Andrew Lane was the hugely well - respected piccolo player in the CBSO until recently and there is a rich vein of experience in evidence running all the way through this amazing book. It's aimed mainly at beginner adult piccolo players but everyone would benefit from reading it. Everything you ever wanted to know is here from how to buy an instrument to food and exercise before an audition. There are photos, illustrations, exercises, repertoire lists, fingering charts and advice dispensed with wisdom on every page. The attention to detail is astonishing - there is a page and a half on how to clean out the flute - and the approach is personal and completely refreshing. If you are at all interested in this most fascinating of instruments then this is just what you need.
Piccolo Craft is a new and unique teach-yourself piccolo manual. It assumes you are an enthusiastic and reasonably proficient flute player, perhaps Grade 8 as a minimum standard, wanting to learn the piccolo or to enhance your abilities on the instrument.
The book begins with explanation and exercises using efficient techniques to adapt your own flute playing skills to the piccolo. It then proceeds to discuss the craft of orchestral piccolo playing, on topics ranging from where to set the head-cork to ways to prepare yourself for the most exciting moments in the repertoire!