19 Guided Practice Lesson 1.5

Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • control lip slurs between adjacent partials
  • play chromatic and diatonic sequences
  • play a simple melody with consistent tone, pitch, and articulation control

Materials

  • Instrument
  • Metronome
  • Tuner

Activities

  1. Paper Airplane. Breath in on 1 count and exhale for 4 counts. Make sure that the air stays full and steady across all 4 counts. Use your hand to visualize the inhale and exhale. Repeat 4 times to work on building good breath control.
  2. Mouthpiece Sirens. Start on a low tone. Sustain to establish center of pitch and gradually glissando the note higher and back down to the starting tone. Make sure to use air and corner firmness to lead the glissando. Avoid pinching and creating tension in the embouchure. Repeat 4 times.
  3. Reverse Broken Remington. Set a drone on the tuner to concert Bb (horns will use actual fingerings for this exercise). Using the lower fundamental as a point of stability, slur up to the higher note, paying attention not to pinch the lips or choke the tone. If a particular interval poses issues, repeat that interval again.
  4. Lip Slur #2 or Lip Slur #3. Focus on consistency of air between notes and tension free transitions, particularly on the ascending partial. If three partials can be played comfortably, use lip slur #3. If not, use lip slur #2. Take 4 counts off between each passage.
  5. Dexterity Exercise #2Choose four keys that are comfortably in the middle of your register. Set the metronome at a rate that you can accurately play each note with proper fingerings. Pay close attention to intonation tendencies, particularly 2-3, 1-3, and 1-2-3 combinations. Make sure to adjust using proper techniques (e.g. 3rd valve slide, 4th valve, hand position)
  6. Melody. Select one of the simple melodies from Practice Materials. Pay particular attention to accurate fingerings, consistent tone, and good phrasing.

License

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Brass Techniques and Pedagogy by Brian N. Weidner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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