Habits of a successful intermediate Band Musician

Scott Rush & Jeff Scott

This field-tested method book delivers 172 sequenced exercises that are practical, structured, and above all musical, written for intermediate band students. It builds well-rounded musicianship through melodic shaping, range development, rhythm vocabulary, and aural skills. Progressive materials, including scale studies, rhythm charts, and independence-building exercises, strengthen coordination and technical control. Teacher guidance and carefully scaffolded pacing help students grow in expression, literacy, and confidence as performers.

Features

• Melodic contouring to shape phrases and build expression
• Range development and timing exercises, with more rests
• Teacher tips for every exercise
• Added practice in concert C, D-flat, and G
• Sequenced diatonic solfege that starts on day one of instruction
• One-octave scale studies in all twelve keys
• Built-in sequential rhythm charts, with the same rhythms then presented with pitches so students transfer them smoothly to the music they perform
• Slower pacing of scaffolded concepts
• Focus on rhythm vocabulary, aural literacy, and the components of playing (the “three buckets”)
• An introductory exercise for developing vibrato
• Expanded whole-tone scales
• Left (L) and right (R) hand indicators for woodwinds, plus chromatic alternate fingering indicators
• Rhythm charts with simultaneous, coordinating lines to promote part independence
• Guided questions that encourage student-centered instruction
• Rhythm vocabulary that advances through dotted quarter–eighth and sixteenth-note combinations, cut time, and 6/8
• New supplemental exercises with an expanded rhythm curriculum
• Technique and skill-building exercises woven into the method to prepare students for future Habits exercises