Frederick Fennell with the US Navy Band: Monday YouTube Fix

A small portion of this video of Lincolnshire Posy made the rounds on Facebook a couple of weeks ago but the whole thing is even better.  Frederick Fennell is of course one of the greatest band conductors of all time.  The amount of information he is communicating to the US Navy Band in this clip is stunning.  His stick, his facial expressions, his shoulders, his hands, everything.

This clip is a master class for all conductors on how to convey a clear idea of how you want a piece to go to an ensemble.

Enjoy!

0:00 Lisbon 1:33 Horkstow Grange 4:14 Rufford Park Poachers 7:58 The Brisk Young Sailor 9:29 Lord Melbourne 12:28 Lost Lady Found From the two-disc "Lincolnshire Posy" educational DVD set, released in 2011.

Your Instrument is Dumb

Your instrument is dumb. It doesn't know a half step from a hamster. We need to be sure to be issuing commands and not be getting feedback from our instruments while we play.

Exclamation points, not question marks.

Comfortable Is Not Good Enough

Here is a thought-provoking article by Tony Plog about the realities of making it as a professional musician:

"But in music performance, good or comfortable is not good enough. Sometimes it’s not even close to being good enough. This may sound brutal, but in fact it’s brutally honest."

There are some hard truths in that brief blog post that all of us who "made it" in music were taught as some point along the line. Thank you for putting it into words, Tony!

Jason Newstedt of Metallica: Monday YouTube Fix

I saw Metallica perform at the Worcester Centrum on December 22, 1991 as a junior in high school.  I was blown away by their intensity and musicianship.  While all four of them were phenomenal, it was the bass and drums that were really driving the bus that night.

The number one challenge I face as a tuba player, whether it be as a soloist, in a brass quintet, or in a large ensemble, is articulation and clarity.  This is the case for all bass clef instruments.

This clip is the isolated bass track from Metallica's Jason Newstedt on the song "Blackened" from their album ...And Justice For All.  It is a great example of how super clean articulation can aid a bass clef instrument in groove and drive.  If you play any instrument in any genre with this kind of intensity, you tend to get compensated for your interests.

Enjoy!

Jason Newsted's bass track for blackened on its own, enjoy. \m/

Scales are Binary

Scales are binary. You either know them or you don't. They are also incredibly easy to play as long as you have put the work in. When it comes to performing a jury or auditioning for college, if you have to think about the scale before you play it, you did not put in enough time beforehand.

You either know them or you don't.

The Brass Junkies: Ryan Anthony - Episode 1

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For the first ever episode of The Brass Junkies, Andrew Hitz and Lance LaDuke welcome one of the greatest brass players in the world, Ryan Anthony.  Ryan is the former star of Canadian Brass and is currently the Principal Trumpet of the Dallas Symphony.  On top of that he is a cancer survivor, the head of The Ryan Anthony Foundation, and one of the nicest human beings you could ever hope to meet.

Ryan discusses with us his entire career from soloing with major symphonies at the age of 16 to the Cancer Blows event he is throwing later this month with the likes of Doc Severinsen, Arturo Sandoval and Phil Smith to raise money for cancer research.  He also opens up about the phone call almost two years ago that changed his life forever.

When you hear the positive attitude Ryan brings to the trumpet and to life, you'll know why we couldn't think of a better person to kick off this podcast!

Note: We are aware there are some feedback issues in spots.  We are new to this whole thing and in the spirit of the Minimum Viable Product that we are always preaching to our business students, we are launching and learning on the fly. Thanks for your patience!

Links:

Cancer Blows

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 Austin Boyer and Buddy Deshler of FredBrass

Great Article on Slow Practice

Here is a great article on slow practice from The Bulletproof Musician:

"(Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim) revealed that one of the keys to his success (and building confidence as well) is super slow practice. A process of practicing in slow motion – while being fully mindful, highly engaged, and thinking deeply in real-time about what he is doing."

Am I being mindful?
Am I highly engaged?
Am I thinking deeply in real-time?

Those are perfect questions to post on your music stand as a constant reminder.

It's easy to be engaged with a stunning sunset but recreating that in the practice room takes years of practice.

Ryan Anthony: Monday YouTube Fix

I can't process how someone can play this well on such an emotionally charged night at a massive event that they were organizing. Ryan Anthony is a special talent. Simply stunning.

Practicing Wisdom from Picasso

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

-Pablo Picasso

There were a few people at Northwestern who always sounded good when I walked past their practice rooms back in the day.  They were doing it wrong and are no longer in the music business.

Regularly attack what you can not do and you will be amazed at the rate of progress.

It's a People Problem

"Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you're in business." 

-Dale Carnegie

There are far more great players today than there are paying jobs.  The ability to successfully navigate the business side of music has never been more important.  And by far the most difficult aspect of that is dealing with people.

Your reputation, both your musical one and your professional one, always precedes you.  Those who are kind, even to those who sometimes make that difficult, tend to get called a lot.  Sure, some people who are rarely kind get work, but they do so in spite of that fact.

With the current level of competition for even just quality freelance gigs, you don't want to be giving anyone a reason to not hire you, especially after putting in thousands of hours of work on the horn.