Beginning Band: First time with instruments

Today was our first band lesson with our instruments. Miss Schwarz said, "Don't puff your cheeks." I did a good job at that. She told us about a guy who bent his trumpet and they named him Dizzy Gillespie. It was a fun day. ...Lucas

Finally we started our instruments. Miss Schwarz taught us about posture and mouth pieces. She also taught us the right way to open the case. We have a sticker or writing on top of our case so we know how to open the case right side up. Miss Schwarz told us to go home and practice with our mouth pieces. Some people have reeds like the saxophones and clarinets. I have a metal mouth piece. ...Zac

Finally we got to play our instruments! First I had to assemble the mouth piece. I all ready knew how to assemble it, but my music teacher did it differently. She said that if you have a cave you need to push the legiture down until the cave is gone. Then you put the reed in, but be careful because if you chip the reed, the reed is broken. Next we had to put the neck, or barrel, on under the mouth piece. If the cork on sax's are tight then you put cork grease on the cork. Finally we got to blow into our mouth pieces. When we blew in we had to straighten our chins, keep our cheeks from getting puffed out. That's the hard part. ...by Braeden

Today we learned in band that when we play the clarinet we have to keep our cheeks in and make dimples and feel our chin to see if it is tight. When you put in the reeds you have to suck on it for a while and it will be waves in it so you put the reed on the mouth piece and put our tongue on the reed. ...Courtney

Today we finally got to use our instruments. It was so cool! I didn't have my instrument with me, so I listened to what Ms. Schwarz said to do. We had to go in a half circle and go into groups by instrument. Like there would be the cornet group, or the trumpet group. We had to take our mouth pieces and blow into them.When we did blow into it, we had to make sure our chins were flat like a table top. But that was just for brass players. I'm a brass player so I wrote all I know so far for brass. ...Jake G.

Today was our first day with our instruments. We got to learn how to play our drum sticks. It was exciting to get to hit our drums 54 times. We get to do it again. It will be even more fun than today. ...Andrew D.

Today we got to start with our instruments. To tell you the truth, I learned a lot from Andrew. He told me how to set up everything. I learned how to position my fingers on my drum sticks. I also learned how to play counts and how to bounce, even though I'm not real good at bouncing. I like it so far. Andrew let me borrow his drum sticks. He's nice. I'm glad we got band. ...Alexi

Today I had a grate time at music. We learned about posture, holding a reed, opening the box, and we learned a lesson. When we started playing I was confused a little. I would not want to play any other instrument but the saxophone. ...Derek

It was my first day of band. She told us how to hold our mouth pieces. She told us about our posture. I had to keep my cheeks in instead of out. I get dimples when I blow in. That is a good sign. My band teacher showed me to the other kids that had it too. Then we put our instrument back in our case in the right order. I had a real good time at band. That's all for now. ....Ryan M.

October 3, 2001

 

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