Trumpet TEACHING - priorities

[JayKosta]

I'm interested in learning your 'list of priorities' about the various aspects of 'playing the trumpet' for teaching beginners and active players who are having 'playing difficulties'.

MY views -
1st priority should be on achieving 'good mechanics' - the physical actions, positions, movements, etc.
It doesn't matter whether this is taught by discussion, instruction, example, 'sound quality', etc. - as long as the objective is to have the player 'doing it right' and not using 'improper technique' to get-by.

AFTER an acceptable level of good mechanics has been reached, then move on to 'musical' aspects of playing.
And the teacher (and student) needs to always be attentive that the mechanics have not degraded.
_________________
Most Important Note ? - the next one !
KNOW (see) what the next note is BEFORE you have to play it.
PLAY the next note 'on time' and 'in rhythm'.
Oh ya, watch the conductor - they set what is 'on time'.

[kehaulani]

I don't quite understand your question/answer, but here is my order of instruction:
Posture
Breathing
Sound Production
Tonguing
Flexibility
Musicianship

Pretty cut and dried.

You'll notice no obsession with micro-analysis at the expense of learning by doing.
_________________
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

[Billy B]

It depends entirely on the individual.
_________________
Bill Bergren

[deanoaks]

It's important to have a general game plan with students, but have the freedom and flexibility to tailor your teaching to each students needs.
I've taught a lot of beginner students ranging from young kids in grade school all the way to retired professionals who always wanted to learn an instrument but never got around to it.

I was always taught that whenever you have a big problem, you need to take that and break it into as many little problems as you can and tackle them all individually. Continue to break the problem down until you have a manageable one. Teaching fingerings, notes, trumpet technique, rhythm, and pitch recognition should all be their own categories. Generally, I won't even have the student play a note until they can at least pitch match and sing a C D E F G so I know they aren't just blowing mindlessly into the instrument with no clue of what pitch is.

I guess if I had to break it down it would be to teach pitch first, basics of how to produce sound on the instrument (which includes holding the instrument and general posture), C + G pentatonic or full major scale depending on the motivation of the student, basics of rhythm, and then putting them all together to start with basic nursery rhymes or easily recognizable tunes.

I don't begin to touch specific areas of embouchure, finer details of posture or any of that unless there is something WAY wrong with how they are producing sound (rolling bottom lip out, putting 10% of the mouthpiece on the tip lip, pointing the bell at the ground, etc) until there is a basic level of comfort on the fundamentals. Typically when a student can comfortably play up to C-D in the staff is when I've found it best to start addressing individual concepts.

[Gregory Gilmore]

I think that nurturing confidence needs to be considered...

[stuartissimo]

Explaining ‘how’ to practice fundamentals, and not just assigning them as busyworks in the vein hope that enough repetition will somehow yield results.
_________________
1975 Olds Recording trumpet
1997 Getzen 700SP trumpet
1955 Olds Super cornet
1939 Buescher 280 flugelhorn
AR Resonance mouthpieces

[Steve A]

Some might find fault with this, but I think the #1 priority with kids (and adults, to a slightly lesser extent) has to be making sure they're basically having a good time and are self motivated to seek out more. Some kids arrive interested enough that they'll listen and concentrate because they already want to be trumpet players and are hoping you'll help them to get closer to that, and those kids are pretty easy to teach. However, in my experience, those kids are relatively rare. The much larger group are already curious and at least somewhat enthusiastic, but not yet convinced they want to do any real hard work in pursuit of playing the trumpet, and until you get them to be willing to roll up their sleeves, not much can be accomplished.

When I've taught classroom groups of total beginners, I've generally started out by playing a famous John Williams theme (the first eight bars of Indiana Jones, or the Imperial March, generally), and promised them we'd learn that at the end of the class if they hang in there with me through all the "how to" stuff. It generally works pretty well for giving them a sense of what's in it for them with the trumpet.

[Tpt_Guy]

[tyler.slamkowski]

The Hickman book has tons of great info on this. Definitely recommend picking up a copy and reading the whole book. It's comprehensive and has everything you need.

[abontrumpet]

[Jaw04]

Number 1 priority is inspiring them to want to enjoy music/trumpet and building confidence/desire to improve.

[Jason Rogers]

JayKosta wrote:
"MY views -
1st priority should be on achieving 'good mechanics' - the physical actions, positions, movements, etc.
It doesn't matter whether this is taught by discussion, instruction, example, 'sound quality', etc. - as long as the objective is to have the player 'doing it right' and not using 'improper technique' to get-by.

AFTER an acceptable level of good mechanics has been reached, then move on to 'musical' aspects of playing.
And the teacher (and student) needs to always be attentive that the mechanics have not degraded."

I have found that when beginning students become "mindful" of being consistent with the proper "mechanics" of playing, the aesthetic results can motivate them to practice. This process can be faster to develop for some and for others move at a sloth's pace.

For the advanced player:
This is a fascinating subject, we are all beginners at something...
We are all in a constant state of flux to make mindful decisions related to the process of performing and advancing.

As Kehualan saidi Posture
Breathing
Sound Production
Tonguing
Flexibility
Musicianship

Pray that we don't fail to help the advanced student that needs proper direction onto the next level or challenge.
_________________
Martin Committee 1954
Benge
Bach Stradivarius
Schilke
Getzen

[Denny Schreffler]

[quote="JayKosta"]I'm interested in learning your 'list of priorities' about the various aspects of 'playing the trumpet' for teaching beginners and active players who are having 'playing difficulties'.

Beginners —
1 Sound
2 Sound
3 Sound

Active players —
Totally personalized for the person and the problem

—Denny

[trickg]

I've been working with a 15 year old high school Freshman for a year or so over FaceTime/Skype and have come away with some observations about some of this.

I have stressed to this kid that it's important to get the basics under control:

Sound/tone production
Articulation
Fingers and finger fluency on scale patterns
TIME!
Basic flexibilities

Sound certainly plays an important role - if the sound is fuzzy or diffuse everything else will be hindered, but the mechanics and fundamentals play an important part because if those aren't working, it's nigh impossible to be musical. It's only after the basics are covered that bigger concepts such as phrasing and dynamics can be incorporated into the teaching.
_________________
Patrick Gleason
- Jupiter 1600i, ACB 3C, Warburton 4SVW/Titmus RT2
- Brasspire Unicorn C
- ACB Doubler

"95% of the average 'weekend warrior's' problems will be solved by an additional 30 minutes of insightful practice." - PLP

[jhahntpt]

My biggest priority is making noise.

To get there you need to be set up well with posture, breathing, etc. But then it's all about making noise.

I start with leadpipe buzzing with a drone/tuner on concert Eb, make sure the oral cavity is set up appropriately to play that Eb. If that's all that lesson one is then so be it.

I don't like to open the book until they can play C-G.
_________________
Bb: Yamaha 9335NY Gen3
Bb: Yamaha 8310Z
C: Shires 4S/W1B
Piccolo: Yamaha 9830
Flugel: Yamaha 8315G
Cornet: York Eminence