Trombone Lesson Plan
Materials:
 Scale Sheet Music
 Melody Sheet Music
 Trombone
 Piano
 Pencil
 Blue Juice
Goals
 To know how to correctly put a trombone together, and how to correctly lubricate
the instrument before playing.
 To correctly play the B flat scale and the F major from memory, by learning by
ear, and then through looking at the sheet music.
 To play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” out of tempo.
1. First tell the student to place the case on the ground, so it is stable. Then unlatch
the case, and go over the two basic parts of the trombone, the bell, and the slide.
Walk through the steps of putting the instrument together, and make sure to note
that the slide is very fragile, and cannot be dented, otherwise the horn will not
play. Put the bell, back into the case, and holding the slide with your left hand,
carefully remove the outer slide from the inner slide, and drizzle the Blue Juice on
the slide stockings, then carefully put both slides together. Bring the slide to the
bell, and screw on the slide tight, so that the bell and slide are perpendicular to
each other, and create a ninety-degree angle.
2. Before you actually play, make sure the student can buzz, on the mouthpiece,
after that has been achieved, place the mouthpiece back into the horn, and do play
by ears, until you have created all 8 pitches in the b flat scale. Then go over the
slide positions, 1-7. After you have done that give the student your scale sheet
music, and play the b flat scale. Repeat these steps to learn the F major scale.
3. Once you have finished both of these scales, go on to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star.” Work through the higher pitches, before playing the entire piece.
4. Teach the student how to put away the instrument correctly.
Recently, I got together with two of my classmates from our Low Brass
Methods class, and we taught each other a simple lesson in playing the trombone. I
got the pleasure to teach my lesson twice, as well as get taught twice. Each time
learning something different about the way I teach, and the way I learn. It was
very interesting to see, how I learned a completely different instrument from a
person, that has not played this instrument, it was also interesting to see how I
taught this instrument, having very little prior experience playing and teaching it.
I will first be talking about how I got to learn from two very different
teaching styles, the first very being direct, while the second being a little more
timid, but each getting a point across. We all decided to do a very similar lesson,
with teaching the basics of the instrument, the b flat scale, the F major scale, and
one very simple tune, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” It was challenging to
remove all prior knowledge, to recreate the learning experience, as well as the
teaching experience. Tabetha, was the more timid of the two, and settled on a less
direct method of teaching, but still got every point across, while Zack had a very
forward method of teaching. I thought both methods were very effective, and each
had very minor flaws. I prefer to take a more direct approach of teaching, just
because that is the way I learn, and I learn by doing. While both methods are
effective to some extent, it really depends on the learner as well. You must be able
to cater to different learning styles, but teaching to accommodate every student.
By using different methods, such as ear training, piano playing skills, and ear-tohand skills to teach effectively.
I learned that I taught in a way that I would probably learn best from, by
playing the examples on the piano, before having the student play them on the
trombone. I learn by doing, so playing it on the piano helps me listen to what
needs to be played. I used that in teaching my lesson. Before playing the
trombone, I went over the key basis, by playing it on the piano, to let the student
listen to it. I did this for every example, scale, and tune that we played, trying to
help the auditory learners by hearing it. I also went over the slide positions by
playing the tune or scale with the students, to help the visual learners. And by
doing both of these things, this can help the kinesthetic learners. This also helps a
specific learning type, learn in different ways, so if they forget it in one way, they
can think of another.
This experience was very eye-opening to me, because it showed me how I
learn, as well as how I teach. It is important to accommodate every style of
learning, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learning styles. This makes learning
universal for everyone.