30 Jazz Influenced Studies for Clarinet Grades 3-5 

Tom Jackson - 360 Music

This is a lovely collection of 30 jazzy and modern short works in mostly familiar styles. Each study is a page long and structured clearly. Dynamics offer shape, allowing the learner to engage with more than just the notes and rhythms. Most are in a straight feel employing chromatic extras, usually from the relevant blues scale to add a blues inflection. There are plenty of rhythms, syncopated as well as simple, and repetition techniques ensure that fingerwork and rhythms can be tested alongside each other.

Short programme notes for each piece give a suggestion of what to work on. Highlights for me include ‘Have a Good Trip’, ‘Inspector Bella’, which is in two and drives along, ‘Lost in Time’, a ballad, and ‘Driving Force’, in a rock style. Some of the later tunes such as ‘Corsican Mystery’ have an ABA structure with contrasting material, but most are a single style throughout. The thing that really sells this book to me is the sheer variety within it: 30 pieces, one composer and 30 different styles.

Stephanie Reeve