Beginners

[Billy B]

How do you apply Adam concepts to beginners? Do you have a routine for a 10 year old?
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Bill Bergren

[Nonsense Eliminator]

I use the leadpipe, long tones, and the Schlossberg that goes C-B-B-C with all of my students. I like doing the long tones with them without the notes in front of them at first because they're usually surprised by what they can do if they forget that they can't do it. The Schlossberg is good for getting them to articulate without destroying the line, which is obviously a common problem for beginners. For students who aren't advanced enough for Clarke or the chromatic scales, I've tried using diatonic scales (or just 3-5 notes) instead, either in the key of the starting note or in C major. The main things I try to do with beginners are to demonstrate everything and have them play a lot of tunes they know, to make sure they're really letting their ears guide them.
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Richard Sandals
NBO

[senea]

What a great question! I am curious to know what books you guys use. I like to use band methods for beginners and I supplement whenever I can to fill in the gaps, but sometimes I feel like I want to do more with them. What do you guys do?

[Umyoguy]

I play along with kids a lot - It seems to embed a better sound in their ear than they're used to, and over time, they come to copy it.

It's tough to get kids that age to play any kind of routine with any frequency. Kids generally don't spend the time to learn a chromatic scale to the point that they stop thinking about the fingerings and start thinking about sound. When they're ten, I think it's more about teaching notes, rhythms, and sound concept than getting bogged down with learning the chromatic scale. I leave the "real" routine for highschool players.

Jessie - Not too long ago I posted a thread about beginning method books that got a lot of good replies - Check it out - Probably about a month ago...Entitled "Beginning Method Books" or something like that.

Jon

[Babb9520]

Beginners definately have the ability to incorporate a routine in their playing. This does not mean they need to play Clarke or Schlossberg. When I first have a student, I start them off on long tones, usually expanding in both directions. After about the second or third week I begin to incorporate the leadpipe. Kids seem to have a lot of fun with the leadpipe, which is great because it creates energy, which activates playing. Something else simple to use is a pentatonic scale from 1-5, then back down (this is a great intro before moving into clarke or schlossberg).
I am a high school student, so any lessons I ever give are usually to beginners. I have found that, along with everything else, theres a critical learning point in children. So I believe the most effecient way to teach beginners is more by showing them and not by telling them. Young kids have a strong inner sense of mental images, sounds, and feelings as opposed to words. This is just how a child learns a language at a young age. I try not to point out many wrong things in their playing, though sometimes a simple, nonchalant correction is all thats needed. Then the majority of what I've done has been I play, you play things, and having them focus their minds on the sound. These kids seem to instinctly produce a sound closer to the direction of your own.

Charlie Babb

[Billy B]

The books I use are Getchell and Eric Bolvin's book of simple tunes, The Really Big Student Songbook. We learn a few tunes without the printed page, then I turn them on to the book and let the student select tunes they are familiar with. As far as routine, we start right away with the lead pipe and long tones. I also educate the parents as to their involvement in setting up a practice schedule, listening with their child as they would read with them, and taking them to live performances.
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Bill Bergren

[PH]

[ADziuk]

Well, with my younger kids I teach I think it isn't so much important to do specific parts of the Adam routine or whatnot. Most important is to apply the concepts it tries to teach, and the thinking it implies. Try to get kids to listen for a good sound, relax, take deep breaths, sit up, and listen a lot to develop their musical mind.


Someone recently told me something that I really liked. They said that the most important attribute that really good players posess whatever school of thought they are from is that their musical mind is dominant. It is never too early to teach this way of thinking to a student.

[Billy B]

I just had a first lesson with a 6th grader who has been playing for a year. A real lip buzzing, very tight, small sound. We talked a bit about physics, then played the lead pipe. Blew on the mouthpiece and inserted into lead pipe while blowing. It worked the first time. His sound was dramatically changed in 30 minutes. He can also play tunes by ear in different keys so he already has ears. I gave him Mitchell's 1st book and the Bolvin book of tunes. We will see what happens next week and I'll keep this thread as a journal.
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Bill Bergren

[GAL]

Billy B,

It's very interesting how the Adam approach is helping and developing a number my middle school players (7th-8th graders). We first blow air through the mouthpiece while placing it in the lead pipe. (No buzzing the mouthpiece) Then we play the lead pipe. (3-5 minutes) Once settled and relaxed, we go to Long Tones, Clarke Study (Slowed down and full) and Schlossberg #6. At that point, we move onto Getchell's first book, (Lyrical music) ear training and their band (jazz and concert) music. What I have found is that by having them concentrate only on their sound and matching my sound, they are improving quite rapidly. The real surprising part is that both of these students have braces on their teeth and are still gaining range, as well as a more open and relaxed sound. (When I say range I mean F on top of the staff up to C) It's really great and they both have gotten used to the braces. That doesn't seem to be impeading their progress. I'm also getting feedback from their band directors on how their sound is ever improving and projecting. I'm really a believer and feel their off to a great start. If you have any other advice or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it. As you can tell, I'm pretty excited with the results.

By the way, which Mitchell books are you using? I have Harold Mitchell's books, but I didn't seem to think that they were helpful with my beginning students.

Thanks,

Gene

[soonertrumpet]

Hi everyone. It's my first post! Yay.

I would add one thing to what everyone has said so far.
I have found it beneficial to add a lot of singing to my lessons with the younger kids. Some may be shy about it at first, but along with developing their ears, it helps the timid ones get out of their box and become more comfortable playing and making music.
We sing long tones and simple tunes, always focusing on making and resonant and to-the-front sound that carries over to the trumpet.

[Billy B]

Lesson 2 with the 6th grader was last night. He came back with the same tight, mouthpiece buzzer sound, but it took only about 5 minutes to open it up again. We worked lead pipe, discussed why the lips vibrate, blew through the mouthpiece while inserting into the lead pipe to get the "feeling" of letting the lips vibrate on their own. Then long tones. We then went to octave chromatics. The kid has great ears, yet doesn't use them while playing. The focus is about 99.99999% on pushing the right valves down. We learned a system of practicng music involving playing short phrases, singing them, then playing it again. We are on Mitchell
book 1 lesson 2. Kind of makes me wonder what has been taught in the last 1 1/2 years. When I was in 6th grade I was playing Centaurus at contest, memorized.
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Bill Bergren

[mafields627]

Hi Billy,

I saw your comment about wondering what has been taught for the past couple of years. I'm now having to play catch up in college for what I didn't learn in high school. The band method books are horrible and if a band director only uses those materials with his brass section, they are going to be some weak players. If I could go back and do it all over again, I'd have taken private lessons.
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--Matt--

No representation is made that the quality of this post is greater than the quality of that of any other poster. Oh, and get a teacher!

[Billy B]

Lesson 3. The Eric Bolvin book of tunes is a big hit with this kid. He loves to play music. We reviewed the physics of the trumpet and discussed playing in phase vs. out of phase with the instrument. This was all very interesting to this 6th grader. The look of his physical set up has already changed drastically. His assignment for next lesson is to come up with a 7 day practice schedule. Practicing in you spare time means it never gets done.
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Bill Bergren

[Billy B]

Transposition. We finally have the one octave C chromatic scale under control. Now we are transposing to the B, C#, Bb. It may sound silly at first, but the way most kids are taught as beginners, these scales are seperate entities.
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Bill Bergren

[jcopella]

About two years into my studies with him, Mr. Adam said, you know what would really help is if you picked up a couple of students, and maybe tried to teach some of these concepts.

Since then, I've started several beginners using materials from the routine that Mr. Adam developed for me.

Leadpipe, expanding long tones, Clarke #1, Schlossberg #6 (starting on G).

For more advanced students, I also have them playing the first two Harry Glantz studies (G major expanding scale patterns).

I do the same thing with these kids as Mr. Adam does with me. We go back & forth a lot, I explain (over and over) the importance of hearing the sound in your mind, of taking a deep breath, of playing with good posture, of the 4 P's, etc.

One of the kids is quite a success story -- started him late (8th grade), but he is now first chair in his 10th grade band. Still hasn't quite got the knack of deep breathing yet, but when he does...LOOK OUT.

The biggest problem using Adam materials with beginners I see is that you can do great work on the routine, and get the kids sounding fantastic, but then you put a piece of music on the stand and it all goes out the window. The reading & rhythm problems dominate their thinking and they forget all of the work we just did on sound.

Good demonstration of an Adam principle, but not very helpful to the kids I'm afraid. I don't know what a good solution would be.

[Billy B]

Teach tunes to the kids first without the printed page, then show them what it looks like. Singing the printed page also helps to activate the singer's right brain. You have to teach the student that written music forms sounds in our mind the same way written words do. Ask Mr. Adam about his experiences some 80 years ago as a beginner. I think the key here is to teach the concept. The materials are inconsequential.
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Bill Bergren