Teaching Winds: Play Along With Piano!

Quick tip! I teach all woodwinds and brasswinds. I used to play along with my students exclusively. It is rather important to, as a matter of fact, because they should know what the instrument is supposed to sound like in real life (YouTube videos are great, but it’s always better to see things before your eyes). But as of late, I’ve been teaching almost exclusively by accompanying them with a piano.

Why? Well, when I play along with my students, as hard as I try not to, I tend to adjust to the intonation of my student. This doesn’t help the student at all. So I play piano along with them so that they always have a perfect reference point to be in tune with, whether it’s just plucking out the same notes as they’re playing, or making up chords that go along with the exercises. This also includes a lot of yelling like “loosen up!” or “tighter!!” for most winds, and “roll in!” or “roll out!” for flutes.

Since I’ve adopted this method, even my oboe students are playing more in tune than ever! Try it out :)