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Trumpet Courses

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't learning how to navigate for myself certain implementation.  So, I would default to "if I just practice more" being the answer.  Over time I felt my hard work only paid off to a point if I was unable to define what were my issues.  Even well meaning teachers would say things like "there's something in your playing I just can't pin point" or "your sound is a bit constricted" without any real answers presented to me.

So, I have spent the years after (many years) of college trying to be as well trained on playing issues as I can.  This helped me and my students thus giving validation to my methods.  These methods are a combination of my own ideas expanded from teachers who presented me with the most solid concepts and how to articulate them.  The best teacher for this (for me) was Charlie Schlueter by far.  Some things taught to me early on only solidified under his guidance, but he made instruction easy to follow and implement in ways no one every did or has since.

Keep tuned in....I hope to have the first beginner installment ready within the year.  I will do my best not to call it beginner as it will apply to absolute newbies and also intermediate to advanced players to try as well.  The concepts will be controversial, but give it a try before you make your opinions know.  I have no time for naysayers who make preconceived judgements without even trying the routine.  You can criticize or critic it all you want after working on it for a bit.  I would love to hear constructive ideas and critics.

I will also have some tutorials via youtube to go with the methods.  I will continue to post random articles in the meantime, so don't go away while I'm on a bit of a hiatus this summer!

Cheers!

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