[TPIN] Suggestions for high school trumpet players

[Mark Schwartz]

Hi Larry,

I agree with Dave Lee. I'll use me as an example and one of my best students from the past as another.

I became relatively serious by age 13 (7th grade). John Coffey was my teacher at the time. He was a brass-teaching legend in Boston (principal trombone with the Boston Symphony forever) and owned a music store on Huntington Avenue. He never pushed me to even look at a new horn until I asked. Even then, he had me try a few horns and said, "Wait a while, kid." The only thing he did was to switch me from a Bach 7C mouthpiece to a Giardinelli (I don't even remember what kind other than that it was about the same as a 3C but with a bigger rim, a wider throat and a slightly shallower cup.

After Mr. Coffey, I started in earnest with Leon Merian. Leon, though, taught me for two years before he switched me to a pro-type horn (at age 15) and even at that it was only a medium-bore Bach Stradivarius - still not a particularly heavy-duty horn. He, switched me to a Jet-Tone T2A, though, and that combination lasted until my mom was in an accident with my horn in the trunk. Some jerk apparently stole it (and my flugelhorn) when the car was out at the tow lot (my mom had to be taken to the hospital). Since Leon and I both needed new horns, he and I began working with Benge to design something new and special for him. I was around 17 at the time and playing part-time with his "little" big band (2-trombones, 4 trumpets + Leon, Bass, Piano and Drums, no reeds). He had me try his horn and...WOW, what a difference in sound! He therefore asked Benge to make a duplicate for me and I'm still playing that horn to this day - some 33 years later.

Well, my sound virtually doubled over the next few months and my upper range (mostly up to about A above high-C, none of that Maynard stuff for me I'm afraid) filled out quite nicely. In fact my sound was just about big enough to lead his trumpet section (Leon led when he wasn't soloing, of course). As I look back, he had a great trumpet section. I was hardly a good enough musician to even stand on the same stage as those guys, but while they were great sight-readers and soloists, they were jazz players, not really lead players. However, they were all Berklee teachers, so I got to learn a LOT from all of them. It really was a great learning experience, because all of them had big band experience (Jeff Stout had just come off the road from playing with Buddy Rich. His brother, Pat, had played everywhere with everyone and the other two had been knocking around the studio gigs and big bands with Leon since the fifties). Thus, I had 4 great trumpet teachers kicking my behind so that I might someday learn how to become a lead player (alas, it never happened - I'm an accountant these days). As I look back, it was the horn, more than anything else, that gave me the ability to push out enough sound to get by. It made that much of a difference!

Now my student, on the other hand, was a phenom. In the 7th grade, he was just learning to play, but by the 9th grade he was playing Haydn with the BSO. Roger Voisin, over at Boston University, moved him up to a medium-large bore Bach at about 16 and with that he developed a really full, rich sound. However, he was (and still is) a phenom. Richard, though, was very unusual.

Generally, kids with nice horns have parents buying them to show off that they can afford it. My son shows up for band (9th grade) with a $350 Holton that is a hand-me-down from his brother, who is ten years older than he is. Still, he gets to show up for concerts with my Benge, barely able fill the horn with enough air. In other words, he doesn't really need such a serious horn yet.

Bottom line: I would say, I needed to move to the Bach at 15 mostly, as Dave said, for the psychological push. It was at that point that I started practicing 4-hours a day consistently and seriously. Before that my practice discipline was a catch-as-catch-can: sometimes 2-hours, sometimes 15-minutes, sometimes not at all. I surely didn't need my Benge until I was a junior in high school and that was with the much stepped-up consistent practicing over a couple years. Only unusually gifted players, like my old student, would need anything like a true pro model horn much sooner than about junior-year in high school.

Hope that all helps a little anyway.

Mark H. Schwartz, Senior Manager

 

CFO Tech, PLLC

15333 North Pima Road

Suite 235

Scottsdale, AZ  85260-2783

Tel: (480) 219-8705 • Fax: (480) 219-9071

Mobile: (480) 252-6304

Email: mark at cfotech.net 


-----Original Message-----
From: tpin-bounces+mark=cfotech.net at tpin.okcu.edu [mailto:tpin-bounces+mark=cfotech.net at tpin.okcu.edu] On Behalf Of Tualatin Valley Brass
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 8:12 PM
To: tpin at tpin.okcu.edu
Subject: [TPIN] Suggestons for high school trumpet players

First time middle school students usually rent from a music store. They usually use those horns throughout middle school, but then what? When is the best time to buy a better trumpet? If they want to take lessons I usually don't make an issue of their horn unless I can see that it's holding them back. Ideas? Thoughts? Comments? Brands to suggest? Avoid?

Larry Beck
-----------------
Tualatin Valley Brass
tvbrass at gmail.com
_______________________________________________
TPIN mailing list
TPIN at tpin.okcu.edu
http://tpin.okcu.edu/mailman/listinfo/tpin

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.4/1355 - Release Date: 4/1/2008 5:37 PM
 

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.4/1355 - Release Date: 4/1/2008 5:37 PM