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Make Yourself Uncomfortable

January 21, 2022

Like a lot of professionals I’ve been fortunate, being asked to do a lot of enjoyable projects. Most of the time I’m asked to do things that are in my “comfort zone.” While working in your comfort zone can be fun, productive, and musically rewarding, today I’d like to discuss how making yourself uncomfortable can be good for your musical growth.

A few months ago I was contacted by someone I knew who asked, what I thought, was a very funny question:

“Would you be interested in playing on a tune on John Mellencamp’s next album?”

I, of course, answered that, OF COURSE I would be interested. Shortly after that I had a phone call with Mike Wanchic, who works with Mr. Mellencamp. He told me that he’d send me some tracks and a chart, and that he’d be in touch when they were ready to record. The tracks were a demo of the tune- one just piano, the other piano and someone singing. The chart was a document with the lyrics and some of the chords written below the lyrics.

This is where my discomfort started. Nearly all of the work I do involves someone handing me sheet music, with a very specific idea of what I’m supposed to play. This was completely different. Not only was there no sheet music, I had no idea what I was supposed to play. I spent the next couple of days experimenting, learning the introduction in case I was supposed to play that; learning the piano solo in the middle in case they want that to be trumpet; learning the ending in case that’s something that should have trumpet as well; and generally just trying to get a feel for the song.

The phone call came just a few days after the chart and demo recordings. It was Mike: “I think we’re going to get this done today…can you make it out here later?” At that point I asked: “What exactly do you want me to play?” He told me that I should play where the piano solo is. I said okay. That afternoon the phone rang again, and it was time to go.

When I arrived, Mike took me into the engineer’s booth and introduced me to John Mellencamp. They played what they had recorded that day, and I asked what they wanted me to play, as I wanted to make sure I was doing what they wanted. They told me where to start, and Mr. Mellencamp said I should keep playing until he finished singing.

The recording engineer took me into the studio, set the microphone, handed me headphones, and walked back to the booth. He made sure he could hear me, and that I could hear the recording. Then he asked if I was ready. Normally when I answer “yes” to that question, I really mean it. Normally when I’m about to perform, I’m confident and have a fairly good idea of what is about to happen. Although I answered “yes” to his question, the very clear thought in my head was this:

I have no idea what is about to happen.

I’ve been playing trumpet for a long time, and think of myself as a versatile musician. I’ve played a wide variety of gigs. I’ve played in the Blue Note with Maynard Ferguson. I’ve also played the Georgia State Fair, where we had to wait until the pig races were over before starting (true story!). A couple of years ago I played the score of the movie “West Side Story” with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A few years before that I played the Holland Tulip Festival (that’s Holland, Michigan) with Myron Floren and Jim Nabors. Like a lot of musicians, I’ve got a bunch of stories from the performances I’ve gotten to do. A lot of times the best stories come from the most…um…challenging…gigs.

It would be easy at this point in my life to keep doing things I’ve done before, and staying comfortable. Here’s the problem: Once you stop trying to move forward, you don’t stay in the same place…you start moving backwards. So even though I knew I had never done anything like this before, I said yes, putting myself in the position of being uncomfortable. It forced me to practice and think about music in a different way.

Now that I had taken a gig without knowing much about it, prepared in a way I had never tried before, and just found out what I was supposed to do, I was standing in a recording studio about to play with no idea if it’s what the people hired me wanted to hear. The recording engineer started the track a few measures before I’m supposed to start playing. I did my best to clear my head, and played. As the tune finished, he stopped the track, and there were a few seconds of silence (where I’m sure there was a short discussion in the booth) and I hear: “Cool…so, are you happy with that?” I laughed, and answered : “It’s your project. If you’re happy, I’m happy. Now that I know that’s okay, I’m happy to do another so you have choices.” He said okay, we did another, and he told me I was all done. I walked into the booth and he played back the track with my solo. John Mellencamp was very nice, and thanked me for coming in. I thanked everybody and went home. I was out of the building in under 20 minutes.

Here’s the tune, “Gone So Soon.” It’s on John Mellencamp’s new album “Strictly A One-Eyed Jack” which just came out today.

I’m very happy to have had this opportunity, as it pushed me in a direction I didn’t even know I had missed. Keep this in mind if someone asks you to do something when your first thought might be “…but that’s not what I do.” Take on the challenge. Put yourself out there.

Make yourself uncomfortable.

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Posted in General, Trumpet | Tagged , , | 6 Comments »

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Play Something Fun

December 23, 2019

If you, like me, live on an academic calendar, you might have some time off right around now.  During the school year, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with how much you have to get done.  This applies especially to music.  With the responsibilities of lessons, ensembles, chamber groups, and any performing you might be doing outside of school, there’s just never enough time for everything.

Now that school is out, there are no lessons, no ensembles, and no chamber groups.  Sure, there are still outside performances, but now you have time to focus on something different.  So…what should you do?  Here’s my idea:

Pick something fun you’ve always wanted to do, and do it.  There are no firm rules here.  The idea here is to choose something that you think will be fun, and then go to it.  A break from the day-to-day of school is a good idea.  That doesn’t mean you should stop practicing or being creative.  I’ll give you an example.

Those of you that know me know that I play in Tromba Mundi, which is a professional trumpet ensemble made up of six university professors from all over the country.  We have existed as a group for about 12 years.  During that time, we’ve recorded four CDs (the fourth isn’t out just yet…I’ll let you know when it is as I’m sure you’re going to want to hear it).  In our time together, the six of us have become very good friends.

A few years ago, JC Dobrzelewski suggested the idea of a Christmas CD.  At the time, the rest of us mocked him mercilessly for suggesting something so ridiculous.  After all, what are friends for?  Since then, the idea has come back around more than a few times…by friends, other colleagues, even among ourselves.  At this point it has become a running joke within the group.  More recently, Bill Stowman wrote alternate lyrics for “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” which detail some of the inner workings of Tromba Mundi.  No, I will not be including Bill’s lyrics here.

I’ve liked the idea of a trumpet ensemble for a long time.  But that doesn’t mean just playing all of the standard repertoire.  Trumpet ensemble should be musically diverse enough to perform all kinds of music.  With that, I give you my Christmas break project (although since I finished early, I may have to start on something else now).  It’s a jazz waltz, with a half-time swing ending (complete with high notes!) written for 4 Bb trumpets, flugelhorn, and bass trumpet.  This is “The Most Mundiest Time of the Year,” dedicated to my Tromba Mundi colleagues: Bryan Appleby-Wineberg, Scott Belck, JC Dobrzelewski, John Marchiando, and Bill Stowman.

 

Okay, now it’s your turn.  Let me know what you’re doing.

Have a great break.

Posted in General, Trumpet | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

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The Secret to High Notes- Part 4

January 18, 2019

Welcome to Part 4 in my continuing series on The Secret to High Notes.  Should you have missed Parts 1-3, and shame on you if you have, you can find them here:

The Secret to High Notes-Part 1

The Secret to High Notes-Part 2

The Secret to High Notes- Part 3

The problem I want to focus on today is that we’re stuck in a system that is propping itself up.  A lot of teachers and players have never conceived of, or worked on, the entire range of the trumpet as fundamental pedagogy.  Since they haven’t done it, they consider it “different.”  Then there are players who play in the upper register that might not have great fundamentals in other areas, like sound production.  These people will also tell you that the upper register is “different.”

So, to grossly overstate for clarity’s sake:

The “legit” players will say that they would have to give up sound quality for high range.

The “lead” players will say that they would have to give up high range for sound quality.

And since Teacher X or Player Y says it, and they’re good, it must be true.

It’s not true.  

Let’s take a look at the Arban’s book.  If you’re a trumpet player, you should already have, and know, this book.  There are sections that address a number of very important issues for trumpet players.  It is an excellent book that should be in every trumpet player’s library.  That being said, Mr. Arban wrote this:

One may easily ascend as high a B flat, but the B natural and the C ought to be made use of very sparingly.

Even with E.F. Goldman adding that high D had become commonplace, and Claude Gordon adding that the range of advanced players extends to double C and above (in their editions of Mr. Arban’s book), the exercises never changed.  Since Mr. Arban thought of C as the top of the trumpet range, and that it should only be used occasionally, his entire book reflects lack, ignoring the upper range of the trumpet.

I regularly see people post some version of:

“90% of music is below high C”,

which may or may not be true, but doesn’t seem like a good excuse to not be able to play 10% of music.  The post is usually accompanied by the idea that everyone should focus on playing the trumpet fundamentally well, and not worry about high notes.

There is also a lot of “pedagogy” out there trying to show you why high notes are different, and how to be able to play them.

Because the pedagogy has been so “either/or”, trumpet players continue to believe it, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  There are so many great players, playing a wide variety of styles, that play with great sounds throughout the range of the trumpet, it’s shocking to me that people still cling to the idea that high notes are somehow “different.”

If you’ve read Parts 1-3, you’ll see this concept again and again:

The entire range of the trumpet is one thing.  

Once you conceive of range this way, then the fundamental approach to the horn clarifies, as the focus is to play the trumpet one way, allowing yourself unlimited potential growth, and much more musical freedom.

Posted in Trumpet | Tagged , | 3 Comments »

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Criticism

April 2, 2018

As a trumpet teacher, part of my job is giving criticism.  The relationships I have with my students are ones built on mutual trust, so my criticism is usually taken for its intended purpose- to help students improve.  After a student has played something, my first question is usually, “So, how did that go?”  The reason I ask this is so that I can see if the student and I are on the same page before we continue.  If the student says, “pretty good,” and I agree, I will let them know as we discuss how to get from ‘pretty good’ to ‘great.’  If I disagree, I will say something like, “Actually, I thought that did not go well.”  Or, “Hmmm…I thought that didn’t sound good at all.”  After that, I will explain why I thought what I thought, and ask why the student thought it was “pretty good.”  Then we work towards making it better.

Because we have good personal relationships, it is easy to have these kinds of conversations without hurt feelings.  If I think that your performance of Brandt #2 was not very good, that has nothing to do with you as a person.  It has to do with your preparation and performance of that etude.  If you’re working with someone you trust and can put your feelings aside, honest criticism will be a tremendous benefit.

Criticism can be very helpful in growth.  If you are offered an honest assessment of how you are doing, and how it could be better, this can eliminate a lot of wasted time.

There are two big problems I’d like to discuss today.  First up- Unwanted Criticism.  This can happen in a number of ways.  The easiest way is to post anything online…about anything.  Someone will quickly let you know what you should have done, and how much better you should have done it.  Another favorite of mine is the older student.  As an undergrad, there were always “experts” around to let me know what I “should” be doing. These are often the people to tell you how much better everything used to be.  Let me be very clear here- classmates and colleagues can be a great source of information for growth.  I encourage my students to play for each other to get good feedback.  That’s not what I’m talking about here.  This is the person who, although is in the same place that you are, is somehow an “expert” on everything, and is happy to let you know it.

I deal with all unwanted criticism the same way- The Smile and Nod.  Here’s what you do:

  • Manufacture your best smile
  • Aim it at the Unwanted Critic
  • Give a small nod in their general direction
  • Walk away

The second big problem- Malicious Criticism.  This might be easier to find, as, if you’re reading this, you have internet access.  There are people that seem intent on hurting other people with their criticism.  The difficult part: it can work.  If you’ve invested a lot in a particular project just to have someone come along and viciously attack it, getting your feelings hurt is not unreasonable.  So- how do you deal with malicious criticism?  I have two suggestions.

  1. Ignore it.  If someone is going out of their way to hurt you, showing them that hurt only feeds them.
  2. If you just can’t let it go, try this- write them a thank you note.  Be as nice as you can in thanking them for taking the time to give such a thoughtful critique of your work.

There are people out there that seem to think that the only way to look good is to try and make others look bad.

So- where can you go for criticism you can trust?  Good question.  Experts.  Look for people that actually know what they’re talking about.  There is more information now, that is easily available, than ever before.  Not all of that information is equal.  It’s worth doing the little bit of extra work to make sure the information you’re getting is from a source that is reputable.

 

 

Posted in General, Trumpet | Tagged , , | 7 Comments »

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Make the Commitment

October 23, 2017

Playing the trumpet is easy.  What I mean by this is that the concepts involved aren’t complicated, and that anyone can do it.  I can teach anyone how to play the trumpet in 30 minutes.  Playing the trumpet well takes a considerable amount of practice.  No one plays at a professional level right away.

As you’re working to learn more and get better, it’s important to remember a few things.

Understanding a concept is just the first step in being able to demonstrate it

Your practice time should be spent putting the concepts you learn intellectually into practical use.  As we discussed with Scales, knowing that the Ab major scale has four flats doesn’t necessarily mean you can play it.  Similarly, knowing that getting a full sound throughout the entire register of the instrument is vital is not the same as doing it.

Oversimplifying can be as bad as overcomplicating

It can be easy to think- “oh, I just need to do this one thing, then everything else will fall into place.”  When faced with the frustration of that not working, it’s easy to make the leap to- “it’s just too difficult…you have to be born with it…if only I knew the secret.”  As a teacher, I go out of my way to make things as simple as possible.  Notice the “as possible.”  That’s the important part.  Oversimplifying can lead to not getting the result you want.  Overcomplicating can lead to quitting in frustration.  I don’t like either of those outcomes.  It’s critical to understand what you’re working towards, and to proceed down the simplest path to get there.

There are no shortcuts

This is a big one.  There are still people out there making outrageous claims about near-instant improvement.  Growth takes time.  If you are not willing to invest the time and energy necessary, find something else to do.  If you’re spending time looking for a magic solution, you’re wasting time you could be spending getting better.

With that in mind, your work should show improvement.  If you’re practicing dutifully and not seeing any improvement, it’s time to look for a new path.

Commitment

This brings me to the title of this entry.  On the surface, some of what is written above might appear to be contradictory.  I’m saying that trumpet is easy, but takes time.  I’m telling you to look for the simplest path for growth, but not look for shortcuts.  I believe that anyone can understand how to play the trumpet in 30 minutes, but being great at it takes much longer.

Too often, people seem to be looking for a checklist of exactly what they need to do to get where they say they want to go.  It’s almost never this simple.  True learning is not a straight line, or a destination.  It’s a long term investment in yourself and a process for continued growth.

No one else can make this commitment for you.  You can take words of encouragement as motivation.  You can also take people telling you “you’ll never make it” as motivation to prove them wrong (this is not my favorite, as it is working from a negative place- I prefer to leave the “you’ll never make it” people behind and forget them).  Ultimately the commitment is about only one person- you.  Once you decide to make this commitment, (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) others don’t matter.  As a student, it can be difficult to be around a lot of other people on similar paths to yours.  You might see people winning auditions, competitions, and jobs that you really want.  Remember this: someone else’s success is not your failure.

Once you’ve made the commitment, there’s no need to advertise it.  Your commitment isn’t to anyone but yourself.  If you are truly making a change, your actions, and the results of those actions, will speak louder than words ever could.

 

 

Posted in General, Trumpet | Tagged , , | 3 Comments »

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Do You REALLY Know it?

September 25, 2017

When I ask new students if they know all of their major scales, I usually get “yes” responses.  Then I pick up my horn and say, “Okay, let’s play them.  First me, then you.”  It’s at that point that I can tell by the look in their eyes whether or not they really know them.  Most of them know how major scales are built, and can tell me how many flats or sharps are in the key signatures.  That’s a great start to REALLY knowing.

Let me ask you a question:

What’s the 13th letter of the alphabet? 

Right now, most of you are either thinking (or singing to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star): “A-B-C-D-E-F-G” while counting on your fingers.  If I asked you if you know the alphabet, you would most likely answer yes.

I want a deeper knowledge of scales and music.

This brings us to memorization.  For some, memorization has become a bad word.  For others, it’s an absolute necessity.  This is where the problems begin.  Memorizing data without understanding it is useless.  For example, if you can tell me that the Ab major scale has four flats, and they are Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db, but still can’t play an Ab major scale, you still have work to do.  Having no data at all will make your job much harder.  If you don’t know how to build an Ab major scale, you’ll probably have a hard time playing one.

There are things that need to be not just memorized, but truly learned so that you can progress.  There is information that you need to own.  And here’s a secret- the more you own, the better.

Smartphones have made it very easy to not know anything.  If you need directions, a recipe, stats from a football game on Saturday, or the name of that person on that show that was that other character from that movie- there’s an app that can help you.  I say this as someone that uses my smartphone regularly for these purposes.

When it comes to music, I want you to start taking responsibility for REALLY knowing your material.  Let’s start with scales as an example:

  1. Can you play all of your major scales from memory?
  2. What about minor scales (natural, melodic, and harmonic)?
  3. What about modes?
  4. Can you play them in 3rds?
  5. 4ths?
  6. You are, of course, playing them over the entire range of your instrument, right?

If you’re thinking- wow, that’s a lot!- you’d be right.  So where do you start?  Simple-with something, anything, that you know that you don’t REALLY know.  Set aside a little bit of time every day to get better.  That little bit of time, every day, will add up quickly, and you’ll start seeing results.

Once you start working in this way, you can start seeing music in a bigger picture.  You won’t be looking note-to-note; you’ll be seeing phrase-to-phrase.  And once you starting taking the responsibility of REALLY knowing music, your performances will improve, and your growth will skyrocket.

I love etudes.  I use them in my practice and in my teaching.  In the abstract, learning any one etude for your lesson isn’t the most important thing in the world.  Students will often ask the questions (especially when it comes to advanced math): “Do I really need to know this?” and “Am I ever going to use this again?”  Although you may not be asked to play etude #19 in public at any point in your career, the cumulative knowledge you gain by taking the time to REALLY know each piece assigned will, over time, help your overall musical growth immensely.

There are always more ways to practice, and always more information to learn.

This is why being a musician is the best way to live.

 

 

 

Posted in General, Trumpet | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

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Smart(phone) Practice

September 1, 2017

The school year has started.  For a lot of you, that means back to lessons and ensembles, with a whole lot of new music for you to prepare.  When preparing music, you need to pay attention to detail, work out the technical and musical challenges, and make sure you’re playing your instrument fundamentally well.

Don’t forget to practice performing!

Too often musicians spend so much time preparing a piece, they leave performance out of their practice.  Once the piece has been studied, the “hard parts” are worked out, and the phrasing has been decided, the practice session ends.  There needs to be one more step.

Practice performing the piece.

How, you might ask?  Good question.  For those of you with smartphones (and I think that’s a lot of you), try adding this to your daily practice.

  1. After the “normal practice” of your piece, put your phone on your music stand, and video record a performance of the piece.
  2. DON’T WATCH IT YET!
  3. When you are ready to practice this piece next (at least one day later), watch the video.
  4. Notice what you did well, as well as what needs work.  Delete the video.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4.

Adding this to your daily practice gives you the opportunity to show yourself exactly what others see in your performance.  That’s why you don’t watch the video immediately.  When you give yourself that day, something that you might have not noticed could stick out, while something else that bothered you in the moment might be no big deal.  You might also notice aspects of your performance that you hadn’t considered before (posture, hand position, funny faces that you make while playing).

Since you are the only one watching the recordings, it’s up to you to be completely honest with yourself.  If not, it’s like cheating at solitaire- sure you may have “won,” but who cares?  Holding yourself accountable for daily performance can certainly be frustrating, especially at first.  Done correctly, you’re gaining valuable performing experience that will have you better prepared when you next step on stage.

 

 

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Trust

January 27, 2017

For people seeking good information, an online search often seems a reasonable place to start.  When you’re looking for movie times or a piece of trivia this works fairly well.  When searching for more important information, like how and where to get help on the trumpet, this system doesn’t work nearly as well.  I just did a search for “great trumpet teachers” and the first two results were an online forum discussion and an a list of the “Top Colleges for Trumpet Performance” which I find dubious at best.

To find good information takes trust.  There are plenty of people online offering all kinds of solutions to problems you might not have even known that you had.  If you just give them your time and money, all of your problems will be solved.  This seems to attract enough people that these offers keep coming.  As these kind of schemes have become more prevalent, the people running them have gotten better.  Now you’ll hear a lot of the “right words” that might lead you to believe that “well…there might be something to that….maybe I should give it a try…”  Instead of offering you a Double C if you just buy this magic mouthpiece, you now need to invest a lot of time and money so that you can unlock “The Secret.”

Here are a few ideas on what to do with the unknown people and ideas:

  1. Look for facts.  Very often, people that are untrustworthy speak in very general terms.  It makes them hard to pin down, as they’re not lying because they haven’t really said anything at all.  Look for phrases like, “…too many to list…” “…all over the world…” and “…thousands of students…”  These kinds of generalities have no real meaning, and could be hiding an absence of real experience.  Look for: professional gigs, professional teaching experience, and professional affiliations.  These are by no means a guarantee of greatness, just a good starting point to know whether the person you’re dealing with exists in the real world, or just online.
  2. Look for evidence.  If someone is proclaiming themselves to be a great player or teacher, there should be ample evidence to back it up.  Search for recordings and successful students to see what this person has been doing.
  3. Learn what’s going on in your world.  The trumpet world, like a lot of others, is relatively small.  It’s not difficult to find out who the successful players and teachers are in any area of the world.  Do some homework: most orchestras have websites listing their personnel.  See if the trumpet players have personal websites.  The same goes for professional big bands.  Go see live music in your area and find out the names of the people in the sections.  After a while, you’ll start seeing the same names over and over again.  The same goes for colleges, which all have websites listing their faculty.  Find the best young players in your area and ask them if they are taking lessons.  If so, find out the name of their teachers.

So how do we know whom to trust?  Start with your personal relationships.  If you have a current private teacher or band director that you trust, they can be a great first step into a bigger world.  They have likely met, worked with, or know other teachers and players that they know are trustworthy.  This is the way you build your network.

I’m not here to call any people out by name, but am concerned by the number of “online experts” that don’t seem to have any standing in the real world.  The ease of taking a video and posting it online has created a population that posts so often that their online presence is hard to ignore.  This population can be the first seen by people searching for good information.  And that’s a big problem.  There are so many great players and teachers in the world that no one should have to settle for bad information, just because it’s so readily available.

And we’ve been over this before, but it’s worth repeating.  There are many people that are both great players and great teachers, but being a great player does not, by definition, make one a great teacher.  There are many people that choose to focus on one aspect.  There are many amazing teachers that are not world class players.  Being able to demonstrate isn’t the be-all and end-all of teaching.  Helping you grow is.

So please- Do some homework. Let’s make the online community one full of good information, support, and trust.

Posted in Trumpet | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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The Secret to High Notes- Part 3

October 24, 2016

Welcome to Part 3 in our continuing series on high notes.

If you missed Parts 1 or 2, you can find them here:

The Secret to High Notes-Part 1

The Secret to High Notes-Part 2

There are a lot of wacky ideas out there about how to approach the upper register.  Let’s try and keep this simple.  I believe the goal is to play the entire range of the trumpet the same way.  More than anything else, this takes coordination.  We started building that coordination with half-steps.  We’ll continue today with lip slurs.

Today’s magic number is 5.  We’re going to start on low F# (yes-low F#!) and slur out 5 notes in this pattern: 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5.  Then do the same thing on low G, Ab, A, Bb, B, and C.  Here’s a demonstration:

Easy, right?  I thought so.

Next we jump up an octave and start of F# in the staff and do the exact same thing, using the fingerings 1-2-3 for F#, 1-3 for G, 2-3 for Ab, 1-2 for A, 1 for Bb, 2 for B, and 0 for C, so that we connect all of the partials of the overtone series:

The concept remains the same- take a easy breath and blow through the entire line.  Aim for consistency of sound and no air between notes.

Guess what’s next?  That’s right- we move up another octave, keeping the same concept:

The concept is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  This is the range of the trumpet where people start doing anything they can just to get notes to speak.  When they find something that works, they proclaim they’ve discovered “The Secret!”  And here’s the problem: sometimes these techniques can work.  But now you’re playing the trumpet in (at least) two different ways.  This makes playing music harder.

Now there’s one more step.  And this is where it gets really fun.  We’re starting on F# (fingered 1-2-3) on top of the staff, playing 1-2-3-4-5, then sliding out to the F# above.  I write “sliding” very intentionally.  This is the part of the horn where the valves don’t help very much, so we must blow out until we find the center of the note we’re looking for, building the coordination of how to find it into our entire body (which includes the ears!).  Continue through the rest of the valve combinations (G: 1-3, Ab: 2-3, A: 1-2, Bb: 1, B: 2,  C: 0).  This gets us all the way to double C:

I believe the sliding part to be very important.  It can be tempting to try and force that last note out by any means possible.  What I want is for you to build each note as a natural result of blowing consistently through the entire range of the trumpet.

A short word about equipment- I practice this exercise on the mouthpiece I use for lead playing (and yes-I use different mouthpieces for different jobs).  There are a lot of trumpet players that have a mouthpiece for lead playing, but they don’t practice on it.  This is a mistake.  If you want to feel as comfortable as possible on a mouthpiece, you should integrate it into your practice routine.  That means practicing both technique and music on it regularly.

This is an exercise you can do every day.  Place it at the end of a session in which you’re practicing fundamentals.  Play each step focusing on an easy breath, clear and full sound, and smooth transitions between notes (no air!).  Play until the top note doesn’t speak (this won’t always be the same each day).  It doesn’t take that long, but can help build the coordination so that your entire range is always available to you.

This exercise is offered as a simple way of building a consistent approach to the entire range of the trumpet.  It’s 4 steps to double C- how much simpler can it get?  Go back and watch the the first segment of each video.  Notice how similar the setup is each time.  If you’ll take the time to learn to play the trumpet one way, it’s actually considerably easier in the long run.

 

 

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Playing Well With Others

November 6, 2015

The past month has been great.  Aside from getting married (which was a truly great day- but not really the point I’m writing about- but bringing up last month without mentioning it seems wrong- oh well, back to my original point, which I haven’t started yet), I had the pleasure of filling a few different musical roles.  October started with a Tromba Mundi tour that ended in Carnegie Hall.  Last weekend I was in Houston to play lead for a Pops show with the Houston Symphony.  And this weekend I’ll be the guest soloist with the Indiana Wind Symphony.  This has me thinking about how we function in ensembles, and the responsibilities for each role. Problems in ensembles often occur because people are either unaware of their roles, or unwilling to serve in them.

There are three settings that make up a majority of our performances.  They are: Soloist, Chamber Musician, and Ensemble Member.  Much has been written about how to work well with others (show up on time, have proper equipment, have a pencil ready, etc.), so today we’re going to focus on the musical responsibilities.  All three share this responsibility:

Show up to rehearsal prepared

Rehearsal is not a time to learn your part.  Rehearsal is the time to put parts together and make decisions about how the music will be played.  The better prepared each person shows up, the easier it is to get meaningful musical work done.

1.  Soloist

As a soloist, you dictate the musical style.  It is your job to be clear, both when playing and speaking, to the other musicians about what your vision of the music is.  Your job is to be a great leader.  Being a leader isn’t just telling others what to do- it’s also listening to other opinions and being someone people want to follow.

2.  Chamber Musician

What I mean by this designation is anytime you are performing in a group of any size without a conductor or designated leader.  Here your job is to be part of a team.  Your responsibilities include offering your opinions as well as listening to others to build the best possible musical product.  Being flexible is very important.  It’s okay to have disagreements.  How those disagreements are handled can dictate the future of a group.  Learning to work well in this situation is one of the most valuable skills you can have.  You want to be someone others want as part of their team.

3.  Ensemble Member

As a member of an ensemble with a conductor or designated leader, your job is to commit to that leader’s musical vision- whether you agree with it or not.  Be the person that helps get everyone on the same page.  If you do this, you will be someone that people want to work with.

Looking at these three descriptions might have you wondering which one you would like to be.  My recommendation is to be all three.  The more you appreciate each role, the easier you understand how others operate.  If you are a soloist, think about how you communicate with your ensemble.  When you are in a chamber setting, consider that others in the group could feel just as strongly about something as you do, and yet not agree with you.  As an ensemble member, know how difficult it can be to run a group and keep everyone moving in the same direction.

If you do this, you can be someone people always want to work with, no matter what the circumstances.

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