The Brass Junkies: David Childs - Episode 51

Listen via

iTunes
Soundcloud
Stitcher 

David Childs, phenomenal euphonium soloist, recording artist, teacher, publisher and magazine editor joined me and Lance to talk about his career up to this point and where he’s headed.

We talked to David about studying with his father (Robert Childs who along with Nicholas, made up the groundbreaking Childs Brothers euphonium duet), inspiring younger players and his explorations into electro-acoustic music, specifically his experiments with adding sensors to his horn. Additionally, we share our admiration for Demondrae Thurman (he's dreamy), portfolio careers and Richard Strauss.

Finally, David is a regular part of the North American Brass Band Summer School in Nova Scotia each summer, is a Manchester United fan and has inspired Lance to start using the term “X, Y, Zed” more frequently. Although for no clear reason.

Links:

Personal site, davechilds.com
North American Brass Band Summer School, nabbss.com
Prima Vista Musikk, primavistamusikk.com
Brass Band World Magazine, brassbandworld.co.uk

Want to help the show? Here are three ways:

Take a minute to leave us a rating and a review on iTunes.

You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation at https://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Lastly, you can do us a HUGE favor by just sharing our show with your knuckle head friends who would also enjoy it. You know who they are. Bring them into the fold!

Produced by Joey Santillo

Finding the Sweet Spot When Practicing

"Lack of focus when practicing comes from one of two things: boredom or frustration."

—Lance LaDuke

If you are bored, raise your standards. That side of the equation is very straightforward (although not always easy!)

If you are frustrated, break the passage down to its individual parts (fingers, ear, rhythms, range, dynamics, etc) and figure out exactly what requires attention.

If a passage is in the upper register, it may appear that range is the reason you are missing a lot of notes. But if your fingers are close but not exactly correct, you will continue to miss those notes until you clean up the fingers.

So continuing to hang out in your extreme high register with sloppy fingers will not only not fix the problem, it will tire you and only reinforce the bad fingers leading to even more work later on.

There is a sweet spot that lies between boredom and frustration. The best players in the world are also the best practicers. They have found a way to hang out in between the boredom and frustration and get more done in less time than those who don't.

More done in the practice room in less time? Sign me up!

The Brass Junkies 50: Alex Lapins and Tony Tortora

Listen via

iTunes
Soundcloud
Stitcher 

This was one of the funniest episodes we ever did. University of Tennessee student Tony Tortora took us up on an offer we never thought anyone would do and hilarity ensued. And then we got his teacher on the line without him knowing it. Podcast gold!

From the show notes:

Alex Lapins, Assistant Professor of Tuba/Euphonium at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Tony Tortora, a senior music education major and virtuosic vuvuzela-ist from Alex’ studio, join Andrew & Lance to discuss what happened and why.

The email subject heading was “Challenge Accepted” and referred to the offhanded comment made in the TBJ Joy Tartell interview. Blind auditions and vuvuzelas were mentioned. There may or may not be video. Which looks like this:

YouTube Awesomeness!

Additionally, based on a request from one of our great Patreon Patrons, Russell Etters, we unpack the ins and outs of preparing for a college audition. Thanks Russell!

The Brass Junkies: Scott Hartman - Episode 48

Listen via

iTunes
Soundcloud
Stitcher 

Scott Hartman, Lecturer in Trombone at Yale University joined us to discuss his incredibly successful and diverse career. Scott has taught and played concerts throughout the world and in all fifty states. He regularly performs and records with the Yale Brass Trio, Proteus 7, the Millennium Brass, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the trombone quartet Four of a Kind. Mr. Hartman spends several weeks each summer in residence at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. 

Scott covers his thoughts on how the chamber music business changed over the years since from his time with Empire Brass to today. We learn of the important distinction between Scott A. Hartman and Scott P. Hartman and get some great Empire Brass stories.

Oh and at one point, Scott may have sounded possessed. And he can be a meathead.

Links:

Don’t go to:
http://www.slushpump.com/

But do go to:
http://www.hartmanmouthpieces.net/
http://music.yale.edu/faculty/hartman-scott/
http://www.bbbc.net/roster/ 

Want to help the show? Here are three way:

Take a minute to leave us a rating and a review on iTunes.

You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation at https://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Lastly, you can do us a HUGE favor by just sharing our show with your knuckle head friends who would also enjoy it. You know who they are. Bring them into the fold!

Produced by Joey Santillo

Don't Fight Old Habits

"There is no need to fight old habits. Start new ones.  it is the resisting of an old habit that puts you in that trench. Starting a new pattern is easy when done with childlike disregard for imagined difficulties."

—Timothy Gallwey from The Inner Game of Tennis

This quote is so good that it's presented without comment. :)

The Tricky Part of Awareness

"Awareness of what is without judgement is relaxing and is the best precondition for change."

—Timothy Gallwey from The Inner Game of Tennis

The without judgement part is the real key to the above quote. Any time I catch myself using the word should I know I am going down a dangerous (or at the very least not helpful) path.

I should be more prepared for this recital.

I should have this piece memorized by now.

I should already have a gig.

I should have my lesson plans done for tomorrow.

The problem with judgement is that it focuses on something that can't be controlled or changed, the past. And focusing on something that can't be changed is not a good precursor for change.

And yet awareness is incredibly vital. Without knowing what your blind spot is as a conductor, a bassoon player or an entrepreneur, you have very little chance of improving it.

So be brutally honest with yourself about what you can and can't do and yet be kind to yourself and accept what has already happened (or not happened!) as exactly what it is, done.

Perhaps my favorite quote of all time sums this up perfectly:

"You have to abandon all hope for a better past."

Amen.

I drove through a beautiful snow-kissed Glenwood Canyon yesterday on my way to Grand Junction to be the featured guest artist at The Best of the West Festival at Colorado Mesa University!

The Brass Junkies: Wes Funderburk and Tom Gibson - Episode 47

Listen via

iTunes
Soundcloud
Stitcher

Two of my knucklehead friends, Wes Funderburk and Tom Gibson, joined us for one of the most chaotic and accidentally informative episode yet. Wes and Tom both live in Atlanta and write, gig, teach and conduct there (both play/conduct/arrange for the Atlanta Pops, the Joe Grandson Big Band and teach at Kennesaw State University. Additionally, Wes teaches at Georgia State and Tom teaches at the University of West Georgia). They each have also launched successful online projects (one of which involved a banana and a net pot) and happen to be two of the funniest people on the earth. 

Tom unpacks his tone color, time and note shape approach to teaching and Wes recalls the time he borrowed a burger from Hardee’s.

Warning: It’s a little chaotic at the beginning of the episode. Hang in there. It’s worth it. 

Links:

Wes' personal website
Wes' Kennesaw bio page
Tom's West Georgia University bio page
Atlanta Pops
Joe Grandsen Big Band

Want to help the show? Take a minute to leave us a rating and a review on iTunes.

You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation at https://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Joey Santillo

The Brass Junkies: Phil Snedecor - Episode 46

Listen via

iTunes
Soundcloud
Stitcher

Phil Snedecor is one of the most talented people in know in the music business and I don't just say something like that lightly. He is an accomplished composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, entrepreneur and on top of all of it is one of the best trumpet players in the world.

I hate saying nice things about my friends but some of them give me no other options!

I really enjoyed this interview for The Brass Junkies Podcast. Phil gives practically a step-by-step rundown of how to succeed in the music business. The information he shares in this episode is invaluable to anyone trying to make it (or make it a little further!) in the music business.

Good stuf..

Links:

Personal site
Hart School bio
Publications
Washington Symphonic Brass
Lessons From a Streetwise Professor

Want to help the show? Take a minute to leave us a rating and a review on iTunes.

You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation at https://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Joey Santillo for Pedal Note Media

Just Trace It

The great pedagogue Arnold Jacobs had a famous concept of always playing two horns at one time: the horn in your hands and the horn in your head.

He always talked about hearing what you were trying to sound like in your head and then simply trying to make that come out of your bell. I use this approach for literally every single note I ever play. From a tuning B-flat to a difficult cadenza. I hear it first and then simply try to make that come out of my horn.

I recently came up with an analogy that seemed to really resonate with students. (I won't mention the 30 before that that only kind of, sort of, not really registered!)

I asked them if they were good at drawing. All of them said they weren't which is something we have in common! I then asked them if they had ever tried to draw a bowl of fruit in art class. Most of them said they had and that it looked terrible.

I then asked them if they had ever used tracing paper to trace something and they all said they had. I pointed out that if either of us tried to trace a picture of a bowl of fruit that we would be able to do it well and it would be recognizable by anyone.

Finally, I explained that all we are trying to do is trace the sounds we have in our heads. And the key to tracing that well is having a crystal clear idea of exactly what we are trying to sound like.

When using tracing paper, no one is thinking about proportions, depth or anything else that makes drawing it by freehand so difficult. We just copy what is below that thin piece of paper and all of those difficult aspects of drawing a three-dimensional object magically take care of themselves.

The same goes for "tracing" the horn in our head. It gets the player (even the young one) away from focusing on process and towards making music which makes tone, phrasing and a long list of other things magically better.

The key to tracing something is of course not having a blurry picture underneath that tracing paper. So students need to be encouraged to have as clear an idea of what they are trying to sound like in their head as they can (which of course comes simply from practicing it.)

The more good playing and bad playing we hear (which I usually just refer to as data), the more in focus what we are trying to sound like becomes in our heads.

And then we just have to trace it.

Barry Tuckwell: Monday YouTube Fix

Here is an EMI recording of horn soloist Barry Tuckwell performing Mozart Horn Concertos No. 1 and 2 with Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields under the direction of Neville Marriner.

Enjoy!

Uploaded by serioso serioso on 2014-04-28.