Blues Scales - click here to download
Blues Improvisation Cards - Download Here
How I Practice
60 minutes of practice per week will be required for the rest of the school year. Use the How I Practice sheet above to plan and monitor your practice, and the Practice Log below to record your time.
60 minutes of practice per week will be required for the rest of the school year. Use the How I Practice sheet above to plan and monitor your practice, and the Practice Log below to record your time.
Pro recordings of our music
Episode for Band
This one isn't a pro recording, per se, but it's certainly good for a middle school band
This one isn't a pro recording, per se, but it's certainly good for a middle school band
Bohemian Rhapsody
key signature work Sheets
Scale Construction
When complete, email to [email protected], or airprint if that won't work
When complete, email to [email protected], or airprint if that won't work
scale_construction_.pdf | |
File Size: | 26 kb |
File Type: |
Sharp and Flat Identification
When complete, email to [email protected]
When complete, email to [email protected]
sharp_and_flat_identification.pdf | |
File Size: | 116 kb |
File Type: |
Work Sheet 1
Only download the work sheet that corresponds to your instrument's transposition
When complete, email to [email protected]
Only download the work sheet that corresponds to your instrument's transposition
When complete, email to [email protected]
key_signatures_ws_1_-_bb.pdf | |
File Size: | 149 kb |
File Type: |
key_signatures_ws_1_-_c.pdf | |
File Size: | 153 kb |
File Type: |
key_signatures_ws_1_-_eb.pdf | |
File Size: | 151 kb |
File Type: |
Band adjudication form
band.pdf | |
File Size: | 64 kb |
File Type: |
beginning band materials
To use the following files, first download and install the Cloud Reader app from the app store. Then press "download file" and choose Cloud Reader to open it.
Practice
deliberate_practice.pdf | |
File Size: | 278 kb |
File Type: |
practice_goals.pdf | |
File Size: | 293 kb |
File Type: |
adjudication_form_-_ms_band.pdf | |
File Size: | 146 kb |
File Type: |
Proficiencies
Proficiencies will be performed regularly during class. Their purpose is to help Mr. Follum find out how students are progressing on their instruments and guide students in improving their technique. They will be played individually. Proficiencies may be re-taken outside of class as many times as a student desires. A lower grade on a re-taken Proficiency will never count against a student.
Proficiencies will be performed regularly during class. Their purpose is to help Mr. Follum find out how students are progressing on their instruments and guide students in improving their technique. They will be played individually. Proficiencies may be re-taken outside of class as many times as a student desires. A lower grade on a re-taken Proficiency will never count against a student.
Goal Setting
An important aspect of succeeding in any area is to set reachable goals and plan steps to reach them. This sheet is designed to help you start thinking about what an excellent band would sound like and how our band could become excellent. We will use the ideas generated by this sheet to set goals and plan steps to reach them.
Here are the instructions for filling out the sheet:
Click on the band_goal_setting_1.pdf file below to open it
Use the "Open in..." option and choose Notability
When asked, create a new page in Notability
Fill in your answers. You can either type or write them by hand
Email your completed sheet in PDF format to [email protected]
If you are unable to email, print out the sheet and turn it in to Mr. Follum
We will begin setting goals for the band on Tuesday, so please have your sheets turned in before 7th hour on Tuesday.
An important aspect of succeeding in any area is to set reachable goals and plan steps to reach them. This sheet is designed to help you start thinking about what an excellent band would sound like and how our band could become excellent. We will use the ideas generated by this sheet to set goals and plan steps to reach them.
Here are the instructions for filling out the sheet:
Click on the band_goal_setting_1.pdf file below to open it
Use the "Open in..." option and choose Notability
When asked, create a new page in Notability
Fill in your answers. You can either type or write them by hand
Email your completed sheet in PDF format to [email protected]
If you are unable to email, print out the sheet and turn it in to Mr. Follum
We will begin setting goals for the band on Tuesday, so please have your sheets turned in before 7th hour on Tuesday.
band_goal_setting_1.pdf | |
File Size: | 94 kb |
File Type: |
Practice
What Deliberate Practice Looks Like
There’s a conventional view of what practicing should look like. Let’s look at it first, in the context of playing an instrument.
When you think of what a “practice” session is supposed to be, chances are that you imagine warming up on some scales, mindlessly playing through some finger exercises, and then beginning to work on a piece of music you want to improve.
Maybe you’d start playing a new piece from the beginning, as fast as you’re comfortable doing, until you come to a part where you make a mistake. Then, you might tread back over that mistake a few times until it starts to feels right. Then, you’d move on until you get to the next mistake and back over that one a bit until it smooths out.
This style of practice is common, it’s intuitive, and it’s almost exactly wrong. It has very little to do with the kind of deliberate practice that top performers engage in.
Based on the research, here are five hallmarks of what good practice looks like, on any instrument, or in any field.
#1 Focus On What Needs Improving
One of the key differences is that great performers don’t spend much time practicing things that they can already do.
When learning an instrument, too many people “practice” by playing the things they’re already good at. Great performers on the other hand, spend their time working on only the things that need work.
Ineffective performers will often practice whole pieces at full speed, hoping they’ll improve the weak sections by mere repetition, or perhaps, osmosis. Unfortunately, this kind of practice can even reinforce mistakes, rather than ironing them out. There’s even a saying among teachers in the know: “Practice doesn’t make perfect; Practice makes permanent.”
But you can’t just jump into the hardest section of a piece and just start flailing around. Instead, you need to:
#2 Break The Work Down Into Manageable Sections, Keeping The Goal Within Reach
Although great performers tend to put in the most hours, they don’t measure their practice sessions in mere time. They measure it in accomplishments.
For instance, if you wanted to master a new and challenging song on the piano, a bad idea would be to jump right into the hardest part and go at it at full tempo and with both hands, hoping that enough repetitions would make it gel.
Instead, you’d want to break the piece down by focusing on just the right hand, then just the left hand, and then both hands together, but at a very slow tempo. Only once you’ve mastered all three of these stages (and I meanreally mastered them) is it time to move on.
Before playing any faster, you should start to feel so bored by how easily you can do it. Then, make your task more interesting by clicking up the tempo just a notch, always keeping just one step ahead of boredom, so that you are always just barely reaching, straining, and striving to get over the next hurdle.
When learning an instrument, one of the most common problems is that students will rush too far ahead after a few hasty and half-realized successes, thinking “I’ve got this. It’s different. I’m talented.” Inevitably, these students end up hitting a wall that they can’t surmount with this ultimately futile method. Then, faced with a level of difficulty for which they are completely unprepared for, they become endlessly frustrated and simply give up.
That type of futile approach is responsible for more half-learned pieces and stalled careers – in any field – than almost anything else.
What Deliberate Practice Looks Like
There’s a conventional view of what practicing should look like. Let’s look at it first, in the context of playing an instrument.
When you think of what a “practice” session is supposed to be, chances are that you imagine warming up on some scales, mindlessly playing through some finger exercises, and then beginning to work on a piece of music you want to improve.
Maybe you’d start playing a new piece from the beginning, as fast as you’re comfortable doing, until you come to a part where you make a mistake. Then, you might tread back over that mistake a few times until it starts to feels right. Then, you’d move on until you get to the next mistake and back over that one a bit until it smooths out.
This style of practice is common, it’s intuitive, and it’s almost exactly wrong. It has very little to do with the kind of deliberate practice that top performers engage in.
Based on the research, here are five hallmarks of what good practice looks like, on any instrument, or in any field.
#1 Focus On What Needs Improving
One of the key differences is that great performers don’t spend much time practicing things that they can already do.
When learning an instrument, too many people “practice” by playing the things they’re already good at. Great performers on the other hand, spend their time working on only the things that need work.
Ineffective performers will often practice whole pieces at full speed, hoping they’ll improve the weak sections by mere repetition, or perhaps, osmosis. Unfortunately, this kind of practice can even reinforce mistakes, rather than ironing them out. There’s even a saying among teachers in the know: “Practice doesn’t make perfect; Practice makes permanent.”
But you can’t just jump into the hardest section of a piece and just start flailing around. Instead, you need to:
#2 Break The Work Down Into Manageable Sections, Keeping The Goal Within Reach
Although great performers tend to put in the most hours, they don’t measure their practice sessions in mere time. They measure it in accomplishments.
For instance, if you wanted to master a new and challenging song on the piano, a bad idea would be to jump right into the hardest part and go at it at full tempo and with both hands, hoping that enough repetitions would make it gel.
Instead, you’d want to break the piece down by focusing on just the right hand, then just the left hand, and then both hands together, but at a very slow tempo. Only once you’ve mastered all three of these stages (and I meanreally mastered them) is it time to move on.
Before playing any faster, you should start to feel so bored by how easily you can do it. Then, make your task more interesting by clicking up the tempo just a notch, always keeping just one step ahead of boredom, so that you are always just barely reaching, straining, and striving to get over the next hurdle.
When learning an instrument, one of the most common problems is that students will rush too far ahead after a few hasty and half-realized successes, thinking “I’ve got this. It’s different. I’m talented.” Inevitably, these students end up hitting a wall that they can’t surmount with this ultimately futile method. Then, faced with a level of difficulty for which they are completely unprepared for, they become endlessly frustrated and simply give up.
That type of futile approach is responsible for more half-learned pieces and stalled careers – in any field – than almost anything else.