I recently came accross the Fun Club series by Alan Haughton. Has anyone else used these, especially flute or clarinet. Many of my pupils have very good repertoire/exam books (James Rae, All Jazzed Up, Music Through Time etc.) but what about other fun things? I have found Razzamajazz hugely popular, is Fun Club similar? A few clarinettists have Rhythm and Rag by Haughton and it is good.

I've used both Razzamajazz and Fun Club and several of my pupils have really enjoyed them. Quite a few of the tunes in both books are really great. Good backing tracks too, and I recall a few people really enjoying 'Bo's Boogie' and 'Anna Lou' because apart from anything else the backing tracks are fun. Can't remember which tunes are in which book though... I do remember a pair of students getting very into Fun Club books 1 and 2 a while back, and really progressing at that point. They can also join the 'Fun Club' and get stickers and things through the post, which kids just love, of course.

Violinia

I've got a couple of pupils nearing the end of Razzamajazz Flute and I'm wondering whether to use Fun Club next. No book I've found does exactly what I want, which is to introduce one note at a time like Razzamajazz does, but I've been through the first Fun Club book and marked which order I think they should be tackled in. I was going to use Louise Chamberlain's Step it up!, but the CD has the accompaniment only, and the youngsters I'm using Razz with need the reinforcement of the flute and piano track as well to give them confidence to play at home.

If I do use Fun Club, I'll report back.

Rhythm and Rag is a book that's popular with many of my pupils too, as is the Easy Gershwin for Clarinet/Flute.

I too would be interested to hear how anyone gets on with Fun Club.

Thanks for that. I also await with interest. Am I the only woodwind teacher a tad fed up with No Dice? (after a few months) A change from some established things would be nice.

Interesting point about Gershwin as the other teacher doesn't use it because "they don't like it". I thought it was popular too.

Yes, it's a popular book as far as my pupils are concerned. The fact that I love Gershwin's music too is a nice happy coincidence!

I'm not very keen on the Gershwin, but that's partly because the piano parts are tricky. I do find it difficult to reconcile the tempo markings with the actual tempo of the songs as well.

Sorry, Neil, but I love No Dice, and I've had candidates playing it since I started teaching six or so years ago.

I've used the treble recorder books with a pupil (with CD), and although the tunes are very appealing in being jazzy and quality contemporary music, and the CDs are good quality accompaniment and demonstrations, nonetheless the CD has the pieces played fast or very fast, and there is lots of syncopated or jazzy timing to deal with.
Often CDs at the moment (for many books) are too fast for many pupils. The best are where each piece is done at 2 speeds - practice and performance (the performance faster, and just the accompaniment) - as in the excellent Hal Leonard Student Piano Library Piano Lessons series. It is hard for writers to get the right speeds unless they've been "road tested" in lessons with a few pupils. I myself thought the speeds were great until I did them with a pupil! It's deceptive!
It may be different on other instruments, as treble recorder has the difficulty of swopped fingering from descant confusing things for a while!

I have the Fun club treble recorder book Grade 1-2. I found it great fun. I agree the CD goes quickly, so I recorded the CD into Audacity and then slowed the tempo down - it'll do this without losing the pitch. I then play it back through my computer. Playing the pieces has improved my playing a lot - I started more or less from the beginning with treble recorder fingering but am now feeling much more confident.