This article focuses on the nature of the "transitional minutes" in "any" music class. When transitional minutes before, during, and after rehearsals and classes are unplanned and left to chance, much viable and valuable teaching time is lost. When transitional minutes are well structured, learning can proceed efficiently. One tends to remember best those things that occur "first" and "last" in a series. Research studies into the "serial position effect" indicate that an individual's ability to recall an item varies relative to that item's position within a series. The "primacy effect" indicates that elements occurring at the beginning of a sequence are most easily recalled since the brain is relatively uncluttered at the start of the task and can therefore focus on these earliest items. Studies of the "recency effect" indicate that elements occurring at the end of a sequence seem to be efficiently recalled from short-term memory. Primacy-recency research also shows that items located toward the "middle" of a sequence are recalled less easily. Primacy-recency research is effectively applied by writers, speakers, lawyers, advertisers, and educators to implant ideas into the memories of their target constituencies. Music teachers who regularly present a complex series of events in their rehearsals and music classes need to use beginning and ending moments to help their students open their minds and ears, focus, and remember major points. In this article, the author examines the moments that precede and open a music class. (Contains 4 notes.)