During my student teaching experience I have gotten the opportunity to work with a

beginning band that met on Tuesday mornings every week as well as work with
each sectional once a week, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and saxophone. In
the band I rehearsed the song, Caisson Song as well as orchestrated band warm
ups.
I worked on instrument tone production in the warm up exercises. I had them
practice long tones going up the scale from Do to Sol. Part of working on the tone
production with the whole band included working on the overall balance of the
ensemble. Our band is very saxophone heavy so I would ask the saxophones to play
quieter and the trumpets to play out more. In trombone lessons I worked with them
on tone production quite a bit. Their section had the most trouble with sound
production because it is hard for them to hear the note they want to play in their
head and to find the correct slide position. To correct this, I had them sing their
pitches before playing and I also had them play along to the piano.
I worked on articulation in band rehearsal. There was one rhythm that the whole
band struggled with that was 1, 2 (3), 4. I had the whole band work on this rhythmic
pattern and the percussionist kept the steady beat. I also worked on articulation a
lot in clarinet lessons. A common mistake in beginning clarinet players is to play
attacks instead of proper articulation with the tongue. I had them practice this a lot
in sectionals by having them echo me on 4 beat patterns that I would play and
articulate on one note (open G). This also gave them the opportunity to listen to my
tone and articulation as an example to follow.
I worked on teaching each section fingerings for their specific instrument. I taught
low Sol (G) to clarinets. All of the instruments know the fingerings for a concert Bb
single octave scale. I am also giving private clarinet lessons to a student from Horne
Street School who started learning clarinet later than the rest. I had to catch him up
to where the rest of the band currently is and I taught him all the fingerings.
Transposition was not used with the fourth graders yet, but they have learned
solfege. They understand the concept of a moveable Do. They learned their music in
solfege first and then transferred that knowledge to note names.