What they want to hear

Three things ought to be your focus as you prepare for a performance.  Your audience wants to hear a message, a line, and a pulse.

Be sure of what you want to say.  If your message is only notes, you better not miss any.  But if you can tell a story, that's what they'll hear.  A beautifully phrased line sustains interest, but static notes get stale fast.  A consistent pulse gives stability, but tempos that are all over the place are annoying and rob you of the interest you want to capture. 

So, keep your goals simple:  Say something, go somewhere, and keep it steady.

Say something.  Some sort of programmatic theme should be your focus as your music unfolds.   Bring the listeners along with you.  Exaggerate for drama.  Give yourself completely to the message of each moment.  Play confidently without being cautious.  Look for all the magic moments you can find.  Ensure that the audience receives your message clearly. That's why you're there.

Go somewhere.  Find the high points in the music, and build your performance to make each one special.  Look for the loudest moment, the highest moment, the softest and lowest moment.  Bring out the sumptuous, the bazaar, the elegant, the brutal, and the sweet.  You'll need these highlighted features to mark your performance as legendary.  Go very soft, go very loud, go very dramatic, but always go very something. Ordinary and mundane are not what you want remembered about your work.

Keep it steady.  The mark of immaturity is rushing and unsteady tempos.  Deliver a rhythmically rock solid performance, and everyone will assume you are a seasoned pro. Good rhythm doesn't require great chops.  Just be steady! There's a place for rubato and waxing rhapsodic, but usually not.  Be a metronome and you'll stand out.

Your journey will be fun when you have something to say, somewhere to go, and steadiness in your pursuit.

Avoiding the Whatever Restaurant

Imagine a fine restaurant that had no menus.  There would simply be no balanced or nutritious suggestions ever offered. You just pull up a seat and start ordering any food that comes to mind.  Who needs menus anyway?

Welcome to the Whatever Restaurant. Nibble a little here, chug a little there, and then proceed to bite off way more than is chewable for a couple of hours at a setting.  Sounds like a nasty gorge fest and a recipe for some unanticipated ailments.

The thought is disturbing and absurd of course.  Yet is that not how we often approach our daily practice sessions?  You just pull up a seat and start in on huge helpings of chop-busting gorge fest goodies.  You try a little of this and then a bit of that.  But quickly your session turns into a whole lot of unwise blasting as you shower the air with a multitude of unusable notes.  Soon the chops cry "UNCLE!" and any cringing listeners gasp "NAUSEATING!"

Suggestion:  Don't ever eat at the Whatever Restaurant!  Plan your practice agenda for the day in advance so that your mind rules your session rather than your appetite at the moment.  Do what is needed, not what is fun. Rest between courses. Sow where there are deficiencies, so you will enjoy the reaping later.  Plan your daily menu as well as your weekly menu.  Don't cram a whole bunch of asparagus down in one session.  You get the benefits when it is taken over time.  Don't shun it either.  Include the unpleasantries along with the pleasantries so that you don't gag when they appear on your plate. 

Oh yes, there can be ice cream! But it tastes best when it has been earned and is guilt-free.  PLAN AHEAD!

Fluster-Proof

The word for today is fluster-proof!  It is that skill or temperament that marks you as incapable of being flustered.  Look at you!  No one dares mess with you.  Others are flummoxed, flustered and distracted, but not you.  They quickly sense that you are not to be put into a state of nervous or agitated confusion. Congratulations! You have graduated cum laude with that coveted degree of being unflappable! 

When you are fluster-proof, you are consistently good, dependably outstanding, automatically awesome.  Sounding great is just what happens when you play.  Your whole level of playing is simply better than everyone else.  You woodshed in hard labor just like every other student, but with the difference that you work intelligently just like a pro.  You're a business pro, and there's always brains behind your blow.

So what does this thick-skinned degree mean?  It means that you will not be paranoid or hyper sensitive to others' feelings about your work.  Nerves are not an issue for you because you know exactly what you are to do.  It matters not if it's slow or fast, loud or soft, who is there, or who is not, where you are, or where you're not.  You play music on the trumpet, period. Have trumpet, will perform.

NOTE: You will need this degree for recitals, auditions, performances, interviews, and more importantly for yourself.  You will listen to yourself way more than anyone else will for the rest of your life.  So you must be consistently able to convince yourself that you know what you're doing from the first note of the day to the last encore on the recital.  Don't criticize yourself right off the stage.  Be pleased, and your listeners will be too.   Mr. Fluster has no place in our business!

"Thank you. Next."

"Uh, thank you.  Next." We all know the pain of hearing those words.  For every promising day on the horn, there are seemingly countless days when we have seriously considered "why am I even doing this?" Especially discouraging is that dreaded response from the committee after a horribly played audition.  We interpret that "thank you" to be a pronouncement of "FAILURE!!" Angrily and sadly we pack up our gig bags, and trudge back home. 

Putting emotions aside, the reality is that this unpleasant weaning process does more than just produce finalists for the committee to further traumatize.  It serves to redirect or readjust the paths of those whose fulfillment is to be best found elsewhere.  It also serves to define and refine competitors for future ordeals. 

Retrace the steps of the greats.  If they all quit after their first rude dismissal, who would be left on stage?  Yesterday's lasts are often tomorrow's firsts.  Losses always precede victories.  Nobody waltzes straight to success.  Failures happen.

Consider also the adrenaline and emotions expended as a good basic training program for the toughness required for future performances.  If you can't survive one defeat, you won't do well on stage for a whole career of shows. Pressures can destroy us, redirect us, or strengthen us.  Emotions are real, but they change quickly and shouldn't be our only guide for direction.  

Ultimately failures don't define us.  You are more than a trumpet, or an excerpt, or a well or poorly played solo.  A failing performance pronouncement can be your best prodding for tomorrow.  Expect it and go on. We should learn to process "Thank you. Next" for our good. 

Not Enough Ears

The problem with your practice is that there are simply not enough ears in the room.  Only two is not working out so well for you, is it. That's because they're yours. You need a few famous listeners hanging around your practice room every day.  Will they like what you're doing?  Decide whom would you like to serenade, and play for them accordingly.  Don't be wasting your notes.  Someone is listening.   

Arnold Jacobs did his warming up just down the hall from Maestro Fritz Reiner and numerous other famous visiting conductors.  Why?  Because he wanted the reminder that all of his notes mattered.  Someone important was within earshot.  Don't blow it!  As Mel Broiles used to say, you need always to be performing in the practice room, or else you might not be able to turn it on at show time. Play to impress, or don't bother.

You want the audition to be just another day at the office, don't you?  Great playing is what you do, not what you hope to do someday.  You absolutely don't have to wait four years to get some document that declares you a Bachelor, or a Doctor, or a Performer, or an Artist.  Your only creds are the notes you consistently crank out of that horn.  Are you listening?  

Playing Like a Pig

Is playing like a pig ever acceptable?  Certainly you've been challenged to approach the music as aggressively as a hungry dog with a bone, but have you ever considered unleashing all restraints and going absolutely hog wild after the music?  The results might surprise you.

There lies within each of us a killer instinct that has probably been rendered dormant or extinct, especially after a year or two of conservatory restraining, I mean training.  Too often unchecked enthusiasm has been forbidden rather than nurtured.  Instead of honing a vibrant individualistic style, trumpet players tend to share a generic musically correct monotone with almost every other trumpet player in existence.  How about a nice course in pig-feeding!  Let's begin a project of nurturing that inner pig within you! 

Audition committees prefer aggressive, confident playing to cautious, tentative tiptoeing.  A high degree of technique must be attained without losing the ability to summon instantly that dog-eat-dog, king-of-the-mountain, winner-takes-all competitive mindset.  What makes our prize-winning pig so special is its amazing skill and control, in spite of its obnoxious piggy behavior.  We must train the pig without killing it. 

Envision a thoroughbred race horse with the eating habits of swine in the slop!  You must have the brute force of a Neanderthal, yet with the skill of an Olympic athlete.  You are the elegant and the visceral in one body.  Your front license plate says "CHEETAHS", but your rear plate says "PIGSRUS"!!

Somber, Sacred, and Joyous

Somber, Sacred, and Joyous Christmas Brass Music from the Cincinnati Pops 1989.

Promoting not ourselves here, but the One who has given us all so much.  "O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord."

Listen:

Heralding Brass

A Merry Christmas Season to everyone from the Cincinnati Pops Brass, recorded in 1989.

Listen:

Best Audition I Ever Took

I was walking on air, ready to conquer the world with not a single worry about failure or competitors!  It was one of those precious few windows in time when I owned it all, or so I had conveniently convinced myself.  Ever feel like that?  Nice that it does happen once or twice in a lifetime, hopefully a lot more often, like every week!

Our task is to make it appear to happen every day!  If our feelings  falter, our confidence must not.  The audience must never know that we are not totally thrilled with every single moment of the show.  Success is when you can mask those pesky competing emotions.  Success is having practiced to the point where you can convince yourself and your listeners that there is nothing at all wrong with this picture.

Now back to that marvelous audition.  The neat thing about it was that for much of my journey, my trumpet was not needed. Listening and visualizing the performance is more important than lip slurs and long tones.  Great strides can happen when there is no obstacle in hand to thwart your merry jaunt.  Of course the grunt work of rehearsing and practice had long since been my routine. There is always time to take a deep breath, however, and to enjoy the fruits of all the laboring. Now to scale the summit, nail the finals, and on to win the job!

So, what's the key after all you can do has been done?  Put the horn down and sing it perfectly.  Create all the energy, rhythm, and character of the music with your feeble voice.  Be able to drop in on the exact mood of each excerpt with no hesitation.  All musical instincts must be on high alert.  The committee calls for the piece, we deliver the music.  We are to produce the product as easily and naturally as reaching out to catch a tossed pencil.

(Way too much rambling here, but that tends to happen when the future is in the past.)  To the point: sing it to win it!  Score highly on rhythm, dynamics, and character, all with really nice intonation.  When you can dazzle without the horn, you are then free to sizzle with it.  The horn is the final piece of your musical puzzle.  If all those prior pieces are in place, the horn will fit nicely into position. 

That audition was fun, not a nerve-fest.  It was simply a special-delivery day.  It was how I had always imagined it would be in high school back in NJ sitting in my room practicing and dreaming.  Have we lost the wonderment of our profession?  Do we finish conservatory only to burn out and hate our work?

Am I still too dreamy and unrealistic?  Yes.  But why not give ourselves to recapturing the romance we once had with music?  Our jobs and our audiences depend on it.

Wallpaper?

You dutifully open your Arban Complete Conservatory Method to pages 142 through 151 to begin work on your lesson assignment.  Anticipating dazzling solo material full of triple-tonguing pyrotechnics and flourishes of cornet heroism, you instead are greatly disappointed to discover only repeated boring wallpaper designs!  Groan . . . grumble . . . close book!!

You ask, "What does great music have to do with these endless patterns of boredom?  Or vise versa? Why must I practice these same uninspired measures in every single key! I turn the page and there they are again in minor, then once again in dominant sevenths.  The next page has even more drudgery in diminished insanity! How dull is this picture!"

Quite dull indeed, if that's how you want to think of it.  You must learn to thrive on the architecture of music as well as the drama. Theory matters. Arpeggios are to music what steel girders are to skyscrapers.  Without the ability to arpeggiate in all keys, performers would be severely handicapped.

How boring if all music had to be confined to C major simply because musicians could not handle any other keys.  "Sorry, Johann, we can't publish any of your Brandenburg Concertos because of the key signatures.  Ludwig, you are not allowed to delve into any of those foreign keys.  Such extremes will only flummox, dumbfound, and bewilder the musicians."  

For peace of mind and confidence, own arpeggios in all keys.  You will not have time to read every note of those fast-approaching arps in context of solos and orchestral music.  Welcome the "worst" keys imaginable and conquer them.  Make it a game.  Vacchiano would offer money to anyone who could play the one-line g sharp diminished seventh study on page 149 of the Arban book without a mistake.  Apparently he never had to fork over any money to any challenging student!  Amazing.     

Is it wallpaper or music? 

Hanging with Fred Mills

It was 1970 something, and our yearly tour to NY!  That meant that at the first free moment I was off to Giardinelli's Band Instruments to try every trumpet in the store.  My purpose was to pick a winner, (and also to impress everyone within earshot.  You know how brass players think, or don't.)

Something about that famous place invited a dangerous overload of all competitive juices.  Common sense had a way of disappearing as soon as you entered the building. There was more showing off at Giardinelli's than anything else, sadly. Anyway, it was worth all the blasting, for by the end of the day I had discovered a nice new prize to take home. 

Something else happened however that was more memorable than my new trumpet. Soon after I began trying instruments, the door to that tiny trial room opened, and in walked Fred Mills of the Canadian Brass.  He quietly said, "Hi, Phil. Mind if I listen?"   He sat in the corner for a long time observing intently as I proceeded to blow out both lips and brains.  I was pretty sure he was amazed, but not for the reasons I imagined.

After a while I began to tire, having sprayed the room with every excerpt and solo lick I knew.  He got to hear me plow through oft repeated strains of Heldenleben, Aida, Mahler 5, Don Juan, Hummel and Loeillet Concertos, and anything else I could possibly think of.

Finally I asked if he wanted to play.  He shrugged, picked up a horn and began to play soft, perfectly clean and totally controlled scales and arpeggios.  He only played briefly, but the finesse was amazing for me to hear.  Somehow I had neglected to test and practice those vital elements of music-making.

I was given a very valuable and free lesson that day.  In his own humble way Fred Mills had just taken me to school.  "Here, I think I like this one the best," he said.  He handed it back, grinned, and left.  Great playing is not so much about the boldest blaster, but about the most controlled and versatile musician.  And that was Fred to a tee.  Lesson learned.

(See other post on Fred Mills in blog dated September 8, 2009.) 

Petroushka Ballerina Dance and Waltz

Ballerina Dance and Waltz from Stravinsky's Petroushka

Listen

Solos at 2:50 through 5:45

Snare Drum: Bill Platt

Britten - Trumpets from Young Persons Guide

Young Person's Guide, Variation K - Trumpets

Listen  

Snare Drum: Bill Platt 

Avoiding the Barrels

Caution: You are approaching orange barrels.  Slow down!

Following your macho instincts instead of your intellect, you disregard the highway warning signs to reduce your speed.  Instead you begin swerving recklessly between as many barrels as possible.  Impressive moves, but dangerous.  An eventual glance in the rear view mirror reveals a lot more bumped and smashed barrels in your wake than you realized.  Nevertheless with a carefree shrug, you proceed unfazed at your frantic pace.

At the end of your speedy meanderings however, a traffic ticket awaits you. Rushing carelessly on the audition or performance stage also has unpleasant consequences. In both situations the lesson is clear.  Slow down to avoid destruction, be it barrels, notes, or chops!

You can't be driving treacherously at 75 mph in busy congested areas, nor can you consistently blast your way through tough passages at great neck speeds.  The results are not good: "Here's your $75 speeding ticket!"  Even worse: "Thank you. Next."  Or, "Here's your pink slip!"

Slow down so your brain has a chance to catch up. Muscles remember well, so train them for dependability, not foolish risk-taking.  Train for drama, not trauma.   

Days Like This!

You never guessed that on that magical day when you fell in love with music and chose the trumpet to be your lawful wedded spouse, that there would actually be days like this!  Frustration is not how you envisioned your enchanted music career to be.  Admit it.

Behind every successful performance however, there are more days like this than anyone would care to admit.  Prior to success was stress.  Before cheers there were fears.  Before birth, labor.  Before courage there was none of it!  Bruising, physical and emotional, can produce a certain required toughness.  Everyone passes through the city of Anguish. Who do we think we are to expect a clear path to success? The wise learn to reap the benefits of obstacles. 

A few thoughts for all of us as we each experience our stress issues:  Frustration happens, expect it. Struggle is necessary for mastery. Recognize that points of pressure are usually the best agents of improvement.  Do you remember that familiar statement:  the harder the fight, the sweeter the victory? Both the music and the musician stand to benefit.  Days like this are not fun for sure, but necessary, and eventually profitable for you and for your audience.  

Daily Doses Mandatory

So, how have your chops been doing?  "Well, they're a little beat up lately. I've had a ton of stuff to deal with."  So goes the typical appraisal of life behind the mouthpiece.  The spirit is at times quite willing, but the embouchure is too often weak.

What we need for a successful career is chops that can consistently handle brutality, and yet be able to preserve subtlety.

A teacher of mine used to give the following advice, "When you have to play Mahler, practice Haydn and Mozart.  When you have to play Haydn or Mozart, practice Mahler."   (I would have welcomed some more specifics, but his point was well taken.)  I say, how about practicing some Haydn and Mozart everyday regardless. 

Control of soft dynamics is a necessity.  Days and weeks should not go by without secure contact with pianissimo notes.  You should be able to perform a successful "soft check" at any time.    

Thankfully there is a cure for the deadly smash-mouth ailment.  Other than rest and good air flow, it is soft purity. That's it. There is no treatise-reading required, or any guru-seeking necessary.  Just practice Haydn and Mozart!

Trumpet parts simply require command and control. Flamboyant cadenzas and great soaring bravura lines are for another day.  For the health of your chops, practice clarity, security, and dependability, one note at a time.  And don't forget to play softly!  

Drilling for Bach

ME!!!
Getting ready for BACH at CCM!!!

Tromba I

Tromba II

Tromba III

Hi, guys!  B Minor Mass is fast approaching. Another sectional tomorrow.  Ready?

Dr. Clean

One goofy picture can make more of a lasting impression than a bunch of stern lectures.  O.K. meet Professor Clean, the friendly note-scrubber. He's more thorough than any other chipped-note picker-upper out there. He is tougher than he is kind, but he gets results.  And what brings him a smile? Spik and span playing!

His mindset is CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GREATNESS. He warns us that nobody buys a flawed product.  Dirty notes don't sell.  Junk-tolerance must be zero, says the Doc. The doctor's mission: a total playing make-over by putting our whole house in order. 

Audition committees easily recognize students of Dr. Clean. They tend to advance quickly to finals and beyond.  "See," he says with a wink and a grin, "it pays to be clean." 

How about plastering a sticker of this guy on your bell?  How about using his ringtone on your phone?  How about dying your eyebrows white and shaving your head?  Anything that works on those grimy stubborn bad notes.  Hint: listening helps.

Oh no, Dr. Clean is not your teacher.  He must be you! You must let him scourge and purge your practice room of all filth and slime.  Let's start tomorrow's practice session singing his wonderful theme song:

Dr. Clean gets rid of dirt and grime

and grease in just a minute.

Dr. Clean will clean your whole house

and everything that's in it.  

 

Dr. Clean, Dr. Clean, Dr. Clean . . . .

The Purpose of Knuckles

Why do we have knuckles?  Multiple choice:

• for threatening people?
• for punching obnoxious colleagues?
• for poking your Charlier book right off the stand?
• for confusing your pitcher by giving no sign at all?

Answer:  all of the above plus one more.  When chops are wasted, when fatigue brings productive practice to a halt, and when you think there is absolutely nothing more to be accomplished . . . you are wrong, valve oil breath.  It's knuckle time! 

Notice that your three right hand valve fingers fit perfectly on your left hand knuckles?  Oh, the wisdom of our Creator!

Much of our lack of clarity involves sloppy right hand technique.  Valves are either slammed down way too hard causing violent jerks in the sound.  Or, valves are pressed halfheartedly in a wimpy fashion causing blips and bleeps.  And/or, the fingers have not been trained to strike precisely on command.  And likely, they are simply not coordinated with the tongue.  At any rate, sloppiness happens which is not the fault of the lips. 

Hence, an entirely new session should be included in our daily practice routine, knuckle-popping.

• Step #1 - put horn and mouthpiece in the case and close it.  

• Step #2 - make a fist with your left hand.  

• Step #3 - place right hand fingers into slots on your left hand, and begin precise fingering on any passage you need perfected.  No music?  Fine.  Do scales, major, minor in all forms, chromatic, and arpeggios, major, minor, diminished, and augmented. This works for all trumpet music with the exception of bugle calls.

Our purpose here is precision without penalizing the chops.  The embouchure does way too much of the work already.  Why make it suffer as your fingers fail to perform?

Powerful Meds

"Alright, what seems to be the problem now?"  "Doc, it's happened again, another nasty case of sore and unresponsive chops.  I'm just beat up again. What do I do?"

"Not again! Well, I am prescribing a small bottle of very potent pills for you, but you must promise to take them seriously and regularly . . . . but you probably won't."  "I'm desperate, doc.  Big gigs on my plate. I'll try anything!" 

"Very well then.  Take at least one of these every day for 30 days.  Then report back to me on the results."  "Gee!  Swell, doc.  Thanks!"

We know this ailment all to well, the mild to severe panic caused by an embouchure pushed beyond its limits.  Maybe it's no longer an ailment, but a way of life.  No matter how bruised, banged, and beaten, this little therapy bottle should yield immediate results for mistreated chops. Don't skip doses however.  These meds should be taken for the rest of your life.  Consistency matters.

NOTE CAREFULLY THE DIRECTIONS FOR USAGE:

• Take a day's rest. 
• Take a modest amount of relaxed deep breaths.
• Stand up and hang from the waist with upper body totally limp.  
• Stand up and take a few more deep breaths.
• Then take mouthpiece, holding it very lightly.
• Buzz ever so quietly on pure long tones.
• Absolutely no fuzz or pitch uncertainty is permitted.
• Begin slow glissandi with small intervals maintaining pp dynamic.
• Rest as much as you play.
• Maintain a pure and very soft buzz, eliminating all extraneous noise from the sound.
• Still on the mouthpiece, play the simplest of tunes accurately and softly with the smallest amount of pressure. 
• Do NOT buzz or play out of tune!  (A well-trained ear will lessen the workload of the lips.)
• Be sure all first notes are spot on and free from pressure.  
• Gradually add the trumpet to your mouthpiece, keeping the same delicate and accurate approach.  

Note:  No danger of overdosing. No expiration.