The Mazzanti Method: Daily Warm-Ups for Piccolo, Vol 2

Nicola Mazzanti is a piccolo star and in this hefty tome he has chosen plenty of good material to help everyone with technique. There is much to learn from his writing which puts the exercises into context and makes practice goals easier to achieve. A bonus are the downloadable accompaniments that bring the melodies to life. There has to be a justification for the high cost of this book and if you are a Mazzanti fan you will easily be willing to make this investment.

This second volume in Nicola Mazzanti's series of educational books for piccolo focusses on daily warm-ups, and contains 24 sets of pieces with downloadable piano accompaniments composed and recorded by Alessandro Cavicchi. The aim is to use the accompaniments to assist with rhythmic accuracy and intonation, and to use the exercises for tone development, flexibility, control and expression.

Mazzanti provides study tips (which contain much wisdom and could equally be applied to other material), and a useful guide to the studies which show the areas of focus.

There's plenty of material in this 280-page book; each set of warm-ups has a range of exercises to cover different areas of playing technique, including scales, melodies, support, low notes and sonority. The exercises often venture into a range of keys so they can be applied across the range of the instrument, and as they are designed with the particular idiosyncrasies of the piccolo in mind, they can provide more targeted work than using flute exercises would. I like having plenty of material to work through, as doing one set a day avoids repetition and the likelihood of getting bored and not listening critically enough while playing. There is a sense of progression through the book which extends skills gradually and incrementally.

This is an excellent resource for piccolo players which helps to build core skills.