Euphonium

Seminar 1 Reflection Questions To make our time together as productive and efficient as possible, please reflect on the following questions and email your responses to Dr. West and Dr. Clauhs by Tuesday, 9/13. 1. How much of your teaching opportunity/experience is indeed student-centered? Why? Since this is Block 1 and the beginning of the school year, a lot of the first few days of school has involved work outside of playing music and rehearsing, including things such as organizing the band room, assembling music and folders, and going over handbooks and general classroom rules and regulations. Teaching at the school year really made me realize how much a band director has to do outside of actually teaching the students. A lot goes into preparation to ensure smooth, organized rehearsals, and most of the time, no matter how much you do to prepare, something will still go wrong. After a few days of administrative work and “boring band director stuff,” all of the ensembles are now playing in their rehearsals. I started working with the percussion sections in both periods of Concert Band, which is an ensemble made up of only freshmen. I have also observed my co-op as he works with the freshmen woodwind and brass sections during both periods in setting up a routine and working tone quality, balance, blend and intonation. I just started conducting the Wind Ensemble, which is the highest-level ensemble at the high school, and the Symphonic Band, working on warm-ups and one…

I have made it into the Central Coast Section Honor Choir group for seven years (6-12th grade) and the band for six years (7-12th grade). With the experience at Monterey Jazz Festival Education Program for the last six years, I also am very fluent in the way of jazz. I played at the Monterey Jazz Festival Middle School Honor Band from 7th to 8th grade and the High School Jazz Band from 9th-12th grade. I was in the Monterey Jazz Festival Honor Vocal Ensemble as a 9th grader as well and will be…

surrounded by friends but feeling so alone, I pondered at all the possibilities "maybe I qualified for state or maybe I didn't" I kept thinking. I could hear the blasting of horns and the beating of drums in the distance, strangely though I was surrounded by sound and vibrations I still managed to tune it out. For some reason to me sitting in that one seat became almost my own little bubble filled with self doubt while at the same time a shred of hope. It felt like chaos and anarchy reigned in…

slide mechanism that varies the size of the instrument to transform the pitch. Unique variants like the valve trombone as well as superbone have three valves like those on the trumpet. The word trombone originates from Italian tromba (trumpet) as well as -one (a suffix significance "big"), so the name suggests "large trumpet". The trombone has a primarily cylindrical birthed like its valved equivalent the baritone and unlike its conical valved counterparts, the euphonium as well as the horn. One…

“Stick to flute” is something I’ve heard from a few people while I was trying new things. Mr. Briem, one of the band teachers, took this the opposite direction and started me on a path to unknowingly end up like him. He encouraged me to explore music; that encouragement drove me in my first three years of high school to develop my musical skills. Briem introduced me to the potential I had for growing musically. He saw something in me that no one else did, and I didn't know at the time, but I’d…

At one point in their career, most music students are met with a rather difficult choice: whether to join concert band or a symphonic orchestra. While both are ensembles with a conductor that play music arranged into different parts together, there are several important differences to take note of when deciding which one fits each musician perfectly. First of all, not every instrument is represented in every ensemble. A concert band, often called symphonic wind band, consists, as the name…

Also the clarinet players had the stereotype of being the nerdy type of people. Even though some say they are skilled. So I decided to ask Oliver and Sandy Cartagena about their opinions. I first sat down with Oliver Cartagena, since I wanted to know what his perspective was about band before talking with Sandy. We are in his outside patio sitting across from each other. I started off by asking him, Can you tell me what grade you are in, and what instrument do you play? Also how long you have…

On horn, like trumpet and all other valved brass instruments, the combination of (12) with the trigger, in the staff, is almost always sharp. Depending on the model of the horn, this can be corrected by using the third valve and trigger. On trombone, the fifth partial C, C#, and D are inherently flat. Alternate slide positions like flat 6, flat 5, and flat 4 should be used. For euphonium: Low E, F, B and C are inherently sharp. If students are using a four-valve euphonium, the fourth valve can…

“[Playing the guitar] gives me something to do, it puts my emotions out … it’s just something with the mind that clicks,” said Kershaw. Even when he’s not playing his guitar constantly, music is still a large part of his life as he plays the Euphonium in his high school’s band. Another talent he possesses is hunting and last year he shot competitively. Lately, much of his focus besides school is on his guitar and his band. The members of his band consist of Terry Oosterhart on bass and Ryan…

the name “woodwind” came about. Instruments in this family today, are made up of metal, would and, plastic. They are all narrow pipes, with holes, with an opening at the bottom end and a mouthpiece at the top. You play them by blowing into the mouthpiece and opening or closing the holes with your fingers to change the pitch. Metal caps called keys cover the holes of most woodwind instruments. The brass family, where all instruments are made of brass is similar to the woodwind family. Brass…