Breathing
Everyone most likely has a way they teach their students the proper breathing techniques. In an attempt to insure that students are internalizing both breathing and counting, a “Breathing Chant” has been developed and included in this publication. This is to be taught prior to learning any part of the instrument. Students need to be comfortable using the breathing chant and be able to demonstrate, explain, and even teach it to one another. This is something that needs to be going through their heads at all times.
Posture
Most method books will have an explanation of the suggested posture and set-up for each instrument, however, there tends to be some practical details left out that only someone who plays a particular instrument would know and would teach to their students. You will find helpful tips for each instrument at the beginning of each section. These tips will not only be useful for your beginners, but you will also be able to use them with your older students to help diagnose issues that may be causing problems and possibly holding back an individual student.
Tone Production
The suggestions on producing a characteristic sound for each instrument are ones that have been used for decades and have been found to be very successful and practical. An attempt is made not to clutter up instructions, but to use concise phrases to explain to students how to produce a characteristic sound; how it should ‘feel’ and how it should sound.
Articulation
The suggestions on articulation are very basic and have proven to be very practical and successful. These articulations are not meant to be written in stone for every situation, but once again, basic articulations to make sure that the beginner student is indeed articulating correctly at the start. Clearly there will be a variety of articulation syllables that can be used for specific instances or for a more developed student. The theory taught here is the anatomy of an articulation syllable as being a consonant, followed by a vowel, followed by an “H”. This anatomy will apply to all wind instruments in this method. Although the consonant and vowel may vary from instrument to instrument, the “H” will remain constant. The “H” is used to insure that the student is following through with their air and not stopping sound with the tongue or throat.
Assembling the Instrument
Although all method books contain a short section on instrument assembly, there are many mistakes made the first time a student performs this task. Each section will have very detailed instructions on how to assemble the instrument in a step by step manner, including which hand to pick up and hold the instrument while it is being assembled. It is important that the beginner student learn to assemble the instrument properly and to do it the same way each and every time. This is to avoid unnecessary repairs due to mishandling an instrument.
Method of Use
The method will be slightly different for each instrument, as that is the purpose of this text. It is not one size fits all, which is generally what we get in our band method books. This is the area of the most importance in this book and the exercises only make sense if you use them in the manner they were intended. This is not to say that you can’t move around the exercises out of order; to a certain extent, you can do this. Depending on your needs and the needs of your class, there may be certain exercises that you do this year that you don’t need next year and so on. Generally, this method is started prior to using the beginner band method book. This allows the students to focus on one or two elements at a time and insures these elements are solid prior to reading music out of the band method. The theory is to make sure things like tone, posture, foot pat, pulse, and articulation are solid enough so as not to suffer when music reading is added. Think of it like building a house; the foundation has to be strong in order to hold up the rest of the house and the frame is interconnected each piece relying on another to hold together.
Exercises
As stated earlier, the exercises are based on the chromatic sequence but there are some diatonic exercises as well. The theory behind this is there are so many instances in all instruments where it is necessary to use a fingering that might not be taught in the standard beginner band method. We want our students to know when to use any possible fingering and apply it to their music. Our students are very capable of understanding these concepts, so why not just teach them from the start?