Reply To: How do you do beginner band?

[nafmeadmin]

Congrats on getting your band to meet during the day. That is great. But once a week is tough because when you are building those skills from nothing they don’t retain much between such infrequent lessons. This will be my 7th year teaching beginning middle school band in Queens, NY and I am still adjusting my teaching every year. In the beginning it takes them a while to just get the basics down; how to assemble the instruments and care for the reeds and disassemble them and put them in cases properly. Then it takes them a while to learn how to hold them. Expect that with only one lesson a week you will have to do a lot of review of these basic things. Go slow and make sure these fundamentals are strong. By January if they can play concert Bb, C, D, Eb and F with a reasonable sound you’re doing amazing. It’s really tough to work with one section at the beginning with the others sections not having much to do. But try to keep them engaged somehow!