The Beginning Band Boot Camp is a website that focuses on teaching Beginning musicians how to put together, clean, and play the various band instruments. The purpose of the website is to have a resource available for Beginning students to access to help reinforce, through the use of video, the proper technique for these various concepts. Teachers can make these videos available to their students for reference.
It’s important to step back and think about how educators have influenced you, because your teaching philosophy depends on it
in the first stage, everyone teaches exactly as they had been taught. In the second stage, instructors adjust their style based on other expert teachers they’ve borrowed ideas from
I realized the students’ ability to read music or not read music was ultimately the teacher’s fault
the students’ enthusiasm fuels two purposes: bravado and attention-seeking behavior.
Left uncorrected, this rowdy behavior can be a pain in a band director’s side.
One example of the use of fear would be my weekly summer camp challenges
The challenge could occur in any section of any piece and this was a very effective tool at getting me to practice
Over experience and time, after attending numerous workshops, reading about this subject, and conducting research, I’ve come to the conclusion that students can be pushed to learn out of desire rather than fear
calm classroom rather than a happy classroom
A calm classroom has a lot of structure in place: the procedures are practiced and understood, there are rules and consequences for inappropriate behavior, and students are aware that learning is often a messy business.
The secret to developing a mature attitude comes from a love of sharing music and teaching patience.
Students need to be reminded why they’re doing what they’re doing.
When we develop our procedures and rules for the year, I make it a deliberate point to explain why the items were deemed important.
Treat your students as young adults. Another way to think of it would be to treat them as you’d like to be treated
This articles contains thoughts on developing rules and procedures in the beginning band classroom. It discusses possible tactics to get the most out of your beginning band students.
This articles contains thoughts on developing rules and procedures in the beginning band classroom. It discusses possible tactics to get the most out of your beginning band students.
Children's Music Workshop is a resource site for parents to help reinforce proper practices for beginning instrument players. It provides tips for putting the horn together and tips on how to help children progress on their instruments.
This website is great for beginning musicians. It provides instructional videos for the flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, violin and cello. It provides suggestions for the parents of these beginning musicians. It is a great tool for music advocacy.
This website has resources for beginning strings and band. All the pieces have easy music patterns that are suitable for beginning players but are arranged in styles that are exciting and motivating to practice. This would be a good place to look for music for a beginning group's first concert.
Be Part of the Band is actually the recruitment tool that we use, along with a public performance and Jazz Band Tour. This website shows you real live musician that perform on their specific instruments as well as talk about their personal involvement with Music.
As a beginning band teacher, this program is incredibly valuable. Be Part of the Band is a fantastic resource to aide music educators in the recruitment process. The program offers high quality tools to help attract as many students to the band program as possible. Proper recruitment is crucial to the success of a program but is sometimes overlooked, and this program has a variety of ways to help bridge the gap between participating and non-participating students. On top of everything, the resources on this website are completely free of charge.
Be a Part of the Band is a phenomenal resource for band directors to use to encourage students to join band programs. The videos outline the different instruments, as well as the positives about being a member of the band. It is very easy to include these videos on school websites as a resource for parents as well.
Beapartoftheband.com is an awesome resource for beginning band teachers. Recruitment is such a huge part of the beginning of the school year and Scott Lang's resources are great! This website provides free resources for both recruitment and organization for bands. Individuals are able to make donations to the program, but no payment is required. Beapartoftheband.com not only provides demonstration videos for each instrument, the site also provides eighteen documents to assist with the recruitment process.
Band recruitment is the biggest event in the life of a band director. This site features high quality tools to help make our lives easier. It also features famous people that have been band members. Students need to relate to the bigger picture sometimes. They need to see that big athletic stars can be in the band as well. I am always looking for new perspective to recruitment.
Breaking it down allows you to make kids comfortable, give them confidence, and, most importantly, not practice mistakes.
intellectualizing, listening, and blowing
Intellectualizing means thoroughly understanding the constructs of music –rhythmically, melodically, idiomatically, and tonally – before attempting the final product.
It is also important for students to practice with a model and without a model. I give them a model about 50 percent of the time. In the very beginning, when it’s only three or four notes, the rhythm is not usually a problem
Thumbs up means “I got it, let’s go.”
Thumbs sideways means “Almost, I need another pass.”
Thumbs down means “I’m lost!”
This method works as feedback. I use them currently in my school.
Audiation is the musical voice inside your head, something like your musical imagination
Professional brass players use rebreather bags, incentive spirometers, and other tools to create an air model and to increase lung capacity
Children are used to taking conversational breaths; we need to teach them to breathe like musicians
For the inspiration I recommend using a breathing tube – basically a ½ to ¾-inch piece of PVC coupling
I use “sizzling” and “long tones.” Sizzling is great because you have the students create a natural resistance that simulates what it is like playing the horn
Long tones are very important to the development of a good sound
This is a regular podcast that is a great resource for staying up to date with music pedagogy and instrument specific concerns. The podcasts address topics such as rehearsing beginning bands, choosing literature, classroom management and marching band.
The website provides helpful information for assessing and diagnosing common mistakes on the clarinet. The author of this website offers useful advice for educators who may not understand the intricacies of teaching beginning clarinetists. This information would be most relevant for band directors and private studio teachers.
The spark of a thought ignites the imagination. It travels the interstate of synapses from the brain down the arm and into the hand. The hand grasps the pen and dips it in the liquid and moves from well to paper. Here the liquid drops onto the waiting space. The droplet begins to take the shape of a single letter. The letter is joined by another and another and begins to form a word. The word is linked and connected to more words. A sentence is born. More sentences emerge and join together. They become paragraph after paragraph. A story begins to dance on the pages.
The Blue Devils website is an amazing resource for connecting with the drum corps experience. Videos of performances and behind the scene takes are amazing.
This is part of a video series showing beginning instruction on each instrument. This is a great video to share with students (and parents) to help them out in the first few lessons. Some information needs to be explained more completely, but this provides good basic knowledge and helps students remember what was taught during lessons.
Instrument Cleaning and Maintenance
Regular cleaning and maintenance is essential to keeping your student's instrument in proper working order. It is recommended to have your instrument inspected and serviced by a repair technician during the Christmas holiday and over the Summer break. The inspection may not result in any work being needed. However, just like an automobile it is recommended that a repair technician perform a tune-up as necessary to keep your instrument in proper working order.
This resource includes a variety of free tone-builder warm-ups for beginning to intermediate band. On the website are also descriptions on how to use the warm-ups and videos.
(a) The purpose of the resource is to provide students and educators with effective interactive music technology for instructional use. Additionally, this teacher uses the resources in her own classroom.
(b) The specific musical content addressed in this resource is note identification, reading music, composers, music history, and orchestra instrumentation.
(c) This site also includes quizzes and lesson plans.
The Music Tech Teacher site includes quizzes, games, lessons, worksheets and other resources for teachers interested in using technology to enhance music education.
The Music Tech Teacher site includes quizzes, games, lessons, worksheets and other resources for teachers interested in using technology to enhance music education.
Green Acres Middle School music tech curriculum. Equipped with technology lessons, quizzes, and online quizzes. Curriculm includes student work, veideos, phots and music compositions
Website created and run by a music tech teacher in Alabama. The site contains a large selection of printable theory worksheets as well as interactive music games and quizzes. This is geared towards younger beginners
Website created and run by a music tech teacher in Alabama. The site contains a large selection of printable theory worksheets as well as interactive music games and quizzes. This is geared towards younger beginners
The Music Tech Teacher site is an online extension of Karen Garrett's band and music technology class. On the site, she provides lessons, quizzes, and artifacts of student work. One nice feature is the scrolling set of images with students modeling the activities that take place in the piano lab.
This is my favorite site for games that can be used as informal, formative assessments. There are many options under the "Quizzes/Pianos" tab. The games can be played as a class using the smartboard, or individually if you're lucky enough to get time in the computer lab.
This site is provided by the music technology teachers at Green Acres Middle School in Birmingham, Alabama. The site is a very useful resource for both music technology and general music teachers. The purpose of the site is to provide online lessons, quizzes, practice opportunities, and assistance with music theory. The site contains a variety of simple piano practice pieces such as "Jingle Bells," "All Through the Night," "Ode to Joy," and many others.
This is a site created by a teacher about how she uses technology in her music classes. It includes lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, and samples of student work from the website creator's classes.
This is a Music Technology classroom set up online. The teacher has been generous enough to post all of her lessons, quizzes, and other assignments on this website for anyone to use! If you are thinking about starting up a music technology class at your school this could be a great starting point.
This is an extension of a music technology classroom of a teacher in Birmingham, AL. It provides links, quizzes, resources, and information for teachers preparing to use technology in the classroom.
This site offers a plethora of resources for both beginning and advanced music tech teachers, as well as ways to blend technology into your everyday classroom. The site includes musical lesson plans, unit plans, quizzes, tests, and media demonstrating many uses of music tech in the classroom.
This website contains video games, quizzes, piano lessons, and worksheets suitable for upper-elementary to middle school students. Students learn different music concepts such as rhythm patterns, ear training, piano skills, music history, composers, music careers and so forth.
Resource for UF Masters in Music Education. I love this resource primarily for the fun and interactive nature that the games provide to my classroom. There are plenty of resources such as lessons, pre-made assessment, and videos. However, the games allow students to enjoy learning through assessment and interactive scenarios.
This website is a great resource for beginning to integrate technology into your classroom. There are ready-made lesson plans, as well as fun activities to do with your students. There are worksheets on theory, lessons on piano, and so much more.
This is a PDF description of warm up methods used in a successful beginning band program to build tone, reading skills, intonation, and more. It is meant for a band director to share what works for them with other directors.
These podcasts discuss band problems and solutions to apply to everyday lessons. It covers a variety of band information including beginning band materials to support the curriculum and even ensemble seating.
This YouTube channel has videos for early beginning band students. It has tutorials on how to make your first sound as well videos of songs students can learn by ear.
I use this game with my students to help with note names. This makes naming notes a game and competitive. It also includes the alto clef and while many worksheets leave out the alto clef.
I use this game with my students to help with note names. This makes naming notes a game and competitive. It also includes the alto clef and while many worksheets leave out the alto clef.
Music Racer is a music game students can use make learning note names, fingerings, and music terms fun! Students can pick the instrument they play or choose another instrument if learning and secondary instrument.
Online game that helps students practice note identification, drill basic music terms and fingerings. One of the great features is that it can be set for a wide variety of instruments - each using appropriate clef.
This is a website aimed at younger students where they can test their knowledge of instrument fingerings and techniques through a game. It is especially helpful for entry level instruments, such as beginning band and recorder classes.
This is a website aimed at younger students where they can test their knowledge of instrument fingerings and techniques through a game. It is especially helpful for entry level instruments, such as beginning band and recorder classes.
Purpose of this resource: This website can be used for practicing note identification, fingering recognition and music terminology. Students are given a score for each of their practice sessions (races) and results are posted on a worldwide leader board.
Musical Content: This website generates quizzes on note names and fingerings based on instrument. There is also a quiz dedicated to identifying the meaning of musical terminology.
Other information: This resource has instrument selections for band and orchestra instruments, piano and recorder. Vocalists and other instrumentalists should select the instrument that is closest to theirs.
Music Racer is a website that uses games to help reinforce music reading concepts. The purpose of the website is to reinforce musical terms, note names, and fingerings through the use of speed based games. There are multiple levels of difficulty and students can choose their instrument to personalize their game. The games are not customizable and students with at least a half year of experience would benefit most from this website. There is a top 50 leader board for each level of the different games that is based on the speed in which the game is completed. Teachers can use this website as a fun way to continue to reinforce fundamental music reading concepts.
This website is an excellent tool for reinforcing note reading and fluency. Students can progress through three levels of identifying notes on a staff specific to their instrument. They can work to get faster times and eventually reach the top 50 list.
This site has 3 reinforcement games in it for band students. In order to start the games students select their instrument, it then takes them to the appropriate exercise for the students. The reinforcement games are note identification, fingering reinforcement and music terms.
