Stephen Paulus Concerto for Two Trumpets nominated for GRAMMY!

(My apologies for letting this post sit in my drafts...)

Friday afternoon December 5, I was sitting at Starbucks in Lincoln Center occasionally hitting the refresh button on my browser window set to the LA Times Grammy announcements. Throughout the day, categories were announced in short bursts every 30minutes or so. All of a sudden the entire remaining categories were posted all at once. As I continued to scroll down the page, I got closer and closer to the one I was waiting to see, Category 81 "Contemporary Classical Composition".

I burst into tears, sobbing so loudly that a woman came over with a handful of brown Starbucks napkins and asked if I was ok. I called my wife immediately to share the news and she could hardly understand my words through my tears. Let me explain a a bit of what is behind these tears.

Stephen Paulus was one of the sweetest men in classical music.  Without fanfare, he compiled a catalog of 500 beautifully crafted works of soul touching beauty for chorus, chamber ensembles, orchestra and several critically acclaimed operas. At the same time, he was championing the works of ALL contemporary composers through his founding of the American Composers Forum. That he passed away before being able to walk the red carpet and to enjoy this honor in person is a shame.

The entire disc "Fantastique" was conceived to center around this one remarkable work. Once introduced to it, I became totally enthralled and it became a mission to get it performed and recorded. In clustering several other wonderful works from less well known (at the time) composers around it, my hope was to gain exposure for everyone else involved; composers, soloists, conductor and students. Little did I suspect that the faculty and students of University of Massachusetts would ever reach such a large audience.

I am so very proud of our students who performed so valiantly on this entire project under difficult time pressures and more. Congratulations! To my co-soloists, thank you so much for sharing your artistry. To our conductor James Patrick Miller, thanks for taking the leap of faith to embrace this project even before your first rehearsal!

I am often asked for advice by my former students as they go out in the world and find the difficult decisions that are often put to us. My advice most often is to "stay true to the music and the rest will take care of itself." In this project, which was 10 years in the making, I did just that. I believed in the product of Stephen's soul and of all four remarkable composers featured on the disc. It seems that the music has taken care of itself.

Stephen, I again mourn your passing and hope that the Academy sees fit to honor you on February 8 with the actual GRAMMY Award. Fingers crossed and we have you in our hearts.

Interview in Jan/Feb 2015 Fanfare Magazine

It was my great pleasure to be interviewed by Henry Fogel (yes, that Henry Fogel!) for Fanfare Magazine. It was spurred by his interest in the new disc "Fantastique" which he reviewed, but was a wonderful opportunity to share why this music matters to me and pay homage to the incredible composers and musicians involved. Check it out here:

Henry Fogel Interviews Eric Berlin Jan/Feb 2015 Fanfare Magazine

Just Do It

This is a short post today inspired by a Huffington Post article that really infuriated me. It talked about"choking" under pressure, particularly in sports. The crux of the article is this:

Whether you choke under pressure might have more to do with your motivation: specifically, to what extent that you are driven by a desire to win or by a desire to avoid losing. If you're very loss-averse -- meaning that you hate losing more than you love winning -- your chances of choking will be lower. But for those who value the rush of winning over the pain of losing, the likelihood of choking is often higher.

What this entire article fails to acknowledge is that there is a third option. In addition to "loving winning" or "hating losing", the motivation that most successful athletes embrace is one that minimizes thought of outcomes and keeps them focussed on the task at hand. 

Athletes at peak performance level call this state of focus being "in the zone".  For a shortstop to make a spectacular catch does not allow time for thoughts of winning or losing. An incredible putt from 50 feet over undulating greens at the Masters is a result of visualizing the path the ball will take, not an imagined final score. 

As musicians, we are high level athletes using incredibly fine muscle control to express ourselves through our voice or instrument. Whether we perform in a concert or in an audition, I make the clearest association with the game of golf because we have nobody playing defense! Like a golfer, the challenge of our job is to stay out of our own way.  Thoughts of winning/losing or missing/hitting notes are defensive players of our own making. 

What would Nike's corporate ledger look like with this slogan?

I am very loss averse

Any time that we perform, our best course of action is to control those variables which are in our control and focus on communicating clearly. Winning or losing an audition is NOT in our control, but presenting the best performance we can muster in that moment IS in our control. My beloved mentor Charles Schlueter ingrained in his students that the power is in "staying in the present". Notes missed in the past cannot be sucked back in and you can't do anything about the high C at the end until the moment arrives. Worry about either undermines your ability to create the most beautiful sound NOW. 

I often quote the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr when talking about auditions. 

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.

Seek to understand that difference. Oiling your valves, bringing your mutes, and diligent preparation are variables in your control. We cannot control outcomes, but we have the best chance of success with our motivation being the courageous third option of staying focussed on the present and JUST DO IT. 

Teaching Kids - Joys, Challenges, Reality and Rewards or "What to do if your students don't practice"

I want to first acknowledge a very important person in my life, my Junior High Band Director. Jim Metzger came into my life in 8th grade and became the most important influence to becoming a professional musician. His office was my refuge from that moment through high school. He is so important that he was at my side as a groomsman at my first wedding. Most professional musicians had someone like Jim invest in them well beyond the band period. We all owe them a debt of eternal gratitude! These are the educators that not only teach the skill, but teach how to teach.

With Jim at the conclusion of his final concert at Manheim Central Junior High School. I was there for his first and felt I had to be there for his last.

Oddly enough, I never envisioned myself as a teacher. While in high school making choices about where to go to college and what path, he asked me if I was going to go into Music Ed or Performance. My response still makes me smile "I don't want to teach, I see how hard you work."

I began teaching not because it was a path I chose, but rather out of necessity. Freshly out of college with a performance degree and rent to pay, I was given an opportunity to take on some private teaching through a school system in suburban Boston. Within a couple of weeks, I called Jim to eat crow. Very shortly, I discovered how much I loved teaching and began to realize the reciprocal benefits that come from investing in my students as my teachers had done with me.

For the first ten years of my career, I made my living primarily from teaching privately. At its biggest, my studio was 60 students every week, ranging from 4th grade beginners through high school with a few occasional college students. I adored every moment with these kids. 

I will admit that many of my students had a great deal of success on the instrument, but the real beneficiary was me. It is so refreshing to connect with the energy of those who are still in touch with the "play" of "playing" the instrument. A young mind who hasn't saddled music with the weight of lifetime employment is usually a sponge thirsty and open for what a teacher has to offer. There is little more satisfying than being a part of this joy of discovery.

In teaching music, we are teaching a language and physical experience which really defies vocabulary. When dealing with a 4th grade beginner, our most fundamental terms of "tonguing" and "embouchure" are absolutely meaningless. Our vocabulary for sound, such as bright and dark, sharp and flat, etc are even more mysterious. Learning to get results and understanding through actual experience and connecting to things that they already knew such as speech was vitally important. In addition, I found that imitating the sounds that I heard them produce gave me incredible insight into the mechanisms. In these early days, my students taught me how to teach. Many of these same techniques I discovered in my days of teaching beginners continue to occupy my toolbox for students of all levels.

After enjoying the intoxicating energy of my only two current young students and a friend's status on Facebook, I was inspired to write this post. The question was posed on FB:

"What am I supposed to do when my students don't practice?" 

Responses varied, but the response "tell them not to waste your time or their parents money" was common. My response may surprise you especially if you have been reading my "Practice Space" series. 

It doesn't matter if they practice or not.

During my years teaching 60 young students a week, this was absolutely the norm for a majority of my students. Realizing the overload imposed on kids, standardized testing and pressures about futures they haven't begun to comprehend, they can barely be blamed. In an ideal world, all of our students would be completely self motivated and improve dramatically as a result. This is rarely the case.

Remember that your success as a teacher is not measured just by making great trumpet players, as most of your students will not do what we do, but rather teaching a connection to music. If you can keep them interested, engaged and enjoying the process of making music in the 30 minutes that you see them every week, you are doing them and all of us a great service. What you will find is that if you keep them coming back, eventually a few figure out on their own timetable that they love it and they will go after it. That instant when your pushing suddenly feels like them pulling you is incredibly satisfying. Even if it doesn't ever come, you have cultivated an appreciative audience member for the future. 

My approach then, as now, is without judgement to take them from the present moment forward. If they have not touched their instrument between lessons, working on a warmup or breathing can get them set up better for their band period the next day. It is often a blessing if the bad habits of poor practicing are not further ingrained! Good habits worked on once a week can eventually accumulate into something that sticks. 

Even more than the eventual progress of our students, there is a much weightier reason to take this positive approach. We are able to frame music either as something they can relate to and appreciate or something that they remember as an early failure and will feel an aversion to the rest of their lives. Nowhere else do we as musicians have such direct access to make a case for our own relevance than in a private lesson.

I count among my former students the following:

Congressional Aides
Corporate Executives
Dentists
Doctors
Engineers
Film makers
Intelligence Analysts
Lawyers
Ministers
Pilots
...and so many more

Some of these were very gifted students driven to relentless practice, but honestly most were not.

And of course I have a handful of those that followed in my footsteps to become:

professional musicians

music educators in K-12

private teachers

college professors 

It is the first list which we need to remember will support the efforts of the second. How likely is a lawyer to support his/her local symphony if the dominant memory of music lessons was impatience and scolding? How likely will he/she be to enroll a child in your school band program or support your efforts to purchase new uniforms?

From the amazing musician educators in my past, I learned the sacred duty we have to the future. Educating in any of the arts is so much more than just dispensing a skill, but rather crafting a whole approach to life in which playing an instrument is the least important component. Jim helped me realize my calling to be a musician, but to countless more he nurtured a lifelong love of music. To me, his influence on me is completely overshadowed by his impact on everyone else. 

So, provide the best possible information to your students and use it as a wonderful opportunity to learn how to teach. Use time with kids to reconnect with the joy of "playing" your instrument. Their energy can be such a welcome antidote to the struggles we face in the current climate. In addition the creativity demanded of an educator to reach numerous unique young student minds is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. But remember, if you are not able to reach each student directly, if they don't catch your passion to pour themselves wholeheartedly into a life in music, your own infectious enthusiasm for our art can illuminate the path to a life of appreciation and support instead. Either way, job well done. 

Practice Space - The Practice Routine

All of the blog posts I have written so far lead you to this. If you REALLY want to improve, there is no better tool than this simple practice routine. Saying it is simple is misleading as the discipline required to break old habits of mindless repetition is very difficult.

What I have written below expands on the basic practice routine that I got from Vince Penzerella. I give my endless thanks to Vince for giving me this tool for efficient and effective practice.

STOP! 

What do you want to accomplish?

Before we even begin to practice, it is important for us to have goals. Do not be afraid of dreaming big! In the words of 19th century American psychologist William James "people by and large become what they think of themselves." This quote came to me from golf psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella who also said "people with big dreams achieve great things."

You should have a series of goals beginning with grand long term goals and becoming ever more detailed as we approach shorter term and daily goals. Especially as we approach the most short term goals, they must be realistic and allow for small successes along the way to reaching those more lofty long term goals.

For example, I may have at one point had the following list of goals.

Long Term Goals

• Have a long career in a major symphony orchestra
• Win and retain a major symphony orchestra position. 

Medium Term Goals

• Conquer my fear of Brandenburg 2
• Gain better control of my softest dynamics
• Play more effortlessly
• Arrive at audition comfortable that I have prepared well

Short Term Goals

• Become more comfortable with my Eb trumpet (upcoming Haydn performance)
• Get a good audition tape ready for summer festivals

Daily Goals

• Clarify my articulation on Fetes and Pines Mvt 1
• Better intonation and sound on Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition  
• Practice well: Thoughtfully and Efficiently

In order to achieve any goals, Vince's approach is as follows. I may discuss orchestral excerpts, but it works for anything.

1) Mental Practice - Create: Creating your ideal trumpeter: (The real creative process)

This is the most powerful part of the process and what most people skip. Take a moment and close your eyes. Imagine yourself in your favorite performance space. Feel yourself on the stage and really immerse yourself in that environment. Look out into the space and see it in as much detail as you can. (In my mind, I visualize Boston's Symphony Hall.) Understand the size of the space, see the colors etc.  (One wonderful upside to this is that because I imagined while practicing that I was in Symphony Hall, it was also easier to imagine I was in my practice room while auditioning at Symphony Hall!)

Hear yourself begin to play whatever you are working on with your ideal trumpet sound. (For example, let's say the Promenade of Pictures at an Exhibition.) Really put yourself in the space and hear your ideal sound in as much detail as you can. I often imagine it with a shape and color so that I can see it interact with the space. This sound is THE most important thing you have to give the world as an artist. Whatever that sound is, the goal of everything we do is to get it out of your head and into someone else's.

Continue to hear more and more detail as you listen to your ideal sound. Draw your attention to the connections between notes, the direction of the phrases, etc. Really perform! Interact with the audience if you have one and tell a story. Take chances and allow yourself to imagine all that it could be.

This is a wonderful confidence building part of the process as I have rarely had anyone report that they heard missed notes in their heads! This part of practice can be done anywhere and for me often yields better results than time on the face. Treasure this!

Once you have defined what you want to sound like, pat yourself on the back and know that you are already ahead of 90% of your peers.

2) Press Record - Perform: Bringing your creation to life.

Hit the record button on your recording device and just play along with that wonderful sound you created in your head. Start with short passages. Promenade is a great one. Turn up the volume on your mental recording as high as it will go. Your awareness of the actual sound you create out the bell should be merely peripheral. Your goal should be to completely lose yourself in the sound you have created in your mind embracing it entirely as a real performance.

In this part of the process it is important to remember these important points:

• The mind cannot create and criticize at the same time.
• You cannot hear your own sound as others do from behind the bell.
• Internal vibration and compression narrows what you do hear.
• Once you hear a miss, it is too late to do anything about it, so why bother. 

Therefore, just turn the sound up on your great recording in your head and play along!

3) Press Play - Listen: Changing hats from performer to critic.

Changing into listening mode will free that critic which you have drowned out with the excessively loud amplifier you turned up to 11 in the last segment. It is important to separate this from performance and analysis.

Press play on your recording. While listening to what you have done, ask yourself Vince's question:

"Is what I am hearing on the tape the same as what I heard in my imagination?" 

Listen critically for all the details you created above. You can answer yes, no or I'm not sure.

If your answer is YES: 

• Pat your self on the back and enjoy your accomplishment! 
• Keep trying for more YES answers!
• Start again with more details or new material.

If your answer is NO:

• Pat yourself on the back and be glad that you know what you are looking for!
• Make a list of what you wish to improve and go to the wood shed. (See below)
• Stay connected to your ideal goal.

If you answer is I'M NOT SURE:

• Pat yourself on the back for admitting it!
• Spend more time in your imagination defining what you want.

You may find that you have a combination of answers on any given passage. That is fine! Be sure to congratulate yourself for where you stack up well against your ideal. This is part of building confidence for the future.

4) Back to the wood shed: Refining the vehicle of expression.

This is practice in the traditional sense and normally what we feel most comfortable doing. However, your practice is now informed by a much more detailed idea of what you hope to achieve and where you need improvement. Here is where your short and mid term goals are formed.

Goals: From what you want to improve, set a few goals for that day’s practice.

• A few which you can definitely achieve
• A few which will be attainable only with real diligent and focused attention.

Setting clear and realistic goals is of vital importance. A goal for me to "play with the ease of Allen Vizzutti" in the course of one session will only set me up to fail and erode my confidence. Aiming for it in a short passage is something which can be built upon. 

While working out your issues, keep the following important points in mind

• Rest as much as you play. This was first preached to me by Frank Kaderabek in high school. We build muscle when it is at rest. Make sure not to constantly tear down muscle to the point of failure! If you follow this routine and listen to what you have recorded, you already have that taken care of above. 
• Revisit your warm-up. Stay focused on a good approach. Refer to this earlier blog post about The Warmup 
• Stay connected to the music. Never lose sight of the fact that you are an artist. The goal is not to "not miss notes" but to express something uniquely yours through your instrument. Spend some more time in your imaginary concert hall if you find yourself losing focus. 
• Find musical solutions to technical problems. Charlie Schlueter is absolutely brilliant with this. Instead of trying to find a physical way to get a clearer slur, he could help you change the inflection of the line to get the desired result. Better musical decisions usually cause fewer technical challenges!
• Separate the components: This is also majorly influenced by Vince. His words were "You learn more away from your instrument than with it". Connect to the ideal sound in your head and:
• Deal with pitch alone with singing and buzzing
• Deal with articulation with simple wind patterns
• Slam your fingers to be more definite
• Realize that everything that has to move needs to move at the same time. If you approach all of the above with great rhythm, coordinating them is simple. 
• Take breaks: A fresh mind and body work best

Repeat: Start the process over

Start the process again and remember to keep the music and your ideal in the front of your mind. This can be repeated endlessly allowing you to remain fresh for very long stretches of practicing. Be vigilant as your mind is what tires first. Don’t fall into the trap of judgement while performing.

Best wishes for incredibly efficient practice!

Practice Space - The Warm Up

Many clinicians used to come for masterclasses armed with a sheet of whole notes and arpeggios to distribute. The "Bob Smith" warmup works for Bob and may work for you if you are thinking with "Bob's brain". My teacher Vince Penzerella used to respond to the question "What do you do for a warm-up?" with

"What does my warm-up have to do with you?"

The notes of my warmup may have some similarities from day to day, but what remains constant is the intent behind them. What any given person needs to play to be ready to perform on a given day will vary and what notes you play is not nearly important as what you are thinking and whether you are intellectually engaged in the process. You will see that I will not give you any specific notes to play, but an insight into what motivates my choice of what and how to play. Use this as an outline to suit your own needs. Make sure to keep it fluid and flexible to address problems that arise from one day to the next. Beware of a “routine” as it can become just that, routine.

What is a warm up? The purpose of a warmup is to get your body and mind ready to perform. A good warmup will make the physical machine of your body work smoothly and efficiently and will strengthen connections from the mind to that machine. Both are important! My mentor, Charlie Schlueter used to call his warmup "checking the templates". Hearing him warm up backstage at Symphony Hall was very enlightening.

When I watch athletes of just about any sport before they play, I see common elements.

- Stretching and form (posture)

- Easy isolated function

- Calibration (for this we need a constant)

I believe that these three elements also apply to us as brass players.

Stretching

Anyone who has observed a sporting event would have seen athletes slowly stretching the different muscle groups needed for their specific sport. This is of course to gently prepare for activity and prevent injury. What are those muscles for a brass player? Immediately most people would think of the small facial muscles, however there is a much more basic function earlier in the chain. Before the lips can produce a vibration, there must be fuel provided to them. Delivering air to the lips in the most efficient way should be your first order of business.

During one of my first lessons, Charlie drew this diagram in the front of my Arutiunian Concerto.

This is a great illustration of how to most efficiently move air. When most people hear "use more air" they assume that it means to use more effort and blow harder. With a full breath, we create much more power by allowing the fully expanded torso muscles to simply come back to rest. Charlie’s solution to nearly every difficulty you encounter is TAKE A BIGGER BREATH! It always works for me…

There is no way to expand your lungs' capacity as they could already expand well beyond the boundaries of our bodies. However, we can make sure that they expand to their maximum by reducing muscular tension and using proper posture.

The easiest and most helpful stretch is simply bending over at the waist and trying to touch your toes. (Object of this stretch is not to touch your toes, but to stretch the muscles of your back. Even if you cannot touch your toes, you will receive much benefit from this exercise.) Make sure to let your head hang so that your chin touches your chest. See how far your fingertips are from your toes. Now begin breathing slowly with the sound OH and release when you are at capacity by saying TOH. Imagine the air filling the spaces between your ribs, the kidneys, and the area under your arms. Do this for a few minutes and be aware of the tension that you feel in your neck, back and shoulders etc. Direct the focus of the air to those places and see if you can feel them expand and release. You may notice that your fingers have moved closer to your toes as a result of this. This is an exercise that you should do every day and often throughout the day. Incorporate other stretches for the rest of your torso into this part of your warmup as well.

With your body prepared to expand, you will want to take full advantage of this added capacity. Proper posture is vital to allowing you to breathe with maximum efficiency and to allow your body to resonate fully while playing. The goal is to allow your skeleton to support itself so that the muscles of your body can relax. Think long and tall with little to no muscular tension.

While standing, place your feet shoulder width apart with the outsides parallel. Unlock your knees and move your hips forward and back until you feel your weight evenly distributed between the balls and heels of your feet. Now allow your head to gently lift off of your shoulders with your chin remaining down closer to your chest. While sitting, strive for this standing posture above. Your feet should be parallel and your knees should be directly above the feet.

I recommend studying Alexander Technique as a way to improve your muscular function in all aspects of your life. It has been extremely helpful to me. You can also find similar benefits with most types of yoga as well.

After all of that, we are ready to build good breathing habits for your day. Keep track of your body tension and stretch throughout your practice session. Also be vigilant about your posture. With proper posture, you will find an immediate increase in the size and resonance of your sound. These are new habits that must be reinforced with repetition.

Isolated Function

One of the best things that I learned from Vince Penzerella was the concept of isolating the different components of playing to more efficiently address issues. I break them up into these three.

a) Air - causes vibration

There is no shortage of discussion of breathing in brass pedagogy. I would recommend studying the teachings of Arnold Jacobs as the most influential teacher of wind instruments of the 20th century. There is a lot of great information on the website devoted to his teaching www.windsongpress.com. Check out the videos and try some of the breathing devices. You may also wish to check out a wonderful series called The Breathing Gym with Patrick Sheridan and Sam Pilafian.

Simple breathing exercises such as ladder breathing to a metronome is helpful and doing ANYTHING represents a significant advantage over nothing. Regardless how you get there, the goal of this part of your warm up is to get free flowing efficient air movement. Using the simple syllables "OH" for inhalation and "TOH" for exhalation is a great start. Remember that the inhalation is a mirror image of what you wish to exhale.

b) Tongue - defines the duration of the vibration (articulation)

I gained quite a bit of speed and clarity in my articulation merely by practicing in the car. No, I did not have my horn on my face, but just doing "wind patterns". I believe that this term originated with Vincent Cichowicz and it is great practice for airflow and to practice different types of articulation. My own priority with articulation is to make it as simple as possible. I want the vowel sound from a sustained pitch to always remain, even in notes of shortest duration. And I want the consonant T or D in the articulation to be clear and firm, and release to that vowel as quickly as possible.

With a full breath, just begin to articulate one of your favorite excerpts or etudes (without the instrument). For me, Ravel Piano Concerto in G or Charlier Etude #1 are two good examples. Remember that we are now isolating the articulation from pitch. Avoid trying to producing an audible contour, but rather make each note sound the same. Slurred and repeated pitches should sound like one longer note. This will encourage a consistent articulation when you bring it back to the horn.

c) Lips - change the pitch of the vibration

My approach to pitch is that we play a fretless string instrument. Our instrument is simply singing with the vocal chords on the wrong side of the mouth! As with a string instrument or the voice, we can produce every small microtone between pitches as we buzz the mouthpiece.

This part of my warmup can start a variety of ways, but usually, I do the opposite of what most of us have learned. I start high and work low. This may take a moment of explanation.

The low and middle registers of the trumpet have the largest margin for error to still allow successful tone production. (I illustrate this playing off to the side or using my tongue as my bottom lip.) As we learned as children to play a low C or G and then filled in the gaps and ascended, we often play in the lower register with a less refined embouchure and less attention to pitch. This also sets us up to make the upper register difficult for young players to attain.

Some players even develop a second set to play in the upper register. This is usually a smaller aperture than the low set. Using two sets often gives a break between registers, which is difficult to traverse. With my own practice and what I advocate for my students, I use a high register set and bring it into the low register.

Buzzing the mouthpiece is the best way to isolate pitch production from the rest of the functions and also addresses the final part of the total warm up process - calibration. To calibrate anything, we need to have one fixed constant. In this case, I want absolutely constant air flow to fuel the pitch mechanism.

Beginning on any easily produced higher register pitch, buzz slowly down two octaves (for example High G to Low G) in a glissando at a MP dynamic. The slower that you perform the glissando, the better as you will feel the "breaks" and be able to connect through them. One of my former colleagues and good friend Matt Gaunt called this "the stupid exercise". It is important to be able to again re-ascend to your starting pitch so take a big breath. If you find that you are unable, it is likely that the intensity of your air stream has decreased as you descended or that your embouchure has shifted to a more open set along the way. Stretch each end of the scale a bit but don't worry too much about buzzing up to high C. A little above the staff, the mouthpiece shank begins to act as its' own bugle and tries to force you into a fundamental making buzzing up here very difficult.

Once we have connected high and low registers with glissando, we can begin to calibrate by using real tunes. This is the purpose of all of this work anyway!

Calibration

Taking simple tunes such as those Arban's art of phrasing, buzz them without articulation. Be expressive and connect across the rests to keep constant air. Remember, this is isolating the pitch part of the process, so continue to glissando and don't worry about articulations. Think of a great singer as you do this.

What we are doing here is calibrating the muscles to move precisely in response to the pitch signal in our heads. Just as we sing with the voice, we need nothing more than the picture of a sound in our heads to sing with the lips. Once we put the trumpet on, most of us become less concerned with that primary image and worry about all of the physical feelings and external judgement. The more time we spend buzzing the string instrument without the "frets" of the horn, the more we reinforce a strong connection from song in the head to an automatic body response to it. Then the trumpet doesn't have to bully us into a slot, but rather merely amplify a pure signal. This results in faster response and a sound which is more pure in all registers.

These principles should be revisited throughout your session and will become problem solving tools as you
work.

Best wishes and happy practicing!

Practice Space - Mental Space

Now that you have a good place to practice, you need to have the right mental approach to get maximum results. It is vital to find the focus necessary for good work.

With our lives increasingly busy, we tend to cram practice in the midst of other stresses. Real practice takes a focus and clarity of thought that demands our complete attention. Finding the time is hard enough. Once you have scheduled it, make sure that you get the most out of it. Find a way to leave all other thoughts behind. It is often easier to find this focus when you have a regularly scheduled practice time within a well-budgeted calendar. Optimally, find several shorter intervals during the day to keep your mind sharp.

Once you have a good space with plenty of focused time to practice, you are ready to build the new trumpet player within you. My goal is to help my students become as physically efficient and musically informed trumpet players as possible. Help set the stage for great practice before you begin.

1) Have adequate fuel for the machine - make sure that you have eaten a meal to fuel the brain. A grumbling stomach will distract you from the task at hand.

2) Have a notepad with you. Should distractions of "to-dos" arise, you can jot them down and continue.

3) Turn off notifications on your smart phone. I am guilty of being tied to my email.

4) Get rid of any other possible distractions that you can. Life does intervene, but do your best.

Now you are ready to begin.

The purpose of practice for me is simple: I want to improve the process of getting the sound in my head out through my chosen tool, the trumpet, so that it can enter the listener's ears and we can share that sound together.

Arnold Palmer, the great golfer said, "Practice with INTENTION and ATTENTION." These are wise words from a master, which truly apply to us as trumpet players. Amateur golfers often hit the driving range and just hit balls and watch where they go. For Arnold, there was always a clear target in mind and a purpose for what he was doing. How many of us have gone through our lives practicing scales mindlessly in front of the television?

For a long time, I was concerned with "putting time in". There is no doubt that at some point in all of our lives, we need to spend time developing the muscles which help us produce a sound. However, if we are not careful, the incorrect muscle memory that we develop early on can remain a burden throughout our careers. In many ways, some of the repertoire that I learned first is the most challenging for me now. The haphazard practice of youth ingrained habits that remain difficult to re-program. As a sort of vaccine against these habits, Norman Bolter, the fantastic former trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and educator counsels his students to approach everything like it is their first time, even if it is a solo or etude they have played for decades.

I do a fun exercise with my students every once in a while. Just as they are about to play, I pull the trumpet away and ask them to sing the first note. It is amazing to them when they actually play the note and hear how far off they are. So many players get in the habit of just blowing into the horn and waiting to see what the note sounds like. This is backwards!!!

Imagine for a moment the creative process of other artists. Don't forget, you ARE an artist. A painter doesn't wait to see what the brush does, nor does a poet wait to see what words come out of his pencil. The creative process must begin with the intention in your mind to communicate a sound, an image, a texture etc. Years ago, I asked a young student named Madeleine to define music. Her response has always stuck with me. Even as a 6th grader, she understood; "Music is talking without words." We must always have a clear image of what we are trying to communicate or we are just potters throwing our clay on the wheel and hoping for the best.

That sound in your head is the target that Arnold Palmer was always hitting to on the range and on the course. It is that INTENTION to communicate the sound in your head that begins to make the physical process work. The rest of practice is ATTENTION to the details of what you are trying to communicate as well as to your physical habits. More on both to come!

Practice Space - Physical Space

The majority of my Sunday was spent making a good practice space for myself in the basement of our new home. I cannot stress enough the importance to me of a good space to play.

In the late 1990's and early 2000's I spent countless hours practicing in an amazing church in Brighton, MA. A good relationship with the clergy and organist scored a key and security code which allowed me to practice late into the night whenever I could.



It was in this space that the most dramatic improvements I have ever made in my playing happened. What I found in those magical days was not only a space which made me sound good, but a place where I could truly remove myself from all distractions and focus entirely on the task at hand. Practicing at home or in my office has always been difficult with the constant reminder of and ease of access to the rest of life. There are always emails to answer, laundry, dishes, and the worst distraction of all, the television.

In discussing "practice space" I want to first describe the physical characteristics of my optimal practice space and in a later post, discuss the equally important mental space one must inhabit to make the best use of that physical space.

For a trumpeter, I recommend the following features for your practice space

1) Find a large a space if possible. Let's face it, nobody likes to practice in a small room.

• It is for your own protection: As trumpeters, we produce a lot of sound. Mike Keough, a former UMASS student, during a semester abroad, did research on noise levels at the Royal Academy of Music in London. This was due to the European Union's new standards for workplace noise levels. Upon his return, he gave a fantastic presentation to the entire student body on the result of his findings. Trumpet and trombone rank as the loudest acoustic instruments and cause the most damage to our hearing. The most interesting thing to me was that the person suffering from a lead trumpet the most was the player him/herself, not the bassoonist in front.
• A larger room helps you hear your sound more realistically. The physics of the trumpet do not allow us to accurately hear our own sound directly. We must wait until the sound is reflected back to us to hear it. (or better yet, record ourselves - more on that later) In most small rooms engineered for practicing, the environment is acoustically dead. I spent many hours in these rooms and didn't realize that I was playing louder and working harder to get the sound I wanted to reflect back to me to no avail. (To avoid this pain when you need to use one of these rooms, I recommend using ear plugs and tune in completely to the sound in your own head. You would be amazed at what you can accomplish!) In contrast, the church in Brighton had a 4 second reverb that allows one to play arpegios and hear them ring as a vertical chord. Nice way to find out if you play in tune with yourself!

2) Find an isolated room. If you can find a room which is physically removed from the distraction of other people and distractions of your own making, all the better. This is often unrealistic physically, but can often be accomplished in other ways. While at the New England Conservatory of Music, we would often hang a jacket over the door window to shield us from the prying eyes of those looking for a friend to talk to. It doesn't hurt to leave the laptop and smart phone behind as well.

3) Find a good sounding space. Not everyone can find a church with 4 second reverb to practice in. (Doc Severinsen is a big fan of stairwells too!) However, small rooms, carpeting, acoustic tile and low ceilings can all deaden the sound. Although harder surfaces will make the space louder, it helps give a more accurate picture. If a space forces you to play harder to get the sound you want, you will ingrain bad habits and possibly injure yourself.

4) Equip it with the right equipment

• Mirror
• Metronome
• Tuner
• Chromatic Drone
• Amplified speakers or headphones
• Recorder!!!

With all of this said, making an absolutely perfect practice space in one's home is difficult. All we can do is the best we can. As for my own space, I laid claim to one quarter of my basement for my dedicated practice space. (Thanks to my wonderful wife!) Finishing the space was not difficult as 3/4 of the basement walls are concrete. The fourth wall still had exposed fiberglass insulation. My first step was to enclose the insulation and make a hard reflecting surface. With plastic sheeting and a staple gun, I laid a vapor barrier to further insulate and protect the new wall I was about to install. To create a better reflecting surface, I used furniture quality plywood sheets which I cut to fit. Regular plywood would have been okay, but for $5/sheet difference, I felt the smoother surface would not only look better, but may reflect better. Once these sheets were attached to the walls, the experience of playing became MUCH easier.

After hanging a mirror across from my chair, the rest of the project was merely setting up some electronic stuff in a comfortable place. My own space contains the following because I already owned these things and they work great. However, as I will describe below, it is easy enough to function well more simply and less expensively.

• A matched pair of Rhode NT-5 small diaphragm condenser mics mounted across the room from where I sit or stand.
• These are powered by a small M-Audio DMP-3 two channel microphone pre-amp.
• An old Realistic powered mixer which I use to channel, balance and control volume from a metronome and drone.
• Matrix MR-800 Quartz Metronome (This is the loudest metronome I have ever found. Even a brass quintet playing mezzo-forte can hear this!)
• Korg Master Tune MT1200 Chromatic multi-temperament tuner - this is overkill for most purposes except for piano tuning, and it is no longer made, but I own it and it allows full chromatic tone generation.
• Seiko ST1100 Chromatic Tuner - this is the tuner that I prefer and is always in my case. The response time is quick, but not so quick that the needle never stays still. Also produces full chromatic tone generation. In my office, I prefer the Peterson V-SAM Virtual Strobe tuner.
• Pair of Fostex PM-1 MKII ACTIVE 6.5 inch powered monitors. These produce a large volume of sound and are helpful if playing with Smart Music or any play along system.
• M-Audio MicroTrack II digital recorder. I have had this for many years and it records great to .WAV file.
• Audio Techinica ATH-M40FS Studio Headphones - these are relatively inexpensive but very true sounding. I listen to playback of my practice through these to hear more objectively.

This is far beyond what most people need to practice well. In fact, I can do everything that I need with a small portable set up which I carry in my trumpet case (which I take to my practice church). It includes:

• Matrix MR-800 Quartz Metronome - anything with a headphone jack works
• Seiko ST1100 Chromatic Tuner - anything with a tone generator and headphone jack works
• Sony Stereo Microphone - I have been using it since I was in college and it has held up great. It is a discontinued model similar to ECM SM957. I set it across the room with a 16 foot extension cord from Radio Shack
• M-Audio MicroTrack II digital recorder. There are many great recorders available now. I only recommend that you insist on user variable gain control. Otherwise, you will have high dynamics lowered and soft dynamics raised on your recording negating all of the good work you do creating dynamic contrast.
• Shure in ear monitors. These are a discontinued model similar to the Shure SE215 - use the best headphones that you own.
• A few small cables and adapters from Radio Shack to make a small mini-mixer. To do this, insert a headphone volume control into the tuner and metronome (I have older, cheap radio shack versions of these) Then plug each of these to one of end of the 1/8 inch stereo plug to two mono splitter. By then inserting your headphones into this, you can control the volume of each the drone and tuner for practice purposes.
  
  
  
  

This small package is a complete practice recording setup. It will allow you to follow the practice routine which I will detail in upcoming posts and helped me make major improvements in my playing while practicing in my beloved church in Brighton.

So, find a good space to practice where you will be as far from distraction as you can manage and then equip your space with the ability to record and assess yourself while the instrument is not on your face.

Next post

Practice Space - Mental Space