The Brass Tacks

Auditioning 101

Guest Author: James Scott

There has been a lot written about how to take an audition successfully, and it's a daunting task to try to add something new to the mix, but I'm going to try to add a couple of thoughts on the subject.

This project was undertaken when we were having Bass Trombone auditions in my orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic. In addition, I was preparing an audition of my own at the time. It would be a fairy tale ending if I had won my audition, and could then say that this is what works, but the reality is that like everyone else, I'm still working at this part of playing. My observations will have to be taken more as the observations of one player, rather than as the pronouncements of a master teacher.

Most people in the know will tell you that the things that eliminate most players at an orchestral audition are sound, pitch and time. I would wholeheartedly agree with this. These elements are the foundation of good playing in any style of music, and no one on an audition committee wants to vote for anyone who doesn't live up to their standards in these three areas of playing.

Sound

Taking them one at a time, sound is the most difficult to give specific advice on. There will often be disagreement within an audition committee as to what is the best sound of the day, but there is seldom any conflict over what sounds are unacceptable. Unfocused and airy tones, as well as overly strident sounds will leave the committee unimpressed. Two areas tend to bring out the worst sounds of applicants - loud excerpts, and lyrical passages.

At our recent auditions in Calgary, several times there were applicants who were making a good overall impression only to overplay in a couple of the louder passages. It's a difficult balancing act, but you must always try to play fortissimo excerpts with some bravura, but without losing control. Remember that the volume that might work in the back of the orchestra with everybody "sawing away" might just not impress anyone when you're by yourself. Try to get a feel for the room as well. I had a personal experience of playing Ein Heldenleben in a first round once in a dead room, where an aggressive fortissimo seemed to work, but in the next round when it came up again in another room, I realized halfway through that I should have changed my approach. The other general advice that I would give to anyone for loud excerpts comes from Joe Alessi.  Remember that good loud playing comes from good lyrical playing. Try to make sure that whatever volume you're playing at, that you're still playing music and not just notes.

Lyrical playing offers it's own challenges. A player without a good command of legato will not get far in auditions. No one wants to hire someone who doesn't show musicality at the audition, and the best place to catch the ear of the committee is with a legato tune.

On our auditions, I put the opening of the Vaughan-Williams Tuba Concerto second movement up first. I thought of it as a combination of a warm-up, and a chance to hear the applicants play a melody. I was surprised that many people were uncomfortable playing lyrically. One other surprise on this front was that several players sounded beautiful warming up on stage, but brought none of that artistry to the solo. Everyone needs to play lyrical tunes daily, and find as many opportunities as possible in your audition to present that skill. I would also say, that again, the dynamic that you might have to play in the orchestra might not be appropriate in the audition. Everyone wants to hear good contrast, but be careful to not play soft passages with airy, unfocused tones. In this balancing act, if you have captured their attention with a beautiful sound, they may even forgive you if your pianissimo isn't the softest of the day. Also, if they like what they hear overall, but are worried about the dynamic level, often the committee will ask you to play it again softer.

Pitch

Pitch presents many problems for auditionees. The reality is that this is an area where all of us have to continually keep working. Many people have given advice in other articles about how to work at your intonation, and I will just echo their statements. Lots of playing with piano, with a tuner, in trombone quartets, trios, and duets will help a great deal. So will the practice of slow scales, particularly in live rooms. There are computer programs, and CD's that are also very valuable. Finally, on top of all of this, tape yourself regularly, especially while you are preparing for the audition.

One other area of intonation that often gets bypassed, is to listen to your tapes when you are preparing your audition for melodic vs. harmonic intonation. Most people will be familiar with the concept of lowering major thirds in triads when you're playing in a trombone section. This practice can make a chord "ring." It can, however, just sound flat when playing on your own. This needs to be studied on a case by case basis. For instance, in the Brahms First Symphony 4th movement, the high G that the first trombone plays in bar two of the chorale sounds better a little low as the third of the chord with the rest of the section, but not if you're playing that note alone as a melody. On the other hand, the Ride of the Valkyries outlines enough of a chord structure, particularly in a live room where even a single player may need to pay attention to where they place the major and minor thirds. As I said, this will be a case by case basis, so taping becomes invaluable as a way of really studying your own playing. Be aware that what works on your own may need to be adjusted in the finals if you play with the section. They will be looking for someone who fits in right away with how they play.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the last of these areas to tackle. Most of my comments about rhythm would echo what I've said about intonation. Taping yourself is one of the best ways to determine what's happening in this area. Work with a metronome is crucial. I would also suggest playing along with recordings, since this can make you comfortable with the individual pieces and tempos. Study the scores (a good practice in general for many other reasons too!) to have a good understanding of what's going on while you play those whole notes. I've found that at the best auditions I've played, I've had a sense of the orchestra playing along with me, in my head. The audition became almost a "Music Minus One" in reverse, where I could hear the orchestra, and the committee could only hear me. This approach helps to keep your time steady, and your tempos in the right ballpark. As an alternative to tapping your foot, you might try lightly tapping the index finger of your left hand against your instrument while holding long notes, such as the whole notes in the William Tell Overture (another idea courtesy of Joe Alessi). Another other idea on this subject - often my time suffers when I'm running out of air. I would suggest carefully planning out breaths, and marking them in all of your excerpts. This practice alone could eliminate a lot of the occasions where rhythm becomes an issue. Lastly, try to find out if you are expected to count all rests or not. Usually, you will be expected to count the short rests (a bar or two) but not any longer ones, but a question to the backstage people at an audition about this might be in order. If there's some doubt (ie: three or four bars of rest) I would suggest counting it as carefully as you can.

Conclusion

None of my advice in this article is going to get you a job on its own. There is much more to being the successful candidate at an orchestral audition, and much of it is subjective from one occasion to another. Perhaps the best advice that I can give anyone, is to be the best musician that you can be. This includes, of course, having a good command of your instrument and all of the techniques that you need to play the required pieces. It also includes the good rhythm and intonation that I've talked about, as well as a good sound. With all of that, however, you will need a good understanding of the music that you are playing, including at least a basic understanding of the score. You will need to have knowledge of styles that are appropriate to different eras and geographical areas (ie: Classical vs. Romantic, and French vs. Germanic). But more than that, a great performance, whether at an audition, or in some other venue, will connect on an emotional level with what the composer is saying, and will communicate that to the audience. People that accomplish this regularly are successful musicians in whatever endeavors they undertake. Good luck!

James Scott is the Principal Trombone of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

Circular Breathing: When And How To Use It

Guest Author: Kevin Thompson

Circular breathing is a technique that wind players use to avoid putting breaks in the music. This can be handy in certain situations, and anyone can learn to do it! Work to implement circular breathing in your own playing and you will undoubtedly find many practical uses for it.

I was once walking the streets of Victoria doing some Christmas shopping. Victoria has a lot of street musicians, and I saw this guy performing on what was supposed to be a didjeridoo, but was actually a piece of plastic pipe. He played it the way you would play a didjeridoo, with multiphonics and circular breathing. This fellow decided that he wanted to learn the didjeridoo, and he didn't even own one! Somewhere along the way somebody must have taught him the technique, and there he was: circular breathing.

Many Australians play the didjeridoo, and they all learn to circular breathe because it's part of the technique of the instrument. They don't seem to have the cultural block against it that we do. Western music is modeled on the human voice. Our instrumental music was meant to imitate singing, and the idea that we have to stop, take a breath, and start another phrase is an inherent part of it.

I once heard a student playing one of Bach's Cello Suites without breathing at all, just playing it as a technical exercise, and it sounded all wrong! If you listen to somebody like Pablo Casals playing Bach you can actually hear him breathing. You can hear it in the music and you can literally hear him on the recording taking his breaths, because he knows that even though the cello doesn't have to stop and breathe, Western music–the music that Bach was writing, with its roots in imitation of the human voice–has to be phrased, and phrasing is these contours of breathing, pausing, and continuing.

Circular Breathing: Why Bother?

If Western music is all about phrasing, and breathing is a necessary part of our music, then why bother learning to circular breathe?

Well, there are some Western composers who don't seem to have realized that brass players need to breathe. Have you ever come across a piece of music that has thirty-six bars of tied whole notes? (Wagner's tuba parts are notorious for this.) Circular breathing is also helpful when playing transcriptions of string instrument music, in which it becomes quite awkward to insert the necessary time in the phrase to catch a breath.

If you are playing a solo or melodic part, then phrasing should be part of it. But sometimes when you are accompanying you don't necessarily want to phrase the same way. In these situations using circular breathing can come in handy.

Trombonists familiar with Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 know that there is a long, slow, low-range solo in unison with the clarinet and french horn. Circular breathing in this passage can help make the phrases.

Here's How To Learn It

Before I get into the actual mechanics of how to circular breathe, I should voice this disclaimer: I can imagine a situation in which somebody becomes dependent on it and forgets how to breathe properly. Don't rely on circular breathing. Remember that deep breathing is an essential part of playing a brass instrument well!

The goal of circular breathing is to breathe through your nose while continuing to expel air through your mouth, allowing you to play a constant tone on your instrument while inhaling.

First try to get the idea of pushing air out of your lips using the muscles in your cheeks, rather than your lungs. Put your hands on your cheeks, then puff out your cheeks and push some air out with your hands. It'll just be a little air, but the point is that you are not using the normal breathing muscles to expel it. Using the cheek muscles to exhale is quite a different feeling. Now take your hands away and try pushing the air out with just the cheek muscles. Once you have an idea of what that feels like, the next step is to take a quick breath through your nose, so you're doing those two things at the same time. Start breathing in through your nose, and while you're doing that push the air out with your cheeks. That's the concept.

The difficult part is to go from air that's being blown out with the cheeks to air that's coming from your lungs. It takes practice to make the transition between the two types of air smooth, without a hiccup or stop.

Try this exercise  with a straw and glass of water. Blow through the straw, make bubbles, and try to keep the bubbles going while you do a transition from cheek-expelled air to lung-expelled air. The straw is a good tool because it's thin and you don't need to blow a lot of air. Once you get a small air stream going, and keep it going through the transition, you will be able to apply it to your instrument. The instrument takes more air, but once you can do the exercise it's just a matter of practice and getting used to the idea.

It's best to begin on the instrument in the middle range, not too loud. When you begin to expand the dynamics and range it becomes more difficult because of the strain on the embouchure. Your teacher probably told you not to puff out your cheeks when you play because it stretches the embouchure and you have less control. When you puff out your cheeks and circular breathe the same thing is happening–you are losing a bit of control. It's a lot more difficult to play high and loud, so just start on a mid-range note, mezzo piano.

There's a difference between the trombone and valve instruments such as the trumpet. It's almost impossible to circular breathe and tongue at the same time, because adding the tongue gets in the way of a smooth transition from one type of breath to another. If you are slurring on a valve instrument, you can circular breathe while changing notes, but on trombone we often rely on the legato tongue to simulate slurring. Circular breathing while changing notes on trombone produces a lot of glissandos. It's easiest to breathe while you're going downward in a scale passage, since your embouchure is relaxing. Try this exercise, circular breathing at the asterisk, and once you've got it mastered, make up your own, more advanced exercises:

Repeat forever!

The Case of Rafael Mendez

Rafael Mendez, the great Mexican trumpet virtuoso, transcribed Paganini's "Moto Perpetuo" for trumpet (it was originally written for violin). This virtuoso display is six or seven minutes long with constant, fast sixteenth notes. There's a recording of him playing it and not stopping. The story could be apocryphal, but apparently he did use circular breathing. He's the only person I know of that could circular breathe while tonguing. Winton Marsalis has a CD out called Carnaval on which he plays the Moto Perpetuo. I believe he also circular breathes, but slurs the sixteenth notes.

Other Considerations

You have to circular breathe more than you would if you were breathing regularly, and you probably can't play a whole phrase on one circular breath. You can get a little bit in, enough to go a bar or two, but it's not the same as filling up on air. You need to plan ahead and take a little bit before you really need it, because it's much more difficult when you are running out of air.

The sniffing noise of a circular breath can be distracting. If you are playing something like the low brass chorale in the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 (you don't need to circular breathe here, but let's suppose that for some reason you do), it would be a bad place to circular breathe because your audience  would hear sniffing in the middle of the note. There's nobody else in the orchestra playing, and the dynamic goes down to "ppppp." You need to be careful when playing really soft.

There is some circular breathing on my CD, Euphonic Bach. I use it in the Cello Suite No. 5, in some parts of  Suite No. 1, and in the Partita for flute. There are a few spots in the fifth suite where the breaths are rather noisy!

While its main use is as a gimmick, circular breathing does have some practical applications. Anybody can learn to do it. Work to implement circular breathing in your own playing, and you will undoubtedly find many interesting uses for it.

Kevin Thompson leads a busy life as a professional trombone and euphonium player. He is the Trombone Section Principal of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and can be heard as a euphonium soloist on two recordings. Kevin is currently playing Principal Trombone with the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway until July 2008.

Educate or Train

Guest Author: Barry McCommon

Brass teachers need to educate their students to put their own personal interpretation on the music, rather than training them to be a carbon copy of the teacher. In his own teaching, Barry tries to give his students the tools and freedom to make a musical statement uniquely their own.

I was recently speaking with a musician friend about my teacher, Glenn Dodson. I was very fortunate to have had four years of Glenn's teaching during my most formative years. What I say, to anyone who asks, is that I could talk for hours about what he did for me, but I sum up his teaching with two thoughts. He taught me to be a musician (as opposed to simply a trombonist), and he taught me to teach myself. These are precisely his goals as a teacher; he said to me many times that when our time together is over, he hopes that he will have prepared me to be able to teach myself. He did.

Reflecting on my two thoughts (especially the latter), my friend said that Glenn had educated me, as opposed to having trained me. I had never thought about it in that way, but I realized that he was right. Take for an example a writer or philospher; They have read much, and observed human behavior, and from that they have acquired knowledge. They then take this knowledge and create thoughts, beliefs, philosophies, etc. that are uniquely their own. This, is having been educated. Now, take for example an athlete; an athlete is coached to reach top physical form in order to achieve a set goal. Whether that goal be to jump highest, run fastest, or score the most points, the concern is not to do it with the most style or individualism, but simply to do it. This, is having been trained.

This got me to thinking about trombone teaching today. I'm afraid that too many teachers are simply training their students. There are some very fine players/teachers that are, in my opinion, training their students almost to the point that they are clones. Very good mind you, but still clones. I have worked with quite a number of trombonists over the last several years, who all had been students of one prominent trombonist, who will remain nameless. They are all very good players, and some are much more successful (in terms of name recognition) than I, but within a few minutes of hearing them, you could tell exactly who they studied with. That, to me, is not putting your personality on the music; it's putting your teacher's personality on the music. I have known many of Glenn's students, and I have never thought, "He studied with Glenn Dodson." I thought, "that's a good, musical trombonist." This comes from him having given his students the musical knowledge it takes to make their performing uniquely their own. I am now, several years since studying with him, maturing enough musically to start truly understanding and using many of the ideas and concepts that he had planted the seeds for years ago.

I think that we as musicians need to reassess our priorities in our teaching. I realize that there is pressure to achieve certain goals; to get into the college of choice, to win the audition for the job of choice, etc., but I still think that the first priority should be to help our students become the best musicians possible, and that doesn't mean they should be carbon copies of ourselves. This, I think, starts with our motivation to teach. Teaching has helped me become a better musician, and that is one reason that I teach. But the main reason is to help my students achieve what they want to achieve; not what I want them to achieve---what they want to achieve. Also, I see too many musicians concerned with how their students' success (or lack of) reflects on their reputations as teachers. I think that ego does nothing but get in the way of being a good teacher (or performer for that matter). What I tell my students is that they don't have to play a given piece the exact same way that I do, but they have to sell it to me. If they choose to play something at a slightly different tempo or dynamic, or choose to phrase something somewhat differently, that's fine, as long as it's musical. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, I really dig it, because I realize that I'm starting to do for my students, what Glenn Dodson did for me. I'm giving them the tools and the freedom to make a musical statement uniquely their own.

Barry McCommon is a Freelance Bass Trombonist from Philadelphia, PA. He's a member of The Brass Experience, and is a first call musician for much of the classical and commercial/jazz scenes. More information about Barry with some awesome sound clips can be found on his MySpace Page.

Six Golden Rules for Conquering Performance Anxiety

Guest Author: David Leisner

Performance anxiety can begin so innocently...

First you notice someone in the front row tapping his feet. You wonder to yourself whether you're really maintaining a steady beat. Then someone else whispers something to her neighbor, and you worry that perhaps your hair is disheveled or your tie is crooked, or maybe you're making those funny grimaces again that you thought you'd conquered. Worse yet, they are probably discussing how strange or inappropriate your interpretation is, or they are commenting on how many notes you are missing (you are missing a lot by now). Oh, your teacher is really going to yell at you. And your girlfriend or boyfriend is going to be very disappointed. Your students aren't going to know what to say to you because this is going so badly. Your hands are shaking or sweaty or cold. Maybe you're not cut out for this stuff after all.

Sound familiar? Believe me, you're not alone. Performance anxiety affects almost everyone, from the beginner to the most seasoned professional. It is truly remarkable what paranoid ingenuity most of us generate during performance in order to defeat ourselves.

It all begins when our minds wander. Some distraction, usually minor, occurs, and we become less and less able to concentrate. The results are nervousness, memory lapses, technical errors and general discomfort with and, ultimately, fear of performing. The whole mess can often be avoided quite simply by thinking a few essential thoughts before going on stage. A few years ago, after experiencing a string of unpleasant performances much like the description above, I did a lot of soul-searching about what kinds of thoughts and feelings were distracting me in performance and what advice I could give myself to counteract them. The result was Six Golden Rules that summarize issues crucial to successful concentration in performance.

I meditate on these a few minutes before going on stage. Ever since the beginning of this practice, I have had very few concentration lapses in concert and have found performing to be far more fun and satisfying than ever. In addition, my students and all those with whom I have shared these ideas have had similar benefits, and have been astonished at how quickly their performance anxiety dissolved.

Golden Rule #1

Before performing, you must first remind yourself that you have practiced to the best of your ability. You have used your practicing skills in the most effective way you know at this time. True, your playing can always be better, but given all the circumstances that have led to this moment, you have, in fact, done your best.

Now the time to practice has passed. Rather, you are going to use your "automatic pilot," which you have been training during practice sessions. The automatic pilot (a.p.) is at work, for example, when you learn the fingering for a piece. When you repeat and reinforce the new patterns, the a.p. retains them, so that when you go on to practicing, say, dynamics, you don't have to think too hard about the fingering.

The most comforting aspect of the a.p. is that it works all by itself. It is indeed automatic. So when it is time for you to perform, all you need to do is trust your a.p. to do most of your work for you. No effort or thought is required to bring back all that you have practiced. It will be there for you.

Golden Rule #2

Do not judge what just happened or is about to happen. Self-judgment during a performance is futile because it takes you out of the present and into the past or future and destroys the natural flow of your thoughts and physical actions. Whether the judgment is positive or negative, it introduces a verbal aspect into an activity that is most successful when it is non-verbal. Reserve judgment for after the performance, preferably after you have listened to other people's reactions.

Rather than judge your playing, simply observe it without verbal description, and motivate vour intentions. When you are about to make a crescendo, for example, intend to do it and then feel it as you are doing it. There is nothing verbal about this process. You are, rather, putting intention into action - that is, motivating.

Golden Rule #3

Do not second-guess any audience member's reaction to your playing. During a performance most of us feel quite certain we know exactly what the responses to our playing are by our teachers or students or colleagues, boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse, critic or some illustrious musician we happen to spot in the audience. More often than not, these thoughts prove to be completely, ludicrously inaccurate and only serve to further remove us from the moment and the music.

An example: I was once playing an informal house concert, with no more than fifteen people in the audience. As soon as I came out to perform, I noticed one person who looked familiar, but whom I could not identify. For most of the first piece, I was not thinking about the music, but rather about who he was. Finally I concluded that he was a respected vocal coach and accompanist I once met briefly. He was undoubtedly going to listen to the Schubert lieder arrangements on my program with an acute perception of detail and, ultimately, I was sure, with disdain. Not only during the Schubert, but throughout the entire concert, I was obsessed with thoughts like these. Not surprisingly, the whole experience was quite unpleasant for me. Afterward, when he came to speak to me, I discovered that this so-called vocal coach was, in fact, a bassist, and he had nothing but enthusiastic praise for my performance.

Later I thought, "what an incredible waste of energy!" How remarkable it is that the vast resources of one's imagination can be used for such futile, self-destructive mind-games! You probably have had similar experiences. Trying to imagine what someone in the audience is thinking about your playing is useless and distracting. Please yourself only.

Golden Rule #4

Be on stage, not in the audience. Be in the giving mode, not the receiving one. Be in the music, in the moment. These are three ways of saying more or less the same thing. You cannot be performer and listener at the same time. Leave the response to the audience. Your task is to communicate to the listener what you have practiced, thought about and felt. The most effective way of accomplishing this is by being present in the moment and not by dwelling on any moment that is past or one that has not yet occurred. A good example of this is when you are reading a piece of music that is familiar to you and your eyes follow the notes at a natural, steady pace. The reading feels easy, and your music-making is accurate and relaxed. This is the kind of forward flow that is desirable in performance.

Golden Rule #5

Single out one aspect of your playing that is the top priority among things you need to be reminded of at this time. Think about this not when you are performing, but before you go on stage, when you are thinking about the other five Golden Rules. Some people, for instance, may wish to emphasize posture. Some might need to play with less pressure, while others may need a reminder to play more boldly. The variety of issues to consider here is infinite, as they are specific to the individual and they may evolve over time, depending on what is top priority at the moment. Choosing more than one item to consider, however, would only burden your abilities to concentrate, so choose carefully.

Golden Rule #6

Enjoy! Don't forget that your performance is the time when you can finally share with your listeners what you have worked so hard in the practice room to achieve. This is a time of joy and not a time for correcting errors or other faults. Players tend to be too self-critical in performance. The practice room is the place for that. The concert hall is the place for celebrating the music. Let your emotions for the music be present. Don't allow minor details to obscure your feelings about the music. Let your excitement for the music be present. Let the adrenaline and your genuine lively passion for the music come through.

Review Before Performing

These are my six Golden Rules. I recommend that you look at them five to ten minutes before going on stage. Think about what each one means to you as an individual. As you look at Rule Three, for instance, you might think about specific people who might be in the audience and, one by one, remind yourself that you are not going to second-guess their opinions about your playing.

Do this little meditation for just a few minutes and then get back to your warm-ups or stretching exercises or whatever you like to do just before playing. Don't give these ideas another thought. Then go give the best performance of your life.

The 6 Golden Rules Summarized

1. You have practiced to the best of your ability. Trust your automatic pilot to do most of your work for you.

2. Do not judge what just happened or will happen. Only motivate and observe (non-verbally).

3. Do not second-guess any audience member's reaction to your playing, as your perception will probably be inaccurate. Please yourself only.

4. Be in the music, in the moment. Be on stage, not in the audience. Be in the giving mode, not the receiving one.

5. Single out one aspect of your playing that is the top priority among things you need to be reminded of at this time.

6. Enjoy! Let your emotions for the music be present. Let your excitement for the music be present.

David Leisner is regarded as one of America's leading classical guitarists. In the 1980s, a disabling hand injury, focal dystonia, cut off his blossoming performing career in mid-stream and plagued him for 12 years. Through a pioneering approach to technique based on his understanding of the physical aspects of playing the guitar, Leisner gradually rehabilitated himself. Now completely recovered, he has once again resumed an active performing career, earning accolades wherever he plays.

The Art of Practicing

Guest Author: Gordon Cherry

Practicing is an art, not a skill. A skill is something you can be taught in a certain number of lessons, while an art is something you learn slowly and gradually over your entire life. Whether you are a sculptor, a painter, a ballerina or a trombonist, you have to apply discipline in order to progress. The art of practicing is something you adhere to for a very, very long time, and you must master it to become a great performer.

Most people look back on the lessons they had with their teachers and find that 99% of the time was spent on the traditional warm ups, etudes, solos and excerpts. You're basically taught how to play the trombone. We haven't really learned how to practice! And yet that's what we spend most of our time doing. We practice. We practice before rehearsals. We practice before concerts. We practice in the studio. The practice time is where you "make your gravy." It's where you make all your gains. Much of the time students and even professionals waste time or actually destroy themselves in the practice room. Why? Because they are impatient and look for short term gains.

Mindless practicing gets us into trouble. A daily routine can be a good and a bad thing. It's fine to go through many of the same exercises each day, but you shouldn't just be going through the motions. You must hold to a very, very high standard. The key to becoming a great musician, brass player, or trombonist, is to set these standards for yourself and apply them every time you pick up the instrument. Otherwise, you will drift aimlessly and go nowhere.

You have to set goals for yourself when you are practicing. If you are working on an etude, you should ask what the etude is accomplishing. What does it want? Is it looking for dotted rhythms, legato, arpeggios, low register, high register, or technique?

Your Most Important Tool: The Pencil!

You must have a pencil there. Many players don't carry a pencil with them, and if they do, they don't use it enough. You need a pencil to work out all the notes and rhythms, and to correct mistakes as you make them.  Trying to remember your mistakes is a major mistake. Think of your brain as a giant computer. Your computer is programmed to see symbols on a page and interpret them. If your brain is seeing symbols and misinterpreting them, and you don't correct your computer's software, it's going to make the same mistake again. Maybe not the next time, but a week later in the lesson when you're under a little pressure. The pencil is extremely important!

Marking in the breaths, even where they seem very obvious, is another way of training yourself. Breathing is the secret to playing at a very high level, and so much of the time students don't have any idea where they breathe. You can tell that when you work on a Bach Cello Suite with them. They just take breaths any old place. The student has to become aware of where to breathe, and the best way to accomplish this is by penciling in breath marks.

My Routine

I use a modified Remington routine, which is 70-90% of the standard routine that's in the Remington book that Don Hunsberger edited, plus various little exercises that I've picked up over the years or invented. It can take anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes, depending on whether I'm trying to take it easy or wanting to cover every little nook and cranny.

The routine evolves slowly over time, although the foundations are always there. It starts with the long tones. Then I get my tongue moving with some legato in a stationary position, in other words my slide isn't moving. Next I go to some legato exercises where my slide is moving a little bit, using short two or three note scales. Then I do slow slurs, flexibility, scales, arpeggios, and finally I add supplementary exercises as needed. These are anything that pops into my mind for high/low register, fast/slow, or loud/soft.

Orchestral Excerpts

If I have a very loud concert to play in the orchestra I don't go wild on the loud stuff in the practice room. It isn't necessary–in fact it is counter-productive. Your endurance comes from the rehearsals. Very rarely will I sit down and play through the fortissimos all by myself. You can't do any tuning or blending, and you can wind up forcing and getting all tight. Instead of sitting there and hammering away at some lick, I will make an exercise out of it. For some of the loud, long things I'll play some sort of whole note or long tone exercise louder than usual, but try to make it into a "song-type" study. I play it slowly and make it sound lyrical, but it'll be forte.

If it's a technical, loud excerpt I practice it softly and slowly. For example, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries is best to work up at a much lower, slower level. You need to practice some arpeggios with the fast sixteenth. It doesn't have to be done loud, because it's just to get your arm and slide working. It's the same thing with Rossini's William Tell Overture. The week before I have William Tell I will practice some chromatic scales in little bits and pieces, softly and slowly.

You pick up some useful tricks as you go through your career. For instance, practice the trombone solo from Ravel's Bolero down the octave. I learned this from a tuba playing friend of mine who'd taken lessons from Arnold Jacobs. He wanted to know how he could practice the "Bydlo" more than a couple of times without getting wasted, and Jacobs said "Play it down the octave. Play it down two octaves. Play it down three octaves if you can." I play Bolero down the octave four or five times for every time I play it up in the regular octave. You can work on a lot down the octave, including your breathing, phrasing, musicality, and vibrato. It gets your air moving, and builds relaxation and confidence. Take it up to the regular octave and work on it one time, then take it back down again. You can keep going back and forth like that for a long time.

Another challenging high-note excerpt is Schumann's Third Symphony, the Rhenish. It's very slow, and relatively soft. I play it down the octave of course, but I also play it faster and mezzo forte. I get that going and then pop it up the octave. Another technique is to take it up a half step from an octave below, then a step, then a minor third, a major third, and keep going all the way up.

When I have Brahm's First Symphony coming up, with the high A chorale that has to be nailed every time, I'll practice "Security in the High Register" from the Remington book the week before, a few times every day. I'll be very diligent and slow about it, practicing it slurred and articulated, and will be ready for that solo.

Take a Break!

One of the biggest keys to successful practicing is resting. There are two types of rest, the rest in your practice session and the rest between practice sessions. The rest you take while practicing can be 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, five minutes, even 10 minutes. Practice until you feel fatigued, then stop. Never practice until collapse because you can damage the muscle tissue. Every time we practice until we feel that little bit of burning we're actually tearing the muscle tissue slightly. Later, during rest, the body repairs those muscle fibers by building new ones. This is how we build up muscle.

Practice longer periods when it feels comfortable to do it. Don't practice with a feeling of fatigue, and don't put your watch on to determine when you are going to come back. Come back when you feel fresh. This is a difficult thing for impetuous people. Most of us want things to happen instantly. We want to practice something and have it actually improve while we're there. Surprisingly, not everything improves right in front of our eyes like some magical light bulb going on! A lot of the improvement happens overnight when our bodies do the repair and our brains sort things out for us.

Other Practice Tools

Using a recorder to tape yourself and listen to it is very valuable. It's a humbling experience, but you have to do it. A lot of the time we think that we're putting something out, and maybe in the confines of a little studio we are, but when you're on a big stage in a big hall the amount of effort you have to put into expression is magnified. You have to listen to yourself play, because you may just be internalizing all these things. You may think that you're doing something very beautiful and nice when really it's not going anywhere.

Another valuable, but misused, tool is the tuning box. The tuner is great if you learn not to cheat on it. A lot of players bend their note to play in tune with the tuner, which is totally incorrect. You have to be totally unbiased, play the notes and accept that every one is not perfectly in tune. If a player puts the tuning box on a couple of times a week for 10-15 minutes, and applies it honestly, when they're warmed up, in a room that's at the right temperature, then he/she will be giving themselves something valuable.

Let's say that it's 70 degrees in your room, there's no draft and you're all warmed up. You have the box turned on at A = 440 and want to tune up your Bb. That sounds simple, but people will bend that note either by lipping or blowing it up or down. What you have to do is almost close your eyes, play the note and hold it steady, then look at the note not at the moment you articulate it, and not at the very end of your breath, but a few seconds in. That will give you a pretty good idea of where you are. Once you have that note in tune you can start doing some very slow exercises to tune some of the other notes on that harmonic, slide position, arpeggio or scale. It has to be done slowly, and don't forget about resting!

In ensembles, of course, you have to play with great tuning (notice I didn't say perfect tuning), matching it to whatever the group is doing.

I know some people tune first position out a bit, but I don't. I tune my Bb right up in first. I have a Shires trombone now, and there are no flat notes on the instrument. Even the D, a third above middle Bb, with my configuration and mouthpiece, is a hair sharp. Those players that play Bach or Yamaha trombones may need to play a tiny bit out so they can get the D up, but I don't have that problem on the Shires.

Practicing with a metronome is also important, but it can't be a crutch that you take out into the world with you. You can't take your metronome on stage. However, every once in a while when you are practicing your scales and arpeggios, you should have that metronome on to make sure you're not dragging or rushing. When you have a very difficult piece, such as the Blue Bells of Scotland, use your metronome to get the technique absolutely perfect at a slower tempo. We tend to practice the fastest we can play, and that's not good. You need to practice slower than you can play and be in total control. Slowly move the metronome up over the weeks and months. I don't suggest that you use it when you're playing a Bach Cello Suite, Rochut Melodious Etude or anything that has a lyrical style. You'll turn your beautiful lyrical passages into marches, and we don't want that. If you need it to get a tempo that's fine: find the tempo, turn it off and play.

I use a little bit of  mouthpiece buzzing, maybe one minute a week. Some people do a couple of minutes a day and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. What is seriously wrong is when players do one hour a day of buzzing, practicing everything in their warm up. That's a very serious mistake.

An esteemed colleague of mine showed me a little trick. Blow into the horn on a nice, mezzo forte middle Bb. As you are playing loosen up the mouthpiece and pull it out of the lead pipe, while you keep blowing. The note will stop and there will just be air. This person proved that when you play a middle Bb on the trombone, your lips aren't buzzing together the same way as when you actually, consciously buzz the mouthpiece.

However, buzzing is part of my practice technique. With the more and more challenging music we get every year from composers, the perfecting of a piece becomes more and more problematic. The solos we had written for us 30-40 years ago were difficult, but there are solos now that are at the edge of physical limits. A lot of the music we're playing today is dissonant, the intervals and rhythms are strange, and the actual construction of the work is hard for the player to fathom. I find that using the mouthpiece to pitch the notes helps me learn the piece. I can make sure that my brain is actually understanding the intervals. Mouthpiece buzzing, a little bit at a time, confirms to me that I'm doing it right. It's an important diagnostic tool.

Ensembles and Listening

People who always practice by themselves, never in an ensemble, tend to be very poor ensemble players. Ensemble practice for a trombonist is invaluable because most of us are going to be playing in some sort of group. Players spend too much time these days on individual practice. They need to spend more time on section practice.

Practice also involves listening. Young players who want to become excellent on their instruments should listen as much as they can. Listen to great artists, not just brass artists. Listen to singers, violinists, great orchestras and ensembles and learn from them. When you are listening to a great artist you are in a way practicing, because you are taking something in. Whether you are a student or a seasoned performer, if you're not constantly learning you're going to go backwards. The secret is to always be in practice mode, to always be listening.

Practice is the key to becoming a great player. We've all seen and heard of colleagues or students who were born with amazing potential and talent, and yet because they didn't have the right psychological make-up they failed in their quest to become professionals. They hadn't mastered the art of practicing.

Gordon Cherry is the Principal Trombonist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and also  makes available online an excellent series of sheet music at Cherry Classics.com.

How to Loosen a Tight Tuning Slide

Guest Author: Marcus Hissen

Is your tuning slide too tight? Do you have to apply Vise-Grips whenever you want to tune your horn? Here is one method of loosening it up.

My tuning slides were so badly stuck that I could barely move them, so one day I went to the drug store and purchased a can of Brasso metal polish.

Most brass players know that polishing an instrument with Brasso is not a good idea, because it strips the lacquer off and ruins the finish. Even aging instruments with worn off lacquer, or instruments that have had the lacquer stripped off for sound production purposes, should use it sparingly, because each time you polish a tiny layer of metal is removed from the horn.

Fortunately, you can use this property to your advantage. Find a soft cloth or rag (an old cotton T-shirt does the job nicely), and apply some polish to the unlacquered part of your tuning slides. Rub vigorously until most of the corrosion comes off. Follow the instructions on the can to give a final polish with a clean, dry part of the rag. Apply some tuning slide grease to the slides. They should be much easier to move now!

A Word of Caution

Brasso is a noxious substance that exudes toxic-smelling odors, and it is harmful or fatal if swallowed. It is wise to wear safety glasses, gloves, and use it in a well-ventilated area. Read the can for first aid treatment information.

Brasso should only be applied to unlacquered surfaces. Be careful not to get any on the lacquered, shiny parts of your instrument.

Wash your hands thoroughly after polishing with Brasso.

Don't polish too vigorously, as it is possible to take too much metal off. If this happens, you may need to use a thicker slide grease (e.g. lanolin) to prevent unwanted movement of your slide.

Related Websites

Brasso Material Safety Data Sheet (html)

Brasso Material Safety Data Sheet (pdf)

Marcus Hissen is a member of the trombone section of the Victoria Symphony. He works hard to realize his delusions of some day playing in the Berlin Philharmonic, and so enjoys torturing friends with endless recordings of German Romantic music.

Be Nice To Your Accountant

Guest Author: Frances McGuckin

There seems to be a serious misconception that accountants can survive on no sleep for four months, work eight days a week, 30 hours a day, and not make mistakes–all for a small and reasonable fee. Get your taxes in early and make your accountant's life a lot easier!

Accountants are mostly very nice people. It's not their fault they sometimes appear a little stoic or dry. Think about it: if you spent seven years or more studying this profession, you'd probably become a little dry and staid yourself. It's a lot for the brain to digest, and accountants have a huge responsibility to their clients. Their life consists of number-crunching and shoe-box-sorting, one hand attached permanently to the adding machine, the other on the keyboard or telephone. Accountants have to be serious. Would you appreciate your accountant cracking a joke when you are being told you are going bankrupt?

As every January approaches, accountants prepare themselves for the four-month onslaught of paperwork which must be assembled, processed to perfection, and depleted by the April 30th tax deadline. Do you, the taxpayer, ever stop to think about how much trauma these poor people go through? As the deadline approaches, the latecomers line up in droves, clutching their piles of miscellaneous mountains of triplicate T3s, T4s, T5s, and all that other official paraphernalia.

When all is said and done, accountants are only human, although they are expected to create god-like miracles with tax returns, wondrously changing taxes due into healthy refunds. If there are taxes to pay, of course it is the accountant's fault, don't you agree? There also seems to be a serious misconception here that accountants can survive on no sleep for four months, work eight days a week, 30 hours a day, and not make mistakes—all for a small and reasonable fee.

You may notice that as the tax deadline approaches, you could well be greeted by smiles forced through gritted teeth, accompanied by monosyllabic type conversations and outsized sighs of despair. If you have acute hearing, you will probably hear some under-the-breath, rambling mutterings as you leave the office. Other signs of ATTSS (Accountant's Tax-Time Stress Syndrome), are the slamming of telephones in client’s ears after 10 p.m. phone calls from late filers. This is not to be confused with office doors slamming after late clients leave, or messages on the accountant’s answering machine, informing clients that they are in Tahiti when they call at 11 p.m. on a Sunday evening.

Trembling hands, black, baggy eyes, nicotine-stained fingers, coffee dribbles on clothing, and nervous twitches are all identifying signs of accountants who suffer from this annual affliction. Most of these symptoms are a direct result of clients leaving their year-end until the last minute, then presenting the whole shooting match in the proverbial grocery bag—unsorted of course—and demanding a refund.

Accountants survive on a different diet than do Ordinary People. A Real Accountant needs five to six pots of coffee a day, half a bottle of Stress pills and assorted vitamins, two cartons of cigarettes, a two-for-one pizza order, and at least half a bottle of premium scotch followed by Valium chasers. If these important daily dietary requirements are not met, your accountant will not survive this crucial time of year. There is no available time allocated in the daily agenda for sleep as this process is extremely time consuming and the stand-down pay is lousy.

You can easily identify an accountant on May 1st. Take a trip to the airport and study the departure areas for destinations such as Alaska, Iceland, Tahiti, Barbados, the Caribbean, Tibet, or Australia. You will notice a long line-up of hunched and ragged robotic-type excuses for humans stumbling to the check-out counter. Fifty-five percent of all passengers are accountants. Then check the bookings for the most desolate and isolated fishing or health resorts in the interior. Fifteen percent of the accountants will be heading for a hideaway in the bush.

Twenty percent of the accountants fly to Reno or Las Vegas, preparing to gamble away your accounting fees with great delight and fiendish glints in their eyes.

Sadly though, if you check the admissions to private and mental health institutions, five percent of the accountants will be newly registered. Last but not least, the obituary column will reveal the whereabouts of the final five percent of this loyal, devoted, and sometimes dying breed.

But you—yes you—can help change these sad statistics. Visit your friendly accountant in early January with all your paperwork in neat, organized, and legible order. Stop our Canadian dollar being so heavily invested into other countries on accountants’ recuperative vacations. Reduce mental health costs, and stop the unnecessary trauma of accountants’ funerals and family grief. Make your New Year's resolution now—always be nice to your accountant, get your taxes in early, and don't gripe about your accounting bill.

Related Web Sites

SmallBizPro.com
"Helping people and businesses realize and achieve their maximum potential."

Small business expert and small business author Frances McGuckin is internationally recognized as the "SmallBizPro." An award-winning motivational small business speaker, consultant, columnist, and best-selling small business author, Frances' books are published globally.

Reprinted from Business for Beginners: A Simple Step-by-step Guide to Start Your New Business, with permission from the author. Copyright © Frances McGuckin 2003.

Lessons Learned from the Slide Trumpet

Guest Author: Chase Sanborn

While the trombone slide is often considered somewhat of an impediment compared to valves (Vincent Bach actually predicted its extinction in favor of the valve trombone), I've recently been experimenting with an instrument that has caused me to reconsider the possibilities inherent in the slide. Maybe it's not such an impediment after all!

The technical advantages of valve instruments were instantly recognized by all classes of brass instrumentalists except the trombone players.
...Vincent Bach

While teaching at Prairieland Jazz Camp in Regina last summer, I heard a wild sound coming from a practice room: long swooping glisses into the upper register of a trumpet. I peeked in and found Dean McNeill, associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan, warming up on a slide trumpet, sometimes called a soprano trombone. As he demonstrated a few exercises, I became convinced I had to have one too! A call to Alex Kundakcioglu at Jupiter Music recently made me a proud owner of this cute little instrument. My students and I are having fun and learning a lot from it.

Many trumpet players have difficulty finding the center of the pitch on each note, where the vibration of the lips and the vibration of the pipe are in sync with each other. To illustrate: buzz an Ab on the mouthpiece and slide the horn on, keeping all the valves up. The horn will pull you down to a G, but the note will not have much vibrancy, because you are buzzing a different pitch than the instrument wants to play. Now buzz a G and slide the horn on. This time the note will ring, because the vibration of your lips and the resonant frequency of the pipe are the same. The center of the pitch is the path of least resistance, and produces more sound with less effort.

Mouthpiece buzzing is very beneficial for developing accurate lip vibration, and allows you to practice smooth siren-like glisses, vibrating your lips at all frequencies. Playing on the leadpipe, as espoused by Bill Adam, teaches you to work with the resonant frequencies of the pipe, producing maximum vibration and sound on specific notes. The slide trumpet allows you to combine these two practice techniques by playing slow glisses between 6th & 1st position and 7th & 2nd position. This covers the range of a fourth, and can be heard as a dominant to tonic resolution (V - I). In order to maintain a full resonant sound throughout the entire gliss, the embouchure and the airstream must continually adjust to the changing slide length (never trust an instrument that changes shape), otherwise the sound will become thin, or you may slip to another harmonic series.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the slide is it makes you very aware of the various harmonic series. For instance, as you go higher, it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid flipping up or down a partial during the gliss. You must maintain the ideal balance of air pressure and embouchure tension, which will increase your ease and accuracy. The slide also presents a variety of alternate positions. On the valve trumpet, these are false fingerings, and most are too out of tune to be useable. Because of the infinite tuning capacity of the slide, many alternate positions from different harmonic series are available. Each feels and sounds slightly different, and one may work better than another in the context of a line.

Pitch is also a revelation with the slide trumpet. While this is a difficult instrument to play in tune during a fast passage, it is wonderful to be able to tune a sustained note so precisely with the slide. This allows you to blow right down the center of each note and focus on maintaining the best possible sound without having to worry about lipping the pitch up or down. The concept of lipping the pitch is so ingrained in trumpet players that it is hard to remember to you don't have to do it with the slide trumpet. When you return to the valved instrument, you feel handicapped without this efficient way to adjust intonation!

Finally, a brass instrument with a slide probably gets closer to the sound of the human voice than any other instrument. Listen to a great trombone player (Al Kay springs to mind) and hear the way he seems to 'sing' through his horn. Maybe the slide is not such an impediment after all!

Further information

Dean McNeill and I share an insatiable curiosity for all things related to brass playing, and I'm indebted to him for introducing me to the charms, such as they are, of the slide trumpet. He has written an excellent article on it in the current issue of the International Trumpet Guild Journal. My slide trumpet is available from Jupiter Music and is quite inexpensive. For more information on Prairieland Jazz Camp, contact Brent Ghiglione.

Chase Sanborn is a trumpet player based in Toronto. He is a member of the jazz faculty at the University of Toronto, writes the brass column for Canadian Musician, and is the author of Jazz Tactics and the new Revised Edition of Brass Tactics. Chase is a Yamaha artist. Find out more at www.chasesanborn.com.

You have reached The Brass Tacks, a companion blog for my websites Howland Tax Services and Music for Brass.com. Here you will find information on various tax issues (with an emphasis on cross-border taxation and income tax for musicians), articles about brass playing, and announcements of new sheet music publications for brass.

Please feel free to post comments on anything you see here. Happy reading!
...Brad Howland

401(K) Plans for Canadian Residents

More and more Canadians are working remotely for companies based in the United States, and are finding that participation in their employer's 401(K) plan might not be in their best interests, at least from a tax perspective.

Most of us are aware of the benefits of 401(K) savings programs, but if you are a Canadian resident, there are certain negative aspects you should know about. You need to weigh the pros and cons to decide if you should be involved in a 401(K). You might prefer to put your money into another type of retirement vehicle, like a Canadian RRSP.

401(K) plans can have some very tangible benefits, such as:

• Convenience–it's easier to save for retirement when contributions are deducted from pay at source;
• Employer contributions to the plan equal free money–usually a good thing;
• Professional investment management and administration;
• Deferment of U.S. tax on contributions; and
• Ability to contribute more to a 401(K) than to an IRA.

401(K) problems for residents of Canada can include:

• Exposure to currency fluctuations; and
• Double taxation of contributed amounts.

Currency Fluctuations

An employee of a U.S. company living in Canada, who plans to stay in Canada for retirement, runs the risk that the value of their U.S. 401(K) will decline due to currency exchange rates. For example, between 2001 and 2006 the average annual exchange rate between Canada and the United States plummeted from 1.5703 to 1.1341, a difference of roughly 28%. If you had $10,000 USD in a 401(K) plan in 2001 it was worth $15,703 CDN. In 2006, it was worth only $11,341 CDN.

Of course the U.S. dollar could strengthen and you could recover losses or make gains, but it is impossible to predict the future. Anyone who thinks they know in advance which way the rates are going to go is probably delusional (If not, I'd really like to meet them!). Do you want to expose your retirement savings to this uncertainty?

Potential for Double Taxation

Canada Revenue Agency will not recognize your investment in a 401(K) to be tax deferred, and you might pay tax on it twice. Even though you receive a tax break south of the border when you contribute, in the year of the contribution you still pay tax to Canada on the full amount of your income. Then, when you eventually retire, you pay tax to Canada or the United States yet again on the retirement income.

There are techniques that can make this problem go away. For example, if you remit enough federal, state, social security, and medicare taxes to the U.S. during the year, your Canadian foreign tax credit claim might kill off the excess Canadian tax. This maneuver doesn't quite work for everybody though–I've seen it go both ways.

Strategies to Ponder

Please consult a qualified tax advisor before taking any of these steps. You don't want to receive any nasty surprises! Your advisor should do a full mock-up of your Canadian and U.S. income tax returns before you make any moves.

If currency fluctuations bother you, consider a transfer of your 401(K) balance to Canada. A straight withdrawal from the 401(K) can have extremely negative tax consequences (read: the loss of a major portion of your retirement assets), but it can work out in some cases. It is also at least theoretically possible to transfer first from the 401(K) to an IRA, then from the IRA to an RRSP, with little loss of funds along the way.

Opting out of the 401(K) plan is a possibility. You could take the part of your income that would normally be contributed to a 401(K) and sock it away in an RRSP instead.

Finally, if you are a U.S. citizen, green card holder or resident alien, and you meet the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion requirements, some or all of your income could be considered to be foreign income for the purposes of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (even if it comes from a U.S. employer). If it is, you could exclude it entirely from U.S. taxation by filing Form 2555.