Hi everyone,

Here is the homework for this week.

Jonathon:

  • The metronome app I use is called “Pro Metronome”. It’s free on the app store!
  • Start your practice sessions by working your way down the fingering chart from Bb to low E. Keep the metronome at 60, and try holding each note for 8-12 beats. To change it up, you may try starting to note quietly, crescendo-ing until the halfway point, and then coming down again, and “tapering” the note out.
  • A variation of going down the fingering chart chromatically is taking the four note groupings like we talked about. (eg. Bb, A, Ab, G; A, Ab, G, Gb; Ab, G, Gb, F, and so on)
  • Once you have worked on this, move on the register slurs. Start on your lowest note (E) and work your way up the fingering chart chromatically (E, F, F#, G, so on) Put the metronome on 60, hold your first note for four beats, and then add the register key on the fifth beat. If all works out, you will be up a twelfth which is an octave, plus four. Eg: E becomes B. E to E = an octave, then we add four notes: F, G, A, B
  • Work on the first three or so pages in the Rubank book. Try the exercises with a metronome. Try not to rush, and to hold each note for its full value!

Susan:

  • Spend a generous amount of time working on Bolero. Listen to different recordings on YouTube, and play along with them as well! Even if you can’t get all of the notes at first when the piece is up-to-speed, you’ll be able to hear the rhythms much more clearly once you play along with a recording.
  • On that note, spend some more time working out the more complex rhythms in the piece. Take things bar by bar, and only add in another bar when you feel comfortable. Same goes for ties and articulation markings – try playing without them first, then adding them back in.
  • If there are any “offbeat” or syncopated rhythms, keep in mind what we talked about. For example, if you have an eighth note on the AND of 1, try adding another eighth note on beat one so you can hear what it would sound like if it were there. Play both eighth notes, and then slowly phase out the first eighth note once you can hear where the second should fall by itself.
  • Keep working through your scales, and scale related exercises, and if you have more time, spend some time on your other band piece so we can check it out next week.