It’s a busy time of year, so I want to keep it short, sweet, and simple today by sharing some recent successes my students have had with you!
I've guided the student in their discovery of the win, and because they discovered it, the win is really THEIRS. I've given them tools, and they are exploring them, listening, getting curious, and finding their way to ease, beautiful phrasing, and meeting their goals! I'm so proud to share these wins with you!
T created and implemented original phrasing for the Marcello Oboe Concerto!
T has been working on the Marcello oboe concerto this semester, and now that all the notes and rhythms have been learned, we finally got to phrasing. It’s important to me to teach students HOW to phrase, so I just guided the phrasing, and T did all the hard work. It sounds amazing!
S memorized and was able to play all 12 major scales in random order!
S was really worried about the scale portion of Youth Orchestra auditions. The requirements stated that students must memorize all 12 major scales and the chromatic scale through the full range of their instrument. S had learned and memorized all the scales before, but didn’t memorize what key signature went with what scale, so S worked really hard to memorize and drill all 12 major scales in a random order.
K noticed that sitting up straight makes playing easier!
K is a beginner, and a habitual sloucher. When K chose a 2nd octave Bb for the note of the day recently, we experimented with using slouched vs. upright posture and how that changed the difficulty holding the high note. K found that it was significantly easier to play when sitting up straight! So now I just remind K to sit tall, and notes of the day are super easy!
E is playing in tune with less neck and jaw tension!
E has been struggling to find a comfortable amount of embouchure pressure while playing in tune, and experiencing a lot of jaw/neck tension. E switched to a new brand of reed (after resisting this solution for months) and was instantly able to play with less embouchure pressure, and feel greater ease!
M discovered that head position has a huge affect on clarity of sound!
M started playing oboe in October, and has had a quite muffled sound since then. We talked about posture recently, so M tried playing with her head over her shoulders more and face looking forward, and instantly had more clarity of sound and ease of playing!
If you follow me on social media, you may have seen this post last week as an image. (If you don’t follow me yet, I’m @OboeAlli on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.)
I know you’ve got tons of brags about your students to share - please reply back and share your own recent student successes!
Until next time,
Alli