My Favourite Duets by Barry Cockcroft

Written with flexibility in mind, these mostly easy duets are excellent for music lessons, small ensembles, student concerts or just for fun. Each book contains 60 duets all transposed to match the other instruments from the set. There is a set for woodwind and a set for brass. Mallet percussion matches transposition with the woodwind books.

All tunes are well-known folk songs, nursery rhymes, anthems and children's songs. These are the kind of tunes that kids grow up singing. Knowing the tune greatly speeds up the process of learning the music and allows students to quickly play the duets without having to worry about complex rhythms or phrases. Knowing the tune allows instinctive music making and a faster, less analytical way of learning.

All tunes encourage the learning of musical terms including tempo markings such as Allegro, Moderato etc. and all tunes use dynamics and other expressive terms such as rit., rall. and cantabile.For teachers that like to play along with their students in their lessons, these duets provide the ideal medium. Duets encourage the student to develop musical independence, develop accurate pitch and good rhythm. Playing with the teacher, or another more advanced student encourages the development of a clear tonal concept. The student can hear immediately how quality tone is produced without the need for lengthy explanations. While a picture might be a thousand words, sound might be worth 2000 words.