Search
  • Mark Dulin
    • Apr 10, 2019
    • 1 min read

Listening

Updated: Apr 10, 2019

Before any discussion of how to play an instrument can happen the most basic of all questions must be addressed. What should it sound like? While the internet has provided a never ending supply of music, it has in many ways made truly gaining a sound concept more difficult to define. Previous generations relied on records and CDs which encouraged repetitive and intentional listening. Students now have so many choices that it is easy and tempting to try to sample as many different ideas as possible on what the trumpet should sound like as possible. The difficulty with this idea lies in the fact that is takes many hours of focused listening of the same material to really absorb a sound concept. This is not to say that a student should not hear many different players or styles, but that in order to gain a strong opinion of the sound they wish to produce repetition is essential.

5 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Using a scale sheet is the biggest impediment to young players learning scales for the first time. If students have learned chromatic scales first then they have all the tools necessary to achieve the

Often young students learn C, F and G major scales (Bb, Eb and F concert scales) first in a beginning band class. This makes sense because those keys are common keys in all music but especially in a c

Arnold Jacobs, the great tuba player of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and titan of brass pedagogy, often stated “make statements don’t ask questions”. When a student does not know the fingering for t