trickg

Jim, I knew you were joking, still, I wanted to illustrate the point that money can't buy talent or chops - talent you either have or don't, to varying degrees of course, and for the most part, you have to work hard for your chops. Yet it seems that so many people are looking for that magic bullet, that golden ticket that they think is going to be the answer to their playing woes. "My sound and range will be so much better on this (*insert horn or mouthpiece here*)"

While I agree that bad equipment can hinder and quality equipment can vastly improve some things, the times I can look back and see major breakthroughs in my technical abilities or sound had nothing at all to do with the equipment I was playing, but had everything to do with my spending A LOT more time in the woodshed. Once you hit a certain level of playing and you start focusing on one type of music, then it might be time to start to look into specializing your equipment for the job at hand, but for a High School Senior or Freshman or Sophomore in college, it's my opinion that you should be playing most everything on the same setup. Maybe a lead mouthpiece if you are playing lead in the big band, but otherwise, the best thing that you can do for you playing, in my humble opinion, is to stay on the same setup and get consistent using that.

Heavens2kadonka, it sounds like you are well on your way to being a "gigging Joe". My list is by no means THE list of things that you "need" to be able to do after 8 years of playing, but I think that it's a good place to start - a measuring stick, if you will.

One of the best things that happened to me as a trumpet player came in the form of my K-6 grade music teacher, J. Gordon Christensen. Mr. C, as he is known by most everyone, as well as being an elementary music teacher beloved by all in my hometown for over 35 years, is also an accomplished classical pianist and organist, and is the organist and music director at Zion Lutheran Church in Imperial, Nebraska. (He has literally known me my entire life. He remembers the day that my oldest sister Kristeen came to school and told him that she had a new baby brother.) Incidentally, Zion probably has THE biggest pipe organ between Denver and Lincoln in that swath of prairie.

Anyway, when I was 17 and a Junior in high school J. Gordon, as well as working with me as an accompanist for my contests solos, started asking me to play classical and baroque trumpet music at the church on Sundays. I remember being somewhat frustrated and and annoyed with him on a couple of occasions when he would pick out something for me to play in the middle of the week and want me to have it ready by Sunday. At the time, that was in direct opposition to the high school mentality of taking months to prepare music for performance. Instead of months, or even weeks, he gave me mere days!

But, time and again, I would crunch through, practicing my butt off to pull it off. What I didn't realize at the time was that this is the way it often is in the "real world" of being a musician and he did more for preparing me for that reality than anyone else ever did. I owe a lot to that man. A strong friendship developed out of those experiences my Junior and Senior years of high school and to this day, he is my mentor and my closest friend. Because of that experience, whenever I see a post where someone is asking about how to get into performing, I always suggest finding a church with a decent organ and organist where you can play special music, or even just play descants to hymns.

It has long been my opinion that one of the best teachers you can have is experience, that no matter how much time you spend in the practice room and no matter how good you are there, laying it out for a performance is where the rubber really meets the road.

Just keep practicing and at this point, take every gig opportunity that you can, even if you are playing for $10 worth of free pizza. There may come a day where you are turning down gig opportunities, when you don't have the time or inclination to play everthing that comes your way, but until that day comes, lay it out there as much as you can because the stress and pressure of performance can be the catylist that takes you higher.

__________________
Patrick Gleason
email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com

"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
"At my signal, unleash hell."
- Maximus Decimus Meridius