# of Students Taught: 8
Ages: 4 frosh, 1 soph, 1 junior, 2 seniors
Instruments: 5 trombones, 1 baritone, 2 tubas
Materials: scales, tunes, & ear training; band music; assigned etudes
Fundamentals covered: high register, rhythmic interpretation & counting, articulation, phrasing
Memorable moment: Last lesson- Hering #14. Student was having trouble with 3/4 in some sections and adding an extra beat to the bar. He was also double slurring instead of slur two tongue two as marked. I pointed it out and demonstrated a few times, but the problems persisted, so I asked him to set up a metronome with a strong downbeat on 1. Immediately he was able to self-correct his rhythmic issue, and started to feel a difference in how to articulate the line as well. Without my having to say anything, he stopped one run through where he made both mistakes and started again, playing correctly.
Takeaways: Giving the student a clear example and then allowing him to take charge of his own trial-and-error process means he’ll listen more carefully for these subtle developments in the future. The use of the metronome to fix rhythmic problems again proves itself a key fix for melodic/interpretation improvement as well.
Lauren Husting, trombone 