Incorporating instrumental technique into your lesson plans doesn’t have to be dry and boring. In a previous blog post, we outlined ways that you can make teaching technique more accessible and fun for your students. Some of those approaches – like setting aside time every day – are straightforward to implement. Others need some more planning and tools (like SmartMusic) to help you get started.
We’ve built a free lesson plan you can use with the exercises in SmartMusic TEACH Free to help students learn technique. The exercises in the plan focus on the technical demands of performing wide intervals. There are versions of the exercise appropriate for both middle and high school players. Both band and orchestras can put this to use.
Also Included in the Teaching Technique Plan:
- Space for you to customize the plan with your own state standards, extra materials, and supplemental exercises (like from your method book).
- Sequenced activities you can play with your students to help them aurally and visually identify common technique errors.
- An explanation of the “Epidemic Game.”
- A section showing how the lesson is differentiated to reach every student.
- A suggested homework assignment that also takes advantage of the free content in TEACH Free.
Creating a custom rubric is important for evaluating tone production and other aspects of technique. While this plan doesn’t have specific instructions for doing this, we can help you create one in TEACH Free. Here’s how to build a custom rubric.
Don’t have SmartMusic? You can easily try SmartMusic for free and make this the first lesson.