FAQ

In the UK, there is a requirement for schools to teach mixed brass instruments to whole classes, and this is notoriously difficult, because of the complex problems associated with the different transpositions and clefs. We believe that our website is the solution to these issues, making it possible for pupils with different types of brass instruments to learn together, playing parts that are appropriate for the range of the instrument and the ability of the student.

The material is presented in the form of short video exercises, in the appropriate keys for each instrument group, with all fingering and slide positions provided. This means that teachers can have the confidence to teach outside their speciality, so that, for instance, a trumpet teacher can teach a class including trombones and french horns.

The material provides a framework for teaching music theory and general musicianship, alongside brass instrumental skills, with the aim of producing a love and understanding of music, and not just the ability to play a handful of tunes by rote.

This is a 2 year course, which has been tried and tested in classrooms with children of both primary and secondary ages.

Any teacher who has experience of playing one or more brass instruments should be able to teach whole class mixed brass lessons with the material on this site. Pupils can also use as it as an aid to practice.

We cover all the brass instruments routinely taught in schools: trumpet, cornet, french horns in F and Bb, tenor and baritone horns, euphonium, trombone, and tubas in Bb and Eb.

This website is easy and intuitive to use. Simply work your way down each page and you’ll find that each new exercise follows naturally and logically from the one before, with notation and backing tracks included. The material is based on small, incremental steps, which aren’t too daunting and give pupils a clear sense of progress and achievement from the outset.

There aren’t any detailed lesson plans, so you can be creative in the way you use the material, but there are downloadable teachers’ notes for each level, if you need help or inspiration.

The site is organised in levels of ascending difficulty, starting with the Preparation Level, for absolute beginners trying to get their first note on an instrument. It should be possible to complete 5 levels in a school year.

The site will work on a tablet or phone, but is designed to be viewed by a whole class simultaneously on a large screen.

Watch the video below for a quick demonstration of the way the material works.

The Preparation Level and Year 1 Level 1 are permanently free to use, but a membership  account is needed to access the other levels:

Single Membership – costs £50 for 1 member for a year.

Group 5 Membership – costs £150 for 5 members for a year (£30 per member).

Group 10 Membership – costs £280 for 10 members for a year (£28 per member).

Group 15 Membership – costs £390 for 15 members for a year (£26 per member).

Group 20 Membership – costs £500 for 20 members for a year (£25 per member).

Not necessarily, because everything is on screen, meaning that, ideally, music stands and books can be dispensed with completely, as long as everyone can see the screen clearly.

However, the books can make lessons much more productive – one of the challenges of whole class brass teaching is that there are times when one group of instruments will need to play on its own, and students with different instrument types can become bored and distracted if they have nothing to do during this time. The books allow them to follow their own parts, while the screen is displaying the parts for other instruments.

In addition, the 2nd year of the course will reuse some of the tunes from year 1, but with more advanced arrangements. If new students have joined the class, they can be given the simpler version of the music from the year 1 books, while the other students read from the screen, or their year 2 books, meaning that beginners are not left out.

Lastly, the books are useful for all students to practise with at home.

Each year of the course has a book for treble clef instruments, plus another for bass clef, both containing all the written material from the website that is relevant to their instruments. The books are A5 size in order to fit easily into most brass instrument cases. Of course, the website will still need to be used for the backing tracks.

The books can be bought here.

No! The Practice pages are permanently free to access. They contain the backing tracks for all the exercises, so as long as students have their books, they can practise any of the pieces outside lessons. This completely does away with the administrative headache of creating and managing multiple student logins.

Yes, we have 2 other websites:

Student Brass is a companion website to this one, designed to support individual or small group practice for beginner brass players, and is entirely free to use. It is laid out in a very similar way to Whole Class Student Brass, and students can be encouraged to use it at home to complement the work they have done in the classroom.

Whole Class Student Recorder is a website which provides all the resources necessary for teaching the recorder to classes of primary school children. It is set out in the same way as Whole Class Student brass, and works in an identical way.