Musician4077

Hey all, I'm awful at making dicisions sometimes, and I can't seem to be able to decide what I should play for an audition coming up. I need a solo work, so here're my possibilities right now. Let me know what you all think, knowing as well that I'll also need to have enough lip to do scales, sightreading, and excerpt playing. Thanks for the input!

Trumpet Concerto - Hummel
This year's solo and ensemble piece (which took a first at states), but a little rough since the braces came off four months ago. Plus, being an "old" solo, I haven't spent as much time on it as I should've .

Aria con Variazionni - Handel
Most movements are good, the ones I don't like as much aren't.

Coronation - Johnson
The first etude in Philip Smith's Concert Studies. Easy, yeah, but nice on the lips.

Sonate - Hansen
New, but I've worked on it a lot.

Etude No. 10 - Sabarich
One word....rusty.

Those are the one's I'm thinking of, and it will probably really come down to how I'm feeling that day. I can get through them all, but I'm trying to decide on one to really practice and NAIL. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jeff

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trumpet blower88

I would say go with the Handel. Practice the movments that are troubleing you the most, and get past the mind game of not likeing those particular movments and that being the reason they arn't as strong. If you can play some movments of a piece at one level, you should beable to play all movments of the piece at that level...

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brian moon

Jeff do you have a private teacher?

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Revelation 3:20

Musician4077

Hey Brian,

yeah, I study privately with two people, one a local trumpeter (who's also an elementary music teacher) and also Dr. Dennis Horton at CMU. I've studied with him for two years, ever since he heard me play the Haydn at State solo and ensemble. I was VERY honored to be asked to be his student. I see Mr. Ouellette, the local guy, about once a week, and Dr. Horton about twice a month. Why do you ask?

If you're wondering what they've said, it's basically "Do whatever you personally feel best. I can't know exactly how you will play, and I think you will make a better decision based on your own thoughts and research."

That being said, Mr. Ouellette would like to NOT see me do the etude, as I haven't hardly touched that, and he's really conservative in my playing, where I am pretty much like "Hmmm....I wonder if I can still play this as well...LET'S FIND OUT!" I take too many risks for his tastes. Dr. Horton gave me my music for both Aria and the Hansen Sonate, and we've worked pretty extensively on both those and the Hummel.

I'm thinking of going with Aria. It's a challenging piece, but it all falls within a comfortable register. I got the braces off four months ago, but after having played with them on ever since the end of sixth grade, I'm still adjusting.

Jeff

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"Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

brian moon

I ask because I think that a teacher should get give more direction than it appeared that you were getting but your explanation made it seem like you are getting more instruction than it first seemed to me. (nice run-on sentence).

It shouldn't take 4 months to adjust to getting your braces off. It should be 2 weeks at the most.

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Revelation 3:20

Musician4077

Hey Brian,

please realize that, other than these last four months, the only other time I played trumpet without braces was the first six months of my first year playing. I basically learned to play with the braces on, so it's been quite a time reworking everything, since everything that once felt right all of a sudden felt wrong, and was. It's been quite a trip emotionally too, going from playing Haydn and Hummel classically, and popping out really high Gs and such in jazz, to hardly being able to have enough endurance to play through warmups each day. At one point I was so down that I seriously considered putting the horn down for good, I was so ticked at myself. Fortunately, I didn't, and I'm now again popping out those notes, and playing through concertos. Endurance is still an issue though, and my high register is not what it used to be, but I'm working on it, and it'll be even better than before!

Oh and, yeah, that was a nice run on.

Jeff

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"Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

brian moon

Jeff:
Keep on truckin' then. You have the right attitude.

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Revelation 3:20

Musician4077

Thanks Brian! And hey, do you ever come up Bay City way? If you do, maybe we could get together for a little lesson or whatnot!

Jeff

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"Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

Heavens2kadonka

Ahhhh, I know what part of Aria you're probably talking about. The last movement. It doesn't help all those notes all through the register are at terrorist dynamics!

Take it slower than you think it should go, and you'll be about right. I always wanted to speed that last movement up. Also, see if you can slur the entire piece through, then staccato. Play around with dynamics as well.

I personally thought the other movements were gorgeous. Well, the 24/6 (I actually forget the time sig, but its something like that) movement was a bit odd, and I never really enjoyed playing that one....

Van

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Musician4077

While the last movement through me for a loop the first time I looked at it (there was more black than white on that part of the page! ), Dr. Horton taught me to think of it in half time, and what you think is fast when you're looking at it, isn't as fast when you play it. Also, it's all in G major, one of our easiest keys, so it isn't too hard to play. That variation's one of my favs.

The one I didn't really like to begin with was the first variation. Too much lip work and interval stuff for my taste. I've got it down decently though.

The 24/16 mvt. is fun too! Actually, the entire piece is just a cool one to play, and it really impresses audiences! I played it at my school's final concert, and everyone was very impressed. I naturally "neglected" to mention that the key is easy.

Jeff

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"Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes