trumpetlore

Vizzutti was in town this weekend, and we had a wonderful masterclass with him, not to mention two great shows.

He hit on a point that I've been thinking about recently...

There are students we all hear that we mostly assume they will make it. They seem to have, as is so often said "figured it out." I think I am starting to notice a common thread among these people. For starters, they usually do practice...LOTS! Secondly, they aren't happy to just do the exercises out of our many method books. Most of them seem to always be creating exercises. They understand how to apply practicing to their playing to push the boundaries.

Vizzutti mentioned he used to practice interval studies (and we all know that man can do intervals!) and see how far he could extend them. I know this isn't a ground breaking concept, but I feel many of us (often including myself) don't do that. I find myself often content to just follow the books, rather than really listen to my practicing and diagnose the real problem. Too often I practice without really listening, and so don't really learn.

Am I articulating this thought well enough? I'd love to hear if I'm alone in noticing this, or if others feel the same way.

Hags888

You've just described the concept of "be your own teacher." You won't be "studying" with someone forever, and someday, all you will have is yourself. Allan Dean's big thing was to teach us how to teach ourselves (if we weren't already doing it).

TrumpEd

Brandt "34 Studies" for Trumpet #18 & #19 are two good 'book method' interval studies. You can always extend from there.

My trumpet instructor (college) had me purchase a recording device (I choose an MP3 digital one) to listen to myself while resting during my practice times at home. It's amazing how much you hear when you're not playing!

mchs3d

I think that the best teachers are those who don't tell you what to do. The best are those who give you the tools to figure it out yourself! Kind of hard for some people, but we really need to figure things out for ourselves if we want to be great. After all, all the great virtuosos I can think of have many concepts that they came up with.

__________________

Now... who in their right mind doesn't want a $3000 trumpet for free?

ecarroll

Jeremy,

The quote above clearly states the problem that you're describing. The materials that you use are mostly irrelevant. It's careful application of the principles learned that matters, and by careful application I mean careful listening, expanding, and lots of repetition. You've heard me say it before: "Make a plan. Execute that plan. Evaluate your execution. Make a new plan based upon this evaluation. Execute your new plan." Rinse and repeat.

What seperates someone like Vizzutti (or our own Trent Austin, who came for a lesson the other day and I came away convinced that few, if anyone, in North America gets around the horn better, and I'm thrilled to say this in public) from the rest is constant attention to pushing their own envelope. Do you think that Al has ever said "good enough" when he practices?

Best,
EC

Elaine Johnson

Being your own teacher. Yuck! I hate that concept but it is necessary. I am hard pressed to get lessons from my main teacher these days but have discovered something in the past few days. You see, I seriously wacked myself in the mouth with a trombone tuning slide (a humorous story for another time) and then got the flu. In this time I subconsciously took on some bad habits. However, I have now learnt to self diagnose, self treat, and hence self soothe! Pretty annoyed I had to do it, but proud of myself at the same time...

Elaine