In June of 2014 the National Coalition for Core Art Standards released the new Core Music Standards. The overarching goal of these new standards is to foster Music Literacy defined as the ability to understand a medium and communicate in that medium.
‘Tis the season for festival prep! For many band directors, jazz band happens outside of “regular” rehearsals, and that means preparing for a big performance (like a contest) can be daunting.
Having a strong trombone section can take your big band to the next level. It’s tempting to focus on the shout chorus and the sax soli and leave the trombones to their own devices, but a few simple adjustments can bring your young jazz trombonists up a notch, and add power, balance, and consistency to your horn section.
It’s an unspoken rule of music education that students don’t practice over summer break. As teachers know, the appeal of Netflix and naps can easily get in the way of productivity (be honest, you haven’t organized your library of sheet music or large instrument closet), but we also know how important it is that students do something on their instruments over the summer so that the long break doesn’t undo all the work that happened during the school year.
Everyone who plays a wind instrument can probably remember a teacher saying, “Just work on long tones.” It’s easy for a teacher to see the advantages of building range, strengthening endurance, and developing tone quality with one exercise.