My Favourite Duets

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.

Main features

  • 180 easy duets in 3 graded books.
  • Flexible instrumentation - each book is transposed to match a group of different intruments.

Woodwind & mallet percussion - each book is transposed to match all of following instruments.

  • flute
  • oboe
  • clarinet
  • alto saxophone
  • tenor saxophone
  • bassoon
  • mallet percussion

Brass - each book is transposed to match all of following instruments.

  • trumpet
  • French horn
  • trombone or euphonium
  • tuba

Contemporary piano accompaninment available for all tunes.

  • Accompaniment for woodwind & percussion books.
  • Accompaniment for Brass books.

Play-along tracks available with the piano acoompaniment for all tunes.

"When I was student in high school it was playing duets that allowed me to quickly develop a mature tone and to learn accurate rhythm. I studied with fantastic saxophonist Barry Currie. Nearly every lesson we would play some form of duet, jazz or classical. I always loved hearing him play and I think that rather than him try to explain a lot of musical concepts to me all the time, he could just demonstrate through his own saxophone.Why traditional tunes? I still believe that the fastest way for a student to learn music is aurally. If they know the tune they can immediately start to play the music without having to worry about reading, phrasing and articulation. It just happens naturally. This is not to say that students playing familar music will not learn to read. In fact, I believe that this will happen even faster as they will be able to associate quickly well-known music with its printed representation.

I hope that you enjoy these duets and I will continue to encourage teachers to play along with their students - and for students to play together. While writing these duets, I worked closely with pianist Graeme Vendy. His unique way of taking a traditional or classical melody and making it sound more contemporary through his own unique chord voicings and stylistic phrasing is amazing. We sat down for 2 days of playing together. Every piece was always different and I'm sure that you will enjoy the spontaneous and contemporary sounding accompaniments." Barry Cockcroft

Piano accompaniment

Simply put, these accompaniments are fantastic. Written by pianist/arranger Graeme Vendy, the piano books offer contmporary sounding accompaniment to all the traditional tunes in the book. The best way to experience this is to simply listen to the audio samples, or download them to try out.

While the duets sound great by themselves, for a more enhanced experience the piano part really adds to the performance. In the event that a pianist is unavailable, a handy play-along CD is available for each piano book.

Two piano books are available for each book of duets, one for brass, and a second for woodwind and mallet percussion. The duet part is written in concert pitch which deal for the pianist to pick out the melody to help the students along. The books are sprial bound, which means the pages will lie flat against the piano stand and there are no page turns for any tune, all music is contained within single open spread.

My Favourite Duets Book 1

  1. A Tisket, A Tasket
  2. Au Clair de la Lune
  3. Big Ben
  4. Bingo
  5. Blow The Man Down
  6. Bobby Shaftoe
  7. Clementine
  8. Clown Dance
  9. Cockles and Mussels
  10. Deck the Halls
  11. Did You Ever See a Lassie?
  12. Down by the Station
  13. Fais Do-Do
  14. Fiddle-de-dee
  15. Frère Jacques
  16. Go Tell Aunt Rhody
  17. Good King Wenceslas
  18. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
  19. Hey Diddle Diddle
  20. Hickory Dickory Dock
  21. Hot Cross Buns
  22. Humpty Dumpty
  23. Hush Little Baby
  24. Jack and Jill
  25. La Marseillaise
  26. Lightly Row
  27. London Bridge
  28. London's Burning
  29. Looby Loo
  30. Mary Had a Little Lamb
  31. My Hat, it Has Three Corners
  32. Now the Day is Over
  33. Oh Where, Oh Where
  34. One Man Went to Mow
  35. Oranges and Lemons
  36. Oriental Dance
  37. Pease Pudding Hot
  38. Polly Put the Kettle On
  39. Pop Goes the Weasel
  40. Portsmouth
  41. Rain, Rain, Go Away
  42. Reveille
  43. Ring Around the Rosey
  44. Row, Row, Row Your Boat
  45. See Saw, Margery Daw
  46. Shortinin' Bread
  47. Skip to My Lou
  48. Song of the Volga Boatmen
  49. Suo-gan
  50. Sur le Pont d'Avignon
  51. Surprise Symphony
  52. Tallis' Canon
  53. Ten Little Indians
  54. The Farmer In the Dell
  55. The Little Skunk
  56. There Were Ten in a Bed
  57. There's a Hole in My Bucket
  58. Tom Dooley
  59. Vive l'Amour
  60. While Shepherds Watched
My Favourite Duets Book 2
  1. 1812 Overture
  2. Ach du Lieber Augustin
  3. Amazing Grace
  4. Aura Lee
  5. Away in a Manger
  6. Billy Boy
  7. Battle Hymn of the Republic
  8. Bound for South Australia
  9. Brahms' Lullaby
  10. Daisy Bell
  11. Ding Dong Merrily on a High
  12. Early One Morning
  13. English Country Gardens
  14. Go Tell it on the Mountain
  15. God Defend New Zealand
  16. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
  17. God Save the Queen
  18. Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush
  19. Hopak
  20. If You're Happy and You Know it
  21. Incy Wincy Spider
  22. Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho
  23. Kumbaya
  24. Li'l Liza Jane
  25. Long, Long Ago
  26. Michael Finnegan
  27. Minuet
  28. Morning Has Broken
  29. My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
  30. O Come, All Ye Faithful
  31. Ode to Joy
  32. Oh Christmas Tree
  33. Oh Susanna
  34. Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be?
  35. Old McDonald Had a Farm
  36. On Top of Old Smokey
  37. Once in Royal David's City
  38. Paw-Paw Patch
  39. Rock-a-bye Baby
  40. Sailing, Sailing
  41. Sakura Sakura
  42. Scarborough Fair
  43. Shaker Song
  44. She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain
  45. Star Spangled Banner
  46. The Ash Grove
  47. The Bear Went Over the Mountain
  48. The Bridal Chorus
  49. The First Noel
  50. The Gypsy Rover
  51. The Hokey-Cokey
  52. The Quartermaster's Store
  53. The Teddy Bears' Picnic
  54. This Old Man
  55. Three Blind Mice
  56. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
  57. Waltzing Matilda
  58. We Three Kings
  59. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
  60. Yankee Doodle
My Favourite Duets Book 3
  1. Advance Australia Fair
  2. Air from Water Music
  3. All Through the Night
  4. Alouette
  5. Auld Lang Syne
  6. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
  7. Believe Me, if all Those Endearing Young Charms
  8. Bill Bailey
  9. Botany Bay
  10. Camptown Races
  11. Caprice 24
  12. Chanukah, Oh Chanukah
  13. Click Go the Shears
  14. Drink to Me Only
  15. Entry of the Gladiators
  16. Froggy Went a-Courtin'
  17. Für Elise
  18. Greensleeves
  19. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  20. HaTikvah
  21. Hava Nagila
  22. Hevenu Shalom
  23. Hey, Ho, Nobody's Home
  24. Home on the Range
  25. I've Been Workin' on the Railroad
  26. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
  27. Jingle Bells
  28. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
  29. Kalinka
  30. La Cucaracha
  31. Loch Lomond
  32. Londonderry Air
  33. Marines' Hymn
  34. Mexican Hat Dance
  35. Minka
  36. Moreton Bay
  37. My Grandfather's Clock
  38. O Canada
  39. Old King Cole
  40. Polly Wolly Doodle
  41. Santa Lucia
  42. Shoo, Fly
  43. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
  44. The British Grenadiers
  45. The Caissons go Rolling Along
  46. The Can-Can
  47. The Entertainer
  48. The Grand Old Duke of York
  49. The Kerry Dance
  50. The Skye Boat Song
  51. The Wild Colonial Boy
  52. Trumpet Tune
  53. Trumpet Voluntary
  54. Turkey in the Straw
  55. What Shall We Do With theDrunken Sailor
  56. When Jonny Comes Marching Home
  57. When the Saints Go Marching In
  58. William Tell Overture
  59. With My Swag all on My Shoulder
  60. Ye Banks and Braes