Helping beginners

[dougydoug]

My little cousin was just recently switched from trombone to tuba. She is in 6th grade. She has asked me if I would give her tuba lessons, which I happily agreed to. I have a limited amount of experience teaching in general and I really don't know where to start with teaching a beginner. I am a sophomore in college so I haven't been around the teaching scene long. I was hoping some of you could give me some suggestions on where to start. I plan to ask my lessons teacher in our next lesson what he thinks as well.

[Levaix]

In my experience, at that age it's probably easiest to work on what they're doing in band. Especially since she's new to tuba, you can use what she's already working on to reinforce fundamentals and address any potential issues. If she really takes off and it starts to get boring, then you can throw some extra stuff in there. But I think that's probably a good starting point, see where she is and build off that.

[iiipopes]

Both of you together ask her band director what he prefers for a rudiments book, and go from there.

[PMeuph]

I like to take a couple minutes at the end of every lesson and play a ditty. Something like "iron man" or "we will rock you" have always gone over well with the beginners I taught.

Giving them youtube videos to look at is also a great resource. 12 yr olds go nuts for "Fnugg"....

_____
Every kid is different, but in many cases lots of kids who take band take it because they have to, or they don't want to take the other elective class. In that case (not sure if this relevant with your cousin) your goal, is to give them good resources, but also to try to get them to pull the horn of the case a *play* regularly.

*I'd say *practice*, but I realize that at that age most kids do more playing than practicing...

[imperialbari]

Giving them youtube videos to look at is also a great resource.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVOxZFb_TT8

[PMeuph]

Giving them youtube videos to look at is also a great resource.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVOxZFb_TT8

Fine, give them *good* videos to look at. The videos don't have to be "lessons." hearing good playing is essential to developping as a musician. (Good playing doesn't have to be low brass)

Either way here are some decent brass/tuba videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOsNp4O7AU" target="_blank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyViqSdAbJo" target="_blank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLEQYXZj8A" target="_blank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcDE08Bi64k" target="_blank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBLm747tyn0" target="_blank

etc...

[Three Valves]

Some of those videos only inspire me to give up and turn my tuba into a planter!!

[CA Transplant]

Years ago, a good friend asked if I could give lessons to her daughter, who was just starting on the clarinet. I agreed, even though I had switched to the oboe long before. I dusted off my clarinet and worked on my chops and technique.

She was just starting out, so we worked on fundamentals. She had music from her elementary school band, which we always worked on perfecting, but that was the easy part of the lessons. I started teaching her the scales, worked hard on tone production, with long tones, dynamics, and articulation practice.

I worked with her for three years, once a week, as a favor to her mom, my friend. It was amazing how much a young mind could absorb and remember. I could see improvement every week, and she actually did practice sometimes (much to my surprise). Every time a piece of music introduced a new key signature, she learned that scale. When she first encountered the infamous register break on the clarinet, I came up with a drill that got her past it in a week.

She was the only clarinet player in her band who was getting lessons, and almost immediately started moving up in the chairs, and was the first chair player all through middle and high school. I stopped teaching her while she was in middle school, but the fundamentals she learned let her advance on her own.

I wasn't a professional teacher, or even a very good clarinet player. It was the time spent that made the difference, along with giving her some direction in her growth. It was fun, too, for both of us. It's the attention and direction that make the difference.

[vd8m9]

I was a 6th grader 2 years ago and I remember playing lines from an etude book "Accent on Achievement". We would have "Badge lines" where we played correct notes and rhythms on the etudes/lines and we would earn buttons. It was helpful for me at least, and our whole beginning band went through the same system. Me and a couple of my friends had a sense of competition for badge lines, so, though we may not have been working our smartest, we still got more work done than the average 6th grader.

Our school is pretty successful in terms of individual achievement(we're pretty decent as an ensemble as well), so what we do probably works, at least to some extent. For example, we placed 10 former students in the Texas All State band this year, which is (probably) a result of good teaching.

[ken k]

hopefully it goes well for you and her. If you want some up to date type stuff, Michael Davis has some neat things for young students on his Hip-Bone Music site.

Brass Buzz and Just add tuba.

These include music with a play-a-long CD that is pretty hip. Not your average Go Tell Aunt Rodie.....

http://www.hip-bonestore.com/Brass_Buzz_s/97.htm" target="_blank

kenk

[imperialbari]

Whereas my Yahoo-based project of making music available for free does not per se address beginners, there are extensive scale and interval studies, which also work in ranges accessible for less experience players. The selection of what is relevant for a given young student may take a bit of experience.

There also are lots of hymn scores, some of which have reasonably accessible bass lines.

When I taught myself, I often improvised harmony parts over the tunes played by students. Or I wrote harmony parts for the students to play while I played tunes they knew.

If somebody mails me the music for tunes popular among young people, I may see if I can come up with something similar. Please note that these tunes have to be in the public domain worldwide, as I am not interested in judicial fights over copyright.

Klaus

[Tubahokk]

Just keep the "fun" in it.
I never taught a guitar chord without a song attached to it for my student play and "show off" at home.
I have not given brass lessons but would try to do the same.

[iiipopes]

Protect her from the dreaded 24AW.

+1!!! I'm thinking something like a 22 or a Conn 7B.