How Old Should Your Child Be When Starting to Play A Brass Instrument? Part 2

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What mental requirements are necessary before the child should start playing an instrument? When speaking of mental requirements, I am not referring to a mentally challenged or impaired child. I am speaking of the average child with the usual mental capacity. To succeed at any musical instrument, the student must be able to understand the importance of regular practice. Practicing regularly to some might mean “practice when you feel like it” or “when it is convenient”. This is the type of student that will most likely tire quickly of the discipline required for advancement on a brass instrument. I have…

How Old Should Your Child Be When Starting To Play A Brass Instrument? Part 1

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This seems to be a hot topic on the national trumpet bulletin boards and I’m not sure there is a definitive answer to the question. Each individual will have to make his/her own decision on this one. Some young players have been very successful while others have failed miserably at the quest. It will be my intent in this post to bring light on both advantages as well as disadvantages when considering a very young child’s first experience on a musical instrument. Important issues to consider when starting a child on a musical instrument- Does the child have any interest…

High Range Methods- Pedal Tones

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The use of pedal tones is like eating Chinese food; you either love it or hate it. I’m not sure who should be given credit for the use of pedal tones but my guess would be that it had something to do with playing the Circus. If you have ever played the circus, and I am speaking of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey circus, you know what I am talking about. I’m sure that there are trumpet players around who enjoyed the experience and I am also confident that those players also enjoy have a root canal done on…

557 Jazz Standards- Free to Download

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All you Jazzers will find this useful……   557JazzStandards

Basic Music Theory

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For those who have not had much music theory, I hope this may answer some of your questions. If you still have questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section and I will try to answer them. Basic Music Theory

Would you like to increase your air intake? So would I.

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As most of my readers know by now with my heart attack from two years back, one of the side effects was that I lost about half of my vital capacity (total air intake). While in physical therapy, I asked my therapist if it would ever come back and in a very encouraging fashion she assured me that it would eventually return. It didn’t. The reason I was able to recognize the actual amount of this loss was from the fact that most of my practice material is pre-recorded with click tracks. Exercises which were played in one breath now…

Free Trumpet “Jazz Modes”- More Scales Than A Large Mouth Bass

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If you think you know your scales, you might want to reconsider! Enjoy…. IMSLP187790-WIMA.90ef-JazzModes

So, You Want To Play A Shofar?

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  Now that question does not come up often but if and when it does, you need to be prepared. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- “A shofar (pron. pronounced (Sho-far)  is an ancient musical horn typically made of a  rams’s horn, used for Jewish religious purposes. Like the modern  bugle, the shofar lacks  pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player’s  embouchure. The shofar is blown in synagogue services on  Rash Hashanah and at the very end of  Yom Kippur, and is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. Shofars come in a…

Preparing for Chair Placement in Your Band This Fall- Part #4

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By continuing in this series I hope to give you alternate views of how to prepare for an audition, whether for a chair placement or an All State tryout. You will find attached several pages of exercises which will give you alternate ways of practicing from which most players adhere. Each exercise is approached with a more concentrated view to fully understand and perform the audition material. The Allegro exercise is practiced at different tempi, keys as well as alternate articulation which help decrease the monotony usually associated with this type of exercise. The Moderato exercise begins with the last…

Danger ! Danger- Do Not Use………..

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Slide Creams are all alike…..Right? No About a month ago I noticed that my flugle horn’s tuning slide was working a little hard and because I had just lubricated my trombone slide with some Yamaha Slide Cream, I thought it wise to lubricate my flugle horn’s tuning slide before I put my equipment away. Bad decision. When I tuned with our organist for a church service this morning, I found that the tuning slide in my recently lubricated flugle horn could not be budged. No matter what I did, I could not move the slide. When I got home, I…