Welcome to Gaia! ::

So I'm running a master class for the brass players that are in 7th and 8th graders who are going to come to our high school.. and I'm in charge of all the brass. I play trumpet so I do know a lot.. My question to you is.. what do you think I should teach them. I have an hour and a half to cram as much as I can.

I going to talk about:
Air Control
Less pressure on lips/more air.
Breathing excercises
Lip Slurs
Etc..

What do you think? Got anything to add.. do so please!
=D

Woodwinds are too different from each other to really benefit much at that age level from a combined class if it focuses too much on technique. It might be better to focus on theory for musicians (rather than theory for composers) and/or ear training. For brass, a good thing to teach, though it only takes a few minutes, is the idea of visualizing the air stream supported from the bottom of the lungs all the way through the throat and mouth and out onto the page of music. Imagine aiming it higher for high notes and lower for low notes while always keeping the air support from the bottom of the lungs. I also encourage you not to neglect the percussion. Even though I play woodwinds, I've been to several masterclasses by professional musicians and one of the best was one about getting the most out of percussion equipment by focusing on the basic techniques. There were things like how to properly set up and adjust snare drums, bass drums, and mallet instruments so they were the proper height and distance from one's body. There were also lessons in tuning the timpani using pitch pipes and tapping on the head and by singing a pitch into the head and then just moving the pedal until it resonated with the pitch being sung at it. There were some lessons in how to hold crash cymbals and one in hand positions for 4 mallets. These basics are the sorts of things that most masterclasses have in common. However, if that's too pedantic to hold these students' attention, teaching basic marching rudiments, warm-ups, and such might be interesting to them, particularly if the marching band's drumline is well-regarded.

embouchure, embouchure, embouchure. If their embouchure sucks, then they can't progress nearly as well as if they had a good one. Also, to help them get their lips in shape there's an exercise I was taught in high school.

Pick a piece of music and have them play it with just the mouthpiece, no horn.

My instructor at the time told every trumpet there: "If you can't play it on just your mouthpiece, than your horn isn't going to do you a lick of good."