday afternoon and one day I saw a very old and tattered Arban book on his music stand in his practice studio. That Arban book was the only trumpet method book he ever owned in his entire life. He never owned a Schlossberg book or a Clarke book.
He told me when he was a kid growing up in East Texas he used to sit out in his parent's barn, and practice the Arban book all day. When his chops were tired he would rest and he would clean out the barn, and then he would continue practicing . The moral of the story is not how many books you have, but what you do with the ones that you do have.
I personally use the Arban and Schlossberg books way more than I do the Clarke, for practicing fundamentals.
I also use Walter Smith Top Tones for etudes in addition to the Arban Characteristic Studies.
As stated earlier, all of the books that everyone has mentioned in the previous posts are excellent books.