The Effect on Beginning Band Students "Learning .
Musical Notation Before Starting the Instrument.
A successful band program depends on successful students. In order to have successful students, there must be the presence of a successful band director who has an effective teaching strategy to the beginning band students. There are two main strategies of teaching beginning band. Option one is to immediately start the children on instruments, teaching proper sitting, hand, and holding positions, as well as embouchure formation, tone, and musical notation. The second option is to start by teaching musical notation first, so that when the student does begin on the instrument, there is less for them to think about all at once, because the notation will have already been taught. .
Research has been done on both options. Colleen Conway takes a look at both options in two separate articles. Her first article states that children should be given the chance to play the instrument in the beginning (2003). She states that children who are given the instruments and are taught a few basic skills will be more successful than those children that are unable to play their instrument. She goes on to state that the musicianship skills are built by learning musical notation and the instrument simultaneously. She also strongly encourages the use of producing sounds solely on the mouthpieces/head joints, to work not only pitch accuracy, but also rhythmic accuracy and articulation (2003).
Ramsey suggests that students attend band to play music, so they should be allowed to do such in the initial lessons (2001). He believes that learning to read music should follow good tone development, in order to keep students motivated. Therefore, teachers should not spend huge amounts of time on musical notation in the first sessions of a beginning band class. He encourages teaching by rote and by ear in the early weeks (2003).
