Early Band Tips

Notes we will soon know:

Flutes and Trombones:  D, C, B-flat
Clarinets and Trumpets:  C, D, E, F, & G
Saxophones: G, A, B, C, & D
Percussionists:  Quarter notes, Quarter rests

Soon students should be practicing about 10-15 minutes, 7 days
a week.  It is better to practice for a few minutes every day than to
try to "make up" the missed time by practicing for a long time one
day a week.  The reasons for this are that playing an instrument
requires both muscle strength and muscle memory.  Daily practice
helps students to strengthen the muscles required to play the instrument,
as well as to help their fingers remember which keys to push for each
note.  Infrequent practice sessions, no matter how intense, will not be as
effective in helping students to remember what they are supposed to do
on their instrument. See tips below.

Here are some things students should be working on during their daily
practice at this point in the year:

1. Play every note you know the name of and the fingering for.
Play these notes for as long as you can on one breath.  Look at a
clock to time yourself.  See if you can increase how long you can
hold the note by 1 second every few days.  This will help you
when the band songs get longer.  It will also help your "tone" (the
sound you make on your instrument). Percussionists should be
playing their "finger-wrist exercises" slowly as a warm-up. Think
of this a stretching before you practice a team sport or at the start
of dance class.

2. For every song assigned in your book:

---First, sing the note names in rhythm
---Next, sing the note names in rhythm and finger
the notes on your instrument (do not play yet)
---Once you can do all of the above, try to play the song.
If you have difficulty, try breaking up the song 2 measures at a time.

3. If a song has a circle around the number in your book, that is your
assignment to practice. If the song also has a *star*, that means the
song is a "test" song for Mr. Kemp! Work a little extra on that song!
Once a song has a "check", it means you have mastered the song and
no longer need to practice it.

4. HAVE FUN!!! Don't forget that you took this instrument to have fun!
Most of the time you should be practicing songs you DON'T have mastered yet. Sometime, just go through your book and play through
some easy, FUN songs! Put on a show!!! :)

 

Practice, Practice, Practice!

A baseball player practices baseball.
A soccer player practices soccer.
A basketball player practices basketball.
A dancer practices dance..............................(you get the idea!)

I understand 4th graders are very busy people. They are
baseball players, soccer players, basketball, football, dance,
Karate, and much more. PLUS, they are students, they have
friends, they have families.

Are you also a Band player???

If you are a Flute Player, you practice your Flute every day.
If you are not practicing every day, you are not really a Flute Player.
Of course the same is true for ALL the Band instruments!

STRIVE for practicing every day. (That means try very hard.)
If you miss once in a while, it's OK! We know you are very busy people.

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