BEGINNING BAND: STRATEGIES
FOR ALL AGES
Presenters:
Malena Calle- Southwood Middle School, Miami
Erich S. Rivero- Glades Middle School, Miami
Susie Lalama- Frost School of Music, UM
BEGINNING BAND:
STRATEGIES FOR ALL AGES
Brass Instruments Pedagogy
Erich Rivero
FIRST THINGS TO DO
 Take inventory of instruments
 Make sure all instruments are in working condition
 Set up instrumentation goals
 Distribute advanced band instruments
 Cover music notation and note recognition with beginners
 Give background on instruments
 Which musical families they belong to
“SELL” THE INSTRUMENTS
 Discuss “college” instruments
 Demonstrate instruments “teacher or advanced students” or show via
internet resource such as YouTube
SET UP INSTRUMENT “PETTING ZOO”
 Instrument fittings
 Make sure to have a good disinfectant (Mi-T Mist-mouthpiece sanitizer)
 Rate them on a scale of 1 to 5
 After all instruments have been tried, students will rank their top 5
choices. Alternating between woodwind, brass, woodwind or brass,
woodwind, brass.
 Students may only select instruments they ranked either a 5 or 4
DEMONSTRATE PROPER MOUTHPIECE
PLACEMENT
 Beginning Brass Mouthpieces
 Trumpet Bach 3C (if the student has bigger lips consider a bigger mouthpiece like a Bach 1 ½ C)
 Trombone 12C , 6 ½ AL
 Tuba Mouthpiece- Bach 24AW, Advanced-Warburton CV8, Parantucci PT88
 French Horn Mouthpiece- Holton MDC, Intermediate/Advanced Stork C10, S14 & Warburton
M12
 For Students with braces
 EZO Denture Cushions
DEMONSTRATE PROPER EMBOUCHURE
 Embouchure placement
 Trumpet 2/3 mouthpiece Upper and 1/3 Lower
 Trombone Half and half
 Horn Half and Half

Teeth must be level and open when playing. Often is the case that the player needs to extend the lower jaw so teeth
may be even due to an over bite.
 Embouchure Problems
 For a student who has bubbles in the embouchure. Have the student fill up mouth with air like a
bubble. Have him play G on the staff. While playing G have him squeeze out all air so the skin is firm
next to the teeth. No air pockets or bubbles. Have the student repeat this four times. Each time the
student should close his eyes to feel the embouchure tighten. Then have the student play G and tell
him to start with the embouchure like tight like he finished. He will no longer have any air pockets. Tell
him to practice in front of a mirror to reinforce the concept.
INSTRUMENT MAINTENANCE
 Valve oil for Brass Instruments Hetmans Piston No. 2 or Blue Juice
 Trpt, Bar., Horn For slides Schilke Slide Grease
 Slide Grease for Trombone Slides - Trombonetine
 Instrument Snake
 Instrument Bath-make sure to remove all felts from instrument.
 To Shine
 Silver instruments use Nu Finish Liquid Car Polish
ARTICULATIONS
 Tonguing
 Make sure all the students are saying “TAH”
 The tongue should strike in a retrograde movement behind the upper teeth in the
crevice between the teeth and the top roof of the mouth.
 Slurring
 The tongue must move up and down in the mouth.
When playing low notes the tongue must be on the bottom
of the mouth. The inverse is also true.
 Say the syllables: TAH EEH AWE EEH AWE EEH
 When the tongue does not move the note seems
to get stuck on one pitch and not move to the
other pitch.
Tonguing Diagram
RESOURCES
 Glades Band Website www.wix.com/gladesband/miami
 Band Handbook
 Scale Sheet
 Instrument rental Contract
 The Art of Brass Playing by Phil Farkas
 Herbert L. Clarke Technical Studies
 Arban’s Book for Trumpet and trombone Pg 42 #17 Slurs
 Band4me.org
http://band4me.org/resources.html
 Erich Rivero’s email address: TPTLOCO@AOL.COM