MT readers may recall an article in the December 2016 issue entitled ‘Natural learning’. This outlined a collaboration between the US-based company Brass for Beginners (BfB), the trumpeter John Wallace and his ensemble the Wallace Collection. A project funded by the London Music Fund, called Discovering Brass, was delivered in three London schools, culminating in an unforgettable performance at the Royal Academy of Music in 2017 featuring 90 children and their teachers performing alongside the members of the Wallace Collection. Since that time, new programmes have been launched across the US, the UK, Australia and Germany, and resources have been developed and refined for teachers of various backgrounds to deliver the programme effectively. The first BfB teacher training workshops will be offered in the UK in the spring of 2020.
The BfB curriculum, ‘Around the World in 21 Trumpets’, was developed over the course of a decade through pilot programmes aimed at unlocking students’ technical and creative potential to play brass. It is worth noting that of the 4.6 million primary school children in England and Wales – and 33 million in the US – only a small percentage have an opportunity to play a brass instrument. In addition to greatly expanding access to brass education, the results of running Brass for Beginners for the entire age range in US public schools have been significant. Not only has there been an increase in the number of students taking up brass instruments, but students who have learned with the BfB programme show a deeper understanding, greater appreciation and higher skill levels than beginners who start with traditional brass instruments. In Evanston, Illinois, where the first pilot programmes were initiated, local high school band director Matthew Bufis comments: ‘At Evanston Township High School, we have reaped the long-term benefits of the programme for years. Top brass players in each of our ensembles trace their foundations back to this fabulous approach. They enter the school with a good tone concept that is free of tension and consistent in range across the instrument.’
What makes the programme so effective as a beginning brass method is its use of the natural trumpet as the primary teaching tool. The central defining characteristic of brass instruments that makes them unique from every other instrument family is the harmonic series, which cannot be understood by moving a slide or pushing valves. Learning with the natural trumpet eliminates distractions, putting the focus on sound production, articulation and the development of aural skills. This jump-starts students’ ability to navigate the intervallic relationships of the harmonic series, which is central to learning all modern brass instruments. Years of programming have shown that students who start with the natural trumpet are ready to hit the ground running with a trumpet, trombone or french horn.
It turns out that the natural trumpet, because of its position in history, is also the perfect tool for an interdisciplinary methodology. The BfB curriculum uses a story-driven approach to illuminate the history and development of lip-blown instruments from the Upper Paleolithic period through classical antiquity, putting students in contact with the origins and meaning of music itself. This approach sparks students’ creativity, giving them a reason to make sound in the first place. Peter Desmond, head of Haringey Music Service in London, who recently taught the programme over ten weeks, summed up his experience: ‘The children developed a deep understanding of a broad knowledge base, including historical, geographical and scientific aspects as well as learning to play the trumpets and performing in school assemblies. One highlight was our dramatic interpretation of the biblical story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, in which trumpet blasts played a prominent part. I look forward to building on the experience I have gained by supporting a colleague in another local primary school.’
