Education Publications, Boosey & Hawkes: Easy String Music Series

Boosey & Hawkes are a global classical music publisher, boasting an extensive catalogue of printed music for the professional, student and leisure markets. Publications range from instrumental and choral, to market-leading tutor books and creative teaching materials for schools and colleges. A few of the most popular Boosey & Hawkes education series have recently undergone an update. The most recent series to benefit from this repackaging and improvement is the Easy String Music Series. Find out more about the series below.

Easy String Music Series

Husband and wife team Katherine and Hugh Colledge are no stranger to the world of music education. They both began as instrumental music teachers in London before their venture into music publishing. The compositions in The Easy String Music Series are a joint effort; Kathy (a string specialist) focuses on the string parts and Hugh writes the piano accompaniment.

The series contains four volumes in increasing difficulty for violin, viola and cello players. Each volume contains repertoire for new and developing players and are popular with students and teachers alike. Each title steadily introduces and consolidates new techniques, fingerings, notes, and rhythms to build firm foundations for future learning. Two different editions are available for each title, one containing a CD with demonstration and accompaniment audio tracks, and the other with a piano accompaniment booklet and access to downloadable audio resources.

Find out more about each volume below, or browse the entire series here. >>

Grade by Grade - Double Bass

Another popular Boosey & Hawkes series is the Grade by Grade series. The double bass range is now complete, and grade one through to five are now available. The series by Cathy Elliott draws on the rich Boosey & Hawkes catalogue of classical, contemporary and educational repertoire, highlighting composers including Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Karl Jenkins, Carol Barratt and Christopher Norton, alongside arrangements of traditional music from around the world.

Cathy Elliott is a freelance double bass player. For twenty years she toured extensively and recorded with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Since the early 1990s she has had a flourishing teaching practice with beginner to advanced students from the ages of six to eighteen for whom she continually writes, arranges and publishes repertoire. Carefully selected by Cathy, the anthologies provide a complete repertoire resource for the aspiring double bassist, and create the perfect package for teaching, exam preparation and performance.

Each volume contains a diverse collection of pieces, each complemented by a useful practice and performance tip. Grade-appropriate scales and arpeggios are linked to the repertoire through bespoke text and exercises. Brand new sight-reading and improvisation activities are included alongside newly commissioned aural awareness tasks. Each book is packaged with a piano accompaniment book, audio containing full performance demonstrations, and grade-appropriate aural awareness resources.