Saxophone Prep Lesson

I observed Millikin Professor Perry Rask when teaching a prep lesson to a freshman in highschool. A lot of the things he had her doing were almost the same to what he has students in his studio do. He had her play scale exercises out of the Le Gamme book. She was having troubles because he was asking a lot from her but she eventually got it down with some help including slowing it down and going through rhythm exercises with the scales.
After scales, she worked on an etude she was doing for an upcoming Solo and Ensemble contest. Before working on that, Perry had her do a few vibrato exercises to warm her embouchure up for the etude. When doing this, he explained to her why she was doing the exercise. One thing that is consistent with Perry's teachings is that he always tells you why you do the things he has you do in lessons. Whether it is jazz, classical, or scales, there is always a reason for the exercises covered. After she was done with the vibrato exercise, she started playing her etude. She was still having trouble with getting her vibrato up to where it needed to be so she had her visualize it. She is also a bass player so her had her act as if she was doing vibrato on bass. When she got back on her instrument, her vibrato was instantly better because she had the visualization in her head.
After working through the etude for a while, she began to have problems with fumbling her fingers on faster notes so Perry had her do rhythmic exercises on the passage. What this includes is doing different rhythms through the passage to get her fingers use to the notes.
Overall, the lesson was very productive and it can be seen that Perry changes his lessons according the nature and ability of each of his students. There is consistency with the exercises used in each of his lessons but he adapts to what each student is able to accomplish and makes the lesson specialized for that specific student.