Maintain your Warm-up mode
I had a student the other day that was having difficulty playing without tension and was really “attacking” the notes - not playing the music, thus getting all tight, thus missing more, thus getting more tense… We talked a minute about what could be causing him to be having such an off playing day and decided that while he warmed up at home before his lesson, he jumped right into playing when he…
A Music Student’s Top Ten List
Someone showed a list similar to this to me a while back and I apologize for not currently being able to give proper credit to the original author. I have edited and paraphrased a few things in my list but primarily the credit for this Prep List goes to someone else out there in the music world. (If anyone knows this source please leave that info in a comment below.)
The ideas below are…
Richardson – Demonstration of Crossover Depth
I can count on one hand the crossover trumpet players that I would actually buy CDs of BOTH their classical and jazz playing. Rex Richardson is one of those players. There are plenty of players who specialize in one field and dabble in the other but it’s rare to find someone that digs in, way in, to jazz improvisation AND classical technique/repertoire. I was first introduced to Rex’s playing…
What’s the Deal with Transcribing Jazz?
Outside of practicing your butt off, aspiring jazz musicians are told two things will also help their improvising; listening to great jazz players and transcribing their solos. I do not disagree with this. After all, jazz is a language and to understand it we must not only study the grammar of how to spell and write, but in order to speak it we need to listen to hear how it sounds. However,…
Ray Mase on Practicing
Ray Mase is one of my absolute, all-time favorite trumpet players. He plays in the American Brass Quintet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and teaches at Julliard Aspen Music Festival. He has the most singing, vibrant, lyrical tone I have ever heard on the trumpet and is a huge influence on my playing. I highly recommend his CD, “Trumpet In Our Time”. The article that follows is one of his on how…
Recital Programming
Most universities require that their music majors perform a half recital (20-30 min) their junior year and a full recital (45+ min) their senior year. Here are some thoughts and strategies I have on programming.
Programming Strategy
Your first recital can be a nervous endeavor. Like many of us, when nerves come in to play, our endurance suffers. I encourage my students doing junior half…
Scales are Neighborhoods
This is my mantra with my private and university students. (Actually, one of my many mantras.) Another favorite is: Scales are Useless! -until they’re memorized.
My problem with typical scale work is that everybody practices them the same way. (Click the scale images to enlarge them. Then, your "back" button to come back.)
Here is an analogy. Say you were to have to come to my…
Ornamentation
One of the things I find myself discussing often with students is how to make a trill, or general ornamentation guidelines. It’s actually pretty involved, aside from the part about making a finger go up and down…
First a little historical (hysterical) context:
The Quantz View
Noted musicologist Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773), on ornamentation, particularly trills. It must be noted that…
Practice Routine Pie Chart
As we get older and (hopefully!) develop musically it seems that the demands on our time and playing increase exponentially. There never seems to be enough time in the day for everything that I want/need to work on. Coming up with a method of organizing my practice time has helped me tremendously. When I observe this “pie chart” practice methodology I feel a sense of accomplishment at the end…
Warm-Up Routine Pt. 4
Part IV Musicality
This subject is too often overlooked or brushed-over by students. It seems that once a player learns all the right notes and rhythms the objective is complete. In my opinion, this is now the beginning! In our world of fast food and computers people expect results too quickly; at least I believe this to be true in the music world. Turning a phrase in a natural,…