Written by Mark Adler, MakeMusic’s Senior Music Editor:

We are very pleased to announce the release of the complete Arban Method for Trumpet in SmartMusic. Since it was first published in 1864, the Arban’s Method has become one of the most universally used of all instrumental method books. Every page of Carl Fischer’s beautiful new edition of Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method is now in SmartMusic and features music-on-screen and assessment.

As with all SmartMusic titles, the Arban Method can be accessed on desktop computers and on iPad. Imagine the convenience of being able to practice every solo, exercise, and etude in the entire book with SmartMusic’s iPad app.

The SmartMusic edition of Arban’s method also features performances of all 14 Characteristic Studies by Thomas Hooten. Students can choose to practice the Characteristic Studies with Thomas playing along for support, or choose to play with a metronome click. Either way, with SmartMusic’s assessment feature, they will quickly be able to identify areas that may need additional attention.

Arban’s solos are provided with a piano accompaniment. You can practice difficult sections utilizing SmartMusic’s looping and tempo features.

We have also included recordings of all the duets; you can now practice either part with a real trumpeter playing the other line.

This has been a rather sizable project, certainly the single largest book in the SmartMusic library. Carl Fischer’s new edition weighs in at 425 pages. The SmartMusic version contains over 1,000 individual exercises, songs, and solos. In an upcoming blog I will go into more detail about our process for developing this book.

Let us know what you think of this new addition to the SmartMusic catalog, and what other methods you might like to see in the future.

As always, you can request a piece for a future SmartMusic release here.