marching tenors playing area

31Aug08

My cousin is in high school, plays on the drumline. He’s pretty good, considering he took drum set lessons since he was 8 and matched it with his natural talent. Granted, tennis is more his bag, but he likes marching band, so how bad can it all be? Anyway, he just started on the tenor [...]

Filed under: band, fundamentals, marching band, music education, percussion, school   |  1 Comment
Tags: band, Bill Bachman, marching band, music education, percussion, quads, stroke, tenors, vic firth

wunderkind

30Aug08

This boy comes into the band hall, he’s signed up for band, and we try him out a lot of different mouthpieces.
Saxophone: with little effort, he makes a good tone, not too far off pitch.
Clarinet: even less effort, good strong sound.
Flute: not bad. Definitely workable.
Trumpet: not bad, could be great with work.
Trombone: not a [...]

Filed under: band, beginning band, clarinet, embouchure, flute, fundamentals, music education, percussion, saxophone, school, trombone, trumpet, tuba   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: band, beginning band, clarinet, percussion, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, tuba

saxophone embouchure

29Aug08

There are several schools of thought on this: One way would teach you to put your bottom lip over your bottom teeth ever so slightly, then wrapping the mouth around the saxophone much like a clarinet. The one I learned focuses on making the embouchure into a meaty cushion that keeps the bottom teeth completely [...]

Filed under: beginning band, clarinet, embouchure, fundamentals, music education, saxophone, school   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: band, beginning band, clarinet, embouchure, saxophone

the best reason to join band

27Aug08

The last three days, I’ve spent a good majority of the day getting our kids fitted for instruments. It’s something I’ve only done once, and I definitely need some practice for some of these instruments. I’m decent at gauging who can play what, but getting them to do the things they need to do to [...]

Filed under: band, beginning band, clarinet, flute, fundamentals, music education, school   |  3 Comments
Tags: beginning band, Brad Garner, clarinet, Dr. Bradley Garner, embouchure, flute

welcome to holland

27Aug08

The following is a post from my other blog, …eats bugs:
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band camp 2008 six: welcome to holland
Here at camp, there is a band composed completely of old camp alumni, band directors, and former students of the university. It’s a fun little ensemble. We play songs you normally don’t get to, and we have a pretty [...]

Filed under: aesthetics, band, band camp, music   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: American Elegy, band camp, director's band, down's syndrome, eats bugs, Elegy for a Young American, Gary Garner, Heroes Lost and Fallen, Steven Barton, Welcome to Holland

down press up

27Aug08

Welcome to Down Press Up, a music educator’s resource and conversation piece. My name is Derek, and I’m a second-year band director in Texas. My goal here is to provide information about teaching band, as well as giving anecdotal commentary on my day to day in the band hall. Let’s get this started with an [...]

Filed under: fundamentals, music education, subdivision   |  1 Comment
Tags: down press up, eastman counting system, foot tap, music education, subdivision