Use the form on the right to send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999
(123) 555-6789
email@address.com
You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.
A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
I was taught that it is really difficult to think your way into better actions, but it is easy to act your way into better thinking or results.
Action is the keystone to success.
What are you thinking about doing rather than simply doing it?
Last month I was in the Berkshires and just happened to run into one of my mentors, Eric Ruske. (There are so many brilliant artists in the Berkshires during the summer that one wonders how many you pass on the street without even realizing it!)
Eric was the horn player in the Empire Brass when I was a student in their seminar at Tanglewood when I was 14 and 15. His horn playing, and in particular his phrasing and the singing quality to all of his playing, left a mark on me that remains to this day.
Here he is performing the Romance, Op. 36 by Camille Saint-Saëns. Phrases for days...
Enjoy!
When you break it all down, all of us instrumentalists have only one goal: to sound as natural as singers. They are the best example we have of lots of things, including phrasing and vibrato.
Developing a really great vibrato (and identifying when and how to use it) is a very important thing for an instrumentalist.
(Note: This is not to say that any musician should ultimately develop only one vibrato. Variations in vibrato give us way more tools with which to tell our musical stories.)
But where do you start?
My advice would be to find three examples that speak to you of a singer using a vibrato. Then analyze them for the following:
Take one of the examples and try to copy the three above things on just one note in your middle register at a medium dynamic. The key (always!) is to record yourself and immediately listen to it.
Once you have a version that sounds somewhat similar to the example you are trying to mimic, move on to the next example, and finally the third.
This exercise will at least give you a starting point for developing a vibrato that can help you to convey your musical ideas.
Bottom line: Always start with singers.
Listen via:
David is one of the people in the music business I look up to. While at the height of the brass profession he overcame dystonia by completely reevaluating how he approached and even conceived of his playing.
He also started the very successful Mountain Peak Music publishing company. I loved hearing his approach to the publishing business and how it applies to all of us in the music business.
Topics covered in this episode:
A big thanks to David for joining me on this episode! I learned a lot!
"If you don't have a website you are invisible."
-David Cutler of The Savvy Musician
This has never been more true than it is today. In the cluttered world that is the music business, you must have a website to maximize your chances of getting noticed.
By the principal hiring a new band director.
By the management company looking for new talent.
By the presenter looking to book an act for next season.
Consider your website your storefront. It needs to look nice, be functional, and convey a clear message about who you are and what you offer.
Are you invisible?
I am lucky to call the four gentlemen in the T'ang Quartet longtime friends dating back to their time as faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute over a decade ago.
I was able to visit them in Singapore seven different times as a member of Boston Brass. One of those trips included a concert with them which was my single favorite concert I played with Boston Brass in 14 years.
They are joined in this clip by the fantastic pianist Albert Tiu to perform his arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's hauntingly beautiful Oblivion.
Enjoy!
"A schedule defends from chaos and whim."
–Annie Dillard
I have had a great deal of success over the years as the result of scheduling my practice sessions.
To be clear, I don't mean how long they are to be. I find that when my primary goal is to practice for one hour instead of improving specific musical passages, I get bored easily.
By scheduling a practice I mean two things: when the session will start and what will be accomplished.
I encourage all of my students to never end a practice session without going on the record with yourself about exactly when your next practice session will begin.
You can always reschedule. But it is a lot harder to skip a practice session that I've already scheduled (even with just myself!) than one I haven't.
And never begin a practice session without having a very clear idea of what you are planning to accomplish. (Hint: "Make Mozart's Third Horn Concerto better" is not a clear idea!)
I will choose four measures in this piece, three pages in this book, and a page of this solo and will put them in a stack on my music stand. I then don't get up until those goals are accomplished.
If you've never scheduled your practice sessions and planned specifically what you are trying to achieve in each one then I challenge you to try it.
You will be impressed by the results in a short amount of time.
Listen via
Carol is quite possibly my favorite tuba soloist in the world today and the Principal Tuba of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
She has done all of the work on the technical side of things which enables her artistry to shine through in everything she does. I saw her perform a solo with the Philadelphia Orchestra back in March and it was stunning.
Her story is a fascinating one. She went from the middle of her undergraduate degree to playing in one of the best orchestras in the world.
It was an honor to have her as a guest on The Brass Junkies!
"Productivity is never an accident. It's always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort."
-Paul Meyer
I love this quote. It beautifully breaks down productivity into three parts.
Commitment to Excellence
Being truly productive isn't about just getting things done. It's about doing an excellent job at whatever we set out to accomplish.
This means a commitment to excellence, not just to results.
Intelligent Planning
Having a bad plan is a lot better than having no plan. But an intelligent, thoughtful plan is imperative to being productive.
Focused Effort
Productivity has absolutely nothing to do with looking busy. We all know someone (ourselves?) who feels they are being productive as long as they are working hard.
If the effort is not focused, chances are we are not be very productive.
Here is a very short (barely over 3 minutes) and very interesting video by Derek Sivers on why you should keep your mouth shut when you establish a new goal rather than telling everyone about it.
(He talks more about it here in this short blog post.)
I'm a big fan of videos less than 5 minutes long that make you think about something for a really long time.
Enjoy!