First Trumpet Lesson - My Reflection

          Today I taught my first “trumpet lesson” (Prof. Brandt Schneider was my guinea pig) in front of my class. Before I came in, I knew exactly what I wanted to say, and exactly what I wanted to cover – I was definitely prepared to cover the first five minutes (the direction for the assignment.) Mr. Schneider certainly did his part to act in the role of a fifth grade boy, which was okay, because of course as educators we must be prepared for all sorts! A couple of things did throw me off momentarily. I was not planning on even opening the trumpet case within the first five minutes but we ended up taking a peek inside. But this was fine! We must be flexible and accommodate all of our students’ questions, especially during the first lesson when they are most eager and excited. I had no problem having Mr. Schneider open up the case so I can explain the mouthpiece to him. We may or may not have engaged in too much small talk – it is hard to gauge because the actual lesson would have been 35 minutes long, but we were only covering the first five. I thought it went well, overall.

            Did my objective match what the student believed the objective was? I’d have to answer yes – I made sure to explain that all the exercises we were about to do pave the way to producing a sound out of his instrument, which was the goal of my lesson. The student knew he would eventually be producing a quality sound, and I was showing him how to get that done.

            As far as talking vs. listening goes, I was definitely doing most of the talking, which in my opinion is perfectly fine for a first lesson. The first lesson for anything should be more teacher-centered so we can explain all classroom procedures and policies, and to gain the trust of the student by telling him about myself. Perhaps I could have done more listening? This would have definitely been the case as the lesson progressed, as I would have been allowing the student to explore the sounds on the mouthpiece.

            I wanted Mr. Schneider to be able to get through at least one of my initial breathing exercises within the first five minutes. Unfortunately, this did not happen – the timer expired as I was just getting into it. But I am not too worried about that as I progress – I know fully well that we would be covering it within the first lesson, and that ultimately he would have walked away from the lesson with everything he needed to produce a sound. I am confident in that, and I will gain even more confidence the more I proceed along this path. This was a very helpful experience for me!