Jake Grimsley

Adopt-a-Peer Lesson #1
Peer: Kevin Chiang (Trumpet)

Objectives:
 Student will be more comfortable matching pitch and buzzing with only a mouthpiece.
 Student will be more confident in producing rote songs using only a mouthpiece.

Procedure:
 Student and teacher will warm up singing through a Bb scale, teacher will model, student
will match.
 Student will attempt buzzing a Bb with mouthpiece. Singing the pitch to start, then free
buzzing before going to the mouthpiece.
 Student will repeat this exercise with different pitches throughout the Bb scale, from do
to sol (Bb to F).
 Teacher will give feedback when needed based on breath support, general posture and
technique.
 Teacher will model, student will follow singing a siren from Bb to an octave higher Bb.
 Student will attempt to free buzz (siren) an octave from Bb to Bb, with a few repetitions,
focusing on how the mouth/lip technique changes as the pitch goes higher.
 Student will attempt this same siren using the mouthpiece, with a few repetitions focusing
on the same techniques as with free-buzzing.
 Teacher and student sing through “Jingle Bells” melody.
 Student attempts free-buzz through melody.
 Student plays through “Jingle Bells” using only mouthpiece.
 Teacher gives some feedback, reminds student of different techniques worked on
throughout the lesson.
 Student plays through “Jingle Bells” once more.

Assessment:
 Student will be assessed by how much their buzzing technique grows throughout the
lesson.
 Assessment will be based on how much the students overall confidence and knowledge
of buzzing technique grows throughout the lesson.
Reflection:

Kevin showed a lot of growth throughout the lesson. He already had somewhat of a good

concept for the different aspects of the lesson addressed, but it’s an entirely different thing to

take your knowledge of techniques and actually apply them to the instrument. Through both

free-buzzing and buzzing with the mouthpiece, Kevin gained technique, which in our next lesson

I believe will help him tremendously in actual playing of the instrument, which of course does

some of the work for you when it comes to hitting correct pitches. For my teaching, I believed,

as I always do, that we should’ve done a bit more playing and a bit less talking. I asked him a

good amount of questions as to how he was feeling with various concepts, which I think helped,

but when it comes to playing an instrument you’re not comfortable with, nothing beats practice

and experience, which we could all use more of. This is something I will attempt to improve

upon in our next lesson.