Ideas for a low brass clinic for 6-8th graders

[dunelandmusic]

I have been doing private lessons with grade school kids
for a couple of years. This year, I have had the opportunity
to work in a middle school, doing lessons one day a week after school. Yesterday, the band director told me they have
a "Music Day" coming up in February, where the kids come in from 9-3, and she asked me if I would teach the "Low Brass Clinic". Being fairly new to the process, I was wondering if others on this board have done this, and what kind of subjects were addressed, what kind of schedule you ran. I was told it would involve 2 hours in the morning with 6th graders, and 2 hours in the afternoon with 7-8th graders.

[Mudman]

. . .

My previous post about the hoseaphone is a better idea for general music classes. I just reread your original and deleted what I had suggested.

For a low-brass clinic, you can always do some breathing and buzzing exercises. For the "wow" factor, go out and buy a bunch of clear vinyl tubing. Cut it into 7-inch lengths and make "buzzing tubes" that you put on the shank of your mouthpiece. It makes buzzing easier and gets kids excited about buzzing. "Look what I got at school today," says the kid who buzzes his parents crazy

[Carroll]

I have had great success with really simple ensemble arrangements so they can have a chance to play the melody, for a change. It does need to be easy enough for all of the kids to have a great experience, though. Also, play some recordings of really blowing low brass players and ensembles - to ignite the fires.

[Art Hovey]

You should get in touch with Bill Troiano; he's the master at this sort of thing. He had about 200 middle-school tuba & euph kids on stage playing together at his most recent affair:
http://galvanizedjazz.com/HHTD.html

[Billy M.]

I did a low-brass style clinic last year and had some of my own concerns. Basically I started by showing off a little about how the tuba and euphonium can be melody instruments by playing some solos that have the virtuosic wow factor to 'em (extreme low and high range, techinicality, what you think would be enough to make kids go ooh ahh, but not so much to bore them). Then there were things such as teaching a few easy-to-learn breathing techniques and mouthpiece buzzing as a fellow tubenetter has mentioned. Some wonderful choices for that could be the visualization exercises that are spoken of in Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Pilafian's book, The Breathing Gym.

You could always talk about mouthpieces in general as to what you recommend (have to be careful with this because this can be something that requires more person-to-person focus and specialization).

Another topic you could cover is how to better work in the lower and higher ranges and perhaps include copies of fingering charts and very simple low etudes they can use for their own practice.

This final suggestion I highly recommend: Give enough time for a question and answer session. I've noted that young musicians when seeing a more mature musician at work always come up with good questions that require attention. Even a few who you may be able to use as examples if they ask specific things (like how to actually get to playing higher or lower). You never know. This can be used anywhere from 10-20 mins.

These are just a few suggestions. These type of things are a LOT of fun and the kids get a kick out of it too.

[Alex C]

Your clinic should re-inforce what the the director is saying in class. Talk about posture, mouthpiece placement, breathing. Make a really big deal about how important it is.

Don't overestimate what the students know. Be prepared if their reading skills are poor. Most of them are just kids who happen to be in band.

Do that, and the director will probably think you are a gift from heaven.

[CJ Krause]

***

[Bill Troiano]

The event that I run on Long Island is attended mostly by kids from middle school to high school age. The event runs about 6 hours and ends with an evening concert. During the afternoon, the participants are mostly involved in a massed tuba ensemble rehearsal. We do bring in a famous guest artist and that person does a 30 min. clinic which breaks up the rehearsals. The topics are mostly about the basics of brass playing, but it almost always becomes a question and answer session.
I would suggest that you don't just talk to them for 2 hours about various subjects. Kids, especially middle school age kids, don't want to hear you talk for too long. Start out your event by having a brief recital showcasing your local advanced tubists and euphonium players. A tuba/euphonium quartet would certainly entertain the kids. Then, you could cover some basic topics, such as breathing and mouthpiece buzzing. From there, you could easily seque into a question and answer period. You could end with a simple 4 part ensemble rehearsal/performance. I think you could easily get 2 hours out of that format and keep the kids interested, and hopefully, wanting more! Good luck.

[Tabor]

I always find with this age group that instrument care is very important and often neglected I taught a low brass clinic at a middle school a few years ago and the students didn't seem to have any previous idea how to take care of their instruments!

I hope that this helps!

-Tabor