Sarah Ralston

Dr. Palmer
MUSE 250
31 Oct. 2016
Beginning Brass Observation
I went to my former middle school in Indianapolis for my beginning band observation. I
observed the seventh grade band, since that is the first year the students start playing. The band
is not separated by woodwinds and brass, so everyone was together except for percussion.
Since the students have been playing for a few months, they are beginning to get the hang
of handling and assembling their instruments with care. The euphoniums experienced some
collisions with the chair in front of them because they took the instrument out of the case without
watching.
In terms of brass instrumentation, there were 12 trumpets, 6 trombones, 3 euphoniums,
and 2 tubas.
The director began class by scanning the room to make sure that everyone put their
instruments in the proper order, and he immediately went into some warm-up exercises. First, the
whole band played a concert B flat scale in one octave in whole notes. After the band played, he
told the brass to take the mouthpiece off and just buzz the first note. This was very effective in
their playing once they put the mouthpiece back on because when they fist played, the tone was
very fuzzy and pinched, but once they buzzed on only the mouthpiece, I could hear a slight
improvement once the mouthpiece was put back on. The remainder of the warm-up was lip slurs
and producing a good tone through the partials. I noted through the entire rehearsal that the
teacher did not model for the students, but was very good at explaining where the air needs to go

and how the face needs to be formed in order to produce a quality tone. During this rehearsal, the
teacher discussed a lot about tone since they are playing a slow piece for their next concert.
Some the biggest issues that band is facing is simply holding notes long enough without
running out of air. I saw this particularly in the low brass, but the trumpets are having the same
issue. The band director reminded the low brass to take is deep breaths and avoid shallow
breaths. He continually reminded them to keep their teeth apart and blow warm air into the
instrument like you are fogging up a mirror like they are saying ahh.
Overall, the take-aways from this rehearsal is that the band focuses a lot on tone. The
students did really well with fingerings, and the director doesnt model very much but explains
very well. The students remained engaged the entire rehearsal, and paid attention even when the
band director would work with the woodwinds.