I felt like we got a lot of good work done during this lesson!! Lots of concepts we can dig deeper into in the coming weeks.
Don’t stress out about the breathing. You’ve come a long way from where you started and your breathing has definitely improved. You’ll learn to be okay with taking bigger breaths as well as going to the edge of your breath… I don’t think you’ll pop a lung :) The more comfortable you get on the horn, the efficiency will come & you’ll be able to play longer and with more control.
You’re getting a good hold on the method of learning new scales! That’s all thanks to having a solid understanding of the major scale – which you love. For next week, try to do all harmonic minor scales, you can think of it as a major scale with a b3 & b6.
I know it might be scary, but take some time this week to play along with a Bb blues (our C) backing track!! It’s fun I swear. By just picking one note as we did, you free up the decision to change notes so you can just focus on rhythmic ideas. How does it feel to play a lot of notes vs. not many? Loud vs. soft? Experiment with the single note and when you feel comfortable add more. Listening to other musicians is your biggest asset here; You learn the most from imitating others!
Try to spend some time with Theme from New World Symphony again this week. Pay attention to the smaller things now! Dynamics, phrasing, all the good stuff we talk about. It’s 90% of the way there!