Book Description

This document is a brass techniques curriculum that integrates knowledge, performance skills, teaching, and practice, while addressing the pedagogy of all brass disciplines. This integrated approach to teaching brass instruments builds a foundation for music educators in brass instruction, and allows them to teach efficiently by knowing the commonalities to all brass instruments and the unique problems specific to each instrument. As a result, this curriculum provides experience for practical classroom instruction, a direct answer to the inherent problems of widely used curriculums in institutions across America. The purpose of this document remains twofold: to establish a comprehensive collegiate course curriculum for future brass college professors, who will then be able to provide practical tools for future public school music educators to effectively teach the brass family to beginner, intermediate, and more advanced students. This shall be accomplished through the utilization of methods, concepts, literature, and principles of current brass pedagogical studies and writings. The student will learn the concepts of brass pedagogy, including performance, scholarship, maintenance, and repair for each brass instrument (trumpet, horn, trombone and euphonium/tuba). This document outlines a detailed curriculum, accompanied with substantial prose that guides the student/teacher through a practical pedagogical approach to brass techniques. The materials presented in this project offer a standardized method and a reference handbook for music educators. The document is organized into three main sections. Section 1 focuses on the course curriculum outline and how a semester class would be organized to achieve the course objectives. Section 2 is a reference section, devoted to various and detailed pedagogical approaches in teaching each brass instrument. Section 3, or the drill section, deals specifically with classroom performance. The drill section will methodically walk the student from the beginning concepts of producing a sound to performing beginning and intermediate brass ensemble music.