9. All Life is a Privilege

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master

-Duke Ellington

It is so easy to think we are deserving of what we have and what we can get. It is a trap to believe that we are entitled to something, or have worked hard enough to have earned it.

Somewhere in the middle of trumpet camp, director Bob Baca made the comment to us:

• Everything is a privilege. We don't deserve any of it.

We all shook our heads in some kind of understanding. It made some kind of sense. We don't "deserve" it.

So as I started writing this week's post I decided to think more about the word "privilege" and was surprised to be reminded that the word can be very loaded with negative connotations.

Here are three ways to define "privilege." These are from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and show how it can certainly be a negative idea:

• a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others
• the advantage that wealthy and powerful people have over other people in a society
• a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

Using the word "privilege" begins to sound like an entitlement some people expect or get simply because of who they are. It is a special "right" that not every one has and that can easily be used to put others down or elevate ourselves more highly than we ought to.

But that's not where I want to go with this. That's not what was meant when we were told that "Everything is a privilege." In reality, the word privilege when used in this was is actually a humbling word.

Let's look at the last one of the above definitions for our purposes here this week:

• a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

I would expand that a little by using several examples:

• I have been privileged to have known a number of deeply committed people in my life.
• I have been privileged to be allowed to help other people in my work.
• I have been privileged to be part of an amazing group that helps others.

All these recognize that not everyone may have had the same "privileges" as I have, but these are not mine because of something I am or who I am or even what I have done. I have been given the honor of doing these things.

That humbles me since it is not by my good works or special talents that have allowed me this honor. Many times it may simply be that I was in the right place at the right time.

What does this have to do with my trumpet playing? How could this impact how I play, practice, or interact with others?

For me it starts with the awareness that the opportunities I have to be a musician start out as a privilege. Not everyone has these opportunities nor does everyone want them. I have been fortunate to have the opportunities, the time, (hopefully) the talent to do something wonderful like making music. It does not make me any more special than anyone else. It is simply what I have been given and worked at developing.

The key to that is to then remember that when I face someone who may have different skills or interests than I do. It means accepting the musician who is better than I am- and supporting the one who is not as good as I am. It puts me in the better position of having to prove anything- or disprove anything. I can simply be the player- and person I am.

It also means that I am also being given the privilege from time to time to give others of what I have been given. Through my music in the different groups I play with, I am giving to those listening and to those who play in the group with me, a piece of myself. If I believe that music is as important as I say it is, it is humbling to be able to share in whatever ways possible with others. The opportunities are endless.

But I am also privileged to receive from my co-musicians as we make the music together. It is all a give and take. When I live as if all I have is a privilege, I can make a difference in my own life as well as the lives of others.

Like everything else, and as I always seem to be saying-

that's a lot like life.

8. Efficiency and Planning Practice

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.

― Plato, The Republic

 
Let me start with a confession… Sometimes we write about things that we aren’t doing in order to make ourselves research and then, if the stars align correctly and the rivers don’t flood, we may actually try what we are talking about.  In other words, I am, not good at this week’s topic:

Efficiency and planning in practice.

I never have been. I don’t believe I am alone. Most of us play instruments because we want to play music. Long tones, then playing scales or chromatics and endless lip slurs begins to sound boring. At best. So we collect song books, method books, lesson books, etudes, etc. in the vain hope that the more we have to choose from the more likely we will be to actually play them.

Sure we have Arban’s, Clarke AND Schlossberg. We may even have tried to put together some routine out of them. We are good for a while and then get sidetracked by any one of a number of things.

At Trumpet Camp in August we all received a handout that had the start of a decent daily routine. I added some Arban’s and Schlossberg to is and soon was in the groove of regular practice. With the exception of a period in September when circumstances were beyond my control, I have been doing quite well.

The result is as expected. My range, tone, style, technique, and endurance have almost skyrocketed. But the efficiency is beginning to wane. I am now finding myself being distracted as I am playing long tones or missing fingering on chromatics that we all have played for years.

In other words, I may be playing my trumpet, but I am not practicing as efficiently as I did in mid-August. Some days I do slurs, other days sight-reading. One day I will work through scale exercises and the next play rhythm challenges. Am I getting better? Sure. My embouchure is improving and my tone is the best it’s probably ever been. But I’m just kind of wandering around the practice. I am only now beginning to ask, “What is it I need to be working on?”

So I went surfing and Googling on the Web to see what’s out there. Let me start with a list from Wynton. (Do I need to give his last name?)

THE WYNTON MARSALIS 12 RULES OF EFFECTIVE PRACTICE:

1. Seek out the best private instruction you can afford.

2. Write/work out a regular practice schedule.

3. Set realistic goals.

4. Concentrate when practicing

5. Relax and practice slowly

6. Practice what you can't play. - (The hard parts.)

7. Always play with maximum expression.

8. Don't be too hard on yourself.

9. Don't show off.

10. Think for yourself. - (Don't rely on methods.)

11. Be optimistic. - "Music washes away the dust of everyday life."

12. Look for connections between your music and other things.

-Link

What then, to look at the top of Wynton’s list, should go on my list? What should my schedule look like? What do I need to develop?

Here’s a place to start on schedule and planning as found on The Trumpet Studio:

What is Skill Building?

Begin working on a particular skill (tonguing, scales, range) in simple, attainable steps, then increasing the difficulty SLIGHTLY. Practicing that level for many repetitions UNTIL MASTERED, then increasing the difficulty. It may take hours, days or weeks to MASTER a particular level. Mastery is obtained when you can play a particular passage or selection 10-15 times at the given metronome marking with no mistakes.

-Link

It is clear that this doesn’t happen overnight. On the Trumpet Studio the plan to move from single to double-tounguing mastery can probably take up to 6 months moving across all the scales. That picks up on Wynton’s #5- practice slowly, which can also expand into "Practice patiently."

What are my realistic goals? What are the essentials of becoming a more efficient and capable trumpet player? I need to look at what I can already do and see where the growth needs to happen. A year ago I decided to work hard at sight-reading, one of my poorer skills. I got the Getchell 2nd Book of Practical Studies and just started working through it. (No, I wasn’t very organized at it. I just kept playing the next exercise until I reached the end.) Did it work? Yep. Could it have worked better if I hadn’t been impatient? Yep. Am I happy with where it took me? Yep. Could I continue to do better? You bet.

But that “better” will be more than just sight-reading. It will be in technique as I learn to play the dynamics and tone of the song. But the days I work too much on that, I don’t do scales or slurs. There’s always a trade-off. That brings me back to the scheduling and deciding what my goals are to be. Which takes me to #1 on the list- an instructor/teacher. Yes, I have had them. But I have not been able to use them as effectively as possible.

See how it gets complicated and how someone like me who is not Mr. Organization can get turned off to practicing and end up getting nowhere?

Let me challenge you and me, then, to begin to make a list of the goals we want to achieve in the next few months. Let’s talk to our instructors about ways to move forward. Agree to a schedule but don’t be so rigid that you get angry if you miss it by a day or even hour.

This is supposed to be fun.

And make sure you take time to play music. After all, that’s why we practice.

Which, as I have said before, is a lot like life. And as ever, more to come as these continue to develop.

7. Bloom Where (and Who) You Are

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Blow your life through your horn.

Arturo Sandoval

One could ask, who else's life could you blow through the horn? Well, sadly, many times we try to be something or someone we are not. We can have role models, but we can't be them. We can wish for other times or places, but we only have what we have in front of us. Here's my "back story" for this post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost 50 years ago I attended my first professional, big-time concert. It was August 1966 and I had just graduated from high school. I had been playing trumpet for almost four years, had achieved first chair status the previous year, and played in a local "garage band" that covered Tijuana Brass music.

That first concert I ever went to was at the Allentown Fair in Allentown, PA, and featured my hero- Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. (Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66 opened for them with their lead singer, Lani Hall.) I was in heaven.

A few months later the TJB came out with their seventh album, S.R.O. and there, on the back was a picture taken at that concert!

Jump ahead by these past 49 years and 2 months. That 18-year old trumpeter (me) is now a 67-year old trumpeter, probably better than I ever was. The trumpet player on-stage is now an 80-year old trumpet player with a new album just released and in the middle of a concert tour.

Both of us are still playing, Lani Hall, now his wife, is still singing... and I had the pleasure and exciting honor of attending their concert and meeting him two weeks ago at Rochester's Riverside Live! Concert series.

Herb Alpert is also better than ever.

While this is not a review of the show, I will say that it was amazing and far more than would be expected. His ability at the trumpet is outstanding and his sense of music-making is better than ever. He plays jazz in a number of different styles, engages the audience in questions and answers, and is having a great time. He is doing this, I am sure, because he likes it. Music is his life and he needs to share it, on-stage, with others. He doesn't need to do this- he likes doing it.

That's part of the "who" of Herb Alpert. He tips his hat to the music that made him famous with a medley of TJB music, but that's not the highlight of the show. The Tijuana Brass is who he WAS. Many other artists would capitalize on that old music. Alpert is not interested in that. He wants to entertain with who he IS.

He capitalizes on his skill and the ability to do what he does with style and professionalism. He is not a "screaming" trumpet player. He takes the horn and makes the music that he knows he can make with presence and quality. Within that he uses all the notes of the horn in his solid range. At age 80 he utilizes the wisdom he has acquired over decades of making music to enhance his style and move it forward.

Within the solid range of the trumpet he advances the music as both confident soloist and self-assured leader of the quartet. He plays standards then improvises and innovates. He trades fours with the drummer who moves into an extended solo that Alpert returns to as it falls into place.

That is the "where" of Herb Alpert- the here and now. Someone from the audience asked him who he wished he had played with and he commented that he had the opportunity to play with Miles Davis. But he added that he didn't feel it was right. That wasn't who he was. (I would disagree, but then I am a fan of both of them.)

One can listen to Maynard Ferguson and try to be a "screamer." But without the skill and "chops," doing that will become a disaster. One can try to continually repeat what used to be. That, too, wouldn't work.

Being real- being oneself- is what life is really all about. It shows up on the trumpet, but it also shows up at home in our families and at work with colleagues as well as in whatever we try to do on a daily basis. If I try to be someone I cannot be- or someone I once was- it will not be real.

Who am I?

Where am I in my life's growth?

How can I use my here and now skills and resources to keep moving forward into whatever comes next?

Answer those questions- every day. Seek to build on where you were yesterday, moving into where you want to be tomorrow, by doing what you can do today!

I sat in humility watching and listening to Alpert, but he also encouraged me by still doing what he does better than ever.

We do not stop innovating because we have gotten older.  We do not stop improving what we can do because we don't have the same skills as someone else. We can each find our place regardless of age, skill, or time.

If we are young, take heart that you haven't reach the pinnacle of what you can be. Keep at it. What does Herb Alpert do when he is not on a concert tour or on days he performs? He does scales. The simple, basic building blogs of all that we do. Scales. (I am sure he does a lot of other things, too, but he builds that on the basics.)

So, Herb Alpert, thank you for growing and still performing, clearly enjoying life and taking time to greet me and remind me what life is all about.

6. Hear the Inner Music

Music is the language of the spirit.

It opens the secret of life bringing peace,

abolishing strife.

― Kahlil Gibran

More than once on this blog you will find me writing about the "Inner Game." This is based originally on the work of Timothy Gallwey's 1972 classic, The Inner Game of Tennis.

Where I want to start in this post is to talk about what is there, inside, where we do the work of the Inner Game. What we find there, I am convinced is the soul, the spirit, that we all have in common but which is expressed in unique ways in each of us. In the midst of that spirit is music, the language of the soul. A large part of what a musician does is get in touch with that inner language and then use the tools of the Inner Game to move that language outward.

We can easily lose this when we think about the music too much. If we try to read it, analyze it, dissect it as if it were a science experiment, we won't hear the music.

When we begin music it is like learning any language. Whether it was as infants picking up our native tongue or learning a second- or third-language as we got older, we start first with listening and then the basics of the language- notes, time, etc.

Surprisingly (or not) with the language of music it is actually a short jump from "This is a note." to "This is a measure." and on to phrases, songs, and beyond. I watched an instructor take a complete non-trumpet player from nothing to playing a simple song in less than 30 minutes. That included learning how to make the sound.

I'm not going into detail on that at this time, but it was fun to watch. The volunteer was doing this in front of a room full of trumpet players and was somewhat nervous. But in the end it worked. And we all learned something.

One of the things that I think makes this happen is simply that there is music within us. Our minds, bodies, spirits all respond to music in one way or another. We have an inner rhythm (our heartbeat, for instance) and an awareness of the music around us.

The fact is that at any level of playing music, we have to, in one way or another, hear the inner music. With some songs it is easier than others. There is a hook, or phrase that gets our attention. A local composer has written a few marches for our community band. One run through and I found myself humming the tune. I don't know what it is, but he has a way to connect with my inner music, and I guess the inner music of others.

Then as you work on a musical piece you can be freed to move within the music and no longer be an observer of it. That's the part of the inner music- singing it to yourself, reading it as music, not notes on a staff. The desire to "figure it out" through logic or tricks doesn't allow the music to flow.

We aren't used to learning music through the inner music. Brandyn said to me:

If you think about the next passage instead of just hearing it you'll create obstacles and that's bad. Just keeping that mindset of singing everything and letting go of everything else is by far the hardest thing and most unfamiliar thing for me to work on.

But when we learn how to do it, it will amaze us. The music we will be able to make will increase drastically each time.

That is where we will look in later periodic posts at the inner game of music. How do we free up this inner music? How does part of us (called Self 1) keep us from doing it and how can we free Self 2 to allow it to happen? It works in all of our lives. The result is musical.