Strong Foundations (Daily Warm Ups for Band)

• The purpose of this book is not to go in order from the beginning to the end. It is simply meant to be a collection of all of my favorite warm up exercises in the same book. Choose several specific exercises to work on each day. I always try to choose exercises that reinforce skills that will be needed later in the rehearsal.

• Remember to give the students time before playing each exercise to read the green colored educational notes written above each exercise. Each book includes tips that are specific to that instrument.

• Consider instructing the brass players to buzz on their mouthpieces before they play. They can buzz the first exercise while the woodwinds and percussionists play it.

• Vary the exercises by asking for specific dynamic levels and/or articulations. Don’t forget to remind the percussionists of proper stick heights for each dynamic level.

• Be picky! Don’t accept poor posture, tone quality, intonation, or balance. Make sure the students play the correct note values; for example, whole notes should be held all the way through the measure until the first beat of the next measure.

• In general, do not allow students to write in note names above or below their notes. They will use these “cheats” as a crutch and will not learn how to read music properly. I did provide a few “cheats” above notes that I knew my 6th grade students would not recognize. However, just like in a method book, I only provided the “cheat” once (solely for the first time that note occurred in the book).

• Before playing lip slurs, consider teaching the band the basics of the overtone series so that they understand why multiple notes can be played with the same fingering.

• In order to develop well-rounded percussionists, make sure the percussionists are spending adequate time playing both the snare drum warm up book and the mallet percussion warm up book. Do not allow any of the percussionists to become “solely drummers” or “solely mallet players”. I suggest having the percussionists play on drum pads during the warm up instead of snare drums so that you can more easily hear all of the instruments in your band. If you don’t have enough drum pads, you can substitute rubber mouse pads on a table.

• I used the most common note spellings in the chromatic scale and other chromatic exercises rather than using sharps going up and flats going down the scale. I decided to write the notes that my students will be more likely to see in their music this year so that they can become confident with the chromatic fingerings. However, there are educational notes on the chromatic scale page for each instrument explaining enharmonic equivalents. We usually spend more time learning about enharmonic equivalents in 7th grade since this is generally when they will begin to come across the less common spellings of notes. It is my belief that keeping everything simpler at this young age will allow my students to retain information more successfully.

• I suggest putting differently colored stickers on each of your clarinet students’ pinky keys to help them to initially learn and quickly identify the notes played with their pinkies. For example, I put a green sticker on the A-flat key, yellow stickers on the two F-sharp keys, orange stickers on the two F keys, and pink stickers on the two E keys. This way, when clarinetists have a question about a pinky fingering, the teacher can quickly say “your green key” instead of having to walk over and point out the key.

Why Do We Warm Up?