Teaching Young-uns

Schilkeguy · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 7:30 am Post subject:

I'm a senior in high school and I'm going to go help some middleschoolers with their playing. The teachers there will probably want me to just work on the music for festival, but I know that these kids need more than just that. The teachers don't teach sight reading. After a concert, they pull out the next few concert pieces and start hammering away at them until the next concert ad nausium. They are both woodwind players with very little understanding of brass playing. The old teachers were a brass player and a woodwind playing. Since their departure, the band has gone drasticly down hill. Any advice on what to do with these kids? Unfortunately, my brother in among the lot that just missed the old teachers (He's been playing about a year and a half and he can't start on the 'and' of the beat with any percision).
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Trumpets: Schilke B5, Schilke CX4L, Old style Selmer Paris Picc
Mouthpieces: GR65L, 65**** lead, B&S 7E picc
Age: 18

fuzzyjon79 · Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2004 11:04 pm Post subject:

When I teach younger kids I usually go for the basics such as good tone production and knowing their scales/key signatures. That is my biggest pet peeve... it's just my opinion but I think high school students who are serious about music should at the VERY LEAST know ALL of their Major scales and have a good basic understanding of music theory such as key signatures, and intervals, but a lot of the younger kids I have come into contact with have known only about half of their Major scales and have no idea what I mean when I say circle of 5th's.
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J. Fowler
"It takes a big ole' sack of flour, to make a big ole' pan of biscuits!"

riffdawg2000 · Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 3:06 am Post subject:

Circle of Fifths ... huh???

<just kidding>

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Joel Thomas

Schilkeguy · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:13 am Post subject:

No, I'm the high school student and I need some advice on teaching 6th graders. I'm going to go down to the middle school once a week after school to help them learn trumpet. I'm just thinking starting them off on good tone production and articulation. Any advice for that? Thanks! (I do know my major scales and circle of 5ths)
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Trumpets: Schilke B5, Schilke CX4L, Old style Selmer Paris Picc
Mouthpieces: GR65L, 65**** lead, B&S 7E picc
Age: 18

thelurker · Veteran Member Joined: 04 Aug 2003 Posts: 257

Keep it simple but make sure that these 3 things are done at ALL TIMES

Breath correctly
Tongue correctly
Sing or hear the sound in their head.

[ This Message was edited by: thelurker on 2004-02-07 09:38 ]

trumpetmike · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2004 2:03 pm Post subject:

My one aim for every student is for them to play with a full sound. Even if they are never going to be great technical players (and not all of them will be, we know that), if theymake a nice sound people will listen to them.
Once they can do that, work on the rudiments - basic technique, scales, flexibility - all the things that some of us wish we had been taught when we were younger!

Above all else - Make it fun for them.

As someone who teaches students from age 7 to 18 (sorry, not certain how this relates to the ages in your school), if you make it fun, they will return for more.
It is a great idea to make certain they are happy playing scales in all keys and doing technical exercises, but try and create some games to make them more excited about doing so. I have found if you teach scales as something that must be recited from memory (like latin verb usage) there is a chance they will see this as a chore. If you teach it to them without them noticing, they suddenly find that they are able to do it - and they haven't got fed up trying to learn scales from memory.

A favourite exercise I use with one of my junior brass groups (most of whom have been playing for under a year, all of whom have lessons, mostly with me) is to play sclaes as a round. You can split the group in two. The first half starts (a good speed for my band is crotchet (quarter note - bilingual

) = 80), when they have played two notes the second group starts. You then have scales being played in thirds. If they are dong this well, when the first group has reached the top and has started to descend, they should meet the second group, coming up, on the seventh.
The group has now become so good at this that if we choose a simple scale (concert Bb major is the favourite) we have had 6 groups all going at once. If you space them out in the school hall they get a wonderful feeling of the scale being passed around the room. Last week I got each of the group to stand in the middle and experience the "surround sound" effect. Advanced aural practice, scales, ensemble playing - all neatly wrapped up in one exercise!

Bri · Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 2:01 pm Post subject:

Here here trumpetmike! You MUST make it fun for the young ones. This is right up my alley as I am an elementary school band teacher. All the trumpet playing knowledge you have as well as the information in this thread is correct. Get them using their AIR correctly, their TONGUE correctly, and for goodness sakes proper POSTURE!!! But, all of of your efforts are for nothing if you're not making it fun for them. If they don't laugh at least once during their lesson you can bet they're not going to practice.
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-Bri
"Teachers make every other profession possible!"

mike ansberry · Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 8:02 am Post subject:

long tones and flexibilities in addition to their music. Hammer the fundamentals.

FlugelFlyer · Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 8:12 am Post subject:

As far as me with students, they don't get to play any notes until they can play with a solid tone in the lower register. This might suck the wind out of them at first, but encourage them to keep practicing and remind them that they're on the right track. Also, give them somewhere to aim to as far as performance level. Back when I was in middle school, the best trumpet player in the world was the guy sittin' first chair. Then I heard Doc Severinsen and the whole band and was just blown away at the level of musicianship they played on, just totally out of this world. I didn't think that was possible. Get them listening to other players as soon as possible, but make sure they also have exciting music to listen too. Children in that grade often don't have the greatest attention spans, and music that doesn't interest them right away is practically useless. Any of us could listen to a good ballad any day of the week, but try to get a kid that age to listen to a ballad and not go play baseball within the first 30 seconds! Also, make sure the equipment fits their faces, even if it's a 10-1/2C. No shame in being too small for a 7C if you're face isn't big enough to fit it, it's whatever helps them to produce the biggest sound possible. I was started on a 7C in third grade (yes, that's the threaded mouthpiece today) and back then I could have fit my whole head in the cup. Being that small and young (about 4'5" and 50 lbs.) I should have probably been on a 10-1/2C and just learned to ignore the numbers. Even today at 6' and 165 lbs, I'm not too big a fan of even semi-large equipment so I stick with the 7C as about even size. Just my thoughts.
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Trumpet: Bach 180LR, 72 bell
Mouthpiece: Warburton 3XD/KT