Summertime for many of us means time off from our regular routine – no classes, not as many concerts, etc.  I always view summer as a great opportunity to get to know the trumpet again.  Here are a few suggestions for summer practice:

1.  Set goals.  This can be as easy as saying you are going to play the trumpet every day!  (an excellent goal, in my opinion…)  It’s a great time to work on areas of our playing that might get neglected during the regular season.  Clean up that double tonguing?  Play through all the Arban Characteristic studies?  Clarke studies?  This is the time…

2.  Learn new material.  Without all the pressure of multiple concerts, this is a great time to start learning new material.  Start looking at new works, begin working on recital material or orchestral excerpts, or just explore.  Transcribe and memorize some jazz trumpet solos – even if you don’t play jazz.

3.  Make practice your daily meditation.  Flow studies, scales and arpeggios make great meditative practice routines.  Don’t try to play them faster or better – just play them.  Enjoy the moment.  Which leads to the final suggestion;

4.  Have fun! Enjoy your trumpet.  Make music.

Have a great summer!

Capital BrassWorks will be performing a concert at the Westben Arts Festival in Campbellford, Ont. Canada July 16, 2011.  For more information you can contact the Westben Arts Festival at www.westben.ca/

I’ll be spending a great two weeks of music and teaching at the Crane Youth Music camp at the Crane School of Music.  Performances by the Potsdam Brass Quintet and the Orchestra of Northern New York.

I will be a master clinician at the Music For All summer symposium on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie Indiana, sponsored by Yamaha.

http://www.musicforall.org/what-we-do/summer-camp

I asked Jim a few questions about the project.

You have spent much of your life as a professional trumpet player. When did you begin composing?

I began composing in the summer of 1993, completely by chance. I had been arranging at that point (for Erich Kunzel, late conductor of Cincinnati Pops) – and wanted to try my hand at composing. I went to Northwestern for a summer program entitled” “Adventures in Bad Music”. It was just a discussion group whose purpose it was to discuss what made “bad music” is bad? Example of discussion: “If 100 trained classical musicians think country western music is “bad”, but 2 million people are buying those records/CDs, is it really “bad music”? Anyway, the final assignment was to write a BAD piece of music. I failed – the class liked my piece. So, that’s how it all began.

What inspired you to begin the Day-Tude project?

Actually a colleague/fellow composer Robert Ian Winstin was doing the same thing for piano. (Except he got at up at 3 am to do his!) I decided to give it a go for trumpet. Plus, my hidden agenda: I needed to begin getting in shape to play an Easter gig (yes, I still play trumpet from time to time) and I’m not good/patient at doing long tones, so I decided to combine practicing with inventing etudes, and it turned out to be really fun!

How do you view the relationship between composer and performer, and how has this experience affected that role?

Completely unexpected result was everyone chiming in on how cool it was to receive a “piece” the very day (or sometimes just minutes after) it was composed. Everyone got to enjoy his or her very own personal “world premiere”. And for me it became exciting to keep at it – knowing there was an expectation out there. It was also fun to receive suggestions from everyone, on what I might try for the next day. It became a real interactive process that way. There still is a barrier for me; I do believe I have a lot of worthwhile pieces for trumpet players to explore: my sonatas, my concertos, other recital pieces, chamber music, etc. I look online on various websites, or trumpet listservs, and see that everyone is always programming the mainstays: Hindemith, Tomasi, Haydn, Hummel, etc – and this is absolutely a must, of course, but I think there is something to be said for seeking out music from us living composers who are creating that stuff right now (or trying to). Just think how cool it would have been to email Hindemith and ask him what he meant with his tempos, or with the final chorale, etc, and hear from him DIRECTLY. This information age we live in now is fascinating in that regard.

What has it been like to write a daily etude for the trumpet?

A completely revealing experience. I didn’t know if I would have it in me to continue coming up with new ideas on a daily basis, but I found that the more I did it, the more I found in the well. This has actually given me a strange kind of confidence to keep moving forward as a composer. So in essence, the result was entirely positive.

Jim will be doing another “Day-tude” project in April – this time intermediate etudes. Early subscriptions are just $25.00. You can subscribe here. This is a great opportunity that I highly recommend!