More info and registration form HERE!!!
Join me in June and July 2021 for 7 interactive online workouts to stay in shape, strengthen your fundamentals, and organize your practice goals!
More info and registration form HERE!!!
Join me in June and July 2021 for 7 interactive online workouts to stay in shape, strengthen your fundamentals, and organize your practice goals!
GENERAL NOTES FOR ALL ETUDES
ETUDE #1
ETUDE #2
ETUDE #3
I’ve been teaching lessons on Zoom for 5 or 6 months at this point, and I have grown to LOVE the platform and its effectiveness for teaching music lessons.
If we take a few minutes to learn how to sound and look your best on Zoom, you and your teacher will have a wonderful lesson experience. Remember: when you improve your sound on Zoom, your teacher will be hearing a more musically nuanced product and he/she will be able to give you more musically nuanced feedback.
I promise, any effort you make to understand your Zoom audio will allow your teacher to be more nuanced/helpful/detailed with his/her comments. Have fun with your online lessons!
Here are a few notes from the April 24th masterclass with Dr. Joe Cooper, trumpet professor at Oklahoma State University. These are some of the specific suggestions he gave the student performers. I wrote them in a more general way for us all to apply to our own playing.
A huge THANK YOU to Dr Cooper for his time, expertise, and inspiration. Thank you to all 4 student performers for their excellent recordings, and thank you to all other students who listened and attended the class!
This page will be a list of resources to help us learn about the history of instruments in the brass family as well as insight into how these instruments are made.
Check out this really cool instrument guide on the Yamaha website. It includes a LOT of cool information about all instruments: how they are made, their history, proper care, etc.
The videos below give behind-the-scenes tours of instrument factories to show how trumpets, trombones, and tubas are made.
Today’s blog post is going to help us understand how to figure out minor scales. There are a few different ways to think about this process, and this post will focus on one method: figuring out minor scales by starting with its parallel major scale. Scales are parallel if they have the same root note (the first note of the scale). For example, C Major and C Minor are parallel because they both start and end on C. This method should be easy if you already know some (or all!) of your major scales.
There are three types of minor scales:
The example below starts with the key of C. It’s an easy key to manipulate since there are no sharps or flats in C Major.
The first step is converting major to natural minor. We do this by lowering the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes of the scale by one half step. When lowering by a half step, naturals become flats (and sharps become naturals). Play C Major and C Natural Minor on your instrument, and you’ll immediately be able to hear the difference in musical flavor between major and minor.
The second step is converting major to harmonic minor. For this scale, only lower the 3rd and 6th notes. The 7th is not lowered.
The third step is converting major to melodic minor. This type of minor scale uses different pitches when ascending and descending. Only lower the 3rd note when ascending (6th and 7th notes stay the same as major). When descending, lower the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes.
The example below shows this process in two different keys: C and A.
I suggest starting with one or two easy keys to get used to the process of lowering notes and become familiar with the sound of each type of minor scale. After that, challenge yourself to learn as many of the 12 keys as possible!
Many thanks to the Anderson High School band directors for inviting me to teach 2 weeks of daily masterclasses to their trumpet section (10 total!). And a HUGE thank you to the students for their attention, questions, and enthusiasm!
We covered a massive amount of material, which is summarized below with a link to all handouts passed out during the 2 weeks.
Warmups (beautiful and relaxed sound)
Technique
Etudes
Maintenance
Equipment
Mental
Etude Practice Tips
Adam Rapa is a trumpet player known for his super-human performances. In this video he is performing an arrangement of Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2.
As if it wasn’t hard enough to play a clarinet concerto on the trumpet, this arrangement also changes the time signature from 4/4 to 7/8!
Rapa is playing a 4-valve Bb trumpet, which allows him to play some of the clarinet notes that go below the traditional range of the Bb trumpet. The brass and percussion accompaniment by the Belgian Brass is outstanding!
Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome was composed in 1924 and has been a major staple in the symphonic repertoire ever since. The beautiful off-stage trumpet solo in the second movement is frequently included on professional auditions.
An arrangement was written for brass ensemble and performed here by the All-Star Brass in 2014. The brass playing here is nothing short of amazing (the piece is hard enough to be played by a full orchestra!).
The three trumpet players are Jens Lindemann, Ryan Anthony, and Phil Snedecor.
The first video is the 2014 All-Star Brass recording. The second is the original version for full orchestra as recorded by the New World Symphony.
The New York Trumpet Ensemble has recorded a handful of albums since its founding in 1974. It has featured some of the best trumpet players in New York throughout several decades.
The first video below is the traditional jazz tune East St. Louis Toodleoo from the album Trumpets in Stride. Enjoy the variety of mutes and jazz inflections!
The second video is from their first album, A Festival of Trumpets, where they recorded previously undiscovered works by composers from the Baroque Era.