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[tbonezach]

Hello all!
I have been teaching private lessons to elementry students and high school students for the past four years and now I have my first middle school student.
The question I have is, what should I be teaching him? What area should I focus on?

Any advice is accepted!

Thanks in advance!

[normrowe]

The usual: sound, intonation, slide technique ... the basics until he/she has a good handle on them, then move on to the other stuff.

[JSBassTrb]

Focus on creating a characteristic sound

[John Beers Jr.]

When you start teaching a high school student that has not, previously, undergone private instruction, you'll probably end-up dealing with a somewhat backward seventh or eighth-grader.

Figure with a middle school student, they can be said to be a somewhat backward fifth grader.

First, work on holding the instrument comfortably and finding a nice relaxed horn position/horn angle. Work on breathing in a relaxed way. Work on producing the single best tone they can on the F in the middle of the staff, then on a Bb chromatic scale (if they can reach 7th position, else try a C chromatic scale, there's no point in teaching them that 7th position is half an inch past 6th position, if that's all they can reach).

Work on articulations, dynamics, rhythm, keeping good time.

Just remember not to push too hard on range- range (at least the standard range of the trombone, up to high B-flat, down to a low F or a D with an f-attachment) will come naturally as the student's chops build strength and familiarity with the horn as he moves into/through high school, unless there's something terribly wrong. Pushing too hard will only lead to bad habits and "I absolutely have to hit that note!" types of tension, and he's gotten enough of that from his clarinetist/percussionist band directors to date.

EDIT: On that same note, make sure to give them time to take the horn off their face and get some blood back to their chops. You might feel comfortable playing nonstop for 45 minutes, but they might not be, and exhaustion leads to bad habits and unwillingness to practice.

[Sn4zzle]

Idk how to explain this. Middle schools teach students very badly. When I got to HS my tone was fine, my articulation sucked. I could not sightread to save my life. Oh and I did not know how to count 8th notes.

[Steve]

Idk how to explain this. Middle schools teach students very badly. When I got to HS my tone was fine, my articulation sucked. I could not sightread to save my life. Oh and I did not know how to count 8th notes.

Let's not blame this squarely on middle school teachers. Sure, there are limitations in the classroom setting, no doubt about it. However, the sad fact is that middle school students who really practice and do it smartly are the exception not the rule. To make a blanket statement about middle school teachers just isn't fair. Try doing it. Where I live the teachers usually teach in an all inclusive class, so they have to teach clarinet and flute in the same class they have to teach brass. Anyway...
This past weekend I was a judge for junior district band in my area, and I will concur that rhythms, especially when sight reading were terribly weak. So I would say for your middle school students, make proper rhythm counting and sight reading a big focus. Don't play or sing the rhythms to the student, make them count it out. The minute you sing or play it for them, they will pick it up by rote and counting goes out the window. This is very hard to avoid in a classroom setting (the students hear what the person next to them is doing and imitate), and a great example of why private lessons are so valuable.

[Sn4zzle]

Yes yes, we have ww, bw, and percussion classes in our middle schools too. Then like 3 or 4 days before the closet we all get together and hack it out. I think one thing about middle schools is just getting the kids more into it. Everyone in middle school, except for a few students, seem to always think by 8th grade they will be awesome. I know I did, and when me and almost my entire class got to HS we thought we were the God's gift to Earth. I think it would be better if the MS teacher's were maybe a little more strict about showing the MS kids what the highschoolers are doing and, if they are anything like how I was in MS, get a copy of some music and make them play it. I used to think everything I heard was so easy and now I am humbled by tons of people at just how great they are. I look back on MS and wish I knew I really was not that great and I had someone pushing me. I do not particularly blame anyone other than myself for being a cocky asshat but still I think kind of weeding out who is in it for the long haul would be better.