Hi everyone,

Here is the homework for this week.

Aubrey:

  • Keep practicing in front of that mirror!! The finger positioning is getting and better.
  • Start off your practice sessions with register slurs! Start with your lowest note (E) and make sure you go up chromatically. Reference the fingering chart in your band book if necessary. Hold each note for 4 beats, with the metronome around 70 bpm.
  • Really work on the couple of pages in the Rubank book focusing on the register change. Go super slow, and take things one bar at a time. Isolate the parts that do not seem clean. Try to switch and play your E/B on the left side and your F/C on the right side.
  • Keep working on your C major scale, and add the arpeggio in! Remember – first note of the scale, third note, fifth note, and the first note an octave higher.
  • Make sure to bring in your band music for our next lessson!

Susan:

  • Continue working on the six major scales we have in rotation. No more than two a day.
  • Work on your new band piece. Try clapping out eighth and sixteenth notes to a metronome before playing the music, so you can really get a feel for what they sound like/internalize the rhythm. Singing the rhythms/notes, clapping, etc. are all useful tools for rhythm comprehension! Really work on getting the correct articulations, as well.
  • Focus on the octave leaps in the new band piece – send a lot of time really practicing and isolating these spots. Make sure you don’t move on until they are clean!
  • Take a look at Spring and the other piece that was on that page of your book. Focus on getting the right notes first, and then add the rhythms if you haven’t gotten them right away.
  • Keep working the Mozart duet up to speed, we will try playing it next week!

Olive:

  • Here is the link to the better version of the Mozart piece! Make sure to print it out for our next lesson: http://www.delranschools.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3013181/File/migration/Minuet.pdf
  • Make sure to start each practice session with a warm up, focusing on your lower notes. Put the metronome at 75 and hold each note for 4 beats, starting with your low Bb and focusing on that area of the sax (Bb, B, C, C#, D)
  • Continue to work up the tempo of your scales! Remember that a note in concert is two tones lower for us (eg. Concert Eb = C)
  • Start adding dynamics, grace notes, and more articulation to the Mozart piece and After You’ve Gone. Remember to be more exaggerated at first, so you can play with and figure out your dynamic range, and then you can dial it back a bit.
  • Work on your ear training – play a note on your sax and try singing it back to yourself! Or try doing the same thing on the piano – play a note and then try playing it back on your sax.
  • If you have free time at the end of your practice sessions, work on the pieces in the back of your band book for sight reading practice.