How to Teach Tenor Clef

I remember learning tenor clef. My bassoon teacher told me I needed to learn it, but didn’t tell me how. I went to the music store and asked for tenor clef flash cards. They didn’t exist (this was pre-internet, of course). After a few months of hard slog, I finally had it figured out. I hope I’m doing better with my own students, but I may not be. One of my students made me this shirt:

I compiled the following list of tenor clef teaching ideas from a Facebook thread on the Bassoonists United Facebook group. Thank you to those who contributed!

Ideas for Teaching Tenor Clef:

Beginning/Intermediate Students:

• Transcribe some simple, well-known melodies to tenor clef—folks songs and the like. Tailor them to suit your student’s range and abilities. (Sandra Downing’s Tenor Clef is Easy uses this approach, as does Colin Cowles’ Tenor Toons For ‘oons)
• The Key to Tenor Clef, by Gibert Hirtz, Anselma Music. This book teaches tenor clef with 30 pages of etudes and duets. For use with students who can play at least a G above the staff.

Late Intermediate/Advanced Students:

• Use any bassoon method (Weissenborn, etc.) and place small sticky notes with tenor clef symbols over bass clef signs on short etudes. Convert the key by adding one sharp to the existing (bass clef) key. Have the student read the etude in tenor clef.
• If you want the Weissenborn exercises written out in tenor clef, try:
  • The Tenor Clef – An Introduction and Progressive Studies, by William R. Higgins. The first 15 lessons of the Weissenborn Practical Method for Bassoon have been transcribed into tenor clef an octave higher. Dr. Higgins then added the 24 Verroust studies for continued practice in the tenor clef and in changing between the bass and tenor clefs.
  • Tenor Clef, by Wade Irwin. This book also takes the early Weissenborn lessons up an octave. The second section of the book includes orchestral excerpts that use tenor clef.
• Metodo popolare per il fagotto, by Etienne Ozi has duets in tenor clef in a variety of tonalities.
• Use a book written for trombonists or cellists.

(Most of the links are to sellers in the UK—please comment below if you find them from a US retailer.)