SmartClass is an innovative and simple way to put a world-class clinician in front of your students through SmartMusic. The clinician does all the work for you by preparing lessons accompanied by video instruction to direct the practice. Students enroll in the class and receive assignments automatically for three weeks. All the class materials are within SmartMusic, so there’s no prep, follow-up, or assessment for you to do. SmartClass can be integrated into your own curriculum, or act as supplementary material to elevate your group’s abilities.

Three Game-Changers for Achieving a Better Ensemble Sound

Our debut class has been constructed by Scott Watson, an experienced educator, frequently commissioned composer, and a highly sought-after clinician and guest conductor. In his SmartClass, “Three Game-Changers for Achieving a Better Ensemble Sound,” students will learn how three “game-changing” areas—Phrasing, Balance/Blend, and Intonation—can make a significant impact on an ensemble’s overall sound. During each lesson, students will put these areas into practice using warmups and three band selections.  In addition to assignments, students will view video coaching messages directly from Scott Watson on the class topics. 

Three Game-Changers is best-suited for intermediate band students whose ensembles typically play Grade 2 music.

Learning Outcomes

1. Students will be able to recognize and control their breathing to play phrases—complete musical thoughts—without interruption.
   
2. Students will be able to control their dynamics, tone, and attack in order to blend with others in their section or who share the same musical role (i.e. melody, accompaniment, bass line) and be able to play their part in balance with other sections in the ensemble.
   
3. Students will gain an understanding of tuning and playing in tune with others, using a variety of strategies for recognizing and correcting intonation issues.
   

How can students enroll?

Between February 7th and 20th, students can enroll in Scott Watson’s SmartClass by entering the class code* at https://admin.smartmusic.com/join. For detailed instructions on how to join a class, please visit this help article.

The post Introducing SmartClass: Three Game-Changers for Achieving a Better Ensemble Sound appeared first on SmartMusic.

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Being able to look at a brand new piece of music and play it at sight is a pretty amazing skill to have. Just think—what we’re trained as musicians to do is to simultaneously scan and identify various symbols and visual cues, register and process each one (both individually and collectively), and effectively communicate those instructions to other parts of the body to physically produce the correct sounds. Each element of that split-second process requires its own individual development and understanding, spanning everything from pitch, timing, and dynamics, to harmony, rhythm, and technique—all of which are essential to becoming a well-rounded musician and capable sight reader.

Because of this, for most of us, sight-reading is a skill that takes time to develop, often improving in the background alongside overall musical ability. Similar to learning to read a book, a student’s musical vocabulary and comprehension requires years of deliberate practice (and patience!), and will naturally grow as time goes on the more they are exposed to new elements of the language.

Why Sight-Reading?

It creates confidence

Being able to successfully sight read music on the spot helps musicians measure their ability and overall progress, and affirms that hard work pays off. Plus, strong sight readers gain an edge in auditions and other professional settings.

Stronger foundation in rhythm and pitch

Improving sight-reading fluency also improves the ability to quickly interpret rhythmic patterns combined with interval training and pitch matching.   

Better ears = stronger accuracy

Being able to hear the music before playing or singing a note is another incredible skill that sight-readers develop, also known as audiation. Even if it’s not possible to sing the exact pitches out loud, sight-reading helps the ability to feel the rhythm and get the general direction of the melodic notes and harmony just by looking at the music. This improves overall accuracy tremendously because of the ability to anticipate the pitch and rhythm before playing.

It’s fun

Playing the same or similar warm-ups and routine drills can often become monotonous. Being able to pull out any piece and play or sing it can be fun, challenging, and rewarding.  

Expanded musical opportunities

Strong sight-readers may find additional opportunities to to be of service to other musicians. For example, pianists who sight-read well might find themselves accompanying soloists and choirs. They can also play individual parts for rehearsal purposes. 

More joy 

Musicians who are strong sight-readers will find learning new music far less stressful, which can ultimately create more enjoyment and connection with their instrument and encourage long-term playing. 

Tips for Sight Reading Success

While sight reading often improves in the background alongside general musical ability, when it comes to deliberate sight reading practice, there are various ways to ensure success. Inspired by the recent blog article, 9 Tips for Sight-Singing Success by Andy Beck, here are some practical tips for optimizing sight reading practice:

• Sight-read often. Every day, if possible. Without a doubt, practice pays off.
• Isolate rhythms from pitches. These are two different skills, so work them separately before combining.
• Gradually increase the level of difficulty. A logical sequence of concepts is critical.
• Have a methodology and stick to it. Is Kodáy better than numbers? Is count-singing better than Takadimi? Not at all. Any of these systems is effective with consistency.
• Tap a steady beat or pulse, and try not to stop. Even if you make a mistake, keep going.
• Review before you start. Notice the time signature and key; determine the starting note; examine the rhythms, notes, and intervals; identify potential challenges; then “sing” silently to yourself—all before the official start.
• Emphasize independence! Perform solo or with an accompaniment that does not double the part.
• Always look ahead. As a matter of fact, never look back. While you are singing or playing bar three, your eyes (and mind) should be preparing for bar four.
• Don’t forget tone and technique! Make sight-reading practice musical—a lack of support or confidence might imply errors.

Start a Sight Reading Challenge

Learn how to host a fun sight reading challenge with your students using SmartMusic’s Sight Reading Builder! This DIY “recipe” will help students make a healthy habit out of sight reading and help promote consistent progress. 

More Sight Reading Resources:

• Sight Reading Builder
• Sight-Singing Workshop
• S-Cubed Sight-Singing Curriculum in SmartMusic
• Sound Sight-Reading (Also available in SmartMusic)
• Sing at First Sight (Also available in SmartMusic)
• Improve Your Sight Reading! Series
• More

The post The Benefits of Sight-Reading: The What, Why, and How appeared first on SmartMusic.

Music teachers have to get students to hit 98% accuracy or better. There’s a great example of Jack Stamp showing just what happens when music students don’t achieve mastery. The results are pretty telling – when students don’t push past an “A” (or 90%), the music stop sounding like music. But we don’t necessarily model for students exactly what they should do in order to get “better than an A”. Mastery in performance happens because of individual practice.

There are many techniques that students can use to make their practice time more efficient and effective – slowing the piece down, managing and scheduling practice time, setting clear expectations, and more. In this article, we’ll focus on using SmartMusic’s metronome, looping functions, and Practice Analysis tool to help students achieve mastery.

Metronome

Every music student has been told “start slow, play it correctly, then speed it up little by little to performance tempo.” And every music student has ignored that advice and tried to sight read something far too difficult. SmartMusic’s metronome makes this task easy. Playing along with “My Part” and increasing the speed 4 beats per minute on every play through is as simple as clicking the button in the SmartMusic interface. 

Remind students that perfection on pitch and rhythm is the goal – we’ll work on musicality later. If perfection means playing a second, third, or tenth time at the same tempo before moving on, that’s ok!

Loops

SmartMusic’s looping function makes isolating difficult passages easy. Students can set a loop so that it starts and ends on any beat or note, and then adjust the metronome as they practice so that the loop speeds up. This opens up a number of options for practice:

• Students can isolate a specific section, and slowly increase the tempo
• At a slow tempo for mastery, students can gradually increase the length of the loop, adding a measure on each repetition
• Students can practice alternate articulations or fingerings on each play-through
• Using goal tones when practicing jazz improvisation

Looping gives students different ways to manipulate and adjust their practice so that they’re able to isolate and focus on a specific goal for the day’s practice session. 

Practice Analysis

Student practice time is automatically logged and tracked in SmartMusic, so both the student and their teacher can see how many minutes they spent practicing assignments in a given time period. This can provide the basis for some friendly competition, but also gives students motivation and can serve as a check in. Parents and administrators are often surprised to see just how much (or how little) time students spend working on their musical skills.

Over to You

Modeling each of these approaches helps students learn how to practice. You can do this with a screen-share on Zoom or Google Classroom, and students will also learn (remotely) how to manipulate the SmartMusic interface and gain familiarity with the tool.

The post Create Loops to Turbocharge Student Practice appeared first on SmartMusic.

They also form the driving force behind practice—but how can we set up a process where we can be sure that our students will practice?

Having inquired about the health of our student’s pet hamster (which always gets a lesson off to a good start!), maybe we then ask…

“So what have you been practicing this week?”

It’s a fair question. And here’s what might happen in a perfect world:

If the week’s practice was set up with considerable care, if our student really understood the prescribed activities and all the various ingredients involved… If, during the actual practice, our student felt a sense of achievement and understood how it fitted into an enjoyable and meaningful ongoing learning program… And if our student knows that whatever has been practiced will be duly acknowledged and will form the basis for the next lesson…

…Then we might expect the answer to be enthusiastic, informative, and filled with a positive eagerness for the ensuing lesson. But the truth is (if the answer is indeed truthful) that our question is more likely to be met with a rather negative and defensive response:

“I haven’t had time to do much …”

“I only had time this week to go through my piece last night and it didn’t go very well.”

“I couldn’t remember the notes of C sharp minor arpeggio and got annoyed.”

“I didn’t really understand what you wanted me to do and besides, I was too busy.”

Students, from time immemorial, have found endless reasons for not practicing. All the various reasons why students might not practice are covered in my book, The Practice Process—but right now I’d like to suggest a method through which we can get our students to change their attitude, and begin to think much more positively and enthusiastically about their practice.

The 3 Prongs of Productive Practice

If practice is delivered as a sort of ‘bolt-on’ at the end of a lesson or rehearsal, we certainly can’t be confident that it will be done enthusiastically, or indeed at all! We need to find a method whereby it becomes a natural extension and will always be carried out with purpose and pleasure.

We probably do have one group of students who practice with pleasure—and it’s usually more than just pleasure: this group frequently really love it. I’m thinking of our beginners. It’s all new and exciting and they often can’t get enough of it. But for many, that euphoria soon begins to fade as the novelty wears off, progress seems to slow down, and everything becomes more complex.

What goes wrong? How can we retain this enthusiasm?

The whole problem has largely arisen because we have the notion that the success of our students’ practice is mostly because of things that they do rather than things that we do. If our part in their practicing process is simply giving them a list of things to do, it’s highly likely that things will not be done. If we’re going to start a real transformation, a practice revolution, we are going to have to take on more responsibility and begin to manage their practice with more care. This doesn’t necessarily mean more work or a seismic shift in what we already do. But it will require a change of approach.

The difference is that this new approach puts practice center stage in our teaching and allows students to see it as a natural part of a vibrant, ongoing, and organic process, rather than an often tedious and only vaguely related optional extra. The basis of this approach is really very straightforward and simply requires us to make sure that three things happen. To some extent, we’re probably doing them already—it will just be a case of refining and managing them more effectively.

1. The first is that we regularly talk about, explain, discuss, and describe the practice that our students are going to do, during the whole course of the lesson. Try to use the phrase, “When you practice…” often as lessons unfold.
2. The second is that we decide what is to be done in collaboration with our students, and set it down on paper in a very clear, understandable and engaging manner. It’s not a question of telling our students what they are to practise. The actual substance of a week’s practice needs to develop as a result of a dialogue with them and it needs to be set out with imagination.
3. The third is that we assiduously generate each new lesson out of the practice that students have done.

So, in three words:

Integration, Representation, and Connection.

I call this the Simultaneous Practice Cycle and it’s a topic you can find out much more about in my book, The Practice Process.

The post The Practice Revolution: A 3 Pronged Approach to Productive Practice appeared first on SmartMusic.

The Problem

Most music students simply do not know how to practice effectively. They may have a few, well-worn strategies that help them learn the correct notes and rhythms. Beyond that, however, most students find little success in the practice room.

In fact, I would surmise that if most educators were truly honest, they would probably admit that they do not practice very efficiently themselves. We might also admit that it took many years of trial and error to develop a few effective practice techniques on our own.

Besides, even if we felt we had all the answers, how could we possibly find time during class to talk about practice techniques? Instead, we just tell our students to, “go practice” and come back tomorrow.

The Solution

During the last two decades, I have observed music students struggling with individual practice, and became convinced that there had to be a better way. I worked through countless research studies and read dozens of books to find helpful techniques for students. The result of that work is my latest book, Practicing with Purpose (Meredith Music Publications). It includes 50 practice techniques derived from research studies, anecdotal evidence, discussions with recognized artists, and countless conversations with students. The resulting text provides teachers and students with the philosophies, strategies, and tools to navigate the practice process more effectively and efficiently.

Teaching students to practice effectively can be more enjoyable than you might imagine. When I speak to music teachers about teaching practice techniques to their students, I highlight a few of the strategies found in the book. Two of the more popular suggestions relate to practice plans and assessment, as described below.

Practice Plans

Imagine that you are the track coach at your school, and the athletes are showing up for their first track practice session of the new season. What is your job at this moment? My guess is that you are going to say a few words of inspiration, and then split everyone into disciplines (hurdles, long jump, 400m relay, etc). Next, you are going to describe the workout session for each group. For the 400m runners it might look something like:

• Warmup – two laps on track, medium speed
• Stretches – as prescribed by coach
• Drills (event) – 4 X 400 at 70% followed by 30-sec rest
• Drills (speed) – 4 X 100 at 90% followed by 30-sec rest
• Exercises – core workout as prescribed by coach
• Cool Down – light running/walking on track

This point is that every group of athletes is given a workout plan developed by an expert in the field. The athletes do not have to develop a plan on their own. They simply execute the workout plan to the best of their ability.

What would happen if we applied this concept to music study? I recommend developing a workout plan (practice plan) for your students in each group. Say a few inspiring words and then let the students execute the plan that you created for them. I firmly believe that this one change in your teaching will make a significant impact on your music program.

A simple practice plan might look something like:

• Warmup – Long tones with excellent posture and holding position
• Drill – E-flat major scale, tongued, eighth-note=80 bmp – two times
• Drill – Concert Piece, m. 12-36, learn notes/rhythms with metronome @ 76 bmp
• Drill – Record yourself playing the bottom line of a short duet, then play top line along with the recording
• Cool Down – record time and reflections on practice card/journal

Assessment

Once practice plans have been established in your music program they also provide opportunities for meaningful assessment data. Many music teachers utilize practice cards to collect assessment data. Students complete the practice cards based on the amount of time they practiced at home. Parents (theoretically) corroborate with the students, sign the card, and students earn grade points. In my experience, however, time is not a good indicator of progress. Are parents really checking to see if that practice card is accurate anyway? We already know the answer…

Instead of practice cards based on time alone, try a different approach. Provide practice plans for the students as described above and then ask them to return two pieces of information:

1. Time: how much time did each task on the practice plan require?
2. Reflection: what got better today, what still needs improvement?

Music teachers can alter the reflection questions/prompts each day/week to gather more specific information from students. Those responses will inform future practice plan creation. Eventually, more mature students will be able to create practice plans on their own based upon effective, post-practice reflection. The student-created practice plans become another piece of assessment data.

SmartMusic includes world-class assessment tools. Try it for free.

A Cyclical Process

Motivation in the practice room is a cyclical process. First, students need to be given practice plans with small, achievable goals developed by an expert in the field. Next, they need to execute the practice plan and realize progress on their instrument. Finally, they need an extrinsic reward for doing the work. That simple process provides the motivation that will feed a life-long love of practice.

The post Practicing with Purpose: Motivating Student Practice appeared first on SmartMusic.

Here’s a short snippet of some rehearsal that occurred when the musicians were first sight-reading Bret Zvacek’s We, Too, just one of the many pieces recorded that day. Do you wish your ensembles sounded this good while sight reading?

Hear the final mix of this recording.

After the session concluded we spoke to Doug Beach about these recordings and how educators can best use them with their students. Doug also offered some practical tips to share with directors of young jazz bands. We share them all in the videos below.

Publisher Recordings and SmartMusic

As mentioned above, the purpose of the recordings made this day were to promote new Kendor and Doug Beach Music jazz ensemble charts. Most publishers record all of their new offerings. These “demo recordings” give their customers a clear idea of how well each new piece can sound.

For this purpose, publishers typically record them with the highest quality standards, and with the very best professional musicians. It makes sense to show your music in the best possible light.

When we add new titles in SmartMusic, we seek out these kinds of recordings from our publisher partners for use as SmartMusic accompaniments. Because every nuance of interpretation is professionally executed, they not only make SmartMusic exhilarating to play along with, but they also provide students with world-class musicianship to model their own performances after.

Our own Ryan Sargent talked to Doug Beach about how educators might use these recordings with their students:

Modeling and the Power of Listening

Ryan also asked Doug about what specifically students should listen for with these recordings. Doug offered some great advice for students and educators alike, with an emphasis on the importance of listening to the music first.

Doug’s Rhythm Section Tips

Both Doug and Ryan are horn players. They can empathize with the challenges horn players experience when first trying to guide a young jazz band rhythm section. Again, Doug offers some tips. As a bonus you get to hear the disembodied voice of MakeMusic’s own Ashley Trupp (also seen in the upper right corner of the image at the top of this post):

If you’re not using SmartMusic with your students, now’s a good time to reconsider and take advantage of benefits like world-class recordings from Kendor and Doug Beach Music. You can begin using SmartMusic in your classroom for a little as $39.99 a year. Even better, you can try it out for free.

The post Using SmartMusic’s Reference Recordings with Your Students appeared first on SmartMusic.

First We Go Shopping

One of the first things I ask of my students is to purchase their own set of the etudes we will be working on, in order to respect copyright laws. Then, I will ask them to make a copy of the particular etude we will be studying, so they can make whatever markings they want to on it. In that way, they will have a practice copy and a performance copy. Ideally, the practice copy will be marked up so much that they would not want to use this in their performance, yet they won’t have to spend time and effort erasing markings later. In addition, this also ensures they will retain something to refer to later. This can be helpful if they choose to subsequently rework the piece themselves, or as a reference when working with future students.

Isn’t Homework Only for Core Subjects?

Not exactly! Though most of a musician’s homework is to practice, devoting some time to “book study” prior playing a piece for the first time can be time well spent. In fact, this study can reduce the need for rehearsal time and reduce frustration. Taking time to draw a “road map” of the etude will help to heighten the understanding of what the composer was trying to create when writing it. For students considering going on to music study in college, this “book study” will also introduce them to the Form and Analysis classes they may have to take. All etudes, from the simplest to the most advanced, can be broken down into smaller passages to facilitate learning.

I recently presented a clinic titled “From the Couch to the All-State Cello Section” at the Texas Music Educators Association conference in San Antonio. In that session  I specifically detailed cello etudes No. 15 and 17 of David Popper, and No. 16 of Merk, which were recently used as audition material for the Texas all-state orchestras. In my own analysis, I bracketed these entire etudes into smaller sections, mainly by eight-measure phrases, or where there were natural breaks. Some sections had as few as six measures, while others had as many as 10-12 measures.

The main reason for the bracketing is to prevent students (and myself) from “rambling aimlessly” through the entire etude, and instead to focus on working on one section at a time. It is more efficient to do more repetition with fewer measures than to do more measures with less repetition. Doing one small section more often enhances muscle memory, which results in a faster and more efficient way of learning.

According to statisticbrain.com, the average attention span of an individual is less than 20 seconds. If one were to practice an etude only from the beginning to the end consistently, the end would always sound weaker, as the average length of most etudes is more than four minutes. Also, because muscles don’t have brains, they will do what we repeatedly have them do. If they are always learning something (like an ending) at a tired state, they may likely learn it incorrectly.

How and Where to Bracket

My students and I find it most helpful to place the brackets around similar ideas. For example, imagine a descending sequence of arpeggios in which the downbeat of each measure is a step lower than the previous measure. Such a sequence would be bracketed from its beginning to its end. If the next section is a sequence in the opposite direction, it would receive another bracket, and so on. Other factors that can determine where to place the brackets include a similarity of left-hand shapes, melodic and/or rhythmic sequences, and technical passages that are completely different from anything else.

After bracketing the entire etude, I will number each section. How you number the brackets depends on the learning style of each teacher and/or student. I like to number the sections from what I see as the “easiest” section (bracket 1), to the most difficult. I will also have my students begin their learning and practicing of the etude with bracket 1, just because it is a confidence builder and gives one more motivation to continue on. If they were to start with the most difficult section, frustration and doubts are more likely to set in, possibly making one feel inept, incapable, and more likely to give up.

Have Fun with Colors

After the bracketing task is complete, I will color-code my copies of etudes, and encourage my students

to do the same. I use color-coding to identify things that are EXACTLY alike, from a one-half measure fragment that repeats, to several measures. Many etudes have identical repeated measures; when a student can identify them, they are often encouraged. These are measures they already know — they’re this much closer to working through the entire piece!

In comparing this idea to a textbook in any other school subject, students tend to spend more time with books that are colorful and visually appealing. Having colors on a copy work in the same way, versus just looking at hundreds of black notes on a white page.

I prefer crayons to colored pencils as crayons are easier to color with, just make sure to use light colors. A Popper or Duport etude can have as many as 15 different colors, so when purchasing crayons, one should buy at least a box of 24 colors. While highlighters are attractive they typically do not offer enough color options.

Slow and Steady Does Win the Race

Once the bracketing and coloring are complete, one can begin the actual practicing. I have my students

work on no more than one or two sections a day when initially learning a new etude. I suggest they play one section several times, slowly, including all correct rhythms, bow directions, articulations, tone, and pitches. I save working at final tempo until several weeks later, allowing correct muscle memory to develop before speed.

Once a performance date has been established, we set up a calendar to have the etude fully memorized and performable a month prior to the actual audition or performance date. About a month before the day of performance, I suggest they take a week to 10 days away from that music.  Such a rest will ensure it doesn’t sound worn out at the audition. Two weeks before the audition, they will practice perform it only once each day as they are allowed only one performance the day of the audition. With a few days to go before the performance, I suggest that they play everything through completely under tempo, as a way to relax, yet completely detail intonation and tone.

Great results are the product of great preparation. Instead of wondering if they have done enough preparation, I encourage my students to create and complete a 100-performance page to help them track and recognize the extent of their preparation. This is a page with 50 numbered lines on each side, with columns for the name of each etude or orchestra excerpt being studied. (Each time students practice perform one of the pieces they mark the date in the appropriate column.) Walking into an audition knowing you have performed something 100 times – to the best of your ability – is a great way to counter insecurity and boost confidence.

Photo from “David Popper: 40 Studies (High School of Cello Playing), Opus 73 for Solo Cello” [IMC811] used by permission of International Music Company.

The post Help Students Analyze Music for More Efficient and Effective Practice appeared first on SmartMusic.

How is Flute Tone Created?

Flute tone is created by blowing on a sharp edge causing the air inside a tube to vibrate due to the buildup of air pressure. 

The air inside the tube gains air pressure, and the air outside the tube remains at a lower pressure. This difference in air pressure is unstable and the vibrating air has no choice but to escape the tube at the first possible point. The longer the tube, the slower the frequency of vibration. Correspondingly we put more fingers down for low notes and fewer for high notes. (We also push in if we are flat and pull out if we are sharp.)

The Importance of Your Air Stream

Without getting lost in the details, we must ensure that we have a good air stream. Two important variables govern the creation of tone: Speed and Flow. The goal is for each student is to find the optimal combination of airspeed and steady air pressure. The air column originates deep inside our body and travels through the flute and into the world to the point that the air pressure equalizes. Air molecules are set into vibration at the point where the air strikes the lip plate. Once that happens the entire column will vibrate – including that which is inside of the lips. 

Step One

Direct students to create a funnel shape inside their mouth. This is done by relaxing the base of the tongue, opening up the teeth, and allowing the soft palate to rise naturally. When a big breath fills the mouth with air while in this position, the airspeed will be forced to increase as it approaches the embouchure. The embouchure is the smallest point of the funnel, so it must be engaged create a fast air stream. 

Step Two

Point the tip of the tongue toward the small opening. The tongue acts as a wick, allowing the air to travel on it from deep inside the body to the outside world. This allows the funnel to stay intact and keeps the back of the tongue from disrupting the airflow. 

Step Three

Allow the base of the tongue to relax and lay flat. The base of the tongue should be in a neutral resting position. This area of the body must remain neutral and allow air to flow from low in the body. Next, instruct the student to take in a full breath and send the air through the flute. Notice that this position requires more air as a larger resonating cavity has been created. I tell students to think of this like yoga for the flute: you have just become more flexible and you must now fill up a bigger space with air than previously.

Remind students to take in a bigger and more relaxed breath to optimize their tone!

Exercises

Blowing Kisses

1. Kiss on the center of the palm creating suction while gently pulling away the hand, observe the lips reaching out.
2. Blow on the palm, observing the lips reaching out and shaping a highly focused airstream.

Headjoint Only

1. Place the headjoint in the crook between lip and chin with embouchure hole level with the floor. (“Don’t spill the drink.”)
2. Blow in the same manner as in the blowing kisses exercise.
3. Use the bottom lip to aim the air higher and make higher notes, the top lip to aim lower and make lower notes.
4. Practice with open tube, closed tube, from low to high with closed tube, low to high with open tube.

Headjoint with Chopstick

1. Repeat the headjoint-only exercise with a chopstick in the mouth, forcing the lips to reach forward.

I hope you find this information useful as you guide your students toward creating a beautiful tone.

The post Creating a Beautiful Flute Tone appeared first on SmartMusic.

Asa Burk is the associate director of bands at Argyle High School in Argyle, Texas. In this archived webinar, Asa expands on his recent sight-reading blog post with additional tips you can put to use today.

You Will Learn:

• How to customize your sight-reading plan
• Asa’s suggestions on a timeline for implementing your plan

Watch the “Teaching Sight Reading Throughout The Year” Video:

Did you find this presentation on improving sight reading useful? Please let us know what you think on Facebook or Twitter.

The post Video: Asa Burk Shares Tips on Improving Sight Reading appeared first on SmartMusic.