ecarroll

Robert and others,

Please note that HH only uses Caruso to suppliment his work: "But then soon I found out that for me it was really good to do the six notes and the thirds, then take a break and the thirds again and pedal notes. And that’s it. All it takes is fifteen minutes of my day and it gives me strength."

Best and keep commenting, please,
EC

ecarroll

TMers,

For those of you unfamiliar with these basic Caruso exercises, Markus Stockhausen kindly makes them available on his website: http://www.aktivraumverlag.de/media/...c_caruso_1.pdf

Best,
EC

HoosierDaddy

Yes he does, on occasion. I think this is more mental than physical for him though. We didn't get into that question (although it is a good one) very much.

Huggy Bear

Mr. Ed,

Huggy would love to know more about Hakan and his studies with Stevens and the Sachse etudes. I thought it was very interesting that he made him transpose them. And that this gave him more of an idea of reading musical lines rather than just notes. Did you find this when taking privates with Mr. Vacchiano? Why is this a skill that's imparted more from transposing than from just playing a lot of music. Wouldn't his studies of solfege (whatever that is?) accomplish the same thing? Given that you know Mr. Stevens, have you noticed other things in his teaching that lend themselves to this kind of development?

Also, how does Stevens (and Hakan) approach doing the Stamps excercises? Mr. Michael Sachs (my favorite classical playa') does the Stamps book all the time, too. He said that a lot of his phrasing and musical ideas come from that training. Can you explain that influence on these tree artists? Did you study Stamps? Caruso? Chicago School? Superchops? Balanced Embouchure (that must be the best since it has like 15,0000 posts on TH)?

Thanks. You guys are the best....Fo' Shizzle!!!!

Love,
Huggy

p.s. I'm still waiting to hear back form you about my scholarship to Chosen Vale. I can play some cool stuff for you this summer if you want!

__________________
Laid back....with my mind on my money and my money on my mind.....Tight! And where's my BLING, my Peeps?

ecarroll

Hi Huggy,

So many questions, so little time.

Re transposition, solfege, scale study, and the like, these address the oft-neglected mental, non physical, aspects of trumpet playing. Technique is a means to an end, not an end itself, and I believe firmly that there's no point in developing a functional trumpet technique unless it's to serve music. I suggest to my students a variation on an old Arnold Jacobus line: "The (trumpet) is like a mirror, showing the audience what's on, or NOT on, our minds". I fear for the countless students, many found online here and elsewhere, who are constantly polishing or re-glazing their personal mirrors without acknowledgement that they are lacking in the basic knowledge of what makes music Music.

Vacchiano wasn't much of a "nuts-and-bolts" style trumpet teacher. He believed that his students at Juilliard had enough ability to solve most technical questions themselves (or through an often ineffective mouthpiece change). Lessons with Vacchiano were similar to lessons with Nadia Boulanger in Paris -- lightning fast challanges to both your ears and musical knowledge that every professional musician and serious amateur must master.

Re Mike and Stamp, I'm not sure what he's talking about. Stamp (Caruso, Thompson, Cichowicz, Thibaud, Plog, Vizzutti, yadda yadda) exercises are just that -- a way to exercise to increase command of the instrument. There exercises have nothing at all to do with musical phrasing/line. Maybe Mike, who pops in occasionally, will see this and have something to say? He's certainly a wonderful player and musician.

Personally I use all of the above in teaching my students, but would NEVER subscribe to a "one size fits all" methodology. I teach to the individual needs of students, not ask them to jump through hoops.

Best,
EC

PS: re Chosen Vale, send in an application and the scholarship committee will do what it can. Money is tight these days, however (doh), but it would almost be worth a few bucks to discover the name behind the accent! :)

Huggy Bear

Mr. Ed,

Thank you for that response!!! So, are you saying that Transposition is what makes music, Music? Huggy's not trying to be argumentative, but rather trying to learn. How does a lovable trumpet pimp like me learn how to play a musical line the right way? Hakan seemed to be saying that Stevens taught him to do this through seeing the shapes of the line. Is that all it takes? Do I have to study theory to play classical trumpet? I thought that was only for jazzers! Do you still practice solfege and transposition or do you just know how things go now? If I were to play a piece like Henserson Variations (would that I could), how would solfege and transposition help me develop my own unique interpretation? Does my music get more interesting to the audience when I wear my multi-colored mink?

Can't wait to hear more thoughts.....Fo' Shizzle!!!

Love,
Huggy Daddy

__________________
Laid back....with my mind on my money and my money on my mind.....Tight! And where's my BLING, my Peeps?

ecarroll

HD,

Transposition is simply one of the necessary tools that not only gives you the ability to instantly play various parts, it also keeps you in the present and connects your ear, mind, and imagination with your playing. Concerning theory, solfege, and transposition, you reach critical mass with these things and they only have to be touched upon, not re-learned (check out Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery).

Re your mink. . .yes.

Best,
EC

bill benzon

My transposition skills are, at best, somewhere between elementary and mediocre, but allow me to hazard a remark on transposition and musicality by way of something else, playing "by ear."

Singing "by ear" is "natural." You hear a melody, you like it, it's fixed in your brain, and so you sing it, just like that. That's not so remarkable since you've spent your whole life making sounds with your vocal apparatus that are just like sounds you've heard. That's how you learn to speak. The connection between what you hear and what you have to do to imitate that seems to come naturally.

But that's an illusion. Babies spend hours upon hours babbling nonsense sounds. When they do that they are learning the correspondence between muscle effort and auditory result.

Well, to play an instrument "by ear" requires the same thing. Say you like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and want to play it. You can sing it and whistle it, no problem. That means you've got the melody fixed in your mind. Now you have to play it on your instrument. If your instrument is the flute, that requires one set of muscular actions. If you play the trumpet, a different set of muscular actions. Not only that, but the actions vary according to what "key" you're playing it in. But the tune is the same regardless of the key; the intervals are always the same.

When you play something by ear, you aren't thinking about what fingering combinations you use. You've worked that out a long time ago, in your babyhood with the instrument. You're thinking about intervals and the fingering combinations sort themselves out. When you're reading music you don't think about fingering combinations either, at least not if you've been playing a year or three. You just look at the notes and play them. Now, let's say you've got to transpose. That means that the standard fingerings for the written notes won't work. One thing you can do is simply to figure out the new fingering note by note (". . . up a step from written C is D, which is 1 and 3. . . "). And that's what you do when you're starting to learn transposition. When you've put in some time, however, you no longer have to do that thinking. You just know what to do, automatically. In effect, you've learned a different set of neuromuscular responses to the same visual stimuli.

At the same time, perhaps you've also learned to abstract the melodic line from the specific neuromuscular actions appropriate to this is that given key. So, maybe you're doing something more like playing the piece "by ear" in a different key. So, the piece is written in C and you've got to transpose it to D. You look at the notes, hear the melody in your mind's ear, and simply play the melody, "by ear," in the new key. You're not figuring out new fingerings note by note. You're simply playing the melody by ear. And if you can play it by ear in C, then you can do it in D and F and, yes, even B and F# too.

Trum Peter

Hi Ed,
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I was wondering if you had any more information on that adaptation of the Franquin mentioned above. I know at Chosen Vale Burns mentioned something about it. I want to get the book since He and Hakan spoke so positively about it, but I'm not ready to shell out the money, if I know there is an English translation coming anytime soon.
Thanks,
Peter

ecarroll

Hi Peter,

I haven't heard about a release date. Give me a few beats to send an e-mail or two and I'll let you know what I discover.

Best,
EC