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Should my child bring the instrument home?

The following question is always asked at the Christmas Concert: “So when can

Johnny start bringing the instrument home to practice?”

If your child does not bring home the instrument starting in August, you should be concerned. 

Your child has daily assignments to practice.

 

Practicing Tips:

Find a set time to practice everyday. After a couple weeks, it should become a habit.

Turn off the radio, TV & computer.

Do not eat or drink soft drinks while you practice.

Thirty minutes of practicing a night produces the best results.

As in baseball, if you don’t practice your fastball, will you improve? No. You will not improve

on your band instrument, if you do not practice.

Have your child give a “concert” for you once a week.

Don’t let your child waste the money on your investment.

I am not musically inclined. How do I know if my child is practicing properly?

  • In the beginning stages you should hear lots of “long tones”.

  • That simply means you will hear your child hold different notes or pitches for a long time.

  • If your child is a brass player, you should hear mouthpiece buzzing a lot.

  • In fact, if you find your child looking in the bathroom mirror and buzzing a mouthpiece,

  • your child is doing exactly what he/she should be doing. Just understand that it is a brass thing.

  • After the first notes are learned, you should hear short tunes that you will probably recognize from your childhood.

  • Around October,  the proper practice routine should sound something like this:

Buzzing (Brass players only)

Long Tones

Scales

Lines from your book

Christmas Concert music

If you do not hear the above in that order, then your child is practicing improperly.

 

How can I help my child study?

The biggest struggle for students in the beginning is note identification. If a child does

not learn the notes, then he/she will struggle until the notes are learned.

Make Flashcards!! I will show how to make these in the meeting. If you need help, please

let me know. Simply draw the note on the card and on the back side, write the name of the

note. If you look in your child’s book, you should be able to figure out how to draw it.