South Middle School Woodwind Class Report

During my 2nd visit with the South Middle School woodwind class, I was tasked with administering rhythm tests. After setting up a music stand in the hallway, the students came one at a time to attempt their next tested rhythm. Throughout the length of the class period, I saw around 10 students, all playing clarinet. A few of the students were in bad moods, but the vast majority seemed excited just to get away from normal band class for a few minutes. I had the students play an excerpt from the exercise associated with their tested rhythm. That week, most students were testing on triplets. I’d have them play it first at their own tempo, just to gauge their ability. If the rhythms were accurate I’d let them pass, giving them comments on how to improve tone quality before sending them back. If they didn’t get it, I’d break down each measure slowly, having them repeat the rhythms after
This time around I didn’t get to as many students, but I got a wider variety of instruments to test. The first student I received was an alto sax player. He was working on dotted quarter notes, but he was having a very hard time getting the rhythms. Although he was struggling, he had a positive attitude and kept working. I had him play very slowly, but he often wanted to rush through until he got to a part that he’d mess up constantly. However, after many attempts and missed accidentals, he was able to play through the exercise correctly. After that, I got a mixture of flutes and saxophones. The rest of my time went very similarly to my first time giving rhythm tests. In a very memorable moment, I blew a tenor sax player’s mind by telling him that he could read off of trumpet music because they were in the same key. If I had another chance to do my final visit, I would have given another one on one lesson, rather than more rhythm tests. However, it was clear that that was the best way to help Mr. Brosky that