Piccolo Book

[JGulyas]

Hey folks...

So, I'm looking at the Hickman books and wondering if it's beneficial to get both of them, or one over the other?

Back in the 90's when I was playing picc all the time, I didn't even know about these books and just relied on my instructor and listening to LOTS of CDs (thank-you Stephen Burns) for guidance on the picc. Now that I'm a comeback guy, I'm wondering which methods are most widely used?
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All the Best,

John

US Navy Bandsman 1996-2010 (Trumpet; Audio Engineer)
Mpc - Kanstul/Monette B6, Hammond Design custom "JG"
Bb - Yamaha 6335HGSII
C - Eastman ETR530
Picc - NoName Chinese

[Dayton]

Both books are useful. From my perspective, "The Piccolo Trumpet" is the best starting point. It offers advice on how to play the picc and then has etudes from Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, etc., to get your comfortable with that horn.

"The Piccolo Trumpet Big Book" gets much more into the history of the horn, has interviews with a number of trumpet players regarding their use of the piccolo trumpet, discusses piccolo trumpet mutes, etc. It contains some essential rep and offers advice regarding how to play it.

If you are going to spend a lot of time on the picc I'd suggest that you get both, but otherwise I think you'll find that "The Piccolo Trumpet" is just fine.

As an aside, Gerald Webster's Piccolo Trumpet Method I & II is also really useful, and doesn't have too much duplication from Hickman (particularly Book II). For someone completely new to that horn it offers some useful exercises on the fourth valve, etc., that you won't find elsewhere.

[ayryq]

In addition to the books mentioned above, I'd recommend Phil Collins Piccolo Trumpet Studies. It's full of short etudes in the style of a lot of picc repertoire. There's baroque fanfare type stuff and also lyrical studies. There's etudes in weird keys, not just F all the time. It's nicely progressive too; the first several pages don't go above high C.

Maurice Andre has a book of "Caprices" that are great but they can be really long for a newer piccolo player - the Collins book is just right.
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Yamaha YTR6345HGS Bb
Bach "Philly" C
Bach 239 Eb/D
DEG Signature 2000 Bb/A picc
Yamaha YTR-9835 Bb/A picc
Yamaha Bobby Shew flugel
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