Shrinking the Gap

What's the purpose of practicing?  Is the purpose of playing just to practice?  And should we continue plowing through that same checklist of assignments hoping for a good result? How easy it is to loose sight of where we're going and why. There is always a gap between how we sound and how we want to sound. The main purpose of practicing is to shrink that gap as quickly as possible.
    
Motivated students tend to focus on the other side of the gap, not the great chasm before them. It's not about the distance but the vision. The practice session becomes a game of "how fast can I get out of here, and get over there?" The best students can taste the other side, aim for it daily, and listen carefully to the best musicians. The goal is to not sound like a student!

What then compels any sane person to jump headlong into countless hours of struggling with the trumpet? Is it not that strong concept of a powerful yet beautiful sound, and the passion to pursue it? The carrot before the horse is that great trumpet sound that captivated us from day one.  That's what sustains us through nerves, obstacles, discouragements, and even defeats.  Many jump, but few survive.

The Midas Touch

Remember King Midas? He was the king who got what he wished for, that everything he touched would instantly turn to solid gold. He quickly had a household of gleaming treasures including his daughter! Poor King Midas!


"Let's say you played 10,000 notes today, and you are thrilled because 2,000 of them were simply amazing!  Unfortunately that means there were 8,000 mediocre notes that nobody wanted to hear. Congratulations for the good notes, but sadly, it is the 8,000 mediocre notes that tend to be habit-forming.  The majority rules. Try to deliver 10,000 great ones!"   - Arnold Jacobs

Remember King Midas?  Everything he touched instantly turned to pure gold!  Why not have that mindset? Put on an imaginary crown and a royal robe the next time you enter your practice room.  Tomorrow as you open that trumpet case and pick up your gold-plated Midas trumpet with its gleaming gold mouthpiece, think about your treasure trove, boatloads of valuable golden doubloons!

You have no notes to waste.  Make it your practice to make them all count.

Game Time Practice by Michael Jordan and Arnold Jacobs

"During every practice I spend time imagining myself playing in the game so when the actual game comes it's no big deal because I've already done it all."  -  Michael Jordan

"There should be a period of time during each practice session when you perform. Invite some friends in to your practice room and play a passage or a page of something. ... What I'm trying to indicate is that each day should contain some amount of performing. You should engage in the deliberate act of story telling each day you practice. Don't only gather information when you practice, spend time imparting it. This is important."  -  Arnold Jacobs 

Note: These are two of many valuable quotes compiled by Michael Grose, Principal Tuba in the Eugene Symphony and Associate Professor of the Oregon School of Music. #jakeped 

Mahler 5 Alert!

The CCM Philharmonia will perform Mahler 5 on Friday evening October 10.  Auditions for the trumpet section will be held next week.

As we enter these exciting days, here are a few inspiring quotes from the great Arnold Jacobs:

"The big thing about music—or any other art form—is that you can enjoy what you are doing, but others must also enjoy what you are doing. It should be like painting a beautiful picture on canvas for others to appreciate. When you are playing a solo, you are not playing for yourself, but for the people who are listening."

"In your thoughts, be a musician not a mechanic." 

"One should have a great sound in the brain to imitate."

"It doesn't have to feel good, it just has to sound great!"

Guys, remember: drama, power, finesse, and beauty.  And one more: pacing!

 

The Second Most Obvious Audition Issue

The second most obvious issue at the auditions: 

There was some cause for pause this week in evaluating the CCM trumpet placement auditions. No worries and no cause for alarm however!  The fix does not involve brutal sessions of chop pounding, hyper ventilation, or great displays of monumental exuberance!  It is a simple matter that can be remedied rather quickly and without pain, and will greatly benefit players and listeners. It was present at the auditions, but since it did not abound, no one did astound.

I'm talking not about accuracy, intonation, volume, or style.  The given in any audition ought to be a steady sense of RHYTHM.  This means no rushing, no dragging, or anything short of incredibly precise rhythm.  The right tempo with a reliable beat is always impressive.  It must be so noticed that it rekindles a pulse in the committee.

Good rhythm is more than mathematical perfection.  It must be instinctive and infectious. After all, rhythm matters.  It is the basic structure of music.  It must be clearly felt.  With unstable rhythm, we have unimpressive music.

The best way to perfect rhythm is to put the horn down, and sing or tap out the notes in perfect time.  We tend to be better rhythm keepers without the instrument.  So, first internalize it, and sing it at all speeds accurately.  Then copy that with the trumpet.  If it's solid within, it'll be solid without.  If it isn't, it isn't.

A great player with average rhythm will only be an average player.  We'll likely miss a note or two, but we have no excuse for playing constantly with bad rhythm.  Do the work.  It will show.

(There was a more noticeable issue at the auditions than rhythmic problems, but we'll leave that for later.  Let's start with the easiest.)

One Word Matters

A wonderful break through happened the other day during the lesson of a tenth grade trumpet student!  As a result of just one word, his sound suddenly opened up. The room lit up, and it was easier for him to play! My rants on air, tongue, and coordination were ineffective.  Finally I told him to just BLAT it out!  Voila!

I wonder if the magic word needed for each student could be determined by some questionnaire!  The student answers all the questions and then receives his/her personal word for the week.  No teacher needed!  Sadly, it took me months to figure out that BLAT was what was needed. 

WIND GUSTS was another successful word picture that worked nicely.  But, one word at a time.  No wonder Proverbs speaks of the beauty of a well place word at the precise moment. 

A Trumpet Lesson with Professor Mahler

Professor: Come on in, you're next!  

Student: Hi, Professor Mahler.

Professor: I hope you're warmed up, because I've got a lot of stuff I am expecting you to play well for me today.

Student: What kind of stuff, Professor Mahler? 

Professor:  Contained in my scores is enough stuff to keep trumpet players at the peak of their game, and audiences coming back for more for a long time to come.  Now, let's take a look at your daily agenda.  Make sure to cover as many of these items as possible every day!


PROFESSOR MAHLER'S TRUMPET STUFF:

• soft as possible

• loud as possible

• lyric sweetness not expected of trumpet players

• long fluid chorales in all registers

• gnarly fanfares, fast and slow, soft and loud

• sudden rude pokes and jabs

• the mean and the ugly (the spirit, not the tone)

• high note diminuendos to nothing

• the mother of all offstage solos!

• shocking and unexpected entrances

• huge leaps in a single bound, soft and loud, fast and slow

• highest note, lowest note

• the longest note ever

• very quiet triplets on a low C sharp

• offstage screech part

• transposition always required 

• complete accuracy always expected

Student: Gee, professor, I'm not sure I am ready to do all of that stuff!  You see, I have many issues and problems that must be solved.  What can you suggest for all of my ailments?  

Professor Mahler:  What I have written is all you will ever need. 

The Makings of a Great Student, Part 2

Rather than another long and familiar list of the usual must-haves for success, here are some obvious must-not-haves to consider. These are job-killers that quickly cripple growth.

The enemies of success are not a lack of talent or an uninspiring environment. The real inhibitors of success are laziness, stubbornness, lack of taking initiative, and an unwillingness to address weaknesses.  These habits will quickly render one's talent and love of music of no effect.

Confronting weaknesses is a given for the successful. Great students learn to face their vulnerabilities on a daily basis.  Even token attention to difficult issues is better than none.  Regular and wise chipping away on those nasty problems will make them less nasty the next time. A lot of polishing will produce a nice shine. No buffing, no shine!

Part 2 of The Great Student is simple.  Organize a plan for staying with difficult tasks.  Say no to the couch naps.  Endurance isn't only about embouchure strength.  Mental discipline is the greater challenge, for it yields greater results.  A wise strategy beats an untamed talent.

The Makings of a Great Student, Part 1

A great student is not necessarily the best player, the most talented, or the most intelligent.  Successful students at any level are able to turn instruction into production quickly. Call it rapid turn around time.  This kind of student "gets it" and does it.  An important mark of a great student is in his or her response to instruction.

A violin professor was somewhat surprised to learn of the success of two of his students whose playing had been less than stellar all during their time in school.  What accounted for their turn around?

He learned that two key components to their improvement was their consistent use of the metronome and the recording of their practice sessions on a daily basis. Rather than wait until the music was totally prepared, they listened to their practice room labors every day and made a habit of turning on the metronome!

Significant progress need not take four years or longer.  Diligent attention to rhythm and listening will drastically improve performance in just a short time!  Really, how much talent is needed to dust off the metronome and click on the recording device? 

Glory and Grit

The road to the stage goes through the trenches.  Because the journey of grunt work never ends, we might as well learn to treasure the grit of preparing as much as the glory of performing.  After all, most of our playing time will be off stage. 

A few thoughts on rethinking the practice session in order to make it a pathway to glory:

• Don't jump into the trenches without a plan. Organized digging only! No wild flailing permitted. 
  

• Don't practice like a student. 

• Pretend someone important is listening.

• Don't waste your notes. You have precious few.

• Dig slowly and carefully on the hard stuff.

• Set time limits. Don't dig for hours on end, lest you exhaust brains and chops and get yourself nowhere.

• Record your sessions. See if there's madness to your method.

• Consider your practice sessions as snippets of quality playing rather than large chunks of rubble.  

• Avoid making brainless mistakes. Try to make the trenches your error-free zone.

• Practice musical risk-taking.  Don't just play it safe.  

• The more agony in the trenches, the more ecstasy on the stage!  Sweat the practice, not the performance.

• Practice enjoying the frustrations of your grit and grunt work.  Don't avoid your weaknesses. Let difficulties improve you, and the glory will take care of itself.

Another frenzied practice session?

With so much music to rehearse and so little time, how do you respond? Is it going to be another one of those frenzied, aimless practice sessions? Question: is it better to play a lot sloppy, or a little well?  What's more important for our training, quantity or quality? Which comes first?

Usually when under time pressures, we quickly forsake quality for large quantities of flailing. Ten fabulous notes however, are way better than a thousand notes that no one would ever pay to hear. Wouldn't you prefer even a smidgen of gold to a wheelbarrow of dirt?

Imagine a firefighter shooting water on a burning building.  You wouldn't expect to see him randomly and frantically spraying just anywhere? We would hope he'd be patient, deliberate, and thorough, conserving his resources, and getting the job done quickly.

Or, consider the major league pitcher who can throw 110 mile-an-hour fastballs, yet he beans batters half the time.  Similarly, no one would go to a careless heart surgeon, or pay to watch a tennis pro with a chronic double-fault problem?

Just as the firefighter, the ballplayer, the surgeon, and the tennis pro cannot afford to perform poorly, so too the musician must have a mindset of discipline, quality, and accuracy even in the practice session. It's not pressure or an impossible task.  It's a positive rethinking of our approach. Every notes counts. It should remove nervous stress and make practice more efficient and rewarding.   Replace frenzy with organized music-making. 

Escaping the Cubicle!

Picture two very different scenarios.  One is a boring cinder block practice cubicle, the other is a spectacular concert hall.  The next time you sit there in your solitary confinement, visualize an entirely different venue!  No one ever made it to the second without excelling in the first.

One of the problems with practice rooms is the sterile and uninspiring environment. Acoustics are always horrible, your sound evaporates instantly, and nobody is there to listen. (Can there be music in the forest if there is no one there to hear it?)  Maybe you should have a colorful mural painted on your practice room wall just for realistic expectations.  Then add some piped in crowd noise, applause, the tuning A, and the tapping baton?  Next, add some terrifying and inspiring maestro pics, and your practice efficiency could be revitalized enormously. 

Now your are ready to begin your playing session.  Remember, you have no notes to waste, no trial starts, no getting lost, no transposing break downs, no intonation clashes, no rhythmic malfunctions, just pure, enjoyable music-making!

Yes, you must work, but you must also perform. Make getting used to it a fun project.

Hot Air Needed

One Word Lessons

Are you motivated after lessons, but don't know where to start? With so many assignments it is tough to get your mind around them all, let alone your embouchure. Usually however, there is a key concept that needs work, such as sound, expression, or accuracy for instance. Try this:  Boil your lesson down to one word that will best characterize your focus for the day.


Your word of the day could be any word that prompts you to be especially alert to what you want to focus on.  For example, here are a few that have produced nice results:  APPLAUSE, ROMANTIC, PRECISE, AGILE, RAVISHING, PINPOINT, SIZZLE, SWEETNESS, DELIBERATE, SUBTLE, DOMINATING, HEROIC.

What words work wonders for you?  Words are as powerful as music.  Use them to motivate your practice and performance.      

Posted Reminders

Posted one-sentence lesson notes for us dummies:

• I refuse to stink!
• It's not how much you practice, but how. 
• Don't waste any notes today!
• Don't sound like a student! 
• Listen to imitate.
• Hear it before you play it.
• Got air?
• Feel the rhythm first.
• Don't just practice, compete!
• Determine not to get tired.
• Posture matters.
• Play extremely loud.
• Be the softest player ever.
• Practice great leaps and bounds.
• Tone on the short notes matters.
• Put singers to shame.
• Save it, but give it all! 
• Make your day!

Brilliance in Brevity

Long teaching rants with too much information is not nearly as impressive as one powerful moment of inspiration. The teacher's mission is to discern the best way to communicate quickly and effectively with each student.  Just say it, or play it, and then get out of the way and see what happens.  The longer it takes to explain, the less successful. The goal is to make a lasting impact in the least amount of time. Needed: brevity and brilliance.

Think of the most impressive teaching you received. A vivid impression was made which you remember to this today.  That's the goal, a precise, well-planned strategy of instruction and inspiration. 

Here are a few memorable moments from my teachers which made a lasting impression on me:

• "Don't play like a student!"

•  "You could be a little more laid back."

• "Your notes must speak just like that!" (at the snap of the fingers).

• "In the orchestra you have to be able to play so (expletive) loud."

• The Zarathustra octave calls were so shocking I could almost see the notes flying straight into the audience. 
• With only a gesture, the conductor communicated exactly what he wanted without ever speaking a word.  (The best conductors spoke very little English.)

• Without saying a thing, he picked up my horn and fixed my cracking F natural by blasting that note into its place.  He then returned my horn, satisfied that the problem had been permanently solved. It worked like a charm!

• "Rhythm is relentless!" as he repeatedly pounded his hand onto the desk.

• I thought my Pictures Promenade was really good.  Then came that memorable comment from the committee: "Very good. Now play it in tune." 

Great teaching can happen quickly, as can great learning. Keep a journal of what inspired you.  You'll need it for yourself and for your students.  Brevity and brilliance work wonders. 

Standing Around to Stay in Shape

What do music stands have to do with staying in shape?  Five stands in your studio will help bring some order to your practice sessions.  Let's call it progressive practicing. Your goal is to arrive at the end of the day in shape to live for another day. Now all you need is a timer.  Warm up carefully and proceed.

Stand #1 is your etude stand.  No other rep allowed. Pull up your chair, set your timer, and go.  Goal: technique-building, sight-reading, accuracy, and endurance.  Don't get carried away.  You have four more stands to go!  Take a break.

Stand #2 is your solo stand.  It holds only rep for future recitals.  Don't perform each piece every day, just plug away methodically. Prepare the hardest passages slowly so that you avoid panic on the week of the recital performance. Pause.

Stand #3 is your excerpt stand.  This is NOT your most important stand.  For great playing, you need all stands in operation. Thorough excerpt prep over time equips you for that audition that comes up suddenly. Cover a lot of excerpts regularly, rather than burning out on one or two. Coffee.

Stand #4 is your pic stand.  Small trumpet rep only. Work wisely and don't neglect this one. Learn to be comfortable up there.  This shouldn't be your last stand. There must be life after high notes. Take a walk.

Stand #5 is your flugelhorn stand.  This should be "Sunday practice", chill time playing, ballads, favorite melodic material, hymns, or anything but etudes and excerpts.  Your flugel practice segment should be totally stress-free, expressive, and enjoyment-oriented. This stand offers you therapy from the mental and physical bruising of the week.

Entrance Awareness Month

Entrance Awareness Month

If you haven't heard, this is Entrance Awareness Month! There's nothing like impressing audiences, jurors, professors, and committee types with amazing clear starts of each note and each phrase.  Great beginnings matter for great performances.

Tired of always trying to redeem yourself after a faulty start?  Why not determine to be impressive from the get go?  Capture attention immediately. Think clarity of note fronts, pinpoint attacks, a dart, a surgeon's knife, a snake's tongue, or whatever picture helps you to get a grip on your entrance.

Fearless confidence is the required mindset.  Armando Ghitalla used to say that "the first trumpet must come bustin' in!"  William Vacchiano simply gestured, "the notes must speak just like that!" as he snapped his fingers.  In short, "you must be there, on time, with a great sound." Doug Lindsay observed that the "tongue should release the note rather than attacking it." Bernard Adelstein, that wonderful great-note machine, never missed and never appeared to worry.  When the baton came down, his first note was always right there. Mel Broiles possessed a command of every note as if he were holding each one tightly in his grasp.  There was almost a vicious aggressiveness about his approach.  Loved it!  Myron Bloom proudly stated, "I'm not afraid to make a mistake!"  Practice that kind of confidence with every entrance!

Arnold Jacobs had the classic answer for all who hesitate.   He was more concerned about what the phrase said than the mechanics of how it started.  The focus should be more about the singing quality of the phrase than it is about the first note.  It should be less about the start, and more about the start of something great.  Think wind and song, not tongue and sputter. Entering with a message gives freedom to the messenger.
  

Three Amigos

There they are, the three amigos of your right hand. Look at them! They are able to refine or hamstring your technique with just one stroke. They can break you or make you a lot of money. In their grasp they hold the keys to your success. Yet how often we fail to train those unruly digits of destruction.

We've heard endless sermons on air flow, embouchure efficiency, breathing concepts, sound quality, and of course proper equipment.  So how about paying some serious attention to those three undisciplined fingers which are before our eyes every day?  

Here are the problems with our fingers.  They tend to be sluggish and uncoordinated, making people think we are total klutzes.  Often they fly way too high over the valve caps, or don't even press the valves all the way down.  What's worse, under pressure their desperate grip causes the valves to stick.  Don't you hate that?  By the end of the day we are foiled by our own fickle fingers just when we needed them the most!

Are you tired of being flummoxed and discouraged by your horrible precision?  Acquaint your fingers with your tongue and urge them to be the best of friends. Imagine a connecting nerve between the four of them.  Insist on perfect sync on all scales, major, minor, chromatic, whole tone, whatever.  Just as the piano key is struck, so must be the sounding of the note. When the baton comes down, the air, the tongue, and the finger tips join in perfect accord. It's simple. Just be there. 

Note:  Don't penalize your embouchure for the laziness of your fingers! Save your chops by working the fingers and tongue apart from playing. 

Don't listen!

Question:  When the late great Luciano Pavarotti sang, was he constantly listening to himself, evaluating, and making adjustments based on how he felt at the moment?  Or, was he totally consumed with the dramatic impact of the music?

What is your strategy for the day of the big performance?  Are you already anticipating playing it safe and second-guessing yourself?  Don't plan to fail.  Prepare to perform.

Assuming all of your detail work has been thorough, you are now in a very enviable place!  A great percentage of your playing was detailed and analytical.  Now you have earned the right to totally perform.  Don't drag the practice room onto the stage, and don't be listening to yourself.  Just play!