Tom Burt, Band Director, Medford Middle School, Medford, WI
The following example took place during a group lesson with 12 seventh grade
students:
A particular student on Cornet was having difficulty producing an open tone. As
I reminded him about his under bite we discovered that his tone was a direct
result of that jaw position. I sent him to a practice room, gave him a point or
two from the manual to follow for five minutes and the following results
surfaced:
1) He felt the jaw had moved back some
2) His tone had dramatically changed to producing more blocks on the strobe
3) He felt that teeth were more open
No amount of practice time would have helped this student without addressing the
needs of the particular physiology and its function at that time. It would be
worth your time to understand how jaw position affects tonal development and
through proper stimulation changes in tone can occur which produces a very
positive result for the student involved.
