Scaffolding For Middle School Brass Musicians

Aaron Rex, Mason Middle School

In July of 2020, I transitioned into a new job in the Mason City Schools near Cincinnati, Ohio. In this position, I team teach three ability-based 8th grade bands, and two 7th grade brass classes. As the brass specialist on staff, I also take the lead in planning all brass instruction at Mason Middle School. With only seeing our 7th grade brass students every other day, it was clear that the pacing of brass instruction was much slower compared to woodwinds and percussion. In particular, students greatly struggled with being able to discern between correct and incorrect pitches as they navigated challenges of technical and embouchure development.

Since I am not able to see my 7th grade brass students every day, I need to make sure they have the skills to be independent learners and motivated to practice successfully on days their band class does not meet. After collecting a great amount of data, I came to the conclusion that pitch accuracy is the most significant hurdle young brass students face. Often students become frustrated, because they are not able to identify what music notation “sounds like.” Over the past few years, I have incorporated new instructional strategies to improve pitch accuracy by adopting a “Brass Learning Sequence” that is built around scaffolding brass playing concepts needed for student success.

Figure 1 below shows the four steps of the learning sequence I created for my students.

Figure 1: Brass Learning Sequence

The number of measures for each individual learning sequence is determined by the melodic pattern I intend to have students play in each final step. Depending on the difficulty of the melodic patterns, this could be anywhere from one to eight measures. Figure 2 shows how a simple melody like “Hot Cross Buns” would be broken down into two separate melodic patterns.

Figure 2: Melodic Patterns in “Hot Cross Buns”

In the first step, “Count It!”, students assign counts to the rhythmic pattern and then count the rhythm out loud while tapping their toe to the steady beat provided by a metronome. Students say the counts out loud associated with note values, but not rests. We use the Teaching Rhythm Logically approach by Dacry Vogt Williams at Stiles Middle School in Leander, Texas. Counts for rests are shown smaller with a slash through them to indicate silent counts. For notes longer than an eighth note value, students pulse their voice to keep the subdivision of the beat active and connected to their toe tap. Figure 3 shows counts written in for the first melodic pattern of “Hot Cross Buns.”

Figure 3: Figure Example of Writing in Count

The “Sing It!” step incorporates the tonal patterns to help facilitate audiation of the melodic pattern. Using the Harmony Director, I first model the tonal pattern as half notes at 80 beats per minute. Then students sing the tonal pattern back to me on solfege or a neutral syllable while I play it with them on the Harmony Director. I then repeat this same process for the melodic pattern while students finger along. Figure 4 shows the tonal patterns and Figure 5 shows the application of the tonal patterns to the melodic pattern. In a homogeneous setting, students can also say note names on pitch or even fingerings or slide positions.

Figure 4: Tonal Patterns in “Hot Cross Buns”

Figure 5: Application of Tonal Pattern #1 to Melodic Pattern #1.

For the “BERP It!” step,. students perform the melodic pattern on their BERPs while I again model and produce the pitches on the Harmony Director as they BERP. The BERP, meaning Buzzing Extension Resistance Piece, is a great tool that clips on to a student’s lead pipe or bell. This step starts to combine the audiation skill development from the singing of tonal patterns with the executive skills of the fingerings, vibrations, and articulations needed to produce accurate pitches on their instruments.

Figure 6: The “Buzz It!” step in the Brass Learning Sequence

The final step has students putting all audiation and executive skills together to “Play It!” The first pitch will be sounded on the Harmony Director for students to match, and students are instructed to sing or audiate the melodic pattern in their head as they perform it on their instruments. Figure 7 shows the “Play It!” step of the Brass Learning Sequence.

Figure 9: The final “Play It!” step in the Brass Learning Sequence.

As students become more proficient at audiating and sounding pitches, some steps can be skipped if I feel students are ready. If not, I go back and break down a section using our Brass Learning Sequence. For example, if the rhythm is still a concern when students get to the “Play It!”, go back and review the “Count It!” step.

Our motto at Mason is “Slow is Fast.” Too many times we ask too much of our students at once. By incorporating this Brass Learning Sequence with our middle school brass students, it has afforded us the ability to scaffold all necessary skills for beginning and developing brass musicians at the middle school level. I have incorporated this sequence with all levels of middle school brass musicians, and it has absolutely yielded positive results. Students are better able to identify tonal patterns and audiate melodies in their head while playing. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need assistance in incorporating this into your instruction or unique band setup.

${prev-page}

${next-page}