Embedded Files
Welcome
Welcome to my teacher resources page! Everything here can be downloaded for free. If you feel like shooting me a tip though, I'm not going to say no. I've indicated a discounted price for educators who are just trying to make things work at their school, and a higher price for established programs. These are just aspirational prices though. If you have the means, time, and get use out of something, please do pay what you can. If you just need ideas, a tip would be nice. If you're just trying to get anything going where you are, just let me know if something here works for you and you can leave it at that. :)
I've included a random array of things here that should basically be fair game to share. At least that's my intention.
Happy perusing. As always, let me know if you find any errors. Some of this stuff I made years ago.
Suggested Donations:
Zelle: @ christhomas27@gmail.com
QR codes for both are at the bottom (on mobile), or to the right (on pc/mac)
Winds Packet
Here are the packets I hand out to my wind classes. The books are intended for ensemble practice from 7th grade through 12th grade, although some of the exercises are only meant for advanced ensembles.
I also include a set of fingering charts, and some short instrument care / repair info in each packet when I print them for my students. Those are copyrighted though, so I can't give them out here.
Suggested donation: FREE
A one page guide to help students organize chamber music rehearsals. I also use it to explain ensemble practices.
Suggested donation:
$15 director in a pinch
$35 established program
A 105 page document with breathing exercises, long tones, lip slurs, articulation exercises, scales, interval exercises, arpeggios, grace note exercises, patterns, and tuning exercises written for middle and high school band classes.
Suggested donation:
$25 director in a pinch
$125 established program
14 page packets for middle or high school band classes that cover breathing exercises, long tones, lip slurs, articulation exercises, scales, interval exercises, arpeggios, grace note exercises, patterns, and tuning exercises.
Suggested donation:
FREE (I love Breathing Bob)
A silly thing that I used to hang from my music stand playing lead trumpet in Jazz One at CWU. I give it to my students, and it either helps them, or just confuses them. Jury's out...
Marching Band Packet
Suggested Donation:
$20 director in a pinch
$75 established program
I use a shortened packet for our marching band with the intention that we'll get through the whole thing, memorize it, and use most of it each day in rehearsal, and at contests. This would also be a good packet for symphonic programs that don't want or need a large packet like the one above. The whole packet is intended to use with
Jazz Packet
Suggested donation for the full packet:
$30 director in a pinch
$100 established program
FULL PACKET
You'll have to email me for this. Includes everything.
Suggested donation: FREE
Just the cover page for my class fakebooks. Steal the aesthetic, if you like.
Suggested donation: $10
Save a lot of time figuring out which standards are safe for beginners, and work in order so you don't have as many days with massively confused students.
A printable table of contents for my fakebooks, with the chords involved in each tune. Sorted by alphabet and also by difficulty level - AND an expanded set of details on each tune, including the year composed, key, and my full difficulty rubric - in case you're curious...
Suggested donation:
$20 director in a pinch
$40 established program
A 12 page Rosetta Stone for young jazz musicians. This spells out the basic arpeggios and scales behind each common jazz chord, in every key. It also provides several altered scales to use over each chord type. I didn't grow up playing jazz, but this has been extremely useful in helping new jazz kids, in an ensemble setting, pick up and retain the basics of which fingers go with which chords and why.
** The actual jazz standards are copyrighted, so I can't share them here - plus they're all already available in the Real Book and/or in the Real Easy Book. That said, I did reformat them so they're all easier to read for my students. Email me, if you want a sample. **
Mallet Packet
Suggested donation: $15
A short set of exercises meant to get *everyone* in your percussion ensemble up to a basic level. Changing dynamics, keys, and other details happens verbally in class, but the packet is a good set of bones to keep everyone honest.
Includes an inclusive part on auxiliary instruments for students of all ability levels.
New Orleans Brass Band Tunes
New Orleans Brass Band music is amazing for school bands. Want some tunes to bring jazz to everyone? Teach a few of these to your pep band(s). Have a jazz program with several missing parts? These will work great, as long as you have 1+ drummer, 1+ bass instrument, and 1+ melody player. For a while, I ran Friday mornings for NOLA music, with my advanced jazz members meeting in a pull out for combo stuff. It was great to get my advanced players out of the room, and let the new improvisers figure it out. It also became a place for kids who couldn't do a full jazz band to come and get some jazz experience on some really fun music.
Suggested donation: $15
A Mighty Mighty Bosstones cover from Live at the Middle East. You can reduce the bass part to make it a little easier, but it's pretty fun!
Suggested donation: $15
A tune my students and I came up with several years ago. It was inspired by a ringtone...
Suggested donation: $15
I recommend starting with this tune. A classic of the brass band world.
Suggested donation: $15
A NOLA Standard basically as recorded by the New Birth Brass Band.
Suggested donation: $15
The Sonny Rollins tune with a familiar Mingus inspired bass line. It works for Brass Band.
Suggested donation: $15
If you have several brass band tunes going, and you want more - here you go!
Suggested donation: $15
If you're just looking for something fire with a solo section, here you go...! :)
Other Band Things
Suggested donation: $10
My 14 page band syllabus, with formatting and policies. Take anything that is useful to you.
Suggested donation: $10
A bunch of assignments I've put together for teaching theory to my classes. I let them retake each quiz as many times as they need to, and just turn in the score they want to keep.
Suggested donation: $5
My contribution to the band world... the balance pyramid, mixed with 'melody play out', 'if you can see through the note, you should hear through the note', balancing chord tones, and other balance considerations....
Guitar Materials (to follow...)
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