The Next Level

I've found that to go from one level to another you often have to destroy some knowledge in order to gain other knowledge. - Yo-Yo Ma

Something I need to do much more frequently is question what I believe to be the facts about tuba playing.  Any breakthrough I've ever had has involved replacing what I know with better, newer, and more efficient knowledge.  To most efficiently make room for new knowledge I must question what I already believe to be true.

Cultivating a Bad Sound

You're cultivating a bad sound.

That is what my tuba professor at Northwestern, Rex Martin, used to say whenever I would play any note without using my absolute best sound possible.  That included quickly touching a note to get a pitch in my ear before buzzing.  It also included ghosting a note down an octave before playing a note in the high register.  He made me apply the concept to every single time I ever played anything and it is some of the best advice I've ever received in my career.

Every time you play anything you are reinforcing something.

Building a Solid Foundation

It takes a really intelligent person to practice really slowly and say “this is what’s good for me”.

- Joe Alessi

Earlier this week I was the guest of Mike Parker at the Monumental Brass Quintet Tuba Boot Camp.  We led the kids through the first page of the Schlossberg book and it reminded me of the above quote by Joe.

Like anything else in life, playing an instrument well is predicated on a solid foundation of fundamentals.  Many young players, especially the good ones, gravitate towards practicing very difficult and complex music all of the time.  But in actuality, it is the many hours spent practicing the simple things like tone production in the middle register that have produced the finest players in the world throughout history.

Two Stories Every Musician Should Hear

Sorry I've been AWOL from this blog for the last month.  I just finished a project which will be unveiled in the next week or so that has taken up all of my time! But I'll start posting again, I promise! I recently heard a story that we can all stand to hear but it's especially for young musicians who are trying to make a go of it as performers.  That story reminded me of another one that is also a good lesson for us all.

First Story:

I have a good friend in a brass quintet that does quite a bit of work in their city.  They work more than anyone else does in this town and they all get paid quite a bit of money as a result.  There is one instrument in particular that's had a good deal of turnover within the group and they are always looking for someone to fill that spot in a more permanent fashion.

There was a graduate student who had been recommended to them a number of times by various people as being a good guy and a great player.  When the opportunity availed itself, my friend hired this guy to play a graduation ceremony.  As a result of being held in a large stadium, there was a sound check for levels before the actual gig.  The call time was exactly 15 minutes before the sound check.

20 minutes beforehand, no graduate student.  15 beforehand, no graduate student.  None of the regular members could even get this guy on the phone and before they knew it, the sound check started with only 4 guys.  At this point, my friend (the contractor) and their quintet looked like clowns because they couldn't get all five guys there on time.  About 5 minutes into the sound check, this guy came sauntering up and quietly sat down.  He didn't apologize or offer any acknowledgement that he was late.  He also didn't say anything about it between the rehearsal and the gig.

Fast forward to a few months later when this guy saw my friend at a party.  He told him that he enjoyed playing with the quintet and hoped that they could work together in the future.  My friend then told him that they would never call him ever again for any reason.  The guy looked shocked.

Who knows how much work he lost by being late, not being reachable, and not even acknowledging that his actions had consequences for people other than himself.

Second Story:

Jeff Conner, one of the trumpet players in Boston Brass, needed to hire a horn player for our big band Christmas show.  Every year we hire a number of musicians to fill out the trumpets, horns, trombones, and a rhythm section and we pay out a whole lot of money as a result.

Jeff got a very strong recommendation for a horn player who was in graduate school in Texas where we had a few gigs over 5 days.  Jeff called this guy's cell phone and got his outgoing voicemail message.  The message was some heavy metal music.  Jeff waited for 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds and there was no acknowledgement of whose machine it was at all.

At that point, Jeff hung up.  He then called the next guy or girl on the list.  This guy lost over $1000 in work but lost something much more important than that.  He lost the opportunity to network for 5 days on the road with Sam Pilafian, Scott Hartman, Jens Lindemann, all of Boston Brass, and many others.

***YOU CAN'T PAY FOR THAT KIND OF ACCESS***

If he was as great as the people who recommended him said he was which is quite likely, who knows how much work he could have gained from that experience.

And the worst part? Jeff just hung up.  He didn't wait for the beep and leave a message explaining who he was, what he had to offer, and that he was going with someone else.  He has no idea he lost that money and that opportunity.

Moral of the story, you have to be on time, prepared, and accountable all of the time.  No exceptions.  And your voicemail message should convey who you are and be very short, professional sounding, and to the point.  That horn player was not the only person Jeff had to contact that day.  He needs to know that he is leaving a message for the right person or he has to carry around in the back of his head that he might not have actually contacted anyone at all.

Don't leave any opportunities on the table.  There aren't enough of them out there to waste!

A Quick Guide to Juries

As I touched on in my last post, many college students really dread playing their jury at the end of the semester. I remember experiencing a wide range of emotions both before and during my juries as an undergrad at Northwestern. There is no doubt that performing juries and playing screened seating auditions at NU helped to prepare me for many of the pressures I would later encounter as a professional player. There is absolutely no substitute for experience and juries provide just that.

Many students feel quite nervous and occasionally it is their own doing. The number one way to combat nerves is to be prepared. There is a real feeling of contentment that comes from knowing that you are prepared to the best of your ability. This not only applies to your playing but also everything else that goes into the process. Here is a quick list of things to make sure you have taken care of to put yourself in the best possible position to succeed:

Choose your music and find your accompanist as early in the process as you can. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Piano players do not enjoy getting phone calls from frantic freshmen (or even worse upper classmen) three days before a jury asking if they can schedule a rehearsal and jury time instantly. Any good piano player will be prepared if you give them the chance to prepare. The more lead time the better.

Have all paperwork filled out correctly and turned in on time. Again, not any real insight here. But I am continually amazed at how many students don't take care of this.  If you are filling out a jury sheet by hand take a few minutes to print things very neatly. It is not a great first impression for the faculty if it appears that your jury sheet was written out in two minutes at two in the morning. Also, do not be the reason that your teacher gets an email from the music office saying that not every one of their students has turned in their jury sheets. Finally, be sure to have the correct number of photocopies of the music you are performing. All of this goes into the impression that you make on the faculty.

Be prepared for the rehearsal with your accompanist and make a recording of it. You will put your piano player in the best position to succeed if you have a crystal clear idea in your own head of what every tempo will be in your solo. Keeping things consistent from the first run through all the way through the performance will make their job very easy. Also, be sure to listen to a recording of your rehearsal. Listen for what both what went well and what needs fixing. If they ask for a copy, by all means share it with the pianist (although they certainly shouldn't be expected in any way to listen to it). You can learn infinitely more from hearing yourself that from anyone else.

Dress appropriately. This obviously means don't wear shorts and flip-flops.  But it also means don't over dress. You don't want to be wearing a sequined evening gown or full tails either. Basically, you don't want your attire to be a headline at all. Look professional and let your playing do the talking.

Take a few deep breaths before you walk in the room. Even if you don't think you are nervous, take a few deep breaths before you walk in. I find that breathing slowly through my nose a few times before a performance is what centers me the best.

Smile and walk in confidently. The faculty should not know from how you walk in the room whether you had the best warm-up of your life or the worst. Walk in with an engaging demeanor and they will be rooting for you from the start.

Tune quickly and with your best sound possible. Do not play timidly when you tune to the piano. It is a terrible first impression and doesn't accurately assess whether your instrument is too short or too long. Also, don't play any pedal notes or in the extreme high register. Just play your tuning note and then wait patiently.

Don't start until the panel asks you to. This is another one that is awfully straightforward but that many students seem to miss. The faculty may be finishing up the sheet of the person before you and you don't want to catch them off guard.

Completely ignore the faculty while you are playing. This is really important! Don't try to read their body language or read into how much or how little they are writing. There is absolutely no way to know what they are thinking.  It is also not the best impression when you are timidly peering over your music stand and trying to assess the situation. Just play your best and leave the rest up to them.

Never react when you miss a note. This one only comes from practice, and a lot of it. A faculty member might not have even noticed that you missed a note. But they will all know when your shoulders slump, you scowl or better yet when you look at your horn like it messed up.

Smile at the end of your performance. Whether you have played the best performance of your life or you are ready to change majors, leave the room with a smile. Be sure to thank them for their time as well.

No matter what, learn from your experience. Believe it or not, you are not made to play a jury every semester so your school can torture you. The students who will make it as professionals someday learn from every single performance. Take advantage of the feedback and ask the faculty for follow-up advice whenever possible.

Good luck!

A Great Article on Playing with Nerves

It is that time of year again that many college students dread: juries.  Many music majors get very worked up about playing their instruments for just 10 or 15 minutes in front of the faculty. Here is a great article that I found via John Manning's blog titled 'What Every Musician Ought to Know About Stage Fright'.  This is a fantastic article from a great website.  The article goes into why we experience stage fright and offers up some ideas on what will and what won't help to combat it.

The best way to get over stage fright is experience performing but this article offers up some very helpful tips in the meantime.

Keeping Your Options Open in the Music Business

When I was in the 6th grade I decided that I wanted to become a professional tuba player.  At that point, I had only one goal in mind: I was going to play in the Boston Symphony.  My first BSO concert was Tanglewood On Parade when I was only two weeks old and my parents had been taking me to their concerts ever since. At that age, you aren't supposed to consider how difficult it will be to achieve such a specific goal.  One thing that goal did accomplish was to motivate me many times growing up.  By the time I was a sophomore in high school I was making the 25 mile trip each way into Boston three times a week for lessons, youth orchestra and youth wind ensemble.

Luckily for me I had teachers growing up who put me in the best possible position to succeed in the music business.  They did this by repeatedly forcing me out of my comfort zone musically.  The net result was making me a more well rounded musician which in turn increased my potential number of future revenue streams.

When I met Sam Pilafian at the age of 14 he handed me a tape (yes, a tape) of him playing with the New York Trumpet Ensemble.  He told me to learn his solo from the opening of 'Buddy Bolden's Blues'.  That was the sum and total of his instructions to me.  He didn't tell me that he half-valved some of the notes and certainly didn't give me instructions on how to do that.  He didn't mention that he bent some of the pitches with his lips.  He just told me to learn it.

What do you know? I learned that solo with all the bends and growls and everything else.  I didn't even really know what I was doing but knew what it sounded like (thanks to the tape) and what it needed to sound like coming out of my bell.  This small gesture from Sam prepared me for being thrown in a Dixie band when I got to graduate school.  I had already learned some of the jazz 'vocabulary' and was ready to tackle chord changes and learning the 19 different possible endings to Dixie tunes.

Don't get me wrong, if you want to be an orchestral player you must dive head first into the literature, the style, the auditions, into everything orchestral.  But it is possible, through great teaching and a lot of perseverance, to also put yourself in a position to make money in the music business in ways that you may not foresee.

And besides, I think that Mike Roylance is doing a pretty darn good job up there in Boston.

Quotes from Jim Thompson Master Class from the 2011 NTC

On the Friday morning of this year's National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University, former principal trumpet of the Montreal Symphony Jim Thompson gave a master class on buzzing.  Jim literally wrote the book on buzzing.  I had the privilege of serving on the faculty of a brass festival in Mexico with Jim a few years ago and I was immediately taken aback at the efficiency of his playing.  A lot of that efficiency is a direct result of his buzzing. He spoke a lot about buzzing in the class but also ventured into some other topics related to brass playing in general.  It was as good a presentation as I've seen on the physical side of playing a brass instrument.  Below are a collection of quotes from his class.  I hope you find them as helpful as I have!

• "The brass instrument family is the closest to the human voice.  We use human tissue to vibrate on the air column."
   
• "If you can buzz in-tune and expressively, you can pretty much put that down the pipe."
   
• "I just love it when somebody makes a mistake and looks at their horn as if 'you betrayed me.'"
   
• "The lips should be reactive to the air - not proactive to the air."
   
• "The ability to make glissandi is very important."
   
• "Part of these exercises is to buzz in and out of all of the registers with very little change."
   
• "Isometrics is the absolute enemy of good physical performance."
   
• "The air pressure wants to spread your lips apart."
   
• "Less head movement (between ranges) means better endurance and more flexibility and technique."
   
• "(Buzzing on) the mouthpiece requires you to use a lot of air.  When you do that, you take a lot of stress off the lips."
   
• "I can not emphasize enough starting (your day) as softly as you can play."
   
• "Strength is not the answer.  I guarantee you that everyone in this room has the strength to play a high G."
   
• "Lip pressure and air pressure must increase together as you go higher.  Don't lead with the lip."
   
• "I like to think rather than going up into the high register I like to bring it down to me."
   
• "Support (in the high register) isn't about playing louder.  It's about maintaining the balance of the lip and the air."
   
• "Allen Vizzutti can change his air pressure almost as fast as a violinist can change their bow."
   
• "Volume is overrated.  Volume is increasing and decreasing the overtones.  The fundamental basically stays the same."
   
• "Please don't fall into the trap of dark and bright.  Your sound is either resonant and clear or not.  And resonant means overtones."
   
• "When a conductor says you are too bright, check your attacks."
   
• "Just because you can doesn't mean you should.  Trumpet playing is not an indoor sport.  It is a musical endeavor."
   
• "Do you realize that in a brass quintet you actually have to play softer and louder than in an orchestra? And more sustained."
   
• "The tongue is highly overrated in terms of attacks."

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes (Part 3 of 3)

This is the final installment of quotes from the trombone master class that Joe Alessi gave at Towson University two weeks ago today.  He covered many different subjects from trombone playing to breathing to musicianship.  It was a wonderful class and a lot of the knowledge I took away with me has already integrated itself into my playing and teaching.  That's how you know it's good material! In case you missed them, please be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2.

• "Have you ever recorded yourself and slowed it down to half speed?"
   

• "In detached playing you should move the slide immediately after the 1st (of 2) notes.  In legato playing, you should move the slide right before the 2nd note."
   

• To a student: "When you articulate, your tongue is very active and your air is very inactive.  Practice with no tongue.  See what you can learn by getting the air involved."
   

• "The only reason I use a mirror is to cut out the extraneous movements.  When you look at that mirror try to keep everything still."
   

• "We have to recalibrate the mixture (of tongue and air) and when things happen."
   

• "Your practicing is incorrect if you can't hold the tempo.  You have to calm yourself down and practice very adamantly and slowly."
   

• "Enjoy that you practice slowly and you'll get something out of playing slowly."
   

• "If we don't know rhythm and pitch it's like an electrician that doesn't know positive and negative."
   

• "If you can't sing everything you play, how can you shape something?"
   

• "One of the hardest things to do on the trombone is to play legato and have your air completely separate from your slide."
   

• "Your mantra is to keep your air absolutely steady."
   

• "Think more globally about being expressive.  You're trying to be expressive on every note.  Think more of an arc."
   

• "When you want to make a great release on a note, you have to get rid of the vibrato at the end and end up with just straight tone."
   

• To a student with a bad release: "You're a painter.  If you're painting a branch you have to finish it."
   

• "The more experience you get any time you can put yourself under the gun the better."
   

• "Develop your own routine.  It can be a collection from your colleagues."
   

• "You're not going to get anywhere if you start practicing at 1pm."
   

• "I practiced 6 hours today." Well who cares? How did you practice?"
   

• "You pay your dues with basics."
   

• "I don't have my students play excerpts right away.  I want to see that they can play a melody correctly.  The right pitch.  The right rhythm."

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes (Part 2 of 3)

Here is the second installment of quotes from Joe Alessi's wonderful master class at Towson University last week.  If you missed it, you can read the first part here.

• "A lot of young players see a crescendo and just play loud.  Let's hold back and be very gradual."
   

• "I want you to play every note with more tone."
   

• "A new term I use is "constipation of air".  We can take the air in but we can't get it out."
   

• "There's a thing called being relentless about practicing."
   

• "I like to stay on the top 50% of my air supply."
   

• "It takes a really intelligent person to practice really slowly and say 'this is what's good for me.'"
   

• "If you have to take a breath in an awkward place like that you should always relax the note before it."
   

• "The further away your hand gets from your brain, the more difficult (the trombone) gets."
   

• "That's a really rich sound.  Now you have to figure out what to do with it."
   

• "With the trombone, you have to make more variations with your style and attacks.  You're not being creative with different ways to say things."
   

• "You have to be careful with a trombone because it can resemble a car horn.  You have to give your sound some flexibility.  Rather than laying on the horn you have to give it some beauty.  It's all might right now."
   

• "Your articulation is almost too good.  You're really tonguing the pants off of it.  You have to have a little more sensitivity in your style."
   

• "You have to have more fun with it.....do something unusual."
   

• "With my teacher growing up, if you didn't have a good release, you'd have to sit there and think about it for a while."
   

• "When you play fast try to lighten up.  Playing heavy while playing fast is like driving a Cadillac fast on a windy road.  You want to drive something smaller."
   

• "Do it again.  You're being too careful.  Just have fun."
   

• "Spend a lot of time getting into a passage so you know every square inch of it."
   

• "On a word in the music: Always go with the adjectives that you are supposed to do.  It's like a clue."
   

• "Anything that involves 5th position is hard.  The problem with 5th position is that people don't trust that it has to go out that far."
   

• "There are two types of playing: detached and non-detached."