As I sit here writing this, the 2017-2018 school year is rapidly coming to a close.

This point in the academic calendar leaves me both excited at a few weeks of a lighter schedule and a little sad that this particular group of students and time period in our lives can never be recreated. We have grown together this year, and I am more proud of all my students than I can really express.  

The idea of commencement used to be lost on me. 'Why can't they just call it graduation?' Was my thought for years. Connotation is the difference. Graduation implies that something is complete or finished. Commencement implies that a new, exciting world is just around the corner, ready to be discovered.

Congrats to all graduates from this school year!  Now, as I am fond of saying, "go and do!"

As I sit here in Jonesboro with temperatures in the low to middle teens, I can't sleep, so I thought I would start 2018 out with a new blog post! I have 20 drafts saved, but only seem to be able to actually complete a thought every six months. For any of your fervent readers out there, I apologize, but life always seems to get in the way.

This past year was sort of like Dickens' famous opening lines from A Tale of Two Cities...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

When I think about this line, I always go back to how it feels to be overwhelmed. Usually we speak in absolutes when our emotional margin is in short supply. In those moments, it's important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. If you still can't see it, keep stepping until you can see how everything relates. For example, the first three months of 2017 included some amazing highs, such as performing Mahler's "Resurrection" with the Arkansas Symphony, and giving a trombone clinic to band directors at the State Music Convention. While these moments were great and I enjoyed every minute, the uncertainly of the future as it related to job situations and navigating a long distance marriage were, at times, almost too much to bear. If I had let them, they might have robbed me of the joy of those great experiences! The uncertainly, the NOT KNOWING, was worse than when we finally learned how things would proceed. Hearing news that shapes an uncertain, foggy future is liberating, because your imagination can take a break, and logic can return to center stage. Luckily, the second half of the year helped us see that there IS a plan, and if you can hold onto each other through the hard times, not only WILL you make it through, but the outcome is often better than what you could imagine.

There will be times when life will kick you when you're down. You won't feel like getting back up, but you MUST get back up, dust yourself off, and try again. It is in the relentless trying where we grow into the selves we were meant to become. Stay strong, my friends, and may 2018 offer you the best year yet!

Sorry, everybody.  I haven't actually posted a new blog entry since October of 2016. It has been a crazy year, and there simply isn't to keep up with everything and do anything well.

It's the middle of summer, there's a storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico named Cindy, and I am stuck in Indiana for a few extra days waiting on a car repair before the International Trombone Festival in California next week. Luckily, I am stuck here with my duet partner and wife, who is pretty good company.  We're looking forward to performing together with our friend and pianist Dr. Topher Ruggiero on Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM.

This blog post message is pretty simple. "Do less, and do better." Or put another way, calm your storm.

It's really easy to look at life with 2017 eyes that focus on scheduled social media posts and new Snaps each day. It can feel like you're behind the times if you aren't posting to Instagram 3 times a day. Instead, go the other way. If you believe that social media interaction is important, find one outlet and camp out there. Have accounts in the other places so people can find you, but in those places, tell them where you visit most often. If you have good content, they will find you.

If you are practicing this summer, take advantage of the summer pace. Maybe in your next practice session, focus on making really high quality, liquid smooth slow lip slurs. Really hold yourself to a high standard.  I mean, be really picky. Was the first time through good? GREAT! Now try it again, and aim for better than good. In the next session, check in on the slurs, but then focus on your single tonguing clarity. You don't have to get it all done right now, but get something done each time. Slow down your pace a little while you can. When you get frustrated, go for a walk in the park or float down the river in a kayak with a friend. Whatever you choose to spend your time doing, be present, stay in the moment, and try to enjoy the process of getting better.

There will be days in a week or a month or 3 months when you'll have to play practice triage, and won't have time to zero in on an individual aspect of your playing. 

So say it with me this time: "Do less, and do better."

Take care of yourselves and each other,

​BF

With all of the responsibilities of being a modern day college student, college can easily become an aimless, stumbling string of days punctuated only by final exams and holiday breaks. For this reason, I sketched out a simple worksheet to help my students map out their short and long term professional and personal goals. To borrow from Dave Ramsey, you have to put it "on paper, on purpose" to keep your goals from bouncing around in your head endlessly.

Whether you want to raise your GPA by half a grade point this semester, lose 30 pounds, add a fifth to your range, or finally kick your procrastination habit to the curb for good, the best place to start is with a little time for quiet reflection on what is truly important to you, a pencil, and the worksheet linked above. You'll be glad you did - especially on those days when the bed is warm and the pull to the practice room, library, or gym seems weaker than usual.

Are you enjoying these blog posts?  Help me out by sharing them on Facebook and Twitter!  Thanks!

There are all sorts of comments you expect to hear after a performance, but I'm pretty sure that "boring" isn't one of them. Despite my years of experience, I still fight the urge to take musical risks with my playing. After all, the safer playing route means fewer missed notes, and in a culture that seems to place a high priority on "passing the test," the safe path to "passing off" each etude probably seems like the logical one. But at what cost? ​It is often an issue in my students' playing, as well, and I have spent hours trying to figure out how I can change this.

I get it. I really do. You want to get better now, right? What does "getting better" really mean? What are your ultimate goals in music? ​There will come a day when technique alone will fall short in satisfying your musical soul, and that strong, passionate feeling deep in your bones needs to be fed regularly to stay healthy. I chose my instrument because it allows me to communicate with my audience in a special way that fits me perfectly. I have played many concerts and recitals where I played trombone well, but the times when I really connected with my audience were the times when I forgot they were there and tapped into the song in my head - and those moments fed my musical soul.

When working with my students, I try to start each lesson with something lyrical, like a Bordogni Vocalise or Cimera Phrasing Study. If a student is nervous or not completely warmed up, the elements of a lyrical etude can help calm the nerves, and serves as a great primer for the rest of the lesson. My students know the drill - I will follow the lyrical etude with three requests: 1. sing through several phrases loudly and proudly, 2. play the mouthpiece without the tongue, glissing between notes, and 3. perform at least a portion of the vocalise again. I have very rarely had a student do these three things and not immediately sound better and feel more confident in their interpretation. Each week, the lightbulb turns on, but at some point over the course of the following week, the light switches off, and has to be turned on again in the following lesson. I am left scratching my head, wondering how I can help remove the switch from this circuit so that the concept of musical dominance over trombone operation becomes hard wired.

​I don't come to this point as a teacher abstractly. I have plenty of experience on the other side of this equation.  For example, a couple of years ago, in the first few minutes of a lesson with a major American symphony trombonist* I was playing - you guessed it - a Bordogni Vocalise. I had played for this gentleman on several occasions, but despite my relative comfort in his presence, I felt the need to impress him with my trombone playing. Sure, there were musical thoughts in my head, but they weren't at the forefront of my mind. I played the entire etude, and felt pretty good about how I had played the trombone. In a gesture that seemed to last for a minute, he looked at me, then looked at the music, deep in thought.

"You played it well...but it was....well, it was boring."

You know that sinking feeling when you realize that you totally missed the point? He was totally right. I had spent so much time trying to play the trombone well that I had forgotten where my focus needed to be - on the music! My trombone operation, no matter how good it might have been, didn't make a bit of difference, because I didn't connect with him through my music making. Needless to say, that moment created a strong priority from that day forward.

Please don't get me wrong. I believe that technique is important. It is vital! We must play the instrument well. We practice for years so that our tools are maintained and ready to be used at our musical discretion, but there has to be a point in the process where the technique becomes secondary to the music. Much like a painter, we need many "brushes" to achieve the nuance of a great painting. So as you sit down for your next practice session, remember what you're trying to say through your instrument.

* = major American symphony trombonist was not named in this blog post, because I didn't ask for permission to use his name before I wrote this post.  :)

As a college teacher, I am often called upon to help students preparing for all-region and all-state auditions, solo and ensemble performances, and college auditions. Students are always looking for a competitive edge over others. It is easy to get into the mindset that a new mouthpiece or instrument is what you need - I have fallen victim to this more often than I would like to admit. The single greatest competitive edge you can gain over other auditioners is time well spent in the practice room.

The total investment if you have neither of my "two things" is around $50. These books are both "war horses" of the trombone repertoire: Schlossberg and Bordogni. I order every piece of sheet music I can from www.hickeys.com. The more music we come by honestly (or in other words, pay for with $$$), the slower the prices will rise on music that is currently available.

The Schlossberg Daily Drills and Technical Studies may seem like a daunting book, but I have an easy solution: choose exercises based on the day of the month. If it's the 11th, play 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, etc. Set a metronome on 54 and go for it, making sure that you play full note values and hold yourself to the highest standards of consistency. If something doesn't sound right, go back and do it again. Rest often.

For the Bordogni Vocalises Mulcahy Complete Edition or the 2011 Revised edition of the the Rochut book: play as written, in tenor clef (up a fifth), and tenor clef down an octave. Later, add down an octave and up an octave in bass clef. Breathe where needed, remove ornaments that inhibit smooth connections between notes, and most of all, enjoy your developing sound. If a phrase doesn't work, gliss-buzz through it slowly with careful attention to the pitch and keeping the vibrations going between notes.

A friendly, fair warning: these probably won't sound great the first several days, but it's kinda like the gym - you won't see results right away, but each session brings you one step closer to the body you want.

If you have any questions, or are unsure how to proceed, I would love to hop on Skype and help you get started.  Contact me if you could use some help!

​Have the right tools for the job, and make sure they work!

Imagine being a NASCAR or Formula One driver, trying to run the race with a flat tire?  The car will still run, but it won't run anywhere as efficiently as it would if you stopped to fix the problem.  Noisy or sluggish trigger? Slow slide?  Take it to a quality repair technician - fix that flat tire!  Email me if you need the name and number of a great repair technician!
 
If you don’t have to change the batteries in your metronome and tuner regularly, you should use them more often.
 
Now that I have an office with a sound system and a smart phone, I don't use my Dr. Beat as much as I used to, but when I was a student using practice rooms, I changed my batteries pretty often after I started using them every practice session.

MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS!! If you use a smart phone or tablet to help you practice, put it on Airplane Mode.

Lots of students use metronome and tuner apps on their phones.  Isn't technology great?  However, if you really want to use it as a practice tool, you'll need to keep all of those texts and notifications from interrupting you every 2 minutes.  Nearly everything can wait half an hour!
 
Learn the meaning of every word and marking on the page. Don’t guess – Google it!

This will help you know exactly what the composer wanted the piece to sound like.  It's so easy to figure these things out now with a smartphone or computer.  
 
Don’t always start playing at the beginning of the song.

When I was in high school, my teachers would ask me to start halfway through the etude or solo, and I would need a few seconds to "fast forward" through the music from the beginning to get my bearings.  This is silly and unnecessary!  What will you do if they ask you to play the last third of the etude on the audition?  Be ready for anything.  :)
 
Record yourself to know what you sound like to other people’s ears.  I promise that it’s different!

Have you ever noticed that your voice sounds different on a voicemail or video than it does when you speak out loud?  Your trombone sound works the same way.  If you want to know how you sound to other people, the recorder is the answer!  Are you always the person who finishes one chair below the cut?  Take your playing to the next level by listening to your recordings, evaluate what you hear over multiple playbacks, circle the problem areas, and direct your practice there.
 
If you want to get better, challenge yourself to play with players who are better than you.

Being the "best trombone player at _________ High School" is certainly something to be proud of, but your musical world should stretch BEYOND the walls of your alma mater!  If you are the big fish in a small pond, it's time to find a bigger pond!  Audition for summer camps, music festivals, and solo contests. If you or your parents are curious about your "chances" of success as a professional musician, these outlets are a GREAT way to know for sure!

When you go to sleep tonight, someone is staying up late to practice.

I first heard this quote from Jeffrey Reynolds, retired bass trombonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when I was in high school, and it has absolutely been true in my experience ever since.  No matter how hard you work, know that someone out there is hungrier and more ambitious.  If you are satisfied with where you stack up, then go to bed with a clear conscience.  However, if you've been slacking lately, it's probably time to get back to work.  :)

When it comes to music, the turtle will always win the race. Start slow, stay steady, and enjoy the journey!

Too often, we get so busy that our practice sessions become rushed and frantic.  When you feel these emotions taking over, it is even MORE important to practice slowly and deliberately.  Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare?  The rabbit was clearly faster than the turtle, but he was so confident in his ability to win that he fell asleep, while the turtle never stopped going.  Are you the rabbit, or the turtle?  The biggest difference will be your sense of urgency at the beginning of the process!  Oh, and don't forget that this is supposed to be FUN!  I would love to be able to go back and learn these things all over again.

​Good luck on your auditions, and let me know if this handout helped you!

I often have students ask me what instrument they should buy, or which mouthpiece they should try out next. While I have my preferences on the subject of equipment, I also recognize that quality products cost a fair amount of money, and these purchases shouldn't be made on a whim.

I currently play an Edwards Alessi Model, T396-A, with a Griego 55 mouthpiece. I play this equipment because it helps me sound the way I want to sound in the various settings I find myself playing most often, namely solo recitals, brass quintet, and occasional large ensemble playing. I don't make a dime as an Edwards artist, and I don't make a dime off of any Edwards, Getzen, or Griego product purchased by my students. It is a relationship built on trust in great products and those who make those products.

My students play all kinds of trombones! If you attend a trombone studio recital or trombone choir concert, you'll see Conn, Bach, Getzen, and Yamaha trombones, and even more variety of mouthpiece brands. Most often, I suggest a 5G sized mouthpiece if you play tenor, and something near a 1 1/2 G for bass trombone. Over time, we work together to tailor equipment to what best suits the student, but these are solid starting points. My bass trombonists really enjoy the sound and comfort of the Griego GP mouthpiece, but both of these students found this mouthpiece on their own.

Bottom line?  I've been primarily a Bach and Edwards player over the past 20 years, and the majority of that time has been with Edwards Trombones. If I saved the money I spent on various models and variations on models though the years and spent it on lessons with master players and teachers, I'd be further ahead in my playing than any new trombone could possibly help me achieve.

When you've practiced your way into better playing, you'll have better insight into when it's time to make an instrument change. Then make the trip to Elkhorn, Wisconsin and have Christan and his crew help fit you to a great instrument. :)