YOU HAVE A VOICE

We were all 'given' a voice. We all have feelings, thoughts, wonderings, qualities, senses and so forth. Each person has similar but different experiences in life. We all have backgrounds, genetics, surroundings, friends, not such great friends, family, co-workers and the like. We have associations with all of these things whether consciously, semiconsciously or unconsciously. We are a package, a bundle of life. Some of it known and some of it unknown. Each one of us has options. Opportunities. Pathways to be discovered or revisited from another angle. A past, present and a future.

What if we were to exchange the word life with the word music? Your life, every second of it, is filled with rhythm, pitch and timbre. Sometimes in your life you have the lead voice and melody. Other times you have the harmony. Each one is vital to the music of life and the life of music. You are a unique being. No duplicate or replica. One and only. At the same time, we are all interrelated and connected by coming from same core point of origination. We are all various overtones of the One pedal point of existence.

YOU HAVE A VOICE. It can be heard and felt regardless of your technical level. Not everyone will become a marvelous masterful instrumentalist. Some marvelous masterful instrumentalists might not become instruments of essence or life depth. Some of course do and some who aren't will too.

To work on our craft is important. Avoidance of it encourages laziness and more not 'facing the music' of our weaknesses, hence more avoidance. By working on what's hard for us we find a new set of balances and develop in ways we never thought we could. But.... YOU HAVE A VOICE. That voice can be added onto, developed into undreamed of ways, or be lost in the quest to be something that we actually are not. This is the danger.

Your voice is not necessarily your tone. It is the Spirit of what is in your Self. Your unique acoustic and experience.  Embrace what you are and have and go where few have gone before...

YOU HAVE A VOICE

TEACHER'S LOG, SCHOOL DATE 1-16-13

As I started my first day of the Spring semester yesterday, my mind was very focused on the human technology. What an incredible design and living mechanism! So intricate, fine, totally made for purpose and function.

Then there is the trombone. Without the human technology the trombone is obviously not capable of doing anything. This is obvious but is a very important value and attitude that lives in me strongly. Depending on what the person is connected to when they play, will determine the potency of their music making.

A student was playing a solo today and it was quite good. I then asked them what they were thinking about when they were playing. It was not specific enough to create a strong atmospheric presence or transference to me. The person was concerned about playing it 'right.' This concept was not a part of themselves in a real way. It was on the basis of thinking things like, "I'll put a little of this here and a little of that there." If one is not clear in the message, story, image or character they want to communicate, it will not happen. Or at best there will be fragments of it that appear and then disappear. Then when they tapped into something real for them it was better in every aspect of playing. We were also talking about rhythm not being a metronomic thing but a movement of the spirit of the music.

The human person is the instrument for the music. Music is energy which expresses itself through rhythm, pitch and timbre. What a person connects to, gives the vital fuel for the spirit of the music to emerge.

It was an interesting day working with people. For there is the music they want to work on, then there is the music of their lives in the foreground and the background.... you can't escape it. The music ideally, needs to be a part of it. The two musics, need to support each other, be in tune with each other. Otherwise there is an imbalance and lack of unified resonance.

Recalling My Times with John Swallow, Part 6

In this final video, Part 6, "Recalling My Times with John Swallow," I talk about how supportive John was with my musical endeavors. Whether I was playing in the Empire Brass Quintet or composing, he always would have an encouraging tone.

I want to also mention that in 1976, I got to play in a recording with John on the first Empire Brass Quintet recording called, The American  Brass Band Journal, Empire Brass Quintet and Friends. It is on the Columbia label and was recorded in New York City. John played euphonium on that recording. It was so much fun to sit next to him and play. That really was my only 'professional' time playing with John. 

I am also writing a piece honoring John for trombone choir. This will be premiered on the New England Conservatory's annual Brass Bash which will be dedicated to John. February 24th is the date of the concert. I mention this on the video and speak briefly about the process in composing this piece. Maybe one day I will write more about the process.

Thanks John for everything. You will always be in my heart. Happy journeys to you!

Part 6

Recalling My Times with John Swallow, Part 5

In this video, I get more into my ideas about teaching inspired by recalling my times with John. And also more of what I remember of John's thoughts on warming-up, embouchure and professional etiquette. I am also realizing more and more that I did not have tons of lessons with John. But it proves to me once again, that if you make the most out of what you are given, it will keep yielding fruit for years to come.

As I think about it now, it highlights a lot of what has been noticed over the past few years concerning  students growing dependency on so many external things. Be it tuners, metronomes, video aids, recording every lesson they take, easy access to information through the internet and taking lessons from so many people so often, to name a few. I am not sure all this is being utilized in a way that is aways helpful to the person's development. Sometimes less can be more because you have to really dig into the small amount to extract the gems and wisdom from your persistent effort and discovery. Plus, not so much is taken for granted and your value for what you are given is greater.

Part 5

Recalling My Times with John Swallow, Part 4

As I mention in this video, my main purpose for doing this is to just let my times and experiences with John just flow from me in any order in which they want to appear. It is great for me to do this because it is helping me access things about John's teaching with me and it is bringing up some things about my own teaching as seen through this experience of thinking about John.

I seem to be having a difficult time remembering certain pieces and the names of what trombones I was playing on during these video recordings! Weird actually. Carol is here to correct me though! Even when it comes down to my not remembering the Strauss opera Salome! She is such a wonderful partner with me in all things because of her perceptions and depth of sentiment in her thinking and feeling life. Even though Carol was with John and his wife Myra only twice in person, she vividly recalls how impressed she was with him as a person and having such a brilliant and creative mind.

John was one of my greatest influences as a musician-trombonist and with a mind that was very clear that not everyone is the same. He worried about people thinking they have to follow the crowd and play in a way that was really not natural for them. I totally agreed with him and always believed that. I had many great influences in my life and in this video I recall John telling me about his influences, including  composer-conductor Gunther Schuller and trombonist Neal Di Biase, former principal trombonist of the NBC Symphony under Toscanni .

Part 4

Recalling My Times with John Swallow, Part 3

In this video I am continuing my 'dialogue' about John in lessons. Air support, air articulation, slide technique, tone and other topics are spoken about. Doing these tributes is bringing up all the important vital things I loved about John. It will be easy for players today, to see how John thought about the technical side and the musical side of playing and how it is very different than what is 'normally' taught today. When I came to NEC in 1973, I had studied with Steven Zellmer who was very Arnold Jacobs, Frank Crisafulli and Edward Kleinhammer trained. Even though Mr. Zellmer had his VERY OWN unique way about things in his relationship to playing and music, it was in another universe compared to John Swallow. From how to use the slide, versatility of articulation, legato and natural slurs and overall facility. John was very nimble and facile with many colors in his music making. His working with many students in my view, surely added to his depth of thought process and reference.   The reason being he loved what he was doing and was genuinely interested.

                Part 3

Recalling My Times with John Swallow, Part 2

Wow. Today was an interesting day. It has been exactly 37 ago today that I won the audition to be in the Boston Symphony. Little did I know at the time, that I would be conducting the New England Conservatory Prep and College division trombone choirs on Symphony Hall stage 37 years later. The students rose to the occasion and played terrifically. There was also something else special in this concert. I dedicated the last piece that we played, an arrangement of "The Great Gate of Kiev" from "Pictures at an Exposition" to John Swallow. It was a very potent, powerful and sentimented performance. The audience and the students felt the warmth of the dedication and the students really played from their hearts.The audience certainly received it and gave us a standing ovation. I'm sure John heard it..

Some very nice and funny stores in this next series Part 2 of Recalling My Times with John Swallow.