Case Study
_
When I
came to Foot of Ten Elementary in January 2012, my cooperative teacher had low
brass lessons with two baritones and a trombone player. We decided that since there were two of us,
we would split into homogenous groups for lessons. This created the opportunity for me to work
exclusively with Sierra on trombone for the past 15 weeks.
When Sierra first started with me, she was having difficulty with the music reading both tonally and rhythmically. In addition, some of her slide positions were askew and therefore pitches were out of tune if not completely different from what she intended. Her flexibility between lower and higher notes also needed some development. Despite some of these limitations, she was a highly motivated student and was quite proficient at singing. Overall, I knew I needed to equip her with the tools to read and play her trombone musically.
At the beginning of every lesson, I would ask Sierra to write the notes that she knows on the board as well as the slide position. In the beginning of the semester, this means the first five notes of the Bb major scale. As the semester progressed, we continued to learn G and A as well as the lower A. This helped with her note reading as well as reinforcing the slide positions. I also corrected her slide positions right away, especially 3rd and 4th. When we began learning a new song out of her method book, we would clap it first and identify some of the rhythms. Then we would apply the notes, not necessarily in the exact rhythms. When she had difficulty hearing the direction of the music, we would sing it on solfege since Sierra had such a mature singing voice. Then once her she was on trombone again, the notes were much more in tune because she had access to what her ears knew to play.
Learning the higher G and A were causing some problems and Sierra often had difficulty getting up to the next partial. In order to help her with this, I asked to point her air toward the ceiling when she was ascending and down to the floor when she was descending. This helped her learn to direct her airstream in order to access different partials. I also taught her some nice breathing exercises so she would know how to push air through her instrument to have a more polished sound and navigate the partials with ease.
At the end of every lesson, I would have Sierra compose her own tune. She would write 2-3 measures using notes that we had learned and then we would play through her composition. This helped reinforce her note and rhythm reading as well as improved her notation skills. It also reinforced concept like meter and clef. In addition, it meant that we sight-read a piece every day—her composition! She grasped onto this activity and often reminded me that we needed to write her composition at the end of every lesson.
When Sierra first started with me, she was having difficulty with the music reading both tonally and rhythmically. In addition, some of her slide positions were askew and therefore pitches were out of tune if not completely different from what she intended. Her flexibility between lower and higher notes also needed some development. Despite some of these limitations, she was a highly motivated student and was quite proficient at singing. Overall, I knew I needed to equip her with the tools to read and play her trombone musically.
At the beginning of every lesson, I would ask Sierra to write the notes that she knows on the board as well as the slide position. In the beginning of the semester, this means the first five notes of the Bb major scale. As the semester progressed, we continued to learn G and A as well as the lower A. This helped with her note reading as well as reinforcing the slide positions. I also corrected her slide positions right away, especially 3rd and 4th. When we began learning a new song out of her method book, we would clap it first and identify some of the rhythms. Then we would apply the notes, not necessarily in the exact rhythms. When she had difficulty hearing the direction of the music, we would sing it on solfege since Sierra had such a mature singing voice. Then once her she was on trombone again, the notes were much more in tune because she had access to what her ears knew to play.
Learning the higher G and A were causing some problems and Sierra often had difficulty getting up to the next partial. In order to help her with this, I asked to point her air toward the ceiling when she was ascending and down to the floor when she was descending. This helped her learn to direct her airstream in order to access different partials. I also taught her some nice breathing exercises so she would know how to push air through her instrument to have a more polished sound and navigate the partials with ease.
At the end of every lesson, I would have Sierra compose her own tune. She would write 2-3 measures using notes that we had learned and then we would play through her composition. This helped reinforce her note and rhythm reading as well as improved her notation skills. It also reinforced concept like meter and clef. In addition, it meant that we sight-read a piece every day—her composition! She grasped onto this activity and often reminded me that we needed to write her composition at the end of every lesson.