Course Content by Unit
Unit 1: Teaching woodwind instrument technique to children and young people learning woodwind instruments
- Posture and supporting the instrument
- Warm-ups: without and with the instrument; mental and physical
- Understanding the instrument – understanding sound
- Making the sound: the journey of a breath
- Refining and developing tone quality
- Controlling intonation
- Articulation: techniques and styles
- Finger-work and dexterity
- Advanced techniques – harmonics, bending notes, glissando, flutter tonguing, multi-phonics, micro tones
Unit 2: How children and young people learn to play woodwind instruments
- How learners learn
- Simultaneous Learning
- My learners now
- Understanding, assimilating and consolidating
- Skills, knowledge and understanding
- Learning music musically
- Developing aural awareness/perception and acuity
- Pupil/teacher relationships
- Learning scales and studies
- Starting a lesson
Unit 3: Teaching strategies for woodwind teachers working with children and young people
- Understanding my teaching now
- Preparation for teaching
- Expectation of teaching outcomes
- Diagnosis of learners’ needs
- Audio-Visual-Kinaesthetic learning
- Aptitude for learning
- Motivation for learning
- Simultaneous learning
- Assessment
- Exams/Festivals/Competitions
- Tutors/methods
- Teaching whole classes/small groups/individuals
Unit 4: Developing a woodwind teaching curriculum for children and young people
- Understanding what is meant by a curriculum and a syllabus
- Preparing and implementing schemes of work
- Short/medium and long term planning
- Personalising learning
- Becoming a reflective practitioner
- Communicating as a musician
- Playing and performing
- Chamber music
- Special Needs
- Schools of woodwind playing
- Alexander Technique
Laura Ritchie
Deputy Director of Academic Studies
