I think that most band directors would agree that your performances are made or broken by the strength of the horn players in your group. Over my 20 years as a horn teacher and music educator I have struggled to find a "band" curriculum that I actually like. As a solution to this problem, I have spent thousands of hours taking the sequential nature of my horn curriculum and adopting it into a full band curriculum.
Although I have created tons of resources, including etudes (w/practice tracks), band compositions, solos and chamber music, I believe the highlight of my curriculum are my "Sequential Routines."
I personaly believe that the first 10 minutes of every rehearsal are the most important and that a quaility routine is vital to the development of your band. My Sequential routines are designed to maximize the first 10-ish minutes of your rehearsal so that your students can mazimize their growth from year to year.
I would like to offer my First "Sequential Routine" for free to any band director who would like to explore options for the "Warm Up" time of their rehearsals.
In my own bands, I used this for my 7th grade band, or 2nd year students. So this routine would be ideal for a small school middle school band or for larger schools, your 6th grade intermediate band.
How the routines work:
In simplist terms, after you print the routines and give to your students, you simply press play on the "play along track" and have your students play along with the track. The routines rely on a system of a simple feedback loop, where brass buzz, then play and woodwinds either sizzle and finger/then play, or they can play both times. Over time you can increase the dificulty by increasing the speed on the video and modifying certain parts of the routine to add increased challenges for the players that are ready for it.
Skills found in Sequential Routine_A
Chromatic Tone Developer - Lip/Slurs (2) - Articulation training - 3 Scales (Bb, Eb, Ab) - Chromatic "Etude" - Simple Chorale
If you find this format to be appealing but your band needs something more challenging, or you decided to use it and your band is progressing beyond Routine A, you can purchase my other routines below: ($100 each)
List of Sequential Skill Development
Routine_B: "7th grade" - (Middle School Intermediate Band) Sample
Tone Developer (Expanded) - Lip/Slurs (3) - Articulation training (expanded) - 5 Scales (F, Bb, Eb, Ab, & Db) - Chromatic "Etude" expanded - Chorale (New Key)
Routine_C: "8th Grade" (Middle School Advanced Band) - Sample
Tone Developer (Expanded) - Lip/Slurs (4) - Articulation training (expanded) - 7 Scales (G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, & Db) - Chromatic "Etude" expanded - Chorale (New Key)
Routine_D: "9th Grade" (Freshman Band) - Sample
Tone Developer - Lip/Slurs (5) - Articulation training - 9 Scales (D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db & Gb/F#) - Tone Control study - Chromatic "Etude" (expanded) - Chorale (New Key)
Routine_E: "10th Grade" (Concert Band) - Sample
Tone Developer - Lip/Slurs (3) - Articulation training - All 12 Scales - Tone Control study - Chromatic "Etude" (Faster) - Chorale (New Key)
Routine_F: "11th Grade" (Symphonic Band)- Sample
Tone Developer - Lip/Slurs (3) - Articulation training - All 12 Scales (MM=160) - Tone Control study - Chromatic "Etude" (Faster) - Chester Chorale
Routine_G: "12th Grade" (Wind Ensemble) - Sample
Tone Developer - Lip/Slurs (4-1New) - Articulation training - All 12 Scales (MM=180) - Tone Control study - Chromatic "Etude" (Faster) - Chester Chorale (New Key)
Routine_H: (Advanced Wind Ensemble/College level) - Sample
Tone Developer - Lip/Slurs (4- WW's expanded technique) - Articulation training - All 12 Scales (MM=200) - Tone Control study - Chromatic "Etude" (Faster) - Chester Chorale (New Key)
When you purchase a Routine, You will recieve a PDF score, PDF Parts for all instruments, and a play along video that you can simply play at the beginning of the each class.