Brass Fundamentals
Prepares music educators for teaching brass instruments (horn, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, and tuba) in K-12 school settings. Covers care, technique, intonation, and pedagogy.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.89 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Fall 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=11 letter grades); Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Explain and demonstrate proper care and maintenance of brass instruments.
Demonstrate fundamental technical playing proficiency on trumpet, horn,trombone, euphonium, and tuba.
Explain and demonstrate the function of the embouchure, tongue, and oral cavity in tone production.
Demonstrate proper breathing and explain its impact on brass performance.
Demonstrate knowledge of intonation issues and fixes.
Demonstrate an understanding of trumpet and horn transpositions.
Demonstrate an understanding of the clefs most often used in trombone writing.
Explain the harmonic series and function of the valves and slide.
Demonstrate the ability to diagnose and solve the common problems of beginning brass students.
Demonstrate knowledge of method books, etude books, and appropriate solo repertory.
Demonstrate knowledge of recommended makes and models of brass instruments and accessories.
Demonstrate knowledge of relevant and important brass instrument performers in all genres.
Play each brass instrument with a proper setup and an understanding for how to identify and produce a characteristic sound.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapDeclared in Music: Education BM
- Declared in Music: Education BM
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Declared in Music: Education BM
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
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Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.89 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Fall 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=11 letter grades); Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Teaching brass instruments in K-12 settings
- Embouchure, tone production, and intonation issues
- Trombone clefs and brass instrument performers in various genres
- Proper setup and characteristic sound production for each brass instrument
Skills
- Care and maintenance of brass instruments; diagnosing and solving common problems for beginning brass students.
- Fundamental technical playing proficiency on trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba; proper breathing techniques.
- Understanding of trumpet and horn transpositions; explaining the harmonic series and function of valves and slides.
- Knowledge of method books, etude books, solo repertory, and recommended makes/models of brass instruments and accessories.
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
No records available.
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
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