PARENTS!!! Your child will only achieve their best by having a consistant practice routine at home. They need to practice at home all of the techniques that we rehearse during class.

Practicing at home allows the students to hear themselves and make improvements in their own playing.

Students are assigned music daily to practice at home. They will have a warm-up, songs from their book, sheet music and region band music (7th & 8th only) to practice at home each day.

Students are graded on how well they play their music. So the more practice they do, the better their grade will be.

Some ideas on how to practice.

1. The objective of daily practice is to work toward producing a clean characteristic sound on their instrument. In addition to the production of the characteristic sound the students are learning the fundamentals of reading music.

2. Students need to practice 20 to 30 minutes a day.

3. Here is a step by step guide to practicing at home.

a. Start with 3 minutes of abdominal exercises. Breathe in for 4 counts and exhale for 4 counts with a sizzle sound. Students are required to tap the foot at a steady speed any time they play the instrument. Not tapping the foot will result in 10 points off the playing grade.

b. Two minutes of buzzing on the mouthpiece only. Students should not be puffing their cheeks. Students should appear to have a smile on their face will buzzing. Students should never have what appears to be a wrinklely chin.

c. Practice holding each note they play for 10 seconds. This will help them develop their control. Always focus on producing a good sound on the instrument.

d. Students need to focus on producing a steady sound without bumps in the sound.

e. Students should not be playing fast notes. We are learning whole, half and quarter notes.

f. Students proceed to homework. This next part is mandatory. Students are to first point at the notes with their finger and say the count values. Next students are to point at the notes with their finger and say the letter names of the notes. This is very important because this is how they will learn to read music and follow the music across the page. If they cannot read music they cannot play music.

g. Students are to play thru music one exercise at a time. Students are required to perform step "f" before they play the exercise on the instrument.

h. When finished practicing the students should write down the time they practice on the practice log and put the instrument back in the case. Clarinets and saxophones should always remove the reed from the mouthpiece and dry it off. Leaving the reed wet will result in mold growth on the reed. The reed should be placed back in its protective case.