“What follows is an ever-growing tapestry of Joe’s reflections, insights, and philosophies on music, trumpet, and the practices thereof.”
Thoughts on Music
Music doesn't tell you what to play, it tells you what to hear. What you hear tells you what to play.
Come up with three "Adjectives" for everything you play; these can be actual adjectives, or things like colors, movements, images, landscapes, stories, personality traits, characters, textures, etc.
The graphical language of music is poorly conceived for the trumpet. It *LOOKS* like every note is separate from every other. In reality, the vowel sound of every note should connect with the next notes vowel or consonant sound.
What is the difference between meter and rhythm? Meter is the canvas of time; it is how we organize time through repetitive stresses. Rhythm is the object we are painting, that which dances on top of the meter.
You can only know for sure you are playing in time if you can hear the subdivisions that are twice as fast as the smallest note durations.
When brass players talk about articulation, we are often referring to the beginnings of the note. When string players talk about articulation, they are talking about the entire note shape: Beginning, middle, and end. I would suggest starting to think of articulation as the full note, not just the beginning.
Degrees of Dynamics: Beginners can distinguish and choose to play p, mp, mf, and f. Intermediates can distinguish and choose play pp, mp, mf, f, and ff. Advanced players can distinguish and choose play ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and fff. Excerpts can distinguish and play ppp-, ppp, ppp+, pp-, pp, pp+, p-, p, p+, mp-, mp, mp+, mf-, mf, mf+, f-, f, f+, ff-, ff, ff+, fff-, fff, fff+. Want to get better at this? Practice consciously playing at these different dynamics, and start writing them into your music.
You're always a better musician today than you were yesterday.
Music is a graphic language. When we read musical directions we have written to ourselves on the music in our spoken language, it will necessarily takes us out of "the singing mind" and bring us into "the thinking mind". I suggest coming up with shorthand or symbols for directions we choose to write like "BB" for "Big Breath", or using the musical words like "accel" or "dim" which already directly translate to sound in our minds.
I love the concept of an "Opening Bid". Whether you're talking about in an ensemble, or our shared understanding of the language and performance of music, music is a collaborative experience. An "Opening Bid" is your opinion of how something should be interpreted. Be open to others' opinions adjusting your opening bid. But if you have an opening bid, no matter how it changes, it will be yours.
Succeeding as a freelancer in the music world is 50% playing and 50% personality. You need to score at least an 80%.
You should know your music well enough that you are using the written music as if you are giving a speech using notes to remind you of where you are, versus reading from prepared remarks.
A teacher's goal is to assign your progress: to always be giving you material that is firmly in your wheelhouse while also giving you material that will help you grow in the desired direction. The ultimate goal of a student is to learn to assign their own progress.
Thoughts on Trumpet
Exhale, inhale, play.
The three steps of learning to take good breaths: Get a lot of air in, do it in a reasonably relaxed manner, once those are in place: do it quickly.
The only trumpet dogma worthy of being dogma: There is no dogma.
Getting off-book with our technical exercises is a really important step. It allows us to get away from mentally learning the drill, and into feeling and hearing the physical and aural sensations of the drill.
Valve slide technique involves being able to throw the slide out and pulling it in quickly. Important beyond the speed, it's important to be economical with your movement. Moving the slide can often move the entire trumpet. It is a high-level skill to manipulate your slide without it moving on your lips.
When you miss the start of a note, it is not always a tonguing problem. It can be a finger problem, an air problem, a mental concept problem, or a coordination problem.
Think of articulated notes as speech. You have consonant sounds and vowel sounds. As trumpet players we focus so much on the consonants, but if there is no vowel sound, there is no tone!
Playing the trumpet is a felt experience; you feel your way through playing the instrument, you don't think your way through.
Don't try to figure it out, feel it out!
As a second trumpet, unison notes should be felt not heard by the first.
Your sound is your calling card.
How you play will get you gigs. How you count rests will keep those gigs.
Don't hold the breath: suspend the breath.
Foster a camaraderie of imperfection.
Valves are binary: they are either open or closed. Your goal is to make that transition as quickly as possible. I call this "Plunger Speed".
There is a difference between finger speed and plunger speed. Finger speed is how quickly you can go from one fingering to the next, plunger speed is out fast you depress or release a valve. Practice fast plunger speed at a slow fingering speed!
If you have a physical sense of control on the instrument, you probably have unnecessary tension in the system. True control on the trumpet feels like channeling and directing a force.
You want to feel as though your breath is in a "pant-able" state. Meaning, you can quickly inhale and exhale without muscular effort in the upper chests and ribs, rather you feel it coming directly from your diaphragm.
It's always wonderful when your self worth is tied to an inanimate object, said no one ever.
There is no higher or lower on the trumpet, it is faster and slower vibrations.
When working on building, changing, and developing your embouchure, make sure you are paying attention to your air. Think about being in a sailboat. You're not moving anywhere, so you go around and make sure your sail has no holes, and is fully functional. You check the ropes and replace them with new ones. You get a new fiberglass mast to replace your old metal one... but you still aren't going anywhere. Did you check to see if there was a breeze that day?
The benefit of being extremely skilled with the slides is that you can always blow straight through the center of the pitch of the instrument without needing to use your mouth to manipulate. You will be less tired, and have a clearer more consistent tone.
Create a short "opening ceremony" for any excerpt you are practicing. Think of your character concepts, feel the pulse of the meter, hear the first note, get in good posture, exhale, inhale, play. Having this as part of your preparation for an audition will allow you easier access to the mental state you want to be in when you play the actual audition
Excerpts should be performed as if you are playing with the entire orchestra. It reminds me of being a thread in a tapestry. Be the thread in the tapestry as if the rest of the tapestry was already there.
Thoughts on practice
It's not about figuring it out because the moment you do, it will change and then you'll be grasping for what once worked but is no longer relevant. It's about finding balance. Balance changes moment to moment. Balance requires fluidity, adaptability, and curiosity.
How do you play a note with a sfz differently than an accented note, or a tenuto with an accent, or a tenuto, or a marcato? How do they change at forte versus piano? What is the difference in how they sound? Practice these so that when you read them in music, your inner ear hears the difference, and your body knows how to play them.
Sometimes it's harder to identify "What" you need to work on than "How" to work on it.
Reframe: Look at the "holes" in your playing as opportunities for growth. You've identified what to work on!
When you are first working on something, start from a place of being able to hear it fully with your inner ear. That way you have a very clear target for your physical body to aim at.
Learn to love the plateau. Often our learning process involves long stretches where we don't see noticeable improvement. These are the plateaus. Under the hood, our body and minds are integrating new ideas and concepts which will lead to a breakthrough of intense improvement or understanding all at once.
Progress is not linear. It may get worse before it gets better. You may spend a long time in the plateau. Don't let that be a concern, just keep going.
Sometimes we need to practice gratitude on the trumpet. This is especially helpful when we are feeling burnt out or frustrated. A way to do this: when you sit down to practice, take out a notebook and write down three things that you're grateful for about the trumpet. Do this regularly, every time you sit down to start a new session. Don't worry if you write down the same things again and again. Take a moment after writing them to read them in your mind, and breathe.
Taking time off is not indicative of not taking it seriously.
Reframe: When something feels challenging, it is an opportunity to get to know something better.
Always start from your Can Do Point, and always go back to your Can Do Point. Expand your Can Do Point from your Can Do Point. Spend much of your time firmly in your Can Do Point, and visit the edges to press them forward. Don't live outside your Can Do Point.
Learning how to not do something is as important as learning how to do it. As Thomas Edison said when asked about his 100 and fifty "failures" to make a lightbulb: "They weren't failures, they were a hundred ways to not make a lightbulb". Had he not gone through them, he may never have found the way to make it!
Your brain doesn't know if what you did was "right" or "wrong". It just knows that it did something. So when you practice, do it slow enough that you do it right the first time.
When you finally do something the way you want to, don't stop and move on, do it 10 times that way!
When you are first working on a physical change to your playing, aka identifying an aspect of how you are physically approaching the instrument and consciously building new habits, recognize that the end result coming out of the trumpet may sound worse before it gets better.
Every time you notice you are doing an old habit that you would like to change is an opportunity to do the new habit.
Changing habits is not about NOT doing the old habit, it's about DOING the new habit.
Building new habits is taking the new neural pathway over and over again instead of the old one, until the new one is the unconscious choice.
Recognize old habits never really go away, they just become the less trodden neural trail. Be vigilant because taking that old trail is a choice you will always have.
The gift of practicing patience is patience.
If you have time to practice one-hour per day, you will see more sustained improvement by playing three times for 20-minutes. Why? If you only practice once at the same time every day, you will have 23 hours until you engage with the trumpet playing muscles and neurological pathways again. Whereas if you practice in the morning, afternoon, and evening, you will only have 12 hours between engagements.
Struggle sitting down to practice? Pull out etude books and sight read. Or pull out caruso and weight lift. Or pull out clark and get into your fingers. Whatever excites you, dive into that. Don't judge yourself for what you should practice, practice what you enjoy playing. The other stuff will be there waiting for you.
"Rest as much as you play" is a great axiom for trumpet. But "resting" doesn't mean you aren't practicing. Mentally practice during those rest times.
"Rest as much as you play" is a great axiom for trumpet. But some types of playing (like quintet) require you to play for long periods of time without rest. So if you are doing that type of playing, you may want to practice it too!
The difference between observation and judgement is in the state of the person. Observations are "this occurred". Judgements are "When this occurred, I felt this way about it." Observations are useful to our growth. They give us a clear picture of what happened, and from that place we can make adjustments. Judgements are ways we bully ourselves and others. From that place, true change and growth is almost impossible.