Additional “Teacher Tips” 

for Habits of a Successful Beginner Band Musician

  • Between Sequence 6 and 7 in the front of the Conductor’s Edition, we begin teaching students the “Alphabet Game” found on the Resources page
  • All supplemental Rhythm Charts should be counted with a metronome or (our preference) with the Percussion Grooves found on the Resources page at q=60
  • Before performing exercise #1 in the book, ask your oboe players to go to their Clinic Videos on www.giamusic.com/habitsbeginnermedia and watch the video titled “Pro Tip / F Fingerings”
  • Once students finish the sequence of “First Days Solfege,” begin using the Supplemental Solfege Exercises located under the Resources tab; use a sound source in Bb initially
  • Once students master exercise #15, they should go to the resources page and play the “Three Note Songs;” They should also learn to sing them using solfege
  • Once students play and sing the three-note songs, the teacher should use Do, Re, and Mi to do a call-and-response game with the students.  For example, the teacher picks up a trumpet and plays Do, Do, Do … and the students play it back.  Then, Do, Re, Do and the students play it back, etc… go slowly, but build onto this concept.
  • Before exercise #19, ask the trombone players to go to the trombone clinic videos and watch the video titled “Pro Tip: Slurring” (video 22)
  • After students master exercise #35, we send them to page 47 in the student book to learn #1 in the Supplemental Page Warm-up Drills
  • After students master exercise #42, we send them to page 47 in the student book to learn #2 in the Supplemental Page Warm-up Drills
  • Once students master exercise #45 (The Bb Concert Penta-scale) and exercise #51 (The C Concert Penta-scale), we spend at least two weeks (once per day) playing both exercises as part of their beginning of class warm-up to reinforce the understanding of keys and key signatures and the discovery of new notes
  • When teaching exercise #48, “An Accident Ready to Happen,” use Sequence Teaching to teach students the various components

a. Explain accidentals and the note coming back in the measure

b. Review the NEW NOTE

c. Count the exercise, then tizzle it and finger it

d. Perform the exercise with full note values first

e. Review the staccato articulation – we teach this “Sound and Space”

f. Review the dynamics and isolate the playing of piano(p) with a supported sound

g. Then, put it all together addressing Timing, Rhythm, Articulation, and Dynamics

When we introduce a concept, we will remediate it. However, in several places throughout the book, there are culminating exercises that are intentionally placed. There are two primary reasons for this:

  1. Students will be playing concert music in year one and need to know how to apply various components of playing simultaneously.
  2. In the “Teacher Tips,” we explain something called “Sequence Teaching.”  This is a very important concept to teach early in their development.  In a nutshell, students are taught how to isolate one concept at a time and once mastered, add a second component.

In all of the Habits writings (Habits of a Successful Band Director, The Evolution of a Successful Band Director, and Habits of a Significant Band Director), we introduce the concept of the “Components of Playing.” The initial concept for older students was to (1) Practice each one individually and then, (2) Do all simultaneously. However, our experience has been that you can only present a maximum of four concepts at a time for younger students if you break them down into individual components, and then put them back together. Using “Sequence Teaching” actually teaches students HOW to practice a piece of music. If they learn this skill early, it will pay HUGE dividends in the future. For reference, #48, #54, #71, #77, and #93 are examples of intentional “Culminating Exercises” to instill “Sequence Teaching” (there are others later in the book). 

  • If you start with the CLARINETS ONLY pages after exercise #27 (as suggested) and do one line per week with your clarinet students (not full band), by about exercise #50, the clarinets should all be able to play over the break using the exercises on the clarinets only pages
  • Once Clarinets can play everything on the CLARINETS ONLY pages (pages 16a and 6b in the student books), send them to the Supplemental Clarinet Register Break Exercises under the Resources tab
  • After students master exercise #53, we send them to page 47 in the student book to learn #3 in the Supplemental Page Warm-up Drills
  • Once students master exercise #55, start using page 23 “Basic Daily Warm-up”
  • For exercise #60, once students perform it in minor as printed, ask students to change all Concert Db’s to Concert D naturals (take out the flats). This gives the teacher the opportunity to teach both minor and major.
  • After students master exercise #62, we send them to page 47 in the student book to learn #4 in the Supplemental Page Warm-up Drills
  • Before exercise #74, ask the bassoon players to go to the Bassoon Clinic Videos and watch the Pro Tip on “Flicking” for bassoon
  • After students master exercise #74, we send them to page 47 in the student book to learn #5 in the Supplemental Page Warm-up Drills; At this point, we review exercises #1 thru #5 on a very regular basis
  • Once clarinets master exercise #89, send them to the resources page to begin the supplemental “Clarinet Register Break Exercises;” This is also the time they should go to Clarinet Clinic Videos and work on the “Pro Tip” exercise for going over the break with “fingers down,” doing the trill exercise from A to B
The following statements are true if you meet your students every day

About halfway through the beginner school year, a typical class would look something like this:

    • Each class starts with one or two lines of RHYTHM VOCABULARY using the supplemental rhythm charts; this should be done with a metronome or percussion grooves 
    • Students should then do some basic stretching and one breathing exercise 
    • Woodwinds: should play long tones of 8 counts each on every note they know to date – this should be done using a sound source and metronome 
    • Brass: should start with sirens on their mouthpiece, then play long tones of 8 counts each on every note they know to date – this should be done using a sound source (Harmony Director/Tonal Energy app, etc.) and should be alternated between mouthpiece only and the instrument 
    • Work should be done on page 23 – “Basic Daily Warm-ups” 
    • Students should play the Supplemental Warm-up Drills on page 47 of the student book based on the prompts mentioned above
    • Clarinets should continue to do work on the CLARINETS ONLY pages; this can be done at the beginning of class (for 3 minutes) while other students are doing “note naming” exercises on their devices using www.musictheory.net

       

    • All students should play/ review exercises #45 and #51 to remediate key signature recognition

We wrote Habits of a Successful Beginner Band Musician to be a year 1.5 book, meaning, the sequence and pacing is for year one, plus the next half-year; this is if you see your students every day for band class.

If not, this is easily a two-year sequence of material.