Kyle Coughlin's Clarinet Space

Kyle Coughlin's Clarinet Space is a new website geared toward younger clarinetists that could be a very useful tool for teachers. This well-designed site includes kid-friendly, interactive fingering charts with sound, and a progressive series of games for learning to read notes on the staff. In a time when kids are surrounded by interactive media of all types, these Flash-based games are a great way to challenge them and hold their attention while teaching them to read pitches quickly.

The site also includes printable PDF versions of scales in many different forms, from five-note scales in the lower register to extended scales over the entire range of the clarinet. Teachers might be interested to look over Coughlin's variety of forms of major, minor, and chromatic scales to find scales to use for their students; these PDFs could be a cheap alternative to requiring students to purchase the Baermann or Kroepsch book just to work on their major scales.

Clarinet Space also includes materials related to Coughlin's book Beginning Jazz Clarinet Studies, reviewed by John Cipolla in the March 2008 issue of The Clarinet. Coughlin, a clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and jazz musician, earned his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Loren Kitt, and is currently on faculty at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. For more information about Kyle Coughlin (and a great Flash animation involving the clarinet) check out kylecoughlin.com.