Something quite new!

I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to start off this blog but I'll start off with this. Let's talk about the lessons I taught at Marion ISD a week and a half ago. Oh yeah, I'm a private french horn instructor by the way and I absolutely LOVE IT because it helps me learn how to teach middle and high school students. But back to what I was going to talk about, I teach lessons at Marion ISD every other week. This last week that I worked, I found myself in a completely new situation as there were no french horn players to teach that day so instead...the instructor asked me to teach a flute and saxophone player.

Whoa.

 



This was definitely going to be a bit of a challenge for me. First of all, I do not play those instruments and was really unfamiliar with how they work.  At this point in time, I was barely learning how to play the flute in my woodwind methods class that I take at TLU. And saxophone...I am a french horn player and reeds are a completely different ball park! I asked the director, Mr. Burhts, if he was serious and he remarked that "yes, I should try teaching a different instrument". I was reluctant but I ended up saying yes.

 

All I kept thinking was "Oh Geez. What am I getting myself into?"

 

So I started with the flute player, Raven, who was in the 6th grade beginning band and true to the definition of "beginner". I only had my french horn to model different notes or my voice...so I chose to just use my voice instead. For those of you who don't know, I am majoring in music education with an emphasis on voice so I felt very comfortable just singing the notes versus the latter. The lesson was only about thirty minutes long but I felt that I had accomplished a lot. I helped Raven learn how to play her notes more legato by using more air to support her sound. I even (thanks to woodwind methods) realized what notes she was playing and was capable of helping her learn how to finger some new notes. A part of me was reluctant to introduce her to new notes on the flute since I wasn't her band director but she was excited to be able to play new songs that required those notes. So the lesson ended and I did not completely mess up!

Yes! That's a relief.

Now onto saxophone which is an instrument I have never played before. This should be interesting...

The student, I found out during the lesson, had never been in band before and was on day four of playing the saxophone. I was asked by Mr. Burhts to help this student play his notes more legato since the notes he was playing were sounding very choppy. I actually really enjoyed teaching this saxophone student because this was an opportunity for me, as an almost music teacher, to be able to use what knowledge I have to help this student play well. Needless to say, I felt that I had the potential to shape how this student plays his instrument and so I proceeded to show him very basic but crucial steps to being a great musician.  Posture, breath control, and good embouchure (the placement of the mouthpiece in the mouth) were three different concepts that I focused on during the lesson. Since I was not familiar with how to play the saxophone, I knew that focusing on those concepts would be more beneficial in the long run. My student was learning and I was excited to see that the sounds he produced on the saxophone were improving with just those simple changes. The lesson ended and I felt confident that he would be able to blend in better with the ensemble the next time they were to meet.

At the end of day, I was pleased with the lessons I had taught and hoped to potentially be given another chance to teach out of the norm. This experience had me wondering, have any of you guys ever taught something or helped somebody with something you were unfamiliar with? What did you do? I know that I was initially was terrified! I felt that I might seem clueless to the students that I was teaching. I'm just wondering, how did you feel afterwards? Was it rewarding or did you feel like you could have done something different? I know that I was pleased with how my instrumental lessons went but there is always room for improvement. :)

Next time I'll be discussing what observing elementary music classes is like. Check it out! Well...until then!