When preparing to perform a solo or a whole recital, there are a lot of factors that motivate our practice. To have a polished end product we meticulously learn notes, rhythms, and technique, with metronomes, recording devices, and more. And, if you are like me, I practice getting through the complete solo or program to make sure I have enough endurance.
What is the right answer! For me, I always let sound lead. Are you ready for the big HOWEVER?
When we think about cup depth of a brass instrument mouthpiece, we generally think about how they will affect the sound. Generally, a large cup will provide a dark sound, where a shallow cup will produce a brighter more projecting sound. Is sound the only thing that the cup affects, though? We recently polled our Denis Wick community with this question: Does the cup depth affect articulation? Each player is different, and while we here at Denis Wick have some specific ideas about how the right cup contour can assist your performance, we also realize each player has their own experience with this, and feels support from a mouthpiece in different areas.
Playing by ear and working in groups form the foundations of both my teaching and practice. In this article I look to explain why I think it holds so much value and how I think anyone can improve their enjoyment of playing with some time spent playing without music each week, with even more success if you can find others to play with too.
Summer is a great time to look for a new mouthpiece. Adjusting to a new mouthpiece can take a little time, and the summer provides just that. Since a mouthpiece will not teach you to play higher, lower, louder, or softer, the summer is also a great time to hone your skills in these areas. Stay tuned to the Buzz in the upcoming weeks for tips and advice in these areas.
As every teacher knows, a good tone on any brass instrument needs a properly set-up embouchure; these days one may assume that the young player will have a reasonable instrument and a sensible mouthpiece. To this one could add what many teachers would regard as the most important of all – good breath control.
Are you a musician? Your New Year's resolution might include practice disciplines, range goals, technique goals, career goals, etc. Resolution planning can be tricky; too easy and you feel like you cheated, too lofty and half-way through the year you feel like a failure. If only there was one thing that you could resolve to do that would keep you busy the whole year while improving everything. And there is!
In his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld says of performing: “I don’t accept the judging of process. It doesn’t matter [how you prepare]. We’re all trying to get to the same island. Whether you, swim, fly, surf, or skydive in, it doesn’t matter. What matters is when the red light comes on.” This is a great attitude to adopt as a musician especially if you are self conscious of how you sound in the practice room. We’ve all been there, sounding our worst while our friends, colleagues, teachers, well-wishers, and personal idols all mill about outside, eagerly pressing their ears to the door in hopes of catching a moment of weakness.
Many talented brass players have problems in high note playing which seem inexplicable. Often there is no obvious reason. These days the general standard of teaching and playing sophistication at a professional level is at an all-time high, but there are, of course, many amateurs who have not had access to the best teaching. These brass players who have no aspirations to earn their living at anything so potentially precarious, but who derive much satisfaction and pleasure from 'taming the tubes' can perhaps benefit from a few words of advice from a teacher who has seen most aspects of playing over many years.
What is your experience with marching band, how did you get involved, and with which groups do you primarily work?
Tuning is one of the few areas of music that are binary; something is in tune or it is not. However, even though most everyone would agree with this statement, the subject of tuning and its pedagogy get surprisingly muddled especially within the world of marching band. While there are still many ways to address tuning, keeping in mind the following concepts will help guide you to success and diagnose problems you may encounter.
In one of my favorite movies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the main character’s mother provides her daughter some valuable advice for their household: “The man is the head of the house, but the woman is the neck and she can turn the head whichever way she pleases.”
It can be challenging to find the motivation to practice over break, and you have several factors operating against you. You are at home. There are no performances on your horizon. You want to see your friends. You have siblings or erratic sleep schedules to work around and there’s no decent acoustical space for you to practice. There are many excuses that can account for neglecting your instrument over break. I’ve been there and now as a mom of twin toddlers and a professional freelance horn player, I am here to tell you that if you want to find time to practice, you will. Keep your chops in shape and your momentum moving forward as you head home for the holidays.
Good habits are the Holy Grail of musicianship. Legendary in benefit; frustrating in attainability. If your posture is perfect, your technique immaculate, and your preparation thorough, you are sure to succeed. We spend hours, days, and years in the practice room reinforcing good habits (and inevitably some bad ones), but there’s another kind of habit that’s more destructive than the bad ones we can gain in the practice room and it often comes from our best intentions.
My first contact with Malcolm Arnold was in 1947 and was a memorable one. Although I had played with several amateur orchestras in my hometown, Luton, it was at the age of 16 that I saw and heard a professional orchestra for the first time. It was the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in the nearest local approximation to a concert hall, the Vauxhall Motors works canteen.
If you’re a young brass player, you’ve probably had dreams of playing in a Big Five orchestra since you first learned that such a magical job existed. I’m not here to say that a dream job will never happen for you; we’ve all heard enough from the negative voices. Frankly, I’m a little more concerned with what you’re doing in the meantime to maximize your music-making. Now, not everyone has extra time in their practice routine to add an entirely new course of study, but before you trumpeters smash your faces on another run of the Petrushka ballerina, or you tuba players spend a futile half hour on the trill from Die Meistersinger, let’s consider what you can do for your classical playing if you spend that time studying Jazz theory instead.
What led to your 9 year stint with the Air Force Band?
What if you could steal the projection, range, tone, and musicality from all of your favorite musicians? This is how Denis Wick suggests you do it.
Why the Haydn is the standard concerto that all trumpet players are measured against, I will never know. If you want to hear and see the heart and soul of a trumpet player, give them the Arutunian. Whether your teacher introduced it to you, or you heard it for the first time in a performance, it is impossible to not be inspired to work endlessly on such exciting music!
For those of us learning and working from since March, endurance practice has taken on a whole new meaning! There is a whole different sense of endurance when it comes to practicing by yourself at home. There are many distractions, it's harder in someways to motivate yourself, and the unpredictability of performing with another human does not challenge your ear and muscles in the same way. Because of this, we may need to rethink our at home practice goals and routines if our main, or only, performance opportunities are at home right now. If this is resonating with you, these tips from Denis Wick Artists Estela Aragon and Jason Klobnak are just for you!