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.
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.
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.
Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training.
With the holiday season upon us, I’d like to give you some listening suggestions for some incredible Christmas music that heavily features trombones.
On this timeless classic, Duke Ellington took favorites from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and adapted them for jazz orchestra. This is album is one of the all-time great jazz records that shows Ellington’s genius in transforming music that we’ve all heard time and time again into something both familiar and completely unique.
We like to share this post each year to give you some ideas for practicing at home over break!
You’ve made it through the first half of the school year! For many of you, that means you’ve probably played a few concerts, recently completed your marching band season, or maybe you’re headed to the Rose Parade. With winter comes the thrill of pep band, the improvisation of jazz band, the spinning of winter guard, or the rhythms of winter percussion. You know by now, being a musician is a never-ending process with performances and rehearsals perpetually around the corner.
Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.
Raise your hand if you’ve had a band teacher or private instructor tell you that you needed to go from your 7C to a 5C, then to a 3C, then to a 1-1/2C and so on and so forth. Ok, now that we’ve all put our hands up, let’s get down to my unpopular opinion: There is no set progression for mouthpieces. They are not like shoes where you start with a size 5 and eventually get up to a size 12.
As discussed earlier on October 3rd, 2019; we talked about some factors that help us choose mouthpieces. Today we will briefly discuss a couple of those and other things to think about when testing mouthpieces.