Ed Castro's Blog

    Category: Methods

    • Teaching Orchestra and Band in a Digital Space: Day 13

      Live sound in a virtual space: Now that things are settling into what seem more and more a regular routine, I started to ask some fundamental questions about the user experience within my virtual platform.  How is the sound of my voice received by my students?  When I speak or demonstrate on my instruments, what…

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    • Teaching Orchestra and Band in a Digital Space: Day 6

      Project based vs. and Performance based curriculum: Over the years I’ve gone back and forth between teaching a project based curriculum versus a performance based curriculum. At least for me, taking a deep dive in performance meant having students work on a challenging pieces of music and pulling curriculum from the practical application and the…

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    • Teaching Orchestra and Band in a Digital Space: Day 5

      Breakthrough Day: Today was full of meetings (non-instructional time) and grading assignments. However, my last class of the day offered signs of encouragement. I met with the beginning band students and we started working with their instruments in an interactive space provided by the company which publishes the text books my students use. The sign…

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    • Teaching Orchestra and Band in a Digital Space: Day 1

      It’s hard to imagine how someone could remotely teach an interactive music class like an orchestra or band, but given the current situation, with Seattle being the epicenter of the Coronavirus, this is now my new reality as an instrumental music instructor. This week starts our three-week (or until further notice) experience teaching and learning…

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    • NBA Playoffs and Trumpet

      Once again, I find myself multitasking during the NBA playoffs and somehow settle on a practice routine while watching games. This year it’s been four books, the Max Schlossberg Daily Drills and Clarke Technical Studies, Charles Colin Advanced Lip Flexibilities and finally any variation of flow studies. The first quarter involves mouthpiece buzzing of Schlossberg…

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    • The Composition Game

      I was recently asked to participate in a pilot program connecting me with an artist of the same discipline to work with me and coach me achieve an important next step in my career. My peer mentor and I talked about using music composition as a way of stretching out to meet some artistic goals.…

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    • Trumpet and Basketball

      Sometimes multitasking can go to far. For me lately, my practice habits have been lead by the NBA playoffs. I settle in to watch a game but feeling guilty about not practicing my trumpet. So I decided to create a practice routine around the game. I tend to think of this kind of practice as maintenance. More…

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    • Talking

      This time of year has traditionally been a time of reflection on the year which had just passed. Sometimes I even look through some old journals just to see what I was on my mind previous years. Recently I had opportunity to participate, prepared and give a TEDx talk. The process of putting it all together…

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    • Quick Warm Up

      Having a quick warm-up at my disposal has been a very useful to me. Somedays I have 40 minutes to get my face ready for a day of playing. Unfortunately too often I get only 10-15 minutes to play in the morning. And that’s it! So when my private student informed me that they didn’t have…

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    • Waiting Rooms Ramblings and Trumpet Routine

      Having a few opportunities to sit and think while waiting for my kids appointment to end, I have become accustom to letting my mind wonder about all sorts of thing. There is always something that needs to be done, like grading papers, lesson plans, practice mouthpiece buzzing, stick in a practice mute and pray it’s…

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