About the Method

The Problem:

If you’re a music teacher, how many times have you encountered one of the following problems:

  • Students do great in their first class or lesson, but come back the next week forgetting almost everything, or have developed bad habits.

  • Students learn the instrument in a crowded class where it is hard to address individual issues.

  • Students struggle to read music and as a result, fall behind the rest of the band within the first few weeks of starting.

  • The students who need the most help may not be able to take private lessons.

As a public music educator and private lesson instructor, these are all statements that ring true for a lot of my students. I have often thought to myself when I face these issues, “If only I could practice with them for a week, then they would get this down!” How many common trombone issues could be corrected if the time and repetition had been taken to reinforce good habits at the beginning? Frankly, many students need extra support, especially when they are beginning. Its not the fault of the educators; in most school settings, there are too many students and not enough time to give the focus struggling students need, and private lesson teachers may only see the student for 30 minutes a week.

First Position Trombone Method seeks to be a solution by providing video lessons and series that focus on:

  • Practice-Along Structure

    • Students can learn at their own pace

    • Students learn positive practice habits through a repeatable and predictable structure. Students learn practice tips and then apply them to learning music with the video.

  • Multiple Learning Styles

    • Visual learning through graphics and graphic notation.

    • Aural learning through aural models, listen-first structure, and singing.

    • Combined, students can learn, play, and experience immediate success without the need of music notation.

  • Fundamentals First

    • Video lessons begin with and reinforce specific brass fundamentals.

    • Walk students through developing a warm-up routine that can be personalized to work on their unique problems and accelerate their skills.

First Position includes 3 video series to ensure students start the instrument strong:

1.Trombone Basics

  • 10 videos acting as students’ first lessons. Created to assist students through the first 2-4 weeks of playing.

  • Breaks down beginning the instrument into specific skills that can be practiced to reinforce positive habits.

  • Structure and mini-practice assignments emphasize work-at-own-pace model to ensure student mastery.

  • Includes graphics and aural models of examples and non-examples, encouraging students to think critically of their sound.

Aural examples and non-examples in practice

2. First Position Fundamentals

  • Short play-along videos of warm-up exercises including 3 playlists of long tones, lip slurs, and technique exercises. Work through beginner level to upper middle-school level.

  • Format encourages students to craft their own warm-up routine based on their skills and problems, and work through these at their own pace.

  • Play-Along reinforces habits of a warm-up and give students strong aural model that they reference daily.

  • Includes graphic notation. Once students are comfortable, they are encouraged to transfer over to sheet music, so that aural example may reinforce learning written notation-students only read music after they know the sound.

3. First Position Play-Alongs

  • 10 beginner etudes working from first five notes up through Bb major scale. Each etude has a specific musical goal and concept introduced.

  • Accompanying videos walk students through the practice process using a Listen-Sing-Play model that breaks the song into small, memorizable chunks.

  • Each video teaches a specific practice tip that can be applied universally to practicing any music.

  • Videos include graphic notation to continually reference throughout learning. As students progress, graphic notation includes more of standard music notation. The goal of this is to learn written notation over time, implicitly, through repetition and gradual familiarity.

  • Each etude includes a backing track to reinforce steady rhythm, and allow students the opportunity to perform the etude with the instructor or independently to show mastery.

Example of graphic notation and exercise goals to students craft a personalized warm up

Example of a practice tip and its application to a song

Follow each lesson, or use as a supplemental material.

First Position Trombone Method is designed to be flexible and accessible for your learning and teaching needs.

Meet the Instructor

A young woman with long, wavy brown hair and earrings smiling playfully outdoors, holding a brass trombone over her shoulder, with a background of tall shrubs and a grey wall.

Alyson Johnson-Rangel

Alyson Johnson-Rangel is a versatile trombonist and dedicated music educator originally from Madison, South Dakota. As a finalist in the 2024 Larry Wiehe Tenor Trombone Competition and the 2020 American Trombone Workshop Division I Solo Competition, Alyson is recognized for her technical skill and musicality. In 2018, she took first place in the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra Young Musician Concerto Competition, performing as a soloist with the orchestra. Her trombone quartet, Bonal Energy, was also invited to perform with the Western Michigan University Concert Band in 2020.

Passionate about teaching, Alyson offers private low brass lessons, helping students achieve their musical goals. Her students have been recognized in Arizona All-State Bands, Michigan All-State Bands, received Irving S. Gilmore Artistic grants, and participated in prestigious programs such as Interlochen Fine Arts Camp, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the Phoenix Youth Symphony, and the Kalamazoo Junior Youth Symphony.

Alyson's commitment to inclusive music education led her to serve as Co-President of United Sound at Western Michigan University from 2021-2022, an organization dedicated to teaching individuals with disabilities how to play an instrument. Under her leadership, the WMU chapter performed with the United States Navy Band at the 2022 Midwest Clinic, a testament to the organization's impact. Since 2021, Alyson has served as the bookkeeper for the International Trombone Festival.

Alyson holds a Master’s degree in Music Performance from Arizona State University, and Bachelor's degrees in Music Education and Trombone Performance from Western Michigan University. She currently teaches private brass lessons in the Phoenix area and teaches elementary general music at Mesa Public Schools. When she's not playing or teaching music, she enjoys rugby, hiking, camping, thrifting, knitting, reading, and spending time with her husband, David, and her cat, Blair.