Episode 290 - How Much Time Should You Spend On Fundamentals When I first started teaching, I thought I didn’t have time for fundamentals. Maybe I spent ten minutes of a 45 minute rehearsal on technique, scales, tone, tuning, arpeggios and long tones. Believe it or not, now I spend more than half our rehearsal time on those. I explain to the students that learning scales and other fundamentals makes more difficult and more interesting music attainable for us. They get it! When you explain the why, the implementation becomes easier. Put the responsibility for sounding great on the students. They need to take responsibility. We're so used to taking charge as directors. Use questions to get students to think. Instead of “trumpets were overblowing here” say “What did you notice about the sound at letter A? What could we improve?”

 

Resources…

Jazz From The Start - Jazz and improvisation curriculum you can use as soon as students know 5 notes

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