Peter's Piccolo World, Book One

Peter Verhoyen is a very well respected piccolo teacher as well as player and commissioner of new piccolo music, and this fascinating book reflects this wealth of experience. It's very colourful with blue and red print and plenty of great illustrations to brighten up your practice. All the exercises are excellent, often using adapted orchestral extracts and stretching across the full range of the instrument. However, where the book becomes really interesting is in the teaching approach to blowing. The initial focus is on hand positions and how they affect the sound, followed by finger exercises to help keep the piccolo stable. The rest of the book is about embouchure and introduces the idea of 'Five Lines' of muscles, the use of which will produce different tonal effects. The' Moses Line' for example is the outside of the upper lip and is used to control flexibility. The grid which lists combinations of these lines, how to move them and the result is a real workout for both brain and technique. Pinching together the Horse Line and Ice Cream line to raise the pitch, for example, is great fun to try even if it doesn't always work! Warm-ups come at the end. There is a easy-to-access video clip for each important point throughout the book and these are also excellent, with Peter and Sarah giving an invaluable 'how-to lesson' making everything clearer and easier to work on. Not everyone will agree with everything here, but there is no doubt that this is an important book from a person of great stature in the piccolo world. I've already bought my copy!