CT Trumpet Lessons, Performing Artist, Badollet Ensemble

Congratulations to my students who made CT regionals! Also last year's senior who is on scholarship at Hartt School of Music this year as a freshman (I'm sure she's grateful for the break); one of my 8th grade female students who is 1st trumpet in the Regional Band, and one of my seniors who is auditioning to several schools to study music next year. Another one of my high school seniors made regionals on trumpet and just found out he will be on a full academic scholarship to NYU studying economics, presidential honors program, and a trip with other honors students to Florence, Italy.  Oh yeah, he also plays violin and piano!  When does this guy sleep! You have all worked very hard and deserve recognition.  Good job! All of my students this year are progressing very fast using my concepts of air flow control and tongue position in combination with retraining subconscious response. Do you need a great teacher?  Do you practice, but feel frustrated at your lack of progre

If you're interested in studying with someone who has extensive teaching and performing credentials and a concrete methodology to fix problems with your playing or take your playing to the next level, shoot me an email or phone call. I have some students travel as far as Wilton, CT and Westchester County,  NY(south) and Rhode Island (north) to New Haven to study with me.  I prefer one-on-one instruction to Skype style teaching, but will consider this method if you just can't get to me. I have students taking once a month lessons or just fine tuning isolated lessons here and there if you can't commit to a regular schedule. If you are preparing for college auditions and you need some extra help or a new prospective give me a try.

Performing Napoli with wind ensemble tonight!  Then off for a well earned 2 week vacation!  More posts to come after my summer hiatus....stay tuned!

I have only one student leaving this year to go off to college.  She will be attending the Hartt School of Music as a double major in Trumpet performance and Music Education.  All of my other students will be continuing their studies with me next year working very hard and making progress.  My adult students continue to work hard and see terrific progress.  My beginners always start with a good sound because of my work on sound production from the beginning.  It pays off to invest time in the beginning explaining and demonstrating how to control air and tongue placement. Plans are in the works to have a regional audition workshop day either this year or next.  If you're in the New Haven area let me know if you or your junior or senior level student/son or daughter would be interested in this helpful prep day.  Plans are for early October. My brass ensemble at Neighborhood Music School continues to progress.  I hope to add more players to this group or start another brass quartet/

One of my long term goals has always been to publish either a method book of my own or smaller books divided by levels.  There is enough sources out there for everything, but what I feel is lacking is not only a step by step method that's very easy to follow, but any good explanations for "how" to work on exercises that are presented.  My biggest pet peeve:  many methods are set up for the advanced trumpet player, so there is unrealistic expectations from the less experienced student; I even mean college level players as well as less experienced.  What happens is that a lot of burden is put on the student to have a teacher who is very good at explaining how things work within each method or etude book.  Even that leaves challenges because a teachers style may not resonant completely with the budding student or a lot can be taken for granted, or, god forbid, you get a not so good teacher. I felt in my younger college level years that I had a great teacher, but I wasn'

So, if you are wondering the details of my preparation for maintaining proper sound, endurance, etc...for freelancing, here you go! I believe throughout my years of practicing/trying different routines that it's not as important which routine you do, but what your routine addresses.  This is where it has to become personal and dependent on where you are in your development.  This is why my routine changes to address new issues and to keep my desire to engage fresh.  When I say it changes I mean about once a year or so I try something new. WARNING ADVANCED:  First, I will tell you where I have arrived after many years of trying every routine out there.  Because of the diversity of freelancing I have found a method that works for me.  The core of it is pages I have put together from Pierre Thibaud's methods.  Later in life Mr. Thibaud had surgery and had to rethink how to play as effortlessly as possible.  He found that working on the double pedal register helped with ease of

I love youtube video tutorials!  But, they aren't as portable. You can't listen to them everywhere, you may miss things and have to watch the video many times, and you still may find things you miss.  But, most of all for me, I like to print articles out and read them during rehearsals, on my stand, on the train, in the doc's office, etc.  There's nothing to miss when you have the printed word. The down side! Much of how we learn the trumpet is non specific, internal, hard to put into words, etc.  It's also much easier to do a video and talk than to try to explain yourself on the written page.  It comes down to personal style.  I like to write.  I'm ok with learning to express myself this way. With that said, I do hope to add some video's in the future to enhance what I have written.  With both, hopefully, you can get a sense of my approach.  I hope it helps others out there in trumpet land!

The next three weeks are a beautiful example of the challenges of freelance playing and maintaining chop endurance and musical style challenges. This week I have rehearsals and a performance with the Asylum Hill Orchestra in Hartford, CT where I'm performing the Music for the Royal Fireworks, Zadok the Priest, and the King Shall Rejoice-all Handel (all on picc), plus the Missa in tempore belli of F. J. Haydn on C trumpet.  Got the music 3 days in advance. The following week is one rehearsal with a brass quartet and harp with a performance the next day in Marblehead, MA, don't have the music for this yet. The next week I begin a month long run of playing lead on City of Angels at Curtain Call Theatre in Stamford, CT.  Got the music a few days ago, so I have the luxury of two weeks to review it and get the chops into a lead mouthpiece. On top of this I have a busy teaching schedule all during this and have to prepare for all of the above at the same time. So...how do you pr

I have an adult student who is a thoracic doc with whom I have great conversations about breathing.  Teaching him has helped me really define, verbally, control of proper air flow for trumpet playing so there isn't a contradiction between medical functionality and teacher description.  He has such an understanding of function of the lungs that he processes what I describe through his thorough lens.  With all my students I do my best to avoid too much technical vocabulary and keep things simple and easy to understand with my vast wardrobe of analogies. Vincent Penzarella has said it best, "Exhalation is inhalation without hesitation".  Now, this is an advanced concept, so although my students hear me say this, I give lots of examples of what this means.  For years I did not breath deep enough and move my air fast enough and still sounded decent.   Having a deep understanding of the importance of a very deep, relaxed inhalation and pushing out my exhalation at the end of

When focusing on the inner workings of the trumpet, technique, air, tongue, rhythm, sound, etc..the one thing I don't find discussed enough is instinct response. Huh??  You may say...Well, I teach about this a lot!  This, to a certain extent, can apply to all musical instruments, but for the trumpet it is a vital discussion.  While talking recently with my trumpet mentor, Charlie Schlueter, he said something to me that I say all the time to my students, "there's nothing natural about playing the trumpet" .  I had to laugh because he was reminding me of all the gems of wisdom that came out of my 3 years of studying with him. Instincts serve us well for the most part in everyday life.  Unfortunately, certain instincts and body function instincts are the opposite of what a trumpet player needs to be able to count on to play well. This will be an ongoing discussion here.  So, I will begin with some basics. The most basic instinct we have is the fear/flight mechanis

I will address many instinct response issues ongoing.  Next, let's talk about multi-tasking.  It's a BIG asset for musicians.  Whether you are a natural or not there are things you can do to improve your abilities in this arena. Assigning the task of rhythm solely (pun intended!) to the foot is vital for the trumpeter for two reasons.  Tapping your foot rhythmically and coordinatingyour release of the tongue together calms the instinct responses and allows the brain to focus better on other tasks.  What does that mean?  I'll do my best to explain because we will get into territory that is somewhat unexplainable to the sceptic because it is not tangible to the efact seeker. Tap your foot to a consistent rhythm of about quarter equals 80.  Make sure you keep your heel locked to the floor and only move the first 1/4th to 1/2 of your upper foot.  The problem I find with most is the emphasis is too much on hanging the foot up in mid air too plong before coming down.  Think of

Continuing on my teaching concepts to retrain instinct responses I will focus this post on gravity.  Huh????  What does gravity have to do with air flow?  A heck of a lot!  I like to use the term gravity because I have found that students relate better to the understanding of gravity more than talking just about air flow alone.  There are many ways to approach this and it's individual for each teacher/student. If you think about how you begin a note on the trumpet, say middle g for a whole note, what happens to your air after starting the note (as described in my previous post about set up)?  The support drops dramatically.  The higher the note the more dramatic the drop.  This is where instinct is a problem. Our subconscious focuses on starting but not on ending or as Jim Wilt of the LA Phil says "pinning the line".  I like the word "energize". Think of jumping on a trampoline.  Similarly, once you bounce you float until you start to return back down.  Imagin

My career has been predominantly as a freelancer and private teacher.   While there is no glory is saying that, there is a lot to be proud of despite our industry not giving us much recognition.  Freelancers have no benefits, no paid time off, if we're sick we have to most always find our own replacements all while quite probably loosing that gig connection or moving down the call list.  You have to be in top form at all times because you just don't know when that phone will ring.  Vacations are usually with you horn in tow.  This is the career most of us end up with, and at least in the past, we were not prepared for this reality!  Personally, I have been called to play a live broadcast of a Boston Pops concert to replace someone ill, but had to turn it down because I just had my gall bladder removed two days before.  Believe me, I was trying to think of any way I could maneuver myself on stage to play.  Then reality said, What!  You must be kidding!" I was beat up one

My goal as a teacher and coach is to reduce the process to as few steps as possible. Playing a brass instrument can be daunting, mainly because the process of controlling your air and your tongue is not something that comes naturally to the majority of us. We won’t even talk about the coordination of the valves and rhythm! Let’s just address getting things started. When we are in total control of our air speed and tongue position there is not much more that we need to do. While this may sound simple, believe me it is not! BUT, the first step is to understand the process, and then work on applying it with absolute consistency. There are many camps of thought on how to simulate a thought process that will help you achieve the same result. Most of my teachers used some form of “vowel” syllables to aid the tongue in finding its way. Samuel Krauss used a variety of syllables for different sounds and registers. Early on in my training I found his process a bit overwhelming and ad

Learn more about the Badollet Ensemble at:  www.badolletensemble.blogspot.com Badollet Ensemble

Skype Lessons coming soon!!  If you are anyone you know is interested, please contact me via this blog/website or by email at rousseauman@yahoo.com

Badollet Ensemble                          Featuring Daniel Louis Duncan, Trumpet Soloist and Director                                       Naomi Senzer, Flute                                       Andrew Gordon, Piano                                 Concerto in D                                                                       Heinrich Stolzel                                      Allegro                                                                                  (1690-1749)                                      Andante                                      Allegro                                Trio for Flute, Trumpet and Piano                               James M. Stephenson                                       Dances for Insecure Nobility                                                      (1969-   )                                      Ruby                                      No:  ReMorse                                Sonata fo

I believe that the trumpet holds a unique set of challenges. Teaching a student that deep inhalation is the most important setup for a good beginning coupled with a mastery of tongue position, aids in overcoming these challenges. The art of diligent work on process, integrated with a Zen philosophy of letting go empowers my students to optimize their abilities. My teaching is designed to teach students how the mechanics of air flow and tongue position work together. Once understood and practiced with set drills, I implement a psychological method of re-training subconscious cues that are counterintuitive to produce optimum ease of play. For example, the "sense of sight" will lead the player to assume low notes require blowing down with less air, thus creating instability and tightness in the back of the throat, when in reality it is quite the opposite. Blowing up lowers the middle of the tongue which places the tongue more appropriately, with relaxation, than just us