Prep Department Lesson with Perry, May 16, 2016

     On May 16, 2016, in Perry’s office, PMC 216, in Decatur, Illinois, I sat in on another prep department lesson, this time a high school junior, Jenny. She began her lesson as most of Perry’s students do, first with the chromatic scale in the range of the horn, followed by scales out of her Les Gammes book. This consists of major scale, played first in eighth notes in the range of the horn, then in triplets, followed by sixteenth notes, and then in intervals starting from thirds all the way through tenths. They are played a set speed, and then the entire process is repeated again with the major scales relative minor scale. While doing her scales, if she missed one note, Perry would stop Jenny and have her start back a few notes to make sure she got it right. Even if the transition between notes wasn’t as smooth as it could be, Perry would have her try and play that specific section again. Once she got through that warm-up, Perry noticed that Jenny’s left hand thumb tends to move all around on the back of her horn where the octave key is, so he cut a piece of red yarn and tied it to that key. Reading music, Jenny couldn’t help but see the red out of her peripheral vision, which Perry said was going to subconsciously remind her to keep her thumb still. Eventually it will become a habit and they will be able to take the yarn back off. Jenny then spent the rest of her lesson playing jazz, reading a solo while Perry played the piano, and then having him explain to her the theory behind the solo in relation to the chord progression of the piece. They ended with Jenny also doing a transcribed piece on Perry’s computer, having him play along with her to help her learn the notes by ear. He would play a phrase and she would try and mimic it. He asked her at the end of her lesson to have through the chorus memorized for her next lesson.

     Going back over mistakes to fix them is a good concept, but I feel that in Jenny’s lesson they fell behind in time lingering on trying to fix every single mistake. I also thought learning the concept of jazz theory was important as you’re learning to play jazz, but as Perry was describing it to Jenny, it seemed to just be going right over her head. Even I, who has very little jazz background, was finding it hard to follow. I think students are so concentrated on playing that they tend to focus just on the physical aspect instead of taking into account the theory behind the music that they are playing. If I was going to describe the theory of something to someone, I would give them a physical copy for an example so that they could follow and would be forced to pay attention to what I trying to explain to them.