[TPIN] Lesson w/Roger Ingram

[Donovan Bankhead]

Can I make a recommendation to you all? Please, find a way to get a
lesson with Roger. Many of you know me, and know that I've taken
lessons with some of the best players in this industry. I've had some
fabulous lessons, but never did find someone that would help me get
over a major hurdle that I had. That is until last March when I took a
lesson with Roger.

I can't even remember why I contacted him for a lesson. I've more or
less given up playing the trumpet at a high level over the last 5-6
years. I had become so dejected and frustrated with this stupid piece
of plumbing that I had lost hope of playing at a high level again. But
for some reason, probably from something someone said on TH, I decided
to check out Roger's website. I looked at his schedule, and saw that
he would be in St. Louis, about 4 hours away from me, in March 2007. I
figured, "what the heck, I'll drop him a line". He had a time open,
and I agreed to take the lesson.

I almost didn't go. After all of the lessons I had, I was starting to
think that there probably wasn't any hope for me. But, I had given him
my word and booked the slot (the only one available for that day), and
felt obligated to attend, so I did.

The lesson started off fine. In fact, it started off with us walking
down to the green room and eating. We got to talk a bit, he asked
about my background, etc. He asked why I was there, and what I wanted
to learn. We chatted about that for a while, then went back to the
dressing room for the playing part of the lesson.

We must have played for an hour, and honestly, for most of it I wasn't
really feeling like this lesson would help that much (a sign of my
depression about playing). However, during this time Roger was putting
my chops to the test to determine where they are breaking down.
Forty-five minutes into playing, Roger stops me and says "I can see
that you are a good trumpet player. And, I can see what is going
wrong. I can help you fix that". I looked at him kind of dumbfounded,
and then listened to his advice. While listening, I remembered
something Brian McDonald (former lead trumpet with MF) told me. He
said that he went to study with Roger, and told himself that he was
going to do whatever Roger told him to do. I thought, "so will I. What
do I have to lose"?

Now, the advice that he gave me was specific for me, so I won't share
it here as it applied to me specifically. And thus the point of this
message: the man was able to diagnose what was wrong, and help me fix
it.

That was about a month ago. My playing is way better than what it used
to be. All of the lessons I've taken from my collegiate trumpet
instructor, Bobby Shew, Jim Manley, et al finally really started
making sense. I could finally apply that knowledge. Best of all,
playing the trumpet is fun again.

So, sorry for the long post, but please, do yourself a favor:
www.rogeringram.com

-- 
Donovan Bankhead
donovan at springfield-music.com
dkbmusic at gmail.com