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A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
This is a typically stunning performance by David Childs on the euphonium. His combination of lyricism and technique is pretty stunning. This is a performance with the Brass Band de Bazuin of "Brillante" by Peter Graham. You have to wonder how many hours someone who can play their instrument to this level in concert has spent mastering their craft. However long he's spent, we get to reap the rewards.
Enjoy!
My senior year at Northwestern University, my tuba professor, Rex Martin, gave the studio a handout he had written titled "A More Natural Intonation." This article is packed full of really useful tips for playing in tune. I'm really glad that I still have it laying around over 15 years later. There's enough great stuff in this article that I'll break it up into three posts.
"It is counterproductive to think in terms of intervals being lipped up or down. If we do so, we are reacting to something we have already done wrong and are trying to fix it, instead of simply hearing what to sound like beforehand. It is important to imagine the sound as a specific quality of tone, not simply a pitch. If we hear the sound in our head as we play, our instrument will resonate those pitches and produce that tone, as long as we have the correct valve combination or slide position."- Rex Martin
The above passage underscores the importance of clearly hearing exactly what you are trying to sound like in your head while you are playing. When working off of a clear mental image, absolutely every aspect of your playing is taken care of. Articulation, tone quality, musicality, note endings, and yes, intonation.
More often than not, when you are playing a note out of tune it is with a less than ideal tone quality. This is why imagining a specific quality of tone in our heads is very important. You can be blowing a pitch sharp on a brass instrument that is the proper length while either lipping it down or pulling a slide to make it in tune. While it is certainly possible to play a note in tune in this scenario it is not possible to do so with a good sound. Imagining the note in your head with a great tone in the first place would have fixed this scenario immediately.
Hearing the sound you are striving for in your head goes for brass, woodwind, percussion, strings, vocalists, everyone. All of the greats hear a world class version of what they are performing in their heads as they play or sing and everything else, intonation included, takes care of itself.
Listening to any of our nation's top military bands perform a Sousa march is a master class on many different things. The first thing that jumps out at me from this clip is the amazing dynamic contrast across the entire ensemble. This reminded me of a quote from Charles Lazarus: "Technique is the ability to control your sound on any given note. At any given dynamic, 100% of the time." This performance of The Liberty Bell exemplifies that quote. The other aspect that jumped out at me is the uniformity of articulation throughout the band. As we all know, some instruments in the band have a very easy time putting a clear front on a note and others (like mine!) have a very difficult time doing so. The untrained ear would have no idea that was the case after listening to this performance. That comes from having amazing players with a great ability to listen across the ensemble. It also comes from having a conductor with a very clear idea of what sound they are trying to get out of the band at any given moment. Michael Colburn is one of the best at this.
"The President's Own" Marine Band performing one of The March King's most famous marches is as good as it gets. Enjoy The Liberty Bell!
"Overwhelmed? Stop. Assess. Tackle one small thing. One step in the right direction. Rinse & repeat." - One of Lance LaDuke's daily practice tips on Twitter
If you are anything like me, when faced with an apparently insurmountable task your first instinct is to put it off. This can absolutely happen to the best of us in the practice room.
The above quote is a great reminder for all of us when it comes to practicing. Identify a small thing to improve, then tackle it. Do that over and over again and you can learn an entire recital's worth of music in due time.
Rome wasn't built in a day either.
"Start with bad sounds and make them into good ones. Silence can not improve." - Arnold Jacobs
As with almost all Arnold Jacobs quotes, this one is so simple yet says so much. You have to sound bad in the practice room to improve. Avoiding problems with your playing (silence) does not improve anything.
Improvement starts with bad sounds.
I could listen to these three gentlemen play Beethoven indefinitely and never tire of it. The delicacy that Isaac Stern plays the violin with in this performance is unbelievable, even at the age of 72. The soaring lyricism of Yo-Yo Ma on the cello is truly inspirational. And the flow of Emanuel Ax's piano playing is as good as anyone in history. Beethoven is my favorite composer. If I could only take one composer with me when everything is all said and done, it would be Beethoven. The brilliant Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin and Cello ranks near the very top of my favorite compositions of all time.
(As a side note, imagine playing an instrument that was invented after your favorite composer had already passed away. I will probably be in therapy for the rest of my life!)
The special thing about musicians who know each other's playing as well as Stern, Ma, and Ax do is that each performance sounds like a private musical conversation which all in attendance get the privilege of overhearing. The amazing thing about technology is we all get to "attend" this concert 21 years later from our phones if we choose to!
Their communication both with each other and with the London Symphony is special in this clip. This level of artistry inspires me to go practice every time.
Enjoy!
"Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who will argue with you." - John Wooden
If there is any one piece of advice that I could give to a young person trying to make it in the music business or any other business, it is to surround yourself with smart people. You limit the potential of any endeavor when you are clearly the smartest person involved.
Unfortunately in music, our first instinct when forming something like a chamber ensemble is to find not the smartest people, but the best players and go from there. This is a really bad idea.
I joke with my students that there are only three chamber groups in the world who actually get along. I might be exaggerating just a little bit but the point is still valid. Most successful business ventures are not started by buddies who have similar strengths and approach things in the same manner.
When starting a chamber ensemble or any other business endeavor, surround yourself with smart people who will question your ideas and tell you when they think those ideas aren't any good. Be sure those are the kind of people who will counter an idea they don't like with one of their own. Smart people don't just criticize, they offer their own possible solutions.
Surrounding yourself with smart people has never been more important in the music business than it is right now. Use that as a starting point for forming business partnerships within music and you'll start out way ahead of the game. It's not just a good idea, it's an imperative.
And yes, this is the 2nd time I've posted about this. It's important!
Music, like any other highly competitive field, always comes down to perseverance. No matter how talented you are or how how much success you've had in the past, there are times in everyone's career when perseverance is the only thing that will get through. If I were starting a group or music based business today, the quality I would most search for in any potential partner is perseverance. Those who always seem to "catch a break" have perseverance in spades, while those who never seem to don't.
If I were a principal and hiring a band director, the quality I would most look for in a candidate is perseverance. Every single band director I know who seems like they were put on this earth to teach band has an unrelenting sense of perseverance and determination.
The best way to learn this trait is to hang around those who possess it. Seek those people out, both as partners and mentors, and you will go a long ways in the music business.
Perseverance always wins out. Always.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon a great article by euphonium player Dave Werden on taking and preparing for auditions. There's enough information in this post that he easily could have broken it up into 3 or 4 parts. But instead, he gave it to us all at once! This article is a must read for anyone trying to win a gig. A lot of it is common sense and stuff that we all need to hear over and over again. For example:
"Is your f louder than your mf? And is your mp softer, and your p softer yet?"
"Not only are you trying to be better than all the other players, you are also trying to be better than the ensemble's expectations and standards. Set your sights accordingly."
"You will be distracted during an audition, so practice with distractions."
He goes on to give some suggestions of how to practice with distractions, how to solidify rhythm and groove, how to present yourself at an audition and lots more. Anyone trying to win an audition must read this article:
Dave Werden: Audition Advice - Part 2
You should also listen to this great conversation that Lance LaDuke had with one of my graduate students at George Mason about his preparations for the Air Force Band audition he won years ago. Again, it is not a coincidence that he won that audition when you listen to him discuss his preparation.
Lance LaDuke on Audition Preparation
Good luck on your own audition prep!
I'll never forget meeting Jens Lindemann. Boston Brass had a few hour layover at LAX the summer of 2001 and Jens and his wife, Jennifer Snow, came to meet us at the LAX Marriott for a quick meal. All seven of us basically laughed uncontrollably for two hours before we got back on the plane. Instant friendships were born. Jens had recently retired from the Canadian Brass and taken as the trumpet professor at UCLA, a position he still holds today. We traded road war stories and vowed to work together as soon as possible. As chance would have it, both of our trumpet players' wives gave birth to kids within the next two years and Jens filled in each time.
I have also been fortunate to work with him on some other occasions as well, the most notable being in Mexico. He called me and asked if I wanted to play in a brass sextet with him, Jim Thompson, Fred Mills, Marty Hackleman and Julio Briseno in Texcoco, just east of Mexico City. I thought he was playing a joke on me! It was one of the highlights of my career.
As you can tell by this clip, Jens is one of the best players in the world. I have also learned an invaluable amount from him about being a showman. He is a master as you can see from the beginning of this clip. Jens is a true inspiration as an entrepreneur and artist. He is a beast on the trumpet and sounds amazing along with The US Army Band, Pershing's Own from the National Trumpet Competition in 2012.
Enjoy!