5 Tips For ISSMA Solo and Ensemble

Tuesday, January 21, 2020 No Comments

ISSMA Solo and Ensemble is just around the corner. Here are some tips to prepare for everything you need crush your performance!

  1. Be There Early

I am quite sure your director and private instructor has told you to be early for rehearsals, concerts, and etc. You definitely want to be early when it comes to Solo and Ensemble. You never know what could happen—the weather might be terrible and your commute time will double. The performance order may change. A performance room might change. You might have issues with your instrument…anything that can happen will happen! Being early doesn’t fix these problems, but if definitely gives you the chance to get in the right headspace and deal with problems effectively.

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JJ Johnson – Artist Spotlight

Thursday, January 16, 2020 No Comments

JJ Johnson is regarded by many as the most important and influential trombonist of all time. His sound, phrasing, and harmonic language have sculpted the sound of the modern jazz trombone. The clarity and elegance of Johnson’s playing remain the benchmark. His international career was solidified his status as a consummate musician known for being an all-time great writer and player. Johnson was born and raised in Indianapolis, IN, and he attended Crispus Attucks High School.

Here is an excellent, concise biography by Scott Yanow at All Music.

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The End of An Era

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 No Comments

As we start a new year we want to begin by recognizing the ending of an era in the ongoing story of the Paige’s Music Repair Shop. As 2019 came to a close, our long time Repair Shop Director, Tim Roethler, retired after 42 years of service. Tim built and led our repair department since May of 1977. His leadership of over 4 decades was instrumental in building what we believe to be one of the premier repair facilities in the nation. He will be sorely missed and we can’t thank him enough for all that he’s done in the past and how well he has us setup for the future. Well done, Tim!

Below is one of “Staff Spotlights” with Tim. Take a few minutes to learn how he got the repair shop started and how it’s grown over the years.

Teens See Music As A Bridge To Building Acceptance

Monday, January 13, 2020 No Comments

Teens see music as their “social glue” and as a bridge for building acceptance and tolerance for people of different ages and cultural backgrounds.

~ Presentation to U.S. Congress, 2007, Washington D.C. (Invited and arranged by the National Association of Music Merchants/NAMM, on “The Impact of Music on the Lives of Children and Adolescents”).

Mute Madness!

Thursday, January 9, 2020 No Comments

Happy Thursday, everyone. Today’s topic is one of my favorite to talk about: Mutes. As stated by Philip Smith, former principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic 1978-2014, “A trumpet player can never have enough mutes of varying types, shapes, sizes, and materials”. With that being said, as trumpet players (and other brass players who may be reading) we are often asked to use a device called a mute while playing certain music. This does not always mean making our sound softer per se, but changing our timbre. Today we’ll talk about the most common mute we are asked to use: the straight mute.

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The Practice Room Attention Diet

Tuesday, January 7, 2020 No Comments

In the time it took me to write this post, I checked my phone for messages four times, checked three separate email accounts, looked at two news sites, browsed a few restaurant menus and opened and closed who-knows-how-many search tabs. In short, I spent a lot of time “writing” that wasn’t actually writing. The same thing happens in the practice room.

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Music Is Spiritual and Mental Food

Monday, January 6, 2020 No Comments

It is said that the state of mankind improves through music; music not only trains but educates individuals and makes them fit for a life of community. Music is spiritual and mental food, an edifying and educational power. In comparison with sports (the motion of bodies), music (the motion of sounds) belongs to a higher sphere. In extreme cases, one encounters the tenet that music actually elevates man into a higher realm, transforming him into a new form of the human species.

~ Albrecht Riethmüller, “Music Beyond Ethics,” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, p. 170, Volume 65, Issue 3, 2008.

Music Training In Children Leads To Gains In Auditory Function

Monday, December 30, 2019 No Comments

Music training leads to greater gains in auditory and motor function when begun in young childhood; by adolescence, the plasticity that characterizes childhood has begun to decline. Nevertheless, our results establish that music training impacts the auditory system even when it is begun in adolescence, suggesting that a modest amount of training begun later in life can affect neural function.

~ Adam T. Tierney, Jennifer Krizman, Nina Kraus, “Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015.