Meeting 1 Lesson Plan

I. Objective: Jake will improve on the clarity and ease of his higher notes on
trumpet.

II. Procedures
A. Breathing: Jake will perform a breathing exercise while putting one hand
on his back and one hand on his stomach to feel his stomach expand.
1. In for 4 out for 4 twice, in for 3 out for 3 twice, in for 2 out for 2
twice, in for 1 out for 1 twice.
B. Scale: Jake will play his concert Bb scale first. Since he already knows the
fingerings well, I will have him play two octaves.
1. First Jake will play legato quarter notes at a tempo he is
comfortable with.
2. Next, I will have Jake play legato eighth notes at the same tempo.
C. Song: Ode to Joy
1. Jake will play Ode to Joy once as written to get reacquainted with it.
2. Next, I will have Jake play Ode to Joy up the octave. This is to work
on his high notes

III. Assessment: Informal

Observe what Jake struggles with and make corrections.

Jake made a lot of progress on his high notes during this lesson. At first, he was unable
to hit the high D and C (concert C and Bb). His main problem was that he was too
tense. It was very visible that he was tensing his embouchure and throat as he would
get higher, which meant by the time he got to the top of the scale, his face was red and
he couldn’t play the notes. I addressed this and had him try again while focusing on
relaxing. When he was relaxed, the high notes came out much easier and his tone was
clear. I then had him play the scale again but this time playing two eighth notes on each
pitch. Because he now had something else to think about, he got tense again when he
got to the top of the scale. I had him play this exercise a few times and it got better each
time. Now that he had a better foundation for the higher notes, I had him move on to
Ode to Joy. Since during the pre-test, I had Jake play Ode to Joy as written, I gave him
some practice time to work on the notes up the octave. He again ran into the issue of
diverting his attention from keeping away tension and being unable to hit the high notes.
However this problem solved itself as soon as he felt comfortable with the music.
Overall, Jake made a lot of progress on his high notes, since he started the lesson
being unable to get out the last two notes of the Bb scale, and ended his lesson being
not only able to play those notes in the scale, but also in the context of a song.