Notation

The transfer of audiation skills and, ultimately, the ability to read notation represent essential questions for instrumental performance in many ensemble contexts. A revision of the pedagogical sequence already mentioned might read Sing-Buzz-Play-Read Notation. While it reads as a very linear sequence (and it is in the first weeks of initial instruction), in practice it represents a more spiral structure in which students practice skills almost simultaneously or cycle back and forth. For example, the sequence for 5^th grade beginning brass players in the first weeks might resemble the following:

 

1. Learn and sing “Hot Cross Buns” and other rote songs the first couple of days of class.
2. Learn how to make and manipulate pitch on mouthpieces.
3. Buzz the songs they have learned.
4. Learn how to assemble, hold, and make sounds on their instruments.
5. Learn fingerings and positions for the notes they need to play their rote songs.
6. Play the songs they have learned.
7. Repeat this sequence until the teacher assesses that students have basic audiation and instrumental skills in preparation for reading notation.
8. When ready, learn to read notation for the songs they already know.

 

In the last step, students learn to read with understanding. Rather than learning symbols and guessing at the sounds they represent, they are learning to associate symbols with the sounds they already know. This is analogous to the way young children develop a large speaking vocabulary before they start to spell and read words. Do we know for sure that they are reading rather than memorizing at first? No, but over time they develop the connections to meaningfully translate symbols on the page into sound. Older students who already possess good fundamentals of audiation and instrumental technique can obviously do this sequence must faster. Accomplished players hear notated sounds in their minds even as they buzz accurately and manipulate their instruments to produce the sounds they audiate. Yet non-brass instrumentalists are often surprised that singing and buzzing remain fundamental practices even for very advanced players.