John Kinyon's Basic Training Course, Book 1: Book

Kinyon built this method from years of classroom experience teaching students across ability levels and instrument families. The flexibility to use it for individual lessons, sectional rehearsals, or full mixed-ensemble classes makes it unusually practical for directors managing varied scheduling and groupings throughout a program.

Straightforward and purposeful. The book cuts straight to building real musicianship rather than overwhelming beginners with notation or conceptual abstraction.

Beginning band students learning on any standard concert band instrument, whether in group classes, mixed ensembles, or private lessons. Directors establishing a first-year program will find it equally effective for heterogeneous groupings and same-instrument sections.

• Introduce exercises in the order presented rather than jumping ahead; Kinyon's sequence builds foundational technique systematically across all beginning instruments
• Use the material for sectional rehearsals before bringing parts into the full ensemble to ensure individual security
• Assign supplementary exercises from the book as homework between ensemble rehearsals to reinforce note reading and technical fundamentals
• Pair similar exercises across different instruments to highlight how the same rhythmic or melodic patterns appear across the band

Deploy this as your foundational curriculum for students in their first 1-2 years of band. The 64-page scope allows you to work through it at a pace that matches your ensemble's reading level, using sections as warm-ups or technical studies even as you introduce performance repertoire alongside it.

• Basic note reading on treble and bass clefs
• Whole step and half step intervals
• Time signatures and fundamental rhythm patterns (whole notes, halves, quarters, eighths)
• Breathing and phrase awareness
• Playing unison and two-part exercises with others
• Fundamental major and minor scales