Expansion of sound exercise
1. Play a comfortable note.
2. Feel the note resonate in your feet.
3. Then continue that feeling all the way up to the top of your head.
4. Feel your whole body resonate with that note.
5. Then expand that feeling of resonance all around you as if that resonance IS your body.
6. Keep going a bit at a time, expanding inch by inch with your 'sonic body' expanding until it fills the whole room you are in. Until the whole room IS your 'sonic body.'
7. This can continue until it goes outside of the room. But the room is a good place to start!
Try it on different notes, just for 5 or so minutes a day.
Then start using it on solos or certain excerpts.
** Make sure to really fill ALL PARTS of your body with the sound. From the back of your head, to your armpits and all the way to the soles of your feet. Even your hands and in between your fingers. (Knee caps too!). It will open up all sorts of things about resonance, your body, air and more!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
TEACHER'S LOG, SCHOOL DATE 1-8-12
yes and NO
There are many ways that one can hear music or make music. The other day I was talking to the NEC Prep Trombone Choir and brought up how music can be saying yes or no. I had them say yes and no and there was not a lot of difference! This was interesting to me because there can be a huge difference depending on the reason it is being said and the emotional content and context behind it. As everyone has experienced in their own life, there are many ways to express yes and no. Since music can be the vehicle for such a wide range of expression and communication, I personally find it useful, insightful and fun to take something as natural and as seemingly simple as yes and no and listen to music with that mindset.
I told the students about the time I was on a school bus in 8th grade and not feeling very well at all! The bus was angled down a hill and was also coming to a very slow stop with a lot of jerks. I thought I was really going to loose my cookies in front of all my classmates which really upped the anxiety! Then suddenly, I started to think of the opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Da da da daaaaa! Da da da daaaaaaaa! I got so absorbed in it that I lost touch with my nauseated stomach and kept singing that first movement. By the time the school bus got to school I felt great! No lost cookies! That really started to confirm to me how powerful music can be to change a physical and mental state. From that point on, I always refer to that first movement of the Beethoven's 5th, the NO Symphony. NO NO NO NOOOOOOO! That first movement can also strengthen will power. It certainly did mine!
So, why not try an experiment and listen to music and feel the 'yes and no' and where plus how it transitions to the other. You will learn a lot about phrasing and what the music might be saying that you never heard before. I wonder who wrote some maybe symphonies????
There are many ways that one can hear music or make music. The other day I was talking to the NEC Prep Trombone Choir and brought up how music can be saying yes or no. I had them say yes and no and there was not a lot of difference! This was interesting to me because there can be a huge difference depending on the reason it is being said and the emotional content and context behind it. As everyone has experienced in their own life, there are many ways to express yes and no. Since music can be the vehicle for such a wide range of expression and communication, I personally find it useful, insightful and fun to take something as natural and as seemingly simple as yes and no and listen to music with that mindset.
I told the students about the time I was on a school bus in 8th grade and not feeling very well at all! The bus was angled down a hill and was also coming to a very slow stop with a lot of jerks. I thought I was really going to loose my cookies in front of all my classmates which really upped the anxiety! Then suddenly, I started to think of the opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Da da da daaaaa! Da da da daaaaaaaa! I got so absorbed in it that I lost touch with my nauseated stomach and kept singing that first movement. By the time the school bus got to school I felt great! No lost cookies! That really started to confirm to me how powerful music can be to change a physical and mental state. From that point on, I always refer to that first movement of the Beethoven's 5th, the NO Symphony. NO NO NO NOOOOOOO! That first movement can also strengthen will power. It certainly did mine!
So, why not try an experiment and listen to music and feel the 'yes and no' and where plus how it transitions to the other. You will learn a lot about phrasing and what the music might be saying that you never heard before. I wonder who wrote some maybe symphonies????
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to all who read my blog.
A year is new for sure. It is an orbit around the sun. Each day is new. Since I started this post we have moved hundreds of miles in space. In fact the whole galaxy has moved. Many new cells have been born and many have died. Life is always moving. In light of that Truth, isn't it amazing how we can get mentally and emotionally stuck? So the New Year is as new to us as we are new to each moment.
I try to accept each day as new and unique. I put this into my playing even though my warm up is basically the 'same.' It might be the same but it is different each day. Bringing our mind and feelings into a slightly different angle each day can help and refresh our perceptions and have more appreciation for our opportunities that we are constantly surrounded by if only we could see them.
Try this: Take one aspect of your playing, and just feel it and observe it. Not overly think it, just feel and observe it. Get really into it. Take a few notes on what you are noticing and feeling. Even be aware of your mental judgement. Write it all down. Then read it a bit later. See how you feel and think after you read it later and write that down. You will discover lots..
Happy New Moment!
A year is new for sure. It is an orbit around the sun. Each day is new. Since I started this post we have moved hundreds of miles in space. In fact the whole galaxy has moved. Many new cells have been born and many have died. Life is always moving. In light of that Truth, isn't it amazing how we can get mentally and emotionally stuck? So the New Year is as new to us as we are new to each moment.
I try to accept each day as new and unique. I put this into my playing even though my warm up is basically the 'same.' It might be the same but it is different each day. Bringing our mind and feelings into a slightly different angle each day can help and refresh our perceptions and have more appreciation for our opportunities that we are constantly surrounded by if only we could see them.
Try this: Take one aspect of your playing, and just feel it and observe it. Not overly think it, just feel and observe it. Get really into it. Take a few notes on what you are noticing and feeling. Even be aware of your mental judgement. Write it all down. Then read it a bit later. See how you feel and think after you read it later and write that down. You will discover lots..
Happy New Moment!
Friday, December 30, 2011
TEACHER'S LOG, SCHOOL DATE 12-30-11
I thought this might be a good way to end the Teacher's Log for this semester and the last post on the blog for 2011. It was a poem I sent to all my students at the end of the semester who are in my studio at New England Conservatory, New England Conservatory Prep Division, The Boston Conservatory and Longy School of Music. I hope there is something in it for everyone. I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Meaningful New Year!
Dear Students,
As the semester comes to a close,
realize that there is a chance to recompose
In the midst of your holiday cheer
I hope you find time to strengthen your possible careers
By practicing those things you know you ought
To enjoy the wonderful opportunity you've got
Dig into your Art
It's there for you
Waiting for the moment you say "I do"
It is a marriage of you to It and It to you
But it needs your Love, Devotion and Passion too
It cannot do it on It's own
It gave you talent at the get go
But now you need to activate it
otherwise your talent will only be latent
Jump on board and sail full steam ahead
Drop your fear, it's all in your head!
I know you can if you really want It
It needs you.. a lot.. more than you know..
It's not about a job as the first important thing
It's you providing It with a way to be free
You are important, never doubt that
I'm on your side, always hoping for your best!
My very best wishes to you all!
Mr. Bolter
Mr. B
Norman
but NEVER Norm :-)
Dear Students,
As the semester comes to a close,
realize that there is a chance to recompose
In the midst of your holiday cheer
I hope you find time to strengthen your possible careers
By practicing those things you know you ought
To enjoy the wonderful opportunity you've got
Dig into your Art
It's there for you
Waiting for the moment you say "I do"
It is a marriage of you to It and It to you
But it needs your Love, Devotion and Passion too
It cannot do it on It's own
It gave you talent at the get go
But now you need to activate it
otherwise your talent will only be latent
Jump on board and sail full steam ahead
Drop your fear, it's all in your head!
I know you can if you really want It
It needs you.. a lot.. more than you know..
It's not about a job as the first important thing
It's you providing It with a way to be free
You are important, never doubt that
I'm on your side, always hoping for your best!
My very best wishes to you all!
Mr. Bolter
Mr. B
Norman
but NEVER Norm :-)
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
TEACHER'S LOG, SCHOOL DATE 12-20-11
What is Best for the Students?
In a conversation with someone recently, they told me they just want to do what's best for the students. I immediately thought to myself. " What is BEST for the students? A good question to ask that takes some probing to come up with some insightful answers.
I think the first thing to clarify is, what is a student? To me, the student is a person that is interested in a learning process that has it's goal developing a skill or gaining knowledge that will be used for a productive purpose in their life or career. If it is a 'skill', it will take knowledge, experience, dedication and guidance to be achieved.The greatest driving force towards that development is the student's own passion and intensity of desire to keep going through all the various challenges they will encounter. To have all this happen, an environment of support, trust, encouragement, honesty, and friendship is very important on the personal level. The school needs to have teachers who have a high level of mastery not only with the subject matter, but with working with students
The school needs to provide an ecology which would best foster this development. But if it only has a 'manufacturing plant' mentality, then the development of the student- person, is going to be short changed and possibly suffer.
There is not a 'generic' student. What is useful for one student is not useful for others. This is where skill in teaching comes in. Not all freshman are the same, neither are all graduate students the same. Attention to the individual is important and vital in my view.
If someone is taking a class on American History, should the class be run by 5 teachers? This is a question I have about instrument classes. Do you have all the faculty contribute to the instrument class? Are tons of views good all the time? Is one view good for 6 years? It depends on certain factors. Here are a few on the private studio level.
1. Is the student and the teacher in a relationship that grows deeper on a continuing basis with noticeable quality in the students work? If so, why should the student change teachers after 2 years or 4 years if the process is really connective and continues to bear fruit?
2. If the student and teacher really cannot get along and after a period of a semester not come to any terms of agreement or mutual understanding, it seems the best thing might be for both of them to part peacefully. Private lessons are very personal and close circumstances that can become quite toxic if things get to far out of balance in a negative direction.
3. A student can be exposed to many ideas and viewpoints at school and the city they are in. If the student is really taking an active role in their own development and not just waiting for the teacher to say do this or that, they will try things, go to other workshops, concerts and master classes and naturally incorporate things into their own work.
4. I think it is important for some classes to have one teacher with guests who come in every now and then. This gives a continuity and structure to the class.
5. Private studio teachers at anytime, should feel free to give a studio class to their own students. They should not worry if the other students of the same instrument in the school are not included.
A student can learn from various teachers that are not even playing their own instrument. Learning is very dependent on the student's own curiosity, need and application of what they are given and/or observing. I notice many students going from teacher to teacher and not making lots of progress because they are not sticking to something and seeing it through. When they get bored or run into a sticky point, some like to run to a 'new' situation for the 'kick' or' high' that gives them in the beginning of doing something different. Meanwhile avoiding the very things that they probably need to work on including their attitude.
So what is BEST for the students? To be given an atmosphere and ecology that provides them the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions with excellent guidance, expertise and humanity from caring teachers. A look at the word teacher is interesting for it has the word 'heart' in it and well as the word 'care.' 'The care' is a full anagram of the word teacher.
It also needs to be said that teachers are humans too who need to be treated well. Maybe our schools need to spend more time helping people become good teachers? Just because someone has great skill and/or knowledge and a high profile job, does not mean they are good with people or really even care about the well being of a person. This kind of teacher needs to have students that are very mentally tough that can withstand a certain level of rough treatment. If the student has that nature and knowledge to get what they can from such a teacher, then it possibly will be productive for them.
In the end, it is one big process that students and teachers are in that goes way beyond learning a skill. The circumstances in a school can help one to learn about oneself, others and how to deal with different kinds of situations. Sometimes rough situations can push a person into greater depth and challenge how much they really want to pursue their chosen work no matter what the odds are.
In a conversation with someone recently, they told me they just want to do what's best for the students. I immediately thought to myself. " What is BEST for the students? A good question to ask that takes some probing to come up with some insightful answers.
I think the first thing to clarify is, what is a student? To me, the student is a person that is interested in a learning process that has it's goal developing a skill or gaining knowledge that will be used for a productive purpose in their life or career. If it is a 'skill', it will take knowledge, experience, dedication and guidance to be achieved.The greatest driving force towards that development is the student's own passion and intensity of desire to keep going through all the various challenges they will encounter. To have all this happen, an environment of support, trust, encouragement, honesty, and friendship is very important on the personal level. The school needs to have teachers who have a high level of mastery not only with the subject matter, but with working with students
The school needs to provide an ecology which would best foster this development. But if it only has a 'manufacturing plant' mentality, then the development of the student- person, is going to be short changed and possibly suffer.
There is not a 'generic' student. What is useful for one student is not useful for others. This is where skill in teaching comes in. Not all freshman are the same, neither are all graduate students the same. Attention to the individual is important and vital in my view.
If someone is taking a class on American History, should the class be run by 5 teachers? This is a question I have about instrument classes. Do you have all the faculty contribute to the instrument class? Are tons of views good all the time? Is one view good for 6 years? It depends on certain factors. Here are a few on the private studio level.
1. Is the student and the teacher in a relationship that grows deeper on a continuing basis with noticeable quality in the students work? If so, why should the student change teachers after 2 years or 4 years if the process is really connective and continues to bear fruit?
2. If the student and teacher really cannot get along and after a period of a semester not come to any terms of agreement or mutual understanding, it seems the best thing might be for both of them to part peacefully. Private lessons are very personal and close circumstances that can become quite toxic if things get to far out of balance in a negative direction.
3. A student can be exposed to many ideas and viewpoints at school and the city they are in. If the student is really taking an active role in their own development and not just waiting for the teacher to say do this or that, they will try things, go to other workshops, concerts and master classes and naturally incorporate things into their own work.
4. I think it is important for some classes to have one teacher with guests who come in every now and then. This gives a continuity and structure to the class.
5. Private studio teachers at anytime, should feel free to give a studio class to their own students. They should not worry if the other students of the same instrument in the school are not included.
A student can learn from various teachers that are not even playing their own instrument. Learning is very dependent on the student's own curiosity, need and application of what they are given and/or observing. I notice many students going from teacher to teacher and not making lots of progress because they are not sticking to something and seeing it through. When they get bored or run into a sticky point, some like to run to a 'new' situation for the 'kick' or' high' that gives them in the beginning of doing something different. Meanwhile avoiding the very things that they probably need to work on including their attitude.
So what is BEST for the students? To be given an atmosphere and ecology that provides them the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions with excellent guidance, expertise and humanity from caring teachers. A look at the word teacher is interesting for it has the word 'heart' in it and well as the word 'care.' 'The care' is a full anagram of the word teacher.
It also needs to be said that teachers are humans too who need to be treated well. Maybe our schools need to spend more time helping people become good teachers? Just because someone has great skill and/or knowledge and a high profile job, does not mean they are good with people or really even care about the well being of a person. This kind of teacher needs to have students that are very mentally tough that can withstand a certain level of rough treatment. If the student has that nature and knowledge to get what they can from such a teacher, then it possibly will be productive for them.
In the end, it is one big process that students and teachers are in that goes way beyond learning a skill. The circumstances in a school can help one to learn about oneself, others and how to deal with different kinds of situations. Sometimes rough situations can push a person into greater depth and challenge how much they really want to pursue their chosen work no matter what the odds are.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
4 years ago today....
Yup. It has been 4 years since my last concert as a member of the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras. My last concert was a Christmas Pops concert. I really did love playing principal trombone in the Pops for so many years. There was a certain freedom playing Pops as well as being very challenging.
I love the orchestral literature. It was a wonderful opportunity to play in those great orchestras. Times have changed. The whole brass section is totally different with new players and style of playing from when I joined. When I joined it was near the tail end of when the character and uniqueness of a persons playing was really important as a musical component in the ensemble. In a way, it was filled with very individual players. Maybe it wasn't a 'perfect' blend, but wow, when it was happening it was really potent!!
My life is busier in a sense now but without the 'weight' of the orchestra. I choose to play in other kinds of musical ecologies at this point in time. There is no doubt in my mind that different orchestras have different ecologies. But hearing so much of how musicians are having physical, mental and emotional tension from the job, and oftentimes have to resort to taking drugs to ease the pain of nerves, saddens me. This of course was happening when I was in the orchestra. If the ecology was different, and the humanity and going for the spirit of the music was the most important thing, there would be no need for this stress and drug taking.
The High Art of music making needs an environment that is invitational to the essence of the music and the soul of the people who are being instrumental for it's appearance. I can only hope, pray and do what I can in my own way, that the values and deeper meaning of music and human life can be the most up-front feature and this other stuff just melt away in the brightness of that TRUTH.
I love the orchestral literature. It was a wonderful opportunity to play in those great orchestras. Times have changed. The whole brass section is totally different with new players and style of playing from when I joined. When I joined it was near the tail end of when the character and uniqueness of a persons playing was really important as a musical component in the ensemble. In a way, it was filled with very individual players. Maybe it wasn't a 'perfect' blend, but wow, when it was happening it was really potent!!
My life is busier in a sense now but without the 'weight' of the orchestra. I choose to play in other kinds of musical ecologies at this point in time. There is no doubt in my mind that different orchestras have different ecologies. But hearing so much of how musicians are having physical, mental and emotional tension from the job, and oftentimes have to resort to taking drugs to ease the pain of nerves, saddens me. This of course was happening when I was in the orchestra. If the ecology was different, and the humanity and going for the spirit of the music was the most important thing, there would be no need for this stress and drug taking.
The High Art of music making needs an environment that is invitational to the essence of the music and the soul of the people who are being instrumental for it's appearance. I can only hope, pray and do what I can in my own way, that the values and deeper meaning of music and human life can be the most up-front feature and this other stuff just melt away in the brightness of that TRUTH.
Friday, December 16, 2011
TEACHER'S LOG, SCHOOL DATE 12-16-11
Discernment is an interesting property. This property of discernment with most people develops with age. Sometimes younger people can have quite a developed sense of differences between concepts, styles and approaches. Other people younger or older, have this concept of everything is equal or valid. Well, in my experiences and looking at things, there are VERY CLEAR DISTINCTIONS in concepts, styles and approaches. Sometimes subtle differences can be the most profound.
Oftentimes if something feels good or is easy and comfortable, it can be viewed as more favorable. The real question is, is 'real' life comfortable and easy all the time? There is a difference between stupid sacrifice and going for something you really believe in all the way, blood sweat and tears, if it is worthy.
I would hope that having an atmosphere that is clean , respectful and allowing, can be the platform for the real intense work to have a place to happen where it is supported. Making something happen is not always easy. Helping people to grow is not always fun. The attainment of our goals is only done through Love, Dedication, Passion, Effort and continued reevaluating in an upfront, allowing, but very honest way.
A great mentor of mine said, "Be your own person, but love the truth." That is a real process and a journey, to me totally worth pursuing and not always easy or comfortable.
Oftentimes if something feels good or is easy and comfortable, it can be viewed as more favorable. The real question is, is 'real' life comfortable and easy all the time? There is a difference between stupid sacrifice and going for something you really believe in all the way, blood sweat and tears, if it is worthy.
I would hope that having an atmosphere that is clean , respectful and allowing, can be the platform for the real intense work to have a place to happen where it is supported. Making something happen is not always easy. Helping people to grow is not always fun. The attainment of our goals is only done through Love, Dedication, Passion, Effort and continued reevaluating in an upfront, allowing, but very honest way.
A great mentor of mine said, "Be your own person, but love the truth." That is a real process and a journey, to me totally worth pursuing and not always easy or comfortable.
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