Ohio Music Education Association
2008 Professional Development Conference
Cincinnati Convention Center: Room 205
February 7, 2008 6:15PM
Teaching Beginning and Intermediate Brass Players:
Strategies, Methods and Materials for Successful Instruction
Presented by: Alan Siebert and Timothy Smith
The following information has been compiled to aid in the instruction of young brass players. There is no doubt that brass players at the undergraduate and graduate levels have achieved a certain degree of competence on their instrument. However, this does not always translate into the ability to teach young students. Many great players forget the obstacles they had to overcome on their journey to proficiency.
The approach to teaching inexperienced players is not the same as teaching advanced players. The primary characteristics of a good teacher are patience and persistence. Being patient with young players and persistently searching out new strategies, materials and methods will undoubtedly yield success in teaching young players.
There is no definitive way to teach or method to use that works for every teacher or student. The strategies, methods and materials presented here are what have worked for us over many years as a private studio teachers and public school instrumental music teachers.
Screening Beginners
The first step in beginning instruction is guiding potential music students to an instrument that is best suited to their physical characteristics. This must be done with the desires of the student in mind. Qualifications for beginning instruction on brass instruments are:
1) Desire to be successful
2) Normal dental or facial characteristics; avoid teardrop lip, extreme overbite or under-bite and irregular front tooth formations
3) Exceptional hearing skills (horn and trombone)
Physical size of the student should NOT be a consideration for young brass players as long as they can manage the instrument. It is more important to have the right equipment for the students you have (i.e. ½ size tubas).
A common misconception is that students with braces cannot be successful playing brass instruments. While braces can be problematic, they do not have to impede progress. This topic will be discussed in more detail under Materials: Braces Remedies.
Before the Instrument Arrives
There are several things you can do to help beginning brass players be successful before they get their instruments. You should start very early teaching them to breath properly for brass playing. You should also teach them to buzz on the mouthpiece and to match pitch.
Breathing
The process of breathing should be presented in simple terms that young students can understand. Have students breathe with one hand on their side so they can feel the expansion when they breathe deep. After they have experienced this expansion correct breathing should begin to occur. Remind them to stay RELAXED and LET the air FLOW with no interruptions or restrictions. The process of breathing as related to brass playing is concerned with producing the necessary quantity of wind to produce and sustain a characteristic tone on the instrument. There are many books, articles, etc. with breathing exercises in them. As a teacher you should seek out these materials and use those you believe to be best for your students.
Buzzing
After students are moving more air with greater ease you should start having them buzz on mouthpieces. It is important that they are able to get a high, middle and low buzz. After they can sustain a high, middle and low buzz have them slide from one to the other. Of course, before you can have them buzz you must teach them the proper embouchure as discussed later in this document.
Ear Training
You can start ear training before students get their instruments as well. This can be done will doing the buzzing exercises. Simply have a student buzz a steady pitch and have the other students match the pitch. If a student is matching have students identify which pitch is higher and which is lower. All of these will be working to train the ear and increase listening skills.
Flow Studies
A good way to reinforce good tone, breathing, and ear training is the use of flow studies. Flow studies are scales or melodic lines that move primarily stepwise. The "flow" refers both to the physical flow of the air and the musical flow of the line.
When the Instrument Arrives
The first thing to do when the instrument arrives is to show the student how to assemble the instrument. To assemble the trumpet, horn, baritone and tuba you should pick up the instrument and then the mouthpiece. Place the mouthpiece in the receptor and twist it gently clockwise. To assemble the trombone, pick up the slide section with your right hand. Hold it so the tallest side is closest to your body and the mouthpiece receptor is away from your body. Pick up the bell section with the left hand and hold it so the bell is to your left side and the slide receptor is to the right. Place the slide receptor over the tall side of the slide section and tighten the nut to secure the slide to the bell. Pick up the mouthpiece and place it in the mouthpiece receptor twisting it gently clockwise.
When teaching posture it is most important that the student is in an upright and relaxed position. This applies to both sitting and standing postures. When sitting, the back should be away from the back of the chair so as not to restrict breathing. The arms should be relaxed and away from the body. One of the largest mistakes of posture is allowing the student to play with their elbows touching their sides. For the tuba, the use of a tuba support will greatly aid in the ability of the student to relax. There are many tuba rests on the market. You should look at several to decide which is best for your student.
Buzzing and Making a Sound
If you have done the breathing and buzzing before the instrument arrived, making a sound will not be difficult. Have the student buzz the mouthpiece again and then transfer the same buzz on to the instrument. I will teach the first five notes by showing them the fingerings for concert F, Eb, D, C, Bb and having them play the notes descending. You can then make up short songs using only these five notes. The key in this process is to make it easy as early as possible. As students are playing with ease in one register you should then move the good sound to other registers.
You should have students listen to the top artists on their prospective instruments. Students cannot be expected to produce a characteristic sound if they do not know what their instrument should sound like. Here are a few recommendations:
Trumpet Horn Trombone
Philip Smith Dale Clevenger Christian Lindberg
Wynton Marsalis Philip Farkas JJ Johnson
Clifford Brown Dennis Brain Kai Winding
Ray Mase Alan Civil Joseph Alessi
Euphonium Tuba
Kevin Thompson Sam Pilafian
Brian Bowman Roger Bobo
Raymond Young Harvey Phillips
Fred Dart Daniel Perantoni
A great resource for video and sound files is YouTube on the internet. Here are some suggestions for YouTube listening and watching:
Trumpet
Hakan Hardenberger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7VELg1UFIk&NR=1
Maurice Andre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8kUPC0PcYA&feature=related
Alison Balsom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W7bGzi9G2k
Wynton Marsalis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJkD-H1szwk&feature=related
Sergei Nakariakov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe3T-U-m8hU
Horn
Siegfried Long Call
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_MkMdlfl8Hg
Dennis Brain playing Beethoven Sonata (two parts)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=68tuMge6Fio (part 1)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KYXe3nNdQrw&feature=related (part 2)
Schumann Konzertstucke
http://youtube.com/watch?v=C4dtVsYoNjY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iE_J6qZwew8&feature=related
Horns of Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics
http://youtube.com/watch?v=__vrWsx8Gao
Trombone
Frank Rosolino, Jazz legend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z816-Iiqz1Q&feature=related
Massimo Larosa, Cleveland Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI-axBojpCU
Christian Lindberg, soloist, plays Faure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AayhNdGrd1E
“Two Sides of the Slide” Joe Alessi and Wycliffe Gordon demonstrate two sides of the instrument and coach Julliard students. First ever master class presented by “Jazz at Lincoln Center.”
http://www.veotag.com/jalc/player.aspx?pid=%7B8B1FEB61-9CF9-4AC7-AADA-6EC70C58ED65%7D
Euphonium and Tuba
Øystein Baadsvick Fnugg Blue, Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHMyrhilkdo
John Sass, "Meltdown", Live at the Sibelius Hall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGuL4jSYbuw
Canadian Brass: Kamen Quintet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWxtdfPTLGI
German Brass, Toccata and Fugue in D minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OemfKahzxk
James Gourlay, Tuba and Michel Bequet, Trombone/ Morricone melodies during Teacher Concert of Big Brass Fest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1o-SRI5WF8
There are many great brass players that your students should be listening to. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of artists easily available that do not have a great sound. Ask students frequently who they are listening to so you can be sure they are not modeling a bad sound.
Embouchure
The following descriptions are general guidelines. Specific embouchures will be determined by facial and dental structure, and other factors.
n Trumpet
– Mouthpiece centered on aperture
– Mouthpiece equal top lip and bottom lip
– Chin firm and flat, Jaw slightly forward
– Corners firm, push toward center
– Lips slightly forward
– Oral cavity open, Teeth apart
n Horn
– Mouthpiece centered on aperture
– Mouthpiece 2/3 on top lip, 1/3 on bottom lip
– Chin firm and flat, Jaw slightly forward
– Corners firm, push toward center
– Lips slightly pursed/puckered
– Oral cavity open
– Lips moist
n Trombone and Euphonium
– Mouthpiece centered on aperture
– Mouthpiece equal top lip and bottom lip
– Jaw comfortably down and slightly forward
– Corners firm
– Lips form a slight cushion
– Oral cavity open
– Lips moist
n Tuba
– Lips gently touching and slightly forward
– Jaw low and relaxed
– Tongue low and flat
– Throat very open and relaxed
– Chin relaxed
– Lips slightly forward
– Corners firm and slightly forward
Lesson Structure
All of the early lessons should begin and end with a brief review of the fundamentals. Being diligent about these concepts will save the student a lot of work later in their career. Each of these early lessons should be primarily concerned with producing a good tone at all times. This will require some creativity on the part of the teacher to avoid boredom. In these early lessons I will begin to devise a plan to develop reading skills, technique, range, flexibility and articulation. Every lesson should have a review of old material and an introduction of new material based on the needs of the student. It is also important in these early lessons that the teacher play along with the student frequently so the student has a good musical model to match.
Evaluation
Evaluation is something that is often overlooked in the private studio. Students should be evaluated in every lesson. The method of evaluation will differ depending on many factors (learning styles, concepts, etc). It is important to keep the evaluation consistent with instruction. Evaluation can be assigning a grade or just making some comments. Keep good written records of evaluations and share them with students and parents periodically. Evaluate the process more than the immediate results. Often a student will produce a satisfactory result using the wrong procedure. If this is rewarded then the student will continue to practice incorrectly and could have problems later.
Teaching Strategies
Teach concepts and not "notes and rhythms". The concepts should not be perfected or refined during the lesson or class time. Concepts are presented and checked for understanding and then checked for progress in subsequent lessons. For example, during the first lesson teach students the concept of breathing as related to brass playing. Give them some exercises to help physically train the body and then check for understanding by having them demonstrate the exercises. In subsequent lessons have them demonstrate this with and without the instrument and see if they are remaining consistent with the concept as they are playing. In addition, have students create their own breathing exercise that will train the body in the same manner as the exercises presented in earlier lessons.
After you have covered the very rudimentary concepts such as assembling the instrument, holding position, posture and breathing as related to brass playing you should get them making a sound as soon as possible. This cannot be stressed enough. Students will not make a better sound if they listen to you talk for most of the lesson. Most of the lesson should be modeling and call and response. Remember, people were making music long before they were writing notes and rhythm.
It is important to know the learning style of your students. For example, sarcasm plays a big role in some people's teaching. However, you will often have students who do not respond well to sarcasm so you must adjust to fit their learning style. In any lesson you want to follow a basic structure; review old material, present new material, review new concepts and end with duets or music of the student's choice. In the course of a lesson you may need other strategies as well. Mental imagery, analogies and modeling are common strategies that many people use.
Mental Imagery. Encourage students to have a mental picture of what the music is depicting before they play. With young students it is often difficult to get the music out of the notes and rhythms on the page. Mental imagery is one of the most successful methods to achieve this goal. A good cross-curricular activity is to have students write lyrics to etudes or write a story to tell what the music is depicting.
Analogy. Arguably the single most used tool is analogy. It is not very difficult to come up with an analogy for almost everything. The goal of a teacher is to help students make connections between abstract concepts and real life events. For example, starting the air slowly or timidly is like walking to the edge of a swimming pool and putting your toe in to test the water instead of diving right in with the confidence that the water is fine. Encourage students to make up their own analogies for various concepts. This forces them to really think about the concept in different ways.
Modeling. A lot of imitation should be used when teaching young players. It is okay (some would say preferable) to have students playing short songs before they can read the notes on the page. This gets the students playing sooner than teaching them all of the basics of reading music before they can play anything. This is not to say that reading music is not important; it is vital to the success of the modern musician. Get students playing first then later have them look at the same thing written down to see what they have done. This "sound first versus sight first" idea has been debated for many years with convincing arguments from both sides. By getting students playing first they will generally be more motivated and satisfied when they begin.