21st-century brass pedagogy : modern scientific discoveries and their implications on current brass pedagogy

Abstract

Since the beginning of brass instruments, much of the information utilized to develop a pedagogical framework for teaching and playing these instruments was developed through personal experience, trial and error, and anecdotal teaching through a largely apprenticeship system. Pedagogical ideas were developed from the vantage point of current information viewed through the lens of conventional thought of the time. Several emerging fields of scientific research have contributed to new information that contradicts what was previously viewed as pedagogically stable ideology. This paper summarizes a history of conventional thought towards human learning and movement, provides a brief description of new and emerging fields of scientific inquiry that have been created/enhanced by technological advancements in measurement equipment, and offers several examples of new ways to apply current scientific beliefs towards conventional brass pedagogy in the form of exercises that c an replace traditional pedagogical exercises based on outdated information.