If the first answer is usually "The Teacher"...the second questions could be.... "who else can I ask?", or "what strategies have I tried first?"

1. Is the answer posted somewhere in the room, or is included in your binder (fingering charts, wall of musical knoweldge)

2. Did you ask someone else who plays your instrument for a suggestion?

3. If you still can't solve the issue - ask the teacher

Kids like strategies

Often, especially for neurodiverse students, it isn't the skill that is the issue, it's knowing where to start or what to do if things don't go as planned.

Example 1: First day with instruments - My goal is to have students generate one or two ways to produce a nicer sound.

1. My first instruction is to "play a note for 4 beats"...no other suggestions.

2. Ask "Was that a good sound?"

they usually say no. I respond with "What could we do to make it a better sound"...if they don't have any ideas I suggest varying how much air they use. 

3. We play again. 

4. Ask "Is that a better sound?"

5. Ask "what did you do differently?" (more or less air, more or less mouthpiece etc)

6. Have them explain what they did to a partner

7. Make a list as a class of the strategies that worked...and now the students have a starting point for improving their sound.

Example 2: Making students responsible for keeping track of pulse and time

This is a skill I work on fairly early. I don't want them to view the conductor as just a human metrenome.

1. I give the following instruction " we are going to play concert Bflat for four beats...only four beats and we are all going to stop perfectly together....without me conducting. I will count you in so you know the tempo... 1-2-3-breathe"

2. They play and dont stop together

3. Ask "Did we stop together? What is one thing we could try individually to help us keep track of the time" (tap a foot, count in our heads, listen to the tempo set so we know how fast..."

4. Try again - and again...but usually 4 or 5 tries and they can all stop together.

5. I then start changing up the tempo, and length required....they enjoy the challenge.

By the end...they understand that ultimately, keeping time is an individual responsibility.

Example 3: Helping Brass Players Lip Up and Down to Match Pitch

(I do this activity on our first brass sectional day, while the woodwind players work on their embochure project independant study)

1.  Start with just the mouthpiece.

2. Level 1 -  We buzz low, high, low, high as a call and response. I have both a trumpet and baritone mouthpiece that I go back and forth with when demonstrating.

3. Level 2 - We buzz low, middle, high as a call and response

4. Level 3 - Call and response "Mary had a little Lamb" 

5. Level 4 - Call and response "O Canada"

6. Level 5 - Add the instrument - on concert B flat, - low middle high...once they have that move to the second note of the scale...and then the third. 

If students are struggling to reproduce the different pitches I have them watch my mouth, what is moving, what isn't (it's my lower jaw that goes up and down, mouthpiece is anchored against my top lip). 

We might play with firming up our embochure - we make what I call duck bill face..we do a breathing excercise with it, then add mouthpiece...it's really hard to not buzz when blowing air out through your duck bill face. We practice changing the size of our apperature with and without the mouthpiece.

We discuss the psychology behind raising our eyebrows. We focus on keeping our body calm and anchored, letting our face do the work.

I follow up over the next week with a friendly "Play O Canada on your mouthpiece contest", we play "Name that Tune" where the rest of the band has to guess the song played on just a mouthpiece.

The next time a student is too high or too low I ask them to go back to what we did in sectionals and try the "Find your Note Strategy"

 1. Play low, middle, high with the correct fingering...and decide which sound we want..

 2. reproduce just that sound (sometimes we sing it as well)

 3. try starting on that pitch with the music you are working on.

Example 4: Building Fluency in Moving between Fingerings for Woodwinds

In our first day of woodwind sectionals i teach the students "The Metrenome Strategy"

This is a great, efficient and focused way to solve issues that have to do with fluency and getting sections up to speed.

The rule of 3 is important...when we can do it correctly 3 times we can move on.

1. Set the metrenome to a ridiculously slow speed - and use the ticks as the shortest notation...so if your shortest notation in the passage is an eighth note, each tick would be ab eighth note.

Pro Tip - try not to refer to shorter notes as fast notes. I often show the class the sheet music for Fur Elise...it's all 16th notes. Before I play it for them I ask, "Do you think this song has fast notes or slow notes"...then I play it for them and demonstrate that 16th notes can be slow...tempo is not the same as duration.

2. Have students SAY/SING the note names as they Move their fingers (3 times the first couple of times, then I move to just once)

3. Have the students Play the part when they can do it three times correctly move the tempo up 2 bpm...

4. repeat

In a matter of minutes you can reinforce a short passage and get it up to tempo.

For my beginners this would be playing their first 2 notes,

Step 1: go back and forth 6 times...first sing/say one time, then play 3 times...

Flute: Bflat, C,Bflat, C,Bflat, C

Clarinet: C,D,C,D,C,D

Alto: G,A,G,A,G,A

Step 2: once they get those two notes I add one more....

Flute: C,D,C,D,C,D, etc

Step 3: Go back and do all three

Pro Tip: It is important not to learn passages in isolation. Whenever you master one small passage, start a measure or 2 earlier to make sure you have actually learned it in the context. (often it's the notes leading into a section that are causing the issues as well...so this solves that issue too)