Yearly Archives: 2020

The Collapse of the Embouchure : Marcus Reynolds

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Marcus Reynolds is a signed Rath trombone artist, soloist, recording artist, clinician, embouchure specialist, tutor, lecturer for the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine and creator of the Stratos Embouchure System. Here Marcus shares his views on the brass player’s embouchure, what can go wrong and how to avoid the common pitfalls and problems.

Hello and welcome to this discussion of the brass embouchure. The basis of this article is a lecture that I gave during one of my Brass Detox clinics at the Welsh College of Music and Drama at the request of the British Trombone Society. Such was the strong interest and positive feedback that I was asked to contribute it to The Brass Herald and now to Mouthpiece Online.

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“You missed by a mile,” shouted the disgruntled football fan as the ball failed to hit its target, resulting in his team being relegated. “Oh, you missed!” said his girlfriend when he shot wide on a fairground shooting range, losing them the chance to strut around with the ubiquitous giant cuddly teddy. No, you have not picked up the wrong magazine. Read on, all will become clear.

Simply explained, even if you are only slightly inaccurate at the point of launch the trajection angle will still be such that you will appear to have missed by a mile. When a note you are trying to play is missed, you have in reality only missed it by a fraction. However, human nature being what it is, all sorts of events ensue, for example, the “shock horror” of playing a wrong note encourages the player to beat themselves up, causing val-salva, clenching of the throat muscles, shoulders rising and without question increased weight being applied to the lips. Any one of these factors makes the road ahead more difficult. As many of you will know, if you have not shrugged off the aftermath of playing a note that was not in the right place the next few notes are affected. This can be addressed in your practice.

Tip: When you next practice a piece and you play a note that you wish you hadn’t, don’t stop immediately – play on for a few bars and absorb the fact that the world ain’t gonna come to a standstill, and if you learn not to show a body twitch or facial grimace then most of the time you will be the only one who knows.

Tip: Everyone says: “Practice makes perfect.” I tell my students: “Practice makes permanent.” So play a new piece slowly.

The physiological process to fortify the lips goes like this:

Conversation/communication brain to lips:
“What’s going on?”

“He/she is blowing into that metal thing again – how long is that going on for?”

“Dunno boss, last time it was for two hours. Right, we will send more blood to help the muscles cope.”

Half an hour later: “What now?” says the brain to the lip department. “More blood needed for the muscles.” “We sent loads.” “Yeah, but it’s not getting through.”

Now I know I have made this a little cartoon like, but the facts are these:

Blood and oxygen are sent to reinforce an area that is being constantly exercised and placed under stress until that area, be it with a tennis player, golfer or any athlete, becomes accustomed to that particular activity. That happens where and when the reinforcement (blood and oxygen) have done the job of replenishing the muscle sufficiently.

The dilemma is this: if the area – and in our case a player’s lips – are constantly bombarded with pressure and weight, the blood flow will be held up.

Then the brain receives the message “Can’t get through”. The sad news is that the very antidote to our lips failing to work properly has been ordered by the natural physiology of the body. It is not able to provide the service it has been sent to perform as the lips are being constantly impacted, crushing the capillaries. It is a sort of self-induced tourniquet.

Many teachers tell their students to use less pressure and, yes, many reading this will have heard similar statements. But what is offered as a substitute? If a building is being supported by scaffolding that is then removed before the structure can support itself, the building will fall down.

The beauty of Stratos is that you can control how much of the scaffold you remove until the “internal muscular scaffold” can hold its own. Many players who now use a Stratos have found that there is an alternative to the “Pressure Trap” and are already enjoying playing more. They discover that the pain that is sometimes present while playing is vastly reduced and in most cases disappears completely after a while. While this process is taking place you will not be alone wherever you are in the world. I am only an e-mail away.

While we’re thinking about the collapse of the embouchure, let’s go back to the word trajection. Players sometimes very clearly “crane” their head and neck to enable them a better view of the music, often causing them to be blighted by that same position throughout their playing life. The stylised holding of an instrumentat a slight angle, changing mouthpiece position and adding range by slightly twisting one way or another, is also found. Any gains are very short lived. If you are not careful such unhelpful habits become built into your embouchure.

Tip: Try to keep everything in line. It is easy to monitor – just play in front of a mirror, try to keep your body in line, stand or sit upright then bring the instrument to you. We are all guilty with regard to bad posture at times. Putting it right is a basic requirement no matter what you go on to do with the instrument on your lips.

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What never ceases to amaze me is when I see band members sitting with instruments about to play a concert and there’s no warming-up going on. Go to a West End show, the opera house or any symphony orchestra and you will hear musicians warming or limbering up for their performance. But the warm-up should start well before the performance. When I have a concert I prepare very early, maybe even up at 7.00am. Then for the first ten minutes I hardly brush the mouthpiece with the lightest buzzing. This is BEFORE breakfast, so that when I return to the instrument the very fine coating on the lips has muscularly dissolved a sort of restrictive “cling-film” that has been left over from the night before. This cling film in effect is lactic acid repairing and comforting your lips that have been compacted by the mouthpiece for so many hours, a coating that is saying “leave me alone I need to rest”.

That brings me to another point. I am aware that at the end of a performance everybody wants to get packed up and out. Instead, try playing a few low notes with flarpy lips, just for ten or twenty seconds. Then while you are packing up, roll the chops to let the blood and oxygen into the capillaries. Then the next day’s lactic acid “cling-film” should not be clinging on so tenaciously and shouldfall away more quickly, so you can get on with what you so love doing – playing.

As a musician, with whatever genre you are being asked to perform, you need to look after yourself and particularly that precious vermillion circle that is the lips. So I am hoping that you will have read something here that might ring true and will help you in the future.

That leads me to the Filtrum, or infranasal depression. What? – I hear you say.

It’s that bit of the mouth between the bottom of the nose and the top lip. I don’t want to get too technical, but it does have a bearing on why the embouchure can collapse. One of the main reasons is because behind the filtrum there are many nerve endings and when playing has been sustained with constant crushing weight on the lips, this causes them to get a little numb as the blood and oxygen has been squeezed away. They just don’t respond.

In performance, to stop playing is not always an option, so just ensure when you have a few bars’ rest, roll your lips to open the capillaries and allow blood and oxygen to enter these tiny blood vessels and renew tired muscles.

After constant bombardment with no break for the lips, the numbness can become so severe that all the feeling disappears and the lip loses all sense of harmonic positioning, playing becomes impossible and the embouchure feels as if it has collapsed. That is where Stratos begins to help, as using Stratos for at least ten to fifteen minutes of your practice time will put sufficient “petrol in the tank” (muscle power) for you not to get this numbness.

However, like all petrol tanks the fuel will run out and you will need to top up with a further session using Stratos. Even if you continue to experience numbness, the symptoms should not be as severe and you will recover more quickly and prevent a total collapse of the embouchure.

Space prevents me sharing many more golden nuggets from my forty years in teaching and performing, but if I was Dr Chops here is my prescription that will help smooth out the bumps of your brass-playing life. I am passionate about helping players to avoid some of the maladies and pitfalls that can cripple even some very proficient performers. With social media and technology via Skype or FaceTime I am constantly presented with students around the globe having problems that could have been spotted earlier (remember the bit about trajection) that have held up their progress and created bigger problems. Don’t just take my word for everything you have read, get into and read The Art of Brass Playing by Philip Farkas, How Brass Players Do It by John Ridgeon and The Encyclopaedia of the Pivot System by Donald Reinhardt. Finally, I will leave you with something to try.

On the subject that whatever you play is the amplifier and the real instrument is your lips – you tune your instrument so let’s now tune the lips.

Tip: When you are working on a new musical passage or phrase that is getting tough – stop playing for a few seconds, then buzz the phrase two or three times even if you don’t achieve a very musical outcome. The lips will thank you for the rest away from the mouthpiece and reward you with more sonority and a much freer sound. After a while you may be rewarded with what my students achieve – what I call “Cerebral Pitching” resulting in the notes starting to float.

Some points to be aware of to avoid a total collapse of the embouchure:

The Vicious Circle:

  • Stiffness in the lips and muscles surrounding them.
  • Swellings on the vermillion circle that take longer to recover.
  • Headaches caused by air not being able to escape through clenched teeth.
  • Mis-pitching in the lower register.
  • Less sonority in your sound.
  • Taking longer to recover from the previous playing session.
  • Declining stamina.
  • Less flexibility.
  • Having to use more and more effort to maintain the standard you usually expect from yourself.

Here’s to safer, healthier and more joyful playing!

This article was originally published in The Brass Herald in 2015.

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Do you want to improve your improvisation?

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Jazz Etudes is a new resource that helps and supports students new to the world of jazz improvisation. The approach is centred around developing your jazz vocabulary and although primarily aimed at intermediate players, is receiving praise and endorsements from musicians at the top of their game.

The creator of jazzetudes.net is Darren Lloyd, a professional player and teacher, and I am grateful to him for telling us a little more about this exciting venture:

“ I started the trumpet at the age of 12, I was instantly drawn to the jazz side with my first introduction being Chris Barber live at the London Palladium featuring the fabulous Pat Halcox and another record I was given called 22 trumpet greats that heavily featured the amazing Kenny Baker. After this I started buying jazz records, another I remember vividly was a recording called ‘I love jazz’ which featured Art Farmer, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, among many other great jazz artists such as Woody Herman, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck…. 

My career as a trumpet player has included playing with: The Royal Marines Band Service, Halle Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera North, Echoes of Ellington Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Super Tramp Big Band, Pasadena roof Orchestra, many West end musical theatre and national touring productions. I have also worked with musicians such as Dianne Schur, Buddy Greco, Conte Candoli, Buddy Childers, Mike Vax, Derek Watkins, Tony Coe, James Morrison to name a few. 

As well as playing at the highest level in the UK, I am also certified teacher with 12 years experience. Since moving to the North West of the UK I have completed a Master of Arts in jazz performance and also qualified as a teacher. Combining my love of jazz and music education, I created the website jazzetudes.net

The aim of the website and the whole ethos of the site and its publications is to:

  1. Give musicians interested in jazz something to play that will give them the confidence to continue with this great type of musicality 
  2. Give intermediate musicians a way to develop their jazz vocabulary by playing through the etudes, committing some or all of an etude to memory and practicing in different keys 
  3. Help develop phrasing, articulation, listening skills and a general awareness of jazz music 

The etudes (currently) have been created using tunes from bebop, dixieland, latin and jazz standards. The etudes come in concert pitch, Bb pitch, Eb pitch as well as bass clef. All the etudes are aimed at early intermediate through to advanced intermediate (around grade 4 or 5 through to grade 7). 

What I feel is the biggest difference between my jazz etudes (and other products being created) are they have been created with the intermediate player in mind. I also produce many YouTube videos which vary in their content, from demo etude videos to free lessons! 

Currently I am working on a Louis Armstrong etude book along with a video where I will demonstrate many of the techniques one can incorporate into playing in that style.

I also have plans to create a jazz improvisation course specifically aimed at intermediate students that will focus on developing beautiful melodic, flowing solos. 

Along with this, I am also producing a jazz style duet book where I will record both the 1st an 2nd parts so that customers can either play with a friend, teacher or pupil or if unable to do that can play along with me! 

Finally, I want to record some of my original music either as a trio or duo and also make the sheet music available so that customers can use the music with their own ensembles. Listen to the recording for their own pleasure or play along with the backing track (the exact recording but without me). 

Here is what people are saying about Jazz Etudes:

“Exactly what I need to break the impasse and have the confidence to overcome years of “slavery to the dots”. Darren has achieved so much by Intelligently applying himself to the task of understanding the language and developing his own talent. His material and demonstrations…. make real progress achievable whether you are approaching improvisation like me from a classical background, or simply seeking to develop authenticity…. Darren’s articulate presentation encourages you to persist and really achieve. See you at the other end…..” Ken Brown – Trumpet, Hallé Orchestra

“The thing I like about your etudes is it allows me to be slightly freer in my improvisation. I usually find due to my “classical” background that I improvise ok-ish during rehearsals but when I get to the gig my ideas freeze up. This may be due to not having enough jazz language to use. Without doubt your etudes are helping me cement a better awareness of the language.” Martin Winter – Principal Trumpet, Bergen Philharmonic

“I love your jazz etudes …not just for myself but for all of my students. They range from grade 3 up to grade 8. I have been teaching trumpet and jazz for over 40 years now and have tried a lot of methods but yours are proving to be the best by far…. I realised (with my research of US music colleges) that “light/jazz” had to be learned on a par with classical if to survive in the profession.  When I played with the RPO Pops and Paul McCartney this came in very handy!! I look forward to all your future projects. We never stop learning so keep up the great work Darren. “ Graham Russell – Lead Trumpet, Studio/West-end/Shirley Bassey

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Buzz-R : Product Review

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It is always intriguing to receive new trumpet gadgets through to try out and review. I have always used mouthpiece buzzing as an important part of my practice as well as my teaching, so the Buzz-R looks like an interesting prospect. Finding an effective embouchure calisthenic aid that can realistically be incorporated into a practice regime is also difficult – could the Lipmaster be the answer?

Both of these products are designed and made in Germany by Markus Arnold and have received great reviews already. You can read the interview that I did with Markus earlier this year here, and also visit his website.

Buzz-R

There are lots of buzzing aids on the market. Their general purpose is to try to add a little more resistance and resonance to the mouthpiece so that it gives more like the sensation of playing the trumpet.

The Buzz-R actually has 2 playing settings: The first is with both of the side holes open giving a full sound. The second is with a finger covering one of the holes for a more muted sound.

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The first setting is where the real benefits are – the buzzing sensation really is similar to playing the trumpet. There is enough resistance to be able to articulate clearly – I generally discourage students from doing anything other than long notes and slurs on the mouthpiece, but with the Buzz-R you can add in articulation without the tongue moving too far forward in the mouth.

I have tried a couple of prominent brands and found them really useful up to a point. And that point is generally top-of-the-staff G! It becomes so resistant that the sound cuts out with all lip vibration stifled. So an important question that I wanted to ask of the Buzz-R was whether I could play freely across the range – YES!

The second setting with one hole closed is also really useful. It mutes the sound for when your buzzing is going to annoy your locked-down family members!

Lipmaster

The Lipmaster is a calisthenic device for strengthening the embouchure while away from the trumpet. I have tried various techniques with students for focusing the embouchure, and my concern with all of these (my favoured one is just to grip a pencil between the lips) is that playing a musical instrument is never as simple as just focusing on just one thing. Whilst said device is between your lips, you can no longer breathe in or out through your mouth. As we all know, this is THE fundamental necessity and I believe that whatever technical aspects you are working on, the flow of air needs to be an important part of the procedure.

So here is the thing… With the Lipmaster, you can! The gaps in the wood allow you to focus on breathing at the same time as gripping with your embouchure. Suddenly these exercises are transformed from stand-alone muscle building, into a more all-round and worthwhile task.

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The other big benefit of the flexibility of the wooden strips is that the embouchure aperture remains flexible, as of course it needs to be when we are playing.

Both of these products are really welcome additions to the practice aid market and I am really glad to have had the opportunity to try them.

The Buzz-R is available to purchase here

The Lipmaster is available to purchase here

You can visit the Buzz-R website for more information on these and the other Buzz-R products.

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‘Listen and Learn’ from the ITG

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The International Trumpet Guild’s Listen and Learn workshop is an online festival featuring five days of original performance and pedagogical videos by over 50 artists. This exciting event happened at the end of October 2020 but all resources are available on the ITG website indefinitely. And best of all, these resources are available for free to ITG members and non-members alike!

From Grant Peters, ITG President:

The ITG Board of Directors is pleased to offer this weeklong event featuring original performances and presentations for trumpeters everywhere to enjoy. You will be able to view an entirely new program of original material for five days. This online event is free of charge and will remain on our site indefinitely.

For those who may be new to ITG, this collection of videos is representative of the spirit of collaboration and sharing found in our organisation. Trumpeters from major symphony orchestras and service bands, jazz and classical soloists, professors, freelancers, and historical specialists – to name just a few – coming together to help each other improve and enjoy all that the trumpet has to offer.

I would like to thank the artists and presenters for generously contributing their time and talent to make this wonderful resource available to us all. Sincere thanks are also due to our Listen and Learn chair, Aaron Witek: video editor, Aaron Jansen; layout designer, Eric Millard; and the entire committee for their work to make this event available to our colleagues in a year when we were unable to meet for our annual ITG Conference.

While visiting the ITG Website, be sure to take some time to look around and learn more about our organisation. Now, please enjoy Listen and Learn!

Many incredible musicians have contributed to this resource including Allen Vizzutti, David Hickman, Chris Coletti, Vince DiMartino, Mary Bowden and Bria Skonberg to name just a few.

These great resources are all available here, and you can also see the full five day program here.

The International Trumpet Guild continue to offer great support and resources to our worldwide trumpet community – you can read the latest updates from the ITG newsdesk on this dedicated page on Mouthpiece Online.

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Design Innovations : Tom Clary

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In May 2018 in San Antonio (TX) I had the great pleasure of meeting Tom Clary at the annual ITG conference. Tom is the founder / designer / master craftsman behind Clary Woodmutes, and was there to display his range of beautifully-crafted wooden trumpet mutes.

Two years on, Clary Woodmutes continue to go from strength to strength with a broad range of exquisite looking (and sounding!) mutes – I was delighted to sit down and spend some time with him (socially-distanced over Zoom of course) to chat about this great progress:

So tell us how you got started with the trumpet and making mutes.

After High School, I went to Henderson State University in Arkansas, where I was going to get a music education degree. Then I decided that I would transfer to the University of Memphis to pursue a jazz composition degree – a couple of years into that I started playing around town quite a bit. I dropped out of school to play the trumpet full-time. At that time I was playing at BB King’s blues club in the house band – for a 23 year-old that was pretty cool!

As the years went by, I met my now wife, we had a couple of children, and I decided to ‘get serious’! I went back to finish my music degree and also got a law degree. It was time for me to start thinking about other people! I practiced law for 15 years – I was still playing the trumpet at this time – at the weekends I would look for diversions or hobbies to take my mind off the work. I had always enjoyed carpentry and my dad was into construction – I started wood-working in my garage. 

One day I decided to try to make a mute for my own fun, and that is how all of this started! It was just a simple wooden cone, I put corks on it and it kind of worked!

At what point did it move from just being a weekend thing?

It took a little while. I would gradually make more, and experiment along the way to get the sound right. I would take them to gigs and give some away to get feedback from different players. I learned a lot about the mutes, and then slowly I became more ambitious with it, and wanted to expand the range and figure out how to build a website!#00:10:37.18# 

I wanted to make sure that they all looked pretty. Wood is beautiful, and I wanted these mutes to be as appealing to the eye as they are to the ear. It was probably 3-4 years from making my first mute to getting the website up and running. That was in February 2018.

When we met at ITG in May 2018, I got to see and try some of your straight mutes. Your range now looks huge! Has this expansion been part of a master plan, or is it more a case of making a custom order and then that making it into production?

Kind of a mixture of both. I’m the kind of person who is interested in lots of different things – I have been a trumpeter, an arranger, a sound engineer, a lawyer… I have changed careers frequently! The fact that I am 7-8 years into this mute adventure, and it still holds my interest is remarkable!! Part of that is coming up with new stuff. If I just confined myself to making straight mutes all of the time I would get super bored. My natural curiosity and need for variety drives me to always look at new things.

That must be an interesting and challenging design process with there not being many wooden mute ranges of this quality and aesthetic on the market? And not many alternatives to compare them with?

I was no acoustician or designer so everything I did was trial and error. I learnt how to work the shapes out of wood on Youtube! The design process was not exactly deliberate, ad some of it was taking an aluminium mute and analysing it, and seeing what I could apply to making a wooden mute. I just went day-by-day figuring it out.

Was there a lot of trial-and-error on the different types of wood?

Yes, that’s what made it really interesting. Learning what subtle differences the different materials make. Last week I made a comparison video of the 4 straight mutes that I make and you can really hear the subtle differences in the wood.

Were there any surprises that you encountered along the way? Any that you hoped would work but ended up in the scrap pile?!

My scrap pile is big! A lot of mutes made it in there, especially when I first started. I found it frustrating when things didn’t turn out as I intended. Along the way I have learned that it is just part of the process. I have learnt from my mistakes and bad choices!

You could say that there is no such thing as a mistake if you have ended up learning from it?

Very true! I think that I have also learned a lot about myself through this whole process – not thinking that you always have to be right or have immediate success. Life is a process!

How have you found building relationships with trumpeters through all of this?

It has been great. I have met a lot of really wonderful people, at shows like ITG and NTC, and also folks reaching out to me on the internet. It is wonderful, I feel extremely lucky to meet all these people and communicate with them. That has been one of the biggest positives – people all the time will suggest things and want to participate in the process. This is great for me, and I also want to get as much feedback on every mute as possible so that they can keep getting better.

As things get busier, how do you juggle everything now?

When I was still trying to practice law, and write music, and play the trumpet… that was challenging. Law school was the point where I really learnt how to manage my time. Ever since this pandemic hit, it has been easier to focus more on what is important. The trumpet playing and music writing has obviously disappeared, and I have had the chance to focus just on the trumpet mutes during this period. It has been positive in this way.

I will get up and drink some coffee with my family, then go into my workshop and make mutes for the day. And about 5pm I will come out and cook some dinner. The pandemic has had a horrible and devastating effect on the world, so it is important to try to acknowledge some positives too.

So what’s next?!

I found this really cool plywood online – thin veneered layers that are sandwiched together – with each layer dyed a different colour. I ordered some of this, and made up some mutes that look really great. I am going to do some limited edition stuff.

Visit woodmutes.com to find out more and to see the full range of great mutes that are available.

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Trumpet Artist Profile : Eric Aubier

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A renowned soloist and educator, Eric Aubier is held in the highest regard by musicians around the world. He talks to me here about being a child prodigy and breaking into the industry at a young age, his trumpet heroes, his glittering career so far, and the challenges that we must all face up to as we navigate our way through this global pandemic…

Can you give a little background to your relationship with the trumpet? What were your early influences?

It could be summed up with this statement: “I did not choose the trumpet; it was it who chose me”.

In fact, I started the trumpet by pure chance! I come from a modest background and we lived in a working-class suburb of Paris. My parents were looking for a cultural activity to do during the schoolchildren’s free day in France. It turns out that we had a neighbour in our building who brought his children to our city’s music conservatory, which had just opened. I started doing music theory with my older brother for several months. I was 6. When the principal asked us to choose an instrument, my parents didn’t have the money!

So it was not possible to buy! Luckily, a neighbour had an old Couesnon trumpet in a cupboard at his house and he offered to lend it to us. My brother and I started like this! Also, there was no trumpet teacher and we started with a horn teacher.

At that time, I had no notion of music and was not particularly attracted to it! I just obeyed my father who was rather bossy! The beginnings in music theory were difficult, I did not understand anything, but on the trumpet, it worked straight away! It was easy for me! This is the first contact with the trumpet. So, it was not the trumpet that I liked but more the fact of being highlighted. I saw my father’s satisfaction there. Obviously very early on I was made aware of the great master of the trumpet Maurice André and I started listening to his recordings on vinyl records.

You could say that all my early years were influenced only by Maurice André.

In conclusion, in this time I did not particularly like the trumpet or the music but the importance it gave me. I really discovered the music and the instrument much later.

When did you decide that you wanted a career in music?

It’s very simple, never! It just happened on its own, without having to think about it as if there couldn’t be any other way. This is due to the fact that I joined Maurice André at the CNSM in Paris very early on. I was barely 14 years old. I got my Trumpet award when I was just 16 years old (Masters equivalent today).

In fact, in my youth, I would have liked to do scientific work. I was very interested in sciences like astronomy, molecular biology, nuclear physics, all things in the world infinitely large and small. Later, I almost became a racing driver or restaurateur! But this is another story!

To sum up, I didn’t choose the profession of musician, it’s not that I was against it because it worked pretty well for me, but I would never have dared to tell my father that I would like to do other things. So, the question never really arose.

What styles of music have you listened to most over the years?

My early listening was for years mainly Maurice André but also Sydney Bechet and Louis Amstrong. I actually listened to what my parents bought or liked! It wasn’t until my teenage years, when I attended the CNSM, that I was introduced to other genres of music by my classmates.

It was the heyday of Bill Chase and Maynard Ferguson who became my “secret” idols hahaha. I loved Count Basie and the big bands too.

I can say that I really “discovered” music when I entered the Paris Opera, I was 19 years old. Then I traveled to many countries, entered trumpet competitions and discovered other worlds and other paths that made me who I am today. Now I love the violin, I love lyrical art, jazz in general but especially to compensate for my frustration of not being able to express with my trumpet what can be expressed with a violin, a human voice or a freedom of improvisation whether in phrasing like Clifford Brown, in colour like Chet or Miles or in the humanity in Armstrong who remains for me the undisputed master.

After breaking through into the profession at a young age, were there any particular challenges that you faced? Would you do anything differently if you had your time over again?

The answer is yes, twice! I arrived in an adult world and I was still a child or almost, I only had social relations with my parents or almost and it was very difficult both in my beginnings at the CNSM in Paris and when I started to work in the orchestra. I was not prepared.

As everything had been easy for me at the start, I came up against the “real” world, that of rivalry and competition. There is no empathy but the harsh reality on the ground.  At the time, few very young people like me (as a trumpeter), if any, had faced this kind of situation. Today it’s very different, a lot of young people reach a high level very quickly and have learned from the experiences of people like me.

I found myself without a teacher very early on and suffered greatly from this loneliness. I was set apart. I had to do it myself.

Looking back, yes, I would do it differently now, but I had neither the idea nor the possibility at the time. It was the time when everyone wanted to be Maurice André, to look like Maurice André.

We were considered by foreign trumpeters as privileged to have the chance to rub shoulders with the Master. Of course, I never thought of going anywhere else because we felt like we had the “best” here! Yet this is what I missed in my studies in my opinion.

In demand as a soloist and educator, how do you manage your practice routines? Do these stay the same or do they change drastically depending on what you are working on?

I gradually built my practice routines with my personal experiences and especially with my students. I started teaching at 17! I had time to experiment a lot! In the 1980s I was a colleague of Pierre Thibaut at the Paris Opera Orchestra and as Pierre only spoke of methods, mouthpieces and trumpets, I was able to know a lot of things without asking anything hahaha! That was all that he talked about! As I teach a lot, I mainly work on routines, technical, warm-ups with the students. I don’t change my routine much, but my exercises are numerous and have a wide field of action.

So, I would say that depending on my performance in concert, I manage differently by increasing or decreasing the ranges of certain exercises and choosing the most appropriate.

Can you take us through some of your career highlights?

I have flashbacks coming back to me. I don’t know if these are the most emblematic, but they are the ones that I have not forgotten, and which obviously marked me.

A Christmas mass that my primary school principal had asked me to do with him (he was an amateur lyric singer!) and who gave me some coins at the end of our performance saying “Here is your first fee!”. I was 9 or 10 years old!

My first real solo concert with the conservatory orchestra on April 28, 1972, I played Haydn on C trumpet. In fact, I didn’t have any others …

Concert at the Salle Pleyel in 1974 with the Philharmonic Radio orchestra! I played Hummel still in C!

Recording of my first CD in 1987 with the Paris Bastille Opera Orchestra with Marius Constant.

My recital with percussion (Heptade by Jolivet etc ..) in Santa Barbara at ITG 1989.

My tour of 40 concerts in the USA with a French chamber orchestra in 1988.

Recital with the only piano available completely out of tune in Douala, Cameroon in Africa.

Concert at Theater Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1995.

My recital at the ITG in Long Beach in 1996

My meeting with James Watson, whom I loved.

My concert with organ (Thierry Escaich) and 235 trumpeters that I conducted at Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 2010

Concert in the El Jem arena in Tunisia in front of thousands of Muslim faithful (Obliged to wait after the 1st movement of Hummel because it was the time of prayer) I ended up without light because the sun had set!

But above all, to have a family in a lot of countries around the world thanks to my students.

Can you talk a little about the horns and mouthpieces that you play, and the process of working with Yamaha to find the right setup?

Music for me it is less a rigid art than a philosophical allegory!

I find this symbolism in the Yamaha instruments that I have been playing for 20 years now. They are technically reliable, potentially full of color and nuance but if they were to have only one quality, I would say they are … unconstrained and liberated, they know how to accompany you in the effort but also know how to be forgotten to allow full artistic expression to develop. However, not everything was perfect at the time, but Yamaha has always had the concern to develop its instruments by synthesizing all the requests of artists on the 5 continents.

We can say that Bob Malone’s commitment was decisive. Yamaha, for example, today has one of the best C-trumpets in the world, if not the best!  Anyway, I sincerely believe they have the best, most consistent and homogeneous line of trumpets in the world. The engineering process really evolved with the artist models of Malone. I did not intervene directly in the development process of the instrument but indirectly asking for years to make me Malone lead pipes for my instruments! They finally heard my requests and Yamaha hired Bob!

Bob had made the trumpet for me in the past and prior to my collaboration with Yamaha I only played instruments that were reworked or made by him. In fact, at the start of my collaboration with Yamaha I continued for a while to play the C Yamaha trumpet with an MC2 lead pipe.

Regarding the mouthpieces, with me it’s very simple! I have been playing the same C and B flat trumpet mouthpiece for 35 years now.

I have recorded almost all of my records with it. It was made by a real master: Toshiaki Kameyama. He was working for Yamaha in Germany at the time.

My first quality criterion for a mouthpiece is above all the homogeneity in the range without any compromise on the sound and whatever the technical difficulty. 

I think this mouthpiece is very multi-skilled, both for orchestral and solo play. It was designed on this basis. It can give a lot for those who know how to demand perfection.

Besides my old mouthpiece, I play new mouthpieces that Kameyama made for me for piccolo, E flat, D trumpets…

How have you managed during this global lockdown? How do you think that musicians are going to need to adapt in the future to deal with may be a very different musical world?

Like the whole world, we have all been surprised by the pandemic and the strictness of the new measures taken by the various governments. In France there is lockdown as in many other countries!

This created a state of bewilderment and putting us into this state unknown to almost everyone.

For us musicians it is clear that our activity was and is still being questioned, leading us to ask ourselves questions about our future.

Paradoxically, this experience could be beneficial in the long term! In fact, I have been wondering for several years about the evolution of our profession. We can see that things have evolved considerably since the 1980s and that our profession is in decline overall. During my studies and in the early days of my career, the world has changed a lot. We can no longer compare the situations of a musician starting his career today and when I started mine for example.

With this pandemic “adventure”, it may well be that we are rushing things because it is certain that the world after will be different.

As in all of human history if we are to survive, we will have to adapt! I think this situation is not new if you look at the history of the world. Regularly, particularly with technological advances, professions must evolve. We have to constantly reinvent ourselves in fact. The problem is that today everything is going very fast, too fast and if we don’t anticipate we can disappear quickly enough! For us musicians and trumpeters, what solutions do we have? Of course, all is not over and that concerts will still exist after this crisis, but it is clear that the trend is towards a certain decline in the performing arts with or without a pandemic! Today it is more complicated to move people, the average age in the “classical” concert is still very high. It becomes very difficult to fill the rooms.

During the lockdown we saw loads of people coming together to create virtual recordings. Videos of this type have invaded the web. I myself have initiated projects and participated in others. We have all done, and even now, lessons by videoconference on Zoom or whatever. Everyone had fun with it! However, is this the future of our profession? I am not sure … 

Today we see flourishing the first virtual concerts broadcast on the net or the broadcast of programs recorded in the form of virtual performances. Is this the future?

For me, this is only part of our future. We still have to reinvent the essentials! Because if we transpose our business “from before” to other broadcast medium without changing anything, the result will not be much different in the end.

This means that for me, with or without a pandemic, the essential remains to be reinvented. As for starting the crisis, I asked my students to do a short essay on the future of our profession with the new components of distancing. Well, none of them did! I think they are not really aware of all of this.

In short, adaptation to technological tools and their uses is necessary, but it is only the means of transmission and not the crux of the matter.

Suggestions: For me the first concern is our teaching methods which are used most of the time to make instrumentalists, technicians, even “musicians”, forgetting that our future could be in the education of the public. The idea is to “build” enlightened people capable of discernment. If we browse the new media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) we find anything and everything! However what will determine success is the number of likes or views! Would the great soloists of yesterday turn into a Youtube artist manager? I believe their talents would not be enough!

The profession is therefore transformed into something other than purely artistic musical talent. We are in the world of imaging, 20 or 30 years ago it was almost exclusively the sound business. The technological component takes up a lot of space, but not only that. The business strategy too.

You have to recompose everything taking into account these different parameters. If you look at the “internet artists” who work or succeed today, they are nothing to do with our “soloists” from a few years ago.

Secondly, it is clear that for me, being exclusively a performing is no longer a viable future.

Basically, what interests’ people is to show a universe that is unknown to them. In our profession we reproduce a lot because the majority do what already exists. And finally, few people are able to make a real difference between the performers. The difference no longer makes on the quality because we no longer recognize ourselves in it. It is therefore necessary to evolve and personalize more than before. We must learn to exist not only with our quality of playing the trumpet but to know how to use the components of our personality to include them in our proposals. We must become as much “actors” as musicians. We can see the trend today! The evolution is more based on the looks of the performer. Obviously on a certain side because today we sell images and not just sound.

It would therefore be necessary to evolve knowing not only to offer a good performance but an entire universe in which you will be recognised by everything that makes you unique.

What other advice would you give to young and aspiring trumpet players?

I would tell them:

First, know who you want to be! Obviously for that you already need to have a certain open-mindedness and awareness of the world around you.

If you are looking for yourself, which is okay, start by thinking about who you would like to look like! Often students ask me, (to do a Masters abroad for example) who should I go to see or who could I go to see? I can’t understand this question! I answer them, who would you like to look like? Who do you admire among the existing personalities? Here is the answer! If you want to become a musician “by default”, that is to say, I study to get my diploma and I find a job to live quietly until the end of my career – so change your mind – there will soon be no space for these attitudes!

Think and anticipate! How? Listen to the world around you. Therefore? Travel!

Motivation is the main engine, it’s what starts everything! If you run out, find out why! If you can’t find it, change path!

Take advantage of the time of your studies to try to open yourself to as many things as possible, not just the trumpet and all the theoretical courses that go around. Other disciplines, other art forms or even sports or sciences.

Learn the art of challenging right from the start! Take part in promotional contests.

Know how to spotlight your talents. Be aware of who you are, what are your strengths, your weaknesses!

Have goals, feed on your dreams! Believe in what you are doing. Belief is power! Finally, perhaps the most important: Dare! Everything is impossible until you try!

Summary: 

Dream! Believe! Travel! Dare! 

If you do all this, you will emerge a real personality and a unique being, whatever your modes of expression are.

What are you working on at the moment?

As I mainly play abroad, the concerts have stopped for me not being able to travel at the moment. However, I continue to practice as I hope to be free again soon!

Institutionally I continue to teach mainly at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne in Switzerland.

I am waiting to be able to travel again to teach at Nagoya University of the Arts in Japan, Shobi College of Music in Tokyo as well as the Royal Academy of Music in London where I am a guest professor.

In private education, I developed my own trumpet institute where I specialize in coaching. I have given so many “classical” master classes all over the world, and today I am trying to evolve. I use my experience, notably acquired as a jury member in a large number of international competitions over the past 25 years, to manage students and prepare them as best as possible for both international and positional competitions. So, coaching to be as close as possible to the control of one’s full abilities.

I’m still recording! I have a CD of “Belle Epoque” style cornet pieces which will be released in a few weeks, a project on the works of Julien François Zbinden and a little later a project around Bach.

For more on Eric, please visit his website: http://www.eric-aubier.com

For more on the range of Yamaha trumpets that Eric plays, please visit: https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/winds/trumpets/index.html

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Trumpet Warmup

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Trumpet Warmup is a great new online portal for trumpet players, allowing you to customise your routine with the aid of resources from top artists and educators. Sam Neufeld, the website’s founder, speaks to me here about his exciting new venture.

Can you give a little background to your relationship with the trumpet?

At six years old, I heard my dad playing Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and Lee Morgan frequently on his stereo. There was something about the trumpet that enthralled me at a young age. I wanted to do what they were doing.

Throughout middle school and high school, I took quickly to improvisation and jazz. My trumpet technique, however, held me back. Endurance and range were my biggest issues and at 16 years old my new teacher persuaded me to change my embouchure.

The whole process left me with a bad case of “paralysis through analysis” for years to follow.

Not until recently did I realize how consistent I need to be with my warmup and daily routine.

In my mind, trumpet technique is analogous to strength training. One month of deadlifting and squats everyday will set you on the right track, but you have to keep it up consistently for months and years to see noticeable results. Similarly, the trumpet takes lots of focus and deliberate practice over many years to develop proper technique and strength. That’s what I’m focusing on now. I’m excited for the day I am able to play a 3 hour gig and feel strong or stronger at the end of the night.

What prompted you to setup Trumpet Warmup?

To put it simply I wanted it for my own practising. I was unable to find something that would suit my needs. I wanted a video play-along routine that would allow me to practice back and forth a pro. I also wanted to have the ability to switch between different artists’ routines.

Over the past 5 years, I’ve worked freelance in videography, photography, and website design. I knew that I had the skills to make it happen with little up-front cost – so why not give it a shot and scratch my own itch?

Who is it aimed at?

Trumpet Warmup is aimed at the intermediate trumpet player. A high school student or an amateur will benefit most from Trumpet Warmup.

There will be some value for the pro or the beginner, but it’s aimed at the intermediate player for now.

What are the key elements that set it apart from other platforms?

The video (quality and presentation) sets it apart. I’ve spent a lot of time crafting a look that will engage the user and allow them to see the artist’s embouchure and posture. It’s meant to feel like you are practicing with the pro.

What new developments are you currently working on?

Content, content, content. I started Trumpet Warmup a few weeks before COVID-19 lockdowns began, which threw things off track. I’m back on track now and working hard to crank out the content so there is something for every user.

How can readers find out more?

If you’ve made it this far, I just have one ask. Please sign up for the newsletter by visiting www.trumpetwarmup.com. It’ll take a few seconds and would mean a lot to me. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback – please send me an email to sam@trumpetwarmup.com

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Trumpet Artist Profile : John Eth

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John Eth is a well-respected trumpeter, originally from Phoenix, Arizona. The Legends Brass artist was kind enough to give up his time to answer some questions below.

Can you tell us a little about what got you started on the trumpet?

I remember every weekend my father playing Harry James records all day Saturdays and Sundays. Even though my father was not a musician he loved the Harry James big band. So when in 4th grade  the band director came around to classes asking if anyone wanted to be in the band I immediately raised my hand. When asked what instrument I wanted to play I volunteered for the trumpet. My parents rented me a trumpet before the band would start so I was very excited to try and play it.

I would put Harry James records on the player and listen a little then try to play what I was hearing. I had no idea of what notes were or what valves to push down but I kept trying to play what I heard and eventually played what sounded to me like the same note. I practiced this way until band started at school. Unfortunately this led to me hearing in the key of B Flat. Even today I hear notes that are relative to my trumpet.

My music teacher was a french horn player and also in the Phoenix Symphony. I studied with him through sixth grade. At that time he suggested that I should take lessons from Hershel Kreloff the principal trumpeter in the Phoenix Symphony. I studied with Mr. Kreloff until the summer after 8th grade. I had split my lip very badly in a summer community band and Mr. Kreloff said that he could not help me and that I would probably not be able to play trumpet again. I was devastated. After calling every trumpet teacher in Arizona I came across Tony Picciotto. Tony was a trumpet player who had played with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Tony recently had moved to Scottsdale Arizona and was teaching at Otto Steins music in Phoenix. Tony took me under his wings and was the only one that said he could help me. With Tony Picciotto’s help I was soon back to practising the trumpet.

When did you decide that you wanted a career in music?

I never really thought that music or playing the trumpet would lead to a career. The first time that I realized that you could make money playing music was in High School. A few of us had gotten together and formed a Tijuana Brass type band and was offered a gig at a Frat party at Arizona State University. Non of us were old enough to even drive a car so our parents had to drive us to the job. We each were paid $50 dollars. That was a lot of money for High School kids. That one job changed my thoughts and was the start to my career in music.

What styles of music have you listened to most over the years?

Music styles that have influenced me the most are Big Bands including the Harry James Big Band, all of the Maynard Ferguson Bands and the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Rock and Roll Bands, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago and Tower of Power.

How about career highlights?

As I look back to my career some of the highlights would include, in high school through auditions being selected to 1st chair trumpet in the All State Orchestra and in my senior year of high school being granted a scholarship in music to Arizona State University.

My freshman year at Arizona State University I was selected to first chair trumpet in Orchestra, Concert band and Brass Choir. Another memorial moment was being featured at a football halftime performance playing Doc Severinsen’s ‘Monday Monday’.

After Collage I have was blessed with being able to perform with over 30 major entertainers including Elvis Presley, Tom Jones,Buddy Rich, Aretha Franklin, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace, and to many more to name.

I have been a guest artist on the TBN network, Featured on World Wide TV as a Christian artist and performed on stage with Phil Driscoll. I have also recorded my own Christian album Titled “God and God Alone”. Another highlight was being selected to be in “The Upper Register” a publication listing over 200 Lead and High Note Players.

My trumpet skills have allowed me to have recorded a number of studio projects including the following, Buck Rogers and The 21st Century television movie , the theme songs for the television series Harper Valley PTA and Sheriff Lobo. More of my studio work has included two Super Bowl half time shows and over 20 CD’s for various artist.

Throughout my musical career I have had the opportunity of meeting three famous trumpet players that I have had a personnel relationships with that have been a blessing and inspiration to me. 

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Mr. Clark Terry where we discussed his musical career, the people who influenced him as a player and how he has influenced many young players. Truly an inspirational man.

Bobby Shew and I met at a college performance where I had the pleasure of taking the place of Lou Soloff in the trumpet section. Afterwords Mr. Shew and I have kept in touch for many years as friends. He has been a true inspiration to me and has blessed me by endorsing my trumpet skills.

Bud Brisbois and I became very close friends after meeting each other at a rehearsal band in Scottsdale Arizona. We would meet for lunch at least 2 to 3 times a week discussing everything from trumpet to life. Many of the things that I learned from him I still apply to my playing today. Bud was my friend, an inspiration, and is truly missed.

Of all the accomplishments, playing, recording and being featured that I have had throughout my life I have to say that the most important things to me are meeting and becoming friends with Clark Terry, Bobby Shew and Bud Brisbois. The time spent with these great musicians can never be replaced.

What does your practice routine look like?

My practice is very basic. I constantly work on corner and support strength. Lip trills slow and fast everyday. An example would be trilling from second line “G” in the staff to 3rd space “C” in the staff. I then go down chromaticly, next would be “F# to B natural” and so on. I do these lip trills until I feel a lactic acid build up then stop and rest. It’s the same idea as lifting weights. You have to build up the muscles that are used to play in all registers of the instrument.

I also never practice anything louder than Mezzo forte. By practicing at a softer level it keeps the aperture tighter and more closed. This is very important for playing in the upper register. All my life the routine I have used to build more breath support consists of Long Tones. I practice Long Tones by starting on 3rd space “C” in the staff and going down chromaticly the entire range of the instrument. I hold each note out as long as I possibly can, not breathing until all I can muster is a very small buzz. Make sure that you are sitting down if you do this! You can possibly black out from lack of oxygen.

How about your horns and mouthpieces?

At this time I play Carol Brass instruments. My trumpet is a Carol Brass model CTR-5060H-GSS. It is silver plated with a sterling silver lead pipe. I find that this instruments sound is versatile enough to play all the different styles of music without being to bright or to dark.

I play a Legends Brass custom designed mouthpiece It is the model “ETHS”. A number of years ago My business partner and I started Xstream Mouthpieces. Being a machinist I designed my own mouthpiece with a different style of cup. I call this design a “Compression Cup”. I have played this design cup for over 10 years. 5 years ago we closed our business and sold all of our machines used to make mouthpieces.

I recently was not getting the results that I wanted with my mouthpiece and decided to reach out to Derek Saidak to see if he could help. I asked Derek if he could scan the rim and cup of the mouthpiece that I designed and put it on his backbores. He said “No Problem” so I sent my mouthpiece off to Mr. Saidak and within a few weeks I received 3 mouthpieces with an exact rim and cup match on the Legends Brass mouthpiece design. All three had a different backbore designed by Legends Brass. This gave me exactly what I needed. I am now a fan of Legends Brass and highly endorse their products. I encourage all trumpet players to give them a chance. Legends Brass has more mouthpiece options than any other mouthpiece manufacture I have come across and can make you a custom mouthpiece as well.

My custom Legends design mouthpiece should be available soon if anyone would like to try it. Many Thanks to Derek Saidak for helping me achieve my goals.

How having you been managing during this global Covid lockdown?

The global lockdown has been stressful at best. I found that keeping focus on my music has been very helpful. I recently set up a small recording studio in my office that lets me play along and record using music tracks. This at least gives me a feeling of playing with a musical group. If this is not possible for players to do I would encourage everyone to put on a CD or an MP3 and play along with it. I feel that it is very important to be playing music not just practising exercises.  

Only one can guess what the future holds. I believe that after a vaccine is approved things will get back to normal. Music is so much a part of every day life through radio, live concerts, television, movies and so much more that the public will be the driving force behind bringing live performances back.

What piece of advice can you offer young and aspiring players?

Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself and in try new ideas. It used to be a given to start out using a bach 3C mouthpiece or something similar in size. Don’t be afraid to try a smaller mouthpiece! The upper register will be easier to play. Buy a quality instrument. If you cannot afford a new instrument buy a good used major brand instrument. Take lessons from someone that you admire for their abilities. If you would like to be a symphonic player take lessons from someone that has experience in that field of music. Likewise if you aspire to be a Maynard Ferguson style of player take lessons from someone that can help you with the extreme upper register of the instrument. Don’t be afraid of changing instructors if you are not getting the results that you want.

What are you working on at the moment?

 Today I am working on a new website, johneth.com that will have everything from tips on practice, how to overcome injuries, video instructions, performance updates and much more. The website should be up and running in early November 2020. I have also started writing a new book “Surviving The Trumpet” which will soon be available. Starting a new recording project is also one of my pet projects. Even though the future is a little rocky right now I encourage everyone not to get depressed. Keep working on your God given talents and everything will be alright.  

You can find out more about the Legends Brass mouthpieces at https://legendsbrass.com

You can also view and purchase a selection of great Legends Brass mouthpieces at our Online Store

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Trumpet Artist Profile : Charles Lazarus

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Trumpeter Charles Lazarus is a multi-faceted performer, composer, producer and band leader whose career has included tenures in Dallas Brass, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Canadian Brass, and the Minnesota Orchestra. He has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras around the US and Canada, performed with the Empire Brass, New York Philharmonic Principal Brass, London Brass, Barry White, and opened for Tony Bennett.

Charles has performed and taught master classes in every US state, Canada, throughout Asia and Europe, and currently serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota. He has created and produced several crossover orchestral shows featuring his various ensembles with which he has released four CDs and a children’s animated short film.

Hi Chuck, can you please give a little background to your relationship with the trumpet?

When I was 9, my Dad took me to a Dizzy Gillespie concert and I got to meet Dizzy backstage.  He actually let me try to play a note on his trumpet which was pretty exciting! I didn’t start playing in band until I was 12, but I picked trumpet and fell in love with the sound and versatility of the instrument right away. Trumpet was just the right amount of frustrating to keep me chasing the dangling carrot of success!

When did you decide that you wanted a career in music?

I knew this would be my career path within the first few week of playing the instrument. It was the first way I had ever seen my own self improvement and I was hooked!

What styles of music have you listened to most over the years?

All styles. I tend to listen more to styles of music I’m not playing at the time.

You have worked across many, many genres and styles over the years. What are the challenges both musically and technically, adjusting to these changes?

Advancing harmonically in jazz is challenging when playing classical music full time, so I try to make sure my daily routine covers a lot of ground harmonically. The biggest difference between my approach as I change styles is articualtion. I pay a lot of attention to that.

How do your practice routines need to change to reflect this?

I pick days where I focus on certain modes or patterns in my playing and incorporate that in my flow studies and arpeggio workouts. Monday= diminished day Tuesday= lydian dominant etc. That kind of thing. Sometimes I substitute my usual Clarke or Vizzutti studies with the John McNeil Art of Jazz Trumpet studies. I can work on my fundamentals of airflow and articulation while exploring harmonic ground. It’s way too easy to get stuck in open harmonics. I try to branch out. I consider it cross training. It’s more efficient and way more fun. I also practice the opposite of what I am performing on any given week. If I’m playing 2nd trumpet in Beethoven one week, I do a lot of high note practice. If I’m playing lead on a pops show, I practice a lot of soft low notes.

Career highlights?

Oh man. So many to be grateful for!
Playing the Britten St Edmunsbury Fanfare with Doc Severinsen and Bud Herseth.
Playing the Haydn Trumpet  Concerto in Carnegie Hall with the NY String Orchestra.
My first concert with Canadian Brass.
Playing My Spirit Be Joyful next to Rolf Smedvig in Empire Brass.
Playing my own jazz compositions with the Minnesota Orchestra for the first time with Osmo Vänskä conducting.
The privilege to play in the Minnesota Orchestra brass section with friends that inspire me.

Can you talk a little about the horns and mouthpieces that you play, and the process of working with Pickett Brass to find the right setup?

Well, I’ve known Peter for many years when he was just getting started in his garage! He is a great guy and a total pro. I was already playing Yamaha trumpets when I met him and I’ve been playing them since I was 19. I’ve also owned a number of Blackburns over the years and they are fantastic as well!  For mouthpieces, Peter has always been willing to work with players to find a great fit for their style and technical needs. Finding the size and contour of his rims and cups was kind of like finding a pair of shoes that fits perfectly. He’s great at that and because I have so many varied demands on my playing, my line of mouthpieces tends to have something for everyone. It’s all on the Pickett Blackburn site.

I should say though, that for me, the thing that really makes his mouthpieces work so well is the evenness and quality of his backbores. They really even everything out allowing me to relax and blow smoothly, giving me more control over my sound than I’ve ever had. He has a lot of little tweaks in his designs that can accomplish pretty much anything you need. Plus the staff there are all great trumpet players that are a blast to hang out with. In addition to my work with Peter, I’ve also worked a lot with Eric Murine (killer player) and the rest of the staff there on mouthpieces as well as eating BBQ and perfecting the “Whiskey Chew”-  An important art in Lexington!

Please visit the Pickett Blackburn website to see the full range of Lazarus Signature mouthpieces

How have you managed during this global lockdown? How do you think that musicians are going to need to adapt in the future to deal with may be a very different musical world?

I’m just trying to practice, plan recordings, and double down on learning technology. I’ve been setting up my home studio for recording and I’ve been getting into some video projects for fun. There are so many new and increasingly  efficient ways to reach people online. it’s a perfect and necessary time for all of us to learn more about how to pilot our own ships.  I really think when this mess is all over, people will be so starved for live music that it will be a roaring 2020s age of music. I am trying my best to make sure I’m ready for that.

What advice would you give to young and aspiring trumpet players?

View every mistake and failure as an opportunity to learn. Be willing to fail.  Every little success is built on a multitude of failures. Most importantly though, enjoy making music. Then, all the work is just an enjoyable part of the process. The smarter you practice, the better you get. The better you get, the easier it is. The easier it is, the more fun you have!

What are you working on at the moment or in the future?

I’m recording some brass quintet and solo trumpet music by Jack Stamp and learning Logic Pro Audio.

You can visit the Charles Lazarus website here.

The range of Lazarus Signature mouthpieces can be viewed here.

You may also be interested to read this interview with master craftsman, Peter Pickett.

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Trumpet Artist Profile : Diego Urcola

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‘Trumpet Artist’ is far too narrow a description for Diego Urcola. Perfomer, Band leader, composer, multi-instrumentalist and jazz educator are all monikers that should also be added. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, three‑time Grammy nominee Diego Urcola has been a member of the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet since 1991. Additionally, the oft‑in‑demand trumpeter performs regularly with the legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath, the Caribbean Jazz Project and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All‑Star Big Band.

It was great to catch up with NYC-based Schilke artist, Diego for this interview:

Can you give a little background to getting started with the trumpet?

I started playing trumpet in my school band in Argentina when I was 9. I played in the concert, marching and jazz bands. The marching band routine had a New Orleans Jazz part so I started doing that without even knowing that I was playing jazz. My father who was the band director at the time, was a big fan of Sidney Bechet and he had regular jam sessions every Tuesday night at the school with some friends. Those sessions had a big influence on me because I loved the vibe and the improvised music that they were doing… so I decided then that I wanted to be able to do that.

When did you decide that you wanted a career in music?

Around when I was 14, I told my father that I wanted to be a professional musician. He told me that he was OK with it, but from now on I had to practise the trumpet for no less than 2 hours per day. And I’ve been doing that for the last 40 years…

What styles of music have you listened to most over the years?

After my “very early” New Orleans period, I discovered Dizzy, Bird and Miles and I got obsessed about learning the bebop language. I was also studying at the conservatory at that time so I was practicing and listening to a lot of classical music too. Later, already in the USA, I got into more modern jazz styles and also Brazilian, Cuban and South-American music.

How was the transition moving to and studying in Boston, and then later moving to New York?

Well, before I finish high school in Argentina I was already working as a professional trumpet player. I started working with singers, rock bands, musicals, and some orchestral work too. Also I was playing with my own small jazz groups and other jazz bands with musicians 20 or more years older than me. That was when I decided that I needed to move to the USA if I wanted to get better. I won a very good scholarship from Berklee College of Music and that helped me a lot to make the decision to move to the US. After 3 great years in Boston I kind of felt the same way. That in order to get better I needed to be in New York. That was 30 years ago…

I think that I may already know the answer to this, but what have been your favourite gigs?!

Paquito’s Band of course! I‘ve been doing that for the last 30 years! But working with masters like Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, James Moody, Bebo Valdes and many others are highlights of my career.

How do your Argentinean roots influence the music that you make today?

A Lot! Especially tango music, the music of my home town Buenos Aires. Also South-American music in general. All music from Latin America has similar roots but they sound very different if you really study them. It’s very rich music, especially rhythmically. 

Can you talk a little about the horns and mouthpieces that you play, and the process of working with Schilke to find the right setup?

Right now I’m playing a Schilke HC2 trumpet with a custom 24B mouthpiece. The HC2 is for me the perfect jazz trumpet. Very flexible and with a dark but very rich sound with a lot of overtones. I have been playing very big rims for a while and I love the Schilke 24 rim. The regular cup of the Schilke 24 is too big for jazz so Schilke made me a 24B that is not in their catalog but it is exactly what I need. I also play a  Schilke 1040 Flugelhorn with a custom 24F mouthpiece. Before, I was never a big fan of the flugel as an instrument because most of them play out of tune, but the new Schilke flugels have perfect intonation and a beautiful sound.

Do you have a set practice routine?   

Yes, I start my day with about 20-30min of long notes. Then I go into a selection of exercises from different books like Caruso, Schlossberg, Flexus and Clarke that I picked out through the years. I play these exercises with different instruments: trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, piccolo, euphonium, valve and slide trombone. 

How have you managed during this global lockdown? How do you think that musicians are going to need to adapt in the future to deal with may be a very different musical world?

It has been a very interesting time. In a way I have been busy doing videos for social media, home recordings, skype lessons and also working on the promotion of my new album “El Duelo” that came out on September 18th. I don’t think anybody knows exactly how things are going to be after this pandemic is over. All the Internet/Social Media things are interesting but they don’t come close to the experience of performing live. I hope we can get back to that very soon.

What advice would you give to young and aspiring trumpet players?

Practice, practice and practice…but also to diversify. To learn how to compose, arrange, record, computer music (sequencers, loops, samplers, DAW, etc…) and to produce content like videos, music for film and TV. I think this type of knowledge is going to be crucial if you want to make a living as a musician in the future.

What are you working on at the moment or in the future?

I just got a commission/grant from the Jazz Coalition so I’m going to start working on that. Also hopefully in the near future play live the music of El Duelo. 

Thank you very much for the interview and I wish everybody to stay healthy, positive and active until this pandemic is over!

You can visit Diego’s website for more information.

Information on his latest release, “El Duelo” is here.

Click here for the Schilke HC2 trumpet that Diego plays.

And the Schilke 1040 Flugelhorn is here too.

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