At this year’s International Trombone Festival, I presented a lecture entitled “Jazz Pedagogy for Classical Repertoire.” In this session, I tried to highlight some of the concepts that I’ve noticed get more emphasis in a “jazz” education than a “classical” education but are equally important in both genres. I had a few requests for my slides, so […]

I’ve recently changed the order in which I teach my lessons. I used to start most lessons (at least with younger students) by working through lip slurs and other fundamentals. By covering the technical bases first, I felt like I could already tell how their practice the previous week had gone, what issues were causing problems, […]

I have built a new tool for those of us who teach introductory aural training. IntervalQUIZ.com is a free, anonymous, browser-based interval identification practice app. A synthesized piano sound plays two notes (m2 – P8) either ascending or descending and then simultaneously. Students attempt to identify the interval and then receive immediate feedback. In case of […]

It’s the end of the semester. Teachers are frantically trying to get grades in on time, and students are checking their grades hoping for a high GPA. In some disciplines, grades are well understood: either you solved the equation correctly, or you didn’t. Either you did your homework, or you didn’t. These objective criteria are […]