2024 Directory of Summer Camps and Clinics

2024 Directory of Summer Flute Programs

Photos courtesy of International Music Camp (cello) and Illinois Chamber Music Festival (flute) by Nicholas Helton

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Zeeland, North Dakota is a town of under 100 people. If you call Zeeland Public Schools and ask to speak to the superintendent, librarian, elementary music teacher, principal, choir director, or band director, you will be speaking to Trudy Fraase Wolf. She is also a wife, mother, and private piano teacher. In her spare time, she is a board member for Phi Beta Mu and active in the North Dakota Music Educators Association, American Choral Directors Association, National Band Association, and International Double Reed Society. She also plays in the Bismarck Wind Ensemble, the West River Winds, and the Missouri River Community Band. She has spent her career “blooming where she was planted.” Unexpected career turns have taken her to rural North Dakota where she has created a culture of musical excellence in a school with a current enrollment of 26 in grades Pre-K-12. Following her 2021 Midwest Band clinic, dozens of directors lined up to meet her and learn more about developing a successful band program at a small school. Her program serves as a model for success, no matter the size.

Did you always want to be a teacher when you were growing up?
My parents were teachers, but I hoped to become a nurse or a park ranger. By my senior year in high school, several families asked me to give their kids piano lessons. I turned them down initially because I was just a high school student, but they wanted their kids to study with somebody they knew. Teaching piano was so exciting. I loved seeing the progress students made each week. As I prepared for college, I wanted to stay involved in music, playing my oboe, participating in band, and singing in choir. I had the epiphany that teaching would keep me connected to music. I decided to go into education and planned to teach in a K-12 school, but I took a detour to pursue an oboe performance career.

How did your teaching career begin?
I have lived in Zeeland since 1993, but grew up in Wahpeton and Dickinson, North Dakota. I earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Dickinson State University and a Master of Music in oboe performance from the University of Illinois. I tried to land a job at a four-year college but everywhere I applied, they wanted five years of public-school teaching experience, so I returned to North Dakota to begin my five years. At the same time, I earned a Master of Science in Music Education from the University of Illinois, hoping it would lead to the doctorate. In the meantime, I married a farmer and knew I wasn’t going anywhere.

How would you describe Zeeland?
Zeeland has a population of about 86 based on the 2020 census. It was about 197 when they counted in early 1990s. We are approximately 100 miles from Bismarck and 100 miles from Aberdeen. Some other towns are closer, but all have a population under 1,000. Almost everyone is in farming or working for a business supporting farming. We have had some new arrivals – people who have reached retirement age and want to live in a quiet, small town that reminds them of their childhood. The most famous musician from this area is Lawrence Welk. His farmstead and a museum about his life are located in Strasburg.

What was your teaching load when you came to Zeeland?
I taught all of the music classes – elementary music, beginning band, second-year band, 7-12th grade band, junior high choir, high school choir, and general music. It was a full-time job. In North Dakota, it is not uncommon for a single music teacher to cover all of the classes in a small school.

What other jobs did you take on over the years?
For most of my time at Zeeland, I have been the librarian, a job I really like. After beginning band class, it was always nice to go to the quiet of the library. I knew that members of the administration were approaching retirement age, so I decided to get an administration degree. I soon added elementary principal to my duties. Then, the superintendent, who also served as the high school principal, announced, “I am going to retire. I will keep my superintendent job part-time, and Trudy, you can be the high school principal.” Things were getting pretty busy.

A few years later, he fully retired and told the school board, “Trudy can be the superintendent, too.” I said, “No, Trudy cannot be the superintendent, the high school principal, the elementary principal, the librarian, and the music teacher, but we do have someone on staff with the credentials to be the principal.” For a while, I was able to give up the principal part. Last year, I had to take that back because we couldn’t find anyone to fill that position. This year, we do have someone, so I am the principal only as needed.

With all of your responsibilities, I have never heard you complain about how hard the job is or that your kids can’t do something. You always give them the best musical experience possible. What activities are your band students involved in during the year?
We give four concerts a year. That’s more than many schools, but when I came to Zeeland, they had had no music performances the year before. They had assigned an English teacher who didn’t want the job to teach music, and that teacher told students they were too small to do anything so there were no concerts. The community really did not like that. My first contract stated that there would be four concerts a year, and I stayed with that. I encourage students to play in as many honor groups as they can because that gives them band experience. I don’t call our group a band. I call it an ensemble because it more accurately reflects what we do.

I have a 7th-12th grade band with a range of abilities, so that limits how difficult the music can be. For those upper players, honor bands offer a chance to play more difficult literature. We attend the Ployhar Band Festival, and Northern State University in South Dakota (100 miles away) runs a band clinic one day each fall that we can take everybody to. We also audition for two more events in North Dakota at Minot State and Dickinson State for band and choir.

There is always junior and high school All-State. I don’t often get students into those, but it happens every great while. In 2022-23 I had two high school students make All-State, and this year one junior high student made it. I am working on getting a double horn for him. If he is good enough to play in All-State, I have to get him a double horn.

What about solo and ensemble festivals?
All students in the elementary grades have to learn a solo every year. I try really hard to convince them to play their solos at the elementary music festival at Mandan. Almost everybody does perform, and some play duets and trios. The same is true at the high school level. I try to keep us as busy as possible.

In 2021, you gave a clinic at the Midwest called Mind the Gap, and it was phenomenal. After it ended, dozens of people lined up to talk to you because they related to your situation. You ended your talk with a recording of your band, and it was so good. How have your made the Zeeland players so successful?
To start off with, I have these students from preschool through 12th grade. I have all those years to work with them. In elementary school, I have a fairly rigorous curriculum to teach reading and writing music. We do a lot of composing. By the time they start band, they already know all the basics of reading music. All we are doing is working on getting the best sound we can and the physical mechanics of the horn. We carefully work on balance and blend and making a nice sound.

I work hard to have as balanced an instrumentation as possible given the numbers. In the springtime, I teach a unit on timbre, which is particularly important for the 3rd and 4th graders who will be starting band soon. We go over all of the instruments. I freely talk about instrumentation and what we need. I tell them, “If there is an instrument you really want to play, go for it.” If they are undecided, I may encourage them to consider instruments that need more players. Over the years, I have usually had really balanced groups. I have never ended up with all saxophonists and drummers.

I remember one year when I came to hear your students, the high school band had only four students. It wasn’t a crazy instrumentation, but it wasn’t ideal either. They were playing wonderful music well, and the ensemble was well balanced. You were doing flex arrangements before it was even invented.
As we rehearse the pieces, obviously we have gaps in instrumentation. I pay attention to SATB more than what instrument is playing. I make sure there is a melody somewhere. If we are missing the instrument that plays the melody, I rewrite the music for somebody. It is even better if I can find it in some other part, so I don’t have to do much rewriting. If there is a missing trumpet part, for example, I might give the melody to the clarinet and say, “From this number to this number, play the trumpet part and then come back to your part. My kids are used to reading off two or three sheets of music.
If I need to fill in some missing percussion, I may give a wind instrument a cowbell or triangle part to play during their rest. Students always like that. Then, if I do a mix and match, we are not afraid to try several different combinations to see what sounds best. Right now I have nine in the band, including a drummer, and I have Quartets for All (Alfred Music). That might be two kids on each part, although that depends on the balance of the instruments. The alto sax is a fairly loud instrument so it might take a part all by itself to get the balance I want.

Do you have any advice on working with elementary school teachers for those who rely on them feeding students into the high school music program?
This is not just a music question – it affects all subjects. I will put on my administrator hat for a minute. I have worked as a lead evaluator for the company that handles school accreditations for North Dakota schools and many schools around the world. One topic we look at when evaluating schools is vertical alignment within each subject. This happens through things like curriculum mapping where you lay out the topics covered in each grade, so you know what students are learning as they come up. If the music teachers in the system know that 3rd grade students learn all the treble clef notes or whatever, it makes it easier to develop a logical, sequential curriculum.

Even as the only music teacher in my community, I have the curriculum written down for each grade. What fluctuates so much for me is the number of students in a grade. My curriculum has to be more fluid depending on enrollment. By the time students reach high school band, I do not have it as precisely planned because it depends on what students can play. I keep an eye on whether we did a piece in a particular key or style, so they are exposed to a variety.

You recently shared with me a phrase that has become a motto throughout your career. Can you tell me how you first learned the phrase and what it means to you?
At vacation bible school in the mid-1970s, it was popular to make banners – cutting out letters from felt and gluing them on to canvas. We were each assigned a saying, and I didn’t understand mine. It had to be explained to me: Bloom Where You Are Planted. I know now that it means don’t wish for what you don’t have. Do the best where you are. I still think about these words almost every day. My musical journey hasn’t been what I planned or hoped for when I was younger. I expected to teach in a bigger high school, have my big band, and maybe teach at a college. Being in a small school and doing everything myself has been hard sometimes, especially in the early years. Once I realized that this job was going to be it – it wasn’t a stepping stone – I sometimes felt discouraged.

I would attend the state conference or festival and see the bigger bands performing and think, “My band is never going to be up there.” The groups from Fargo or Bismarck had lots of people travelling with them, and I would be there by myself. I felt like an impostor at the events because I wasn’t in one of those big programs. I was just teaching at a little school with my handful of kids. Sometimes, I felt it didn’t qualify me as a real band director. In those moments, I reminded myself to bloom where I am planted and do my best with the situation I am in.

How do you share that with your students to give them a feeling of success, even in a small program?
When I first started, some students had a negative point of view about our program. I had to work on it deliberately because they did think, “We’re just Zeeland, it doesn’t matter. We’re just a little band.” I never accept that and always hold them to a high standard. If something isn’t good enough (in rehearsal), I tell them that, and we keep working to make it better. Sometimes I tell students that because I was into sports in high school, I like to win, I like to be the best. Therefore, we will do all these things. I have done this long enough now, however, that it isn’t a question.

I am sure that at your school every kid is into everything because the school is so small. A lot of young directors struggle with sharing students with other teachers. What have you learned about sharing your students?
I don’t bump up against other activities much because I don’t schedule any afterschool band rehearsals. Our school is small enough that all of the sports teams practice elsewhere. They go off to other area schools for various sports and don’t return home until 7:30 at night. Concerts can be difficult to schedule because we cooperate with one set of schools for one sport and a different set of schools for another sport. (Because the area schools are so small, some athletic teams require combining students from multiple schools.) Finding a day with no sports to schedule a concert is a little tough. Some of the schools ask me what day I want to have a concert, and they try to avoid planning a conflicting event.

In my classes I often steal students from other classes because I might need a piano player to play for the kids, or we need to record an audition. If another teacher wants to borrow a student out of band or choir, unless it is the day of a concert, I let them go. I stole some of their time and owe them a little time back. I have never felt like it has to be band or nothing, perhaps because I was involved in so many sports and music. I would have hated giving up any of that. If you make students choose between music and other activities, they might give up music altogether.

What is your best advice and wisdom for directors working in small schools?
I turned my husband down the first time he asked me to marry him. It was too soon, and I wasn’t sure if I could live here for the rest of my life. After we married, I decided that even though this was where I was going to live, it did not mean it was where I centered all of my life. I purposely chose to do things at the state level so it wasn’t just me and Zeeland. I served as a officer in state associations, traveled to the Midwest Clinic, and went to American Choir Directors Association regional conferences. These activities made me feel less isolated and more connected to a much larger community. I really encourage people to stay connected at the state level.

As for helping students, make your planning very intentional. Think about what you want them to know when they are at the end of their school career with you. It won’t happen accidentally along the way. You have to think about how you will get there.

* * *

Trudy Fraase Wolf has worked in public school education for 30 years and is a music teacher, librarian, elementary principal, secondary principal, and superintendent with the Zeeland Public School in North Dakota. She joined the Advance Ed team (now Cognia) in 2016 as an engagement review team member and became a Lead Evaluator in 2017. She has published in The Double Reed Journal, The Chorister, and the North Dakota Music Educator’s Journal and has presented at the Midwest Clinic and the North Dakota Music Educator’s Conference. She has served as a clinician for the NSU Band Clinic and as a judge for the Dickinson 5-8 music festival and the Federated Music Clubs piano festivals. Fraase Wolf has earned degrees from Northern State University, the University of Illinois, and Dickinson State University.

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There is probably no more striking example of the enhanced opportunities open to the instrumentalist and composer in today’s music world than the case of the Marsalis family.

By now it is all but impossible to be unaware of the unique achievements of Wynton Marsalis. For the past two years he has been the most publicized young newcomer in music. Feature articles in national magazines, TV exposure, and concerts in the country’s most prestigious halls, have played their part; but much of this might never have happened were it not for the dual nature of his career.

Last spring the trumpet virtuoso, born October 18, 1961, became the first musician in the history of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to win two Grammys simultaneously for a classical recording and a jazz album. The latter featured his elder brother Branford (born August 26, 1960), a saxophonist who, in the opinion of some observers (including Wynton himself), is even more talented than Wynton.

In every article about these two virtuosic performers, the name of their father has been mentioned; yet the full story of Ellis Marsalis, a New Orleans legend in his own right as pianist, composer, and educator has never been told.

Ellis Marsalis

The Marsalis Saga
The background of Ellis Marsalis differed from that of his children on three levels. One dynamic is the radical improvement in the music education system; a second, closely related, is the gradual change in the attitude toward jazz, from ignorance or rejection to reluctant acceptance to affirmative action. The third is the impact of the social revolution in the 1960s.

Ironically, Ellis Marsalis, born and raised during the era of rigid segregation, today enjoys a prestigious career in which integration plays a significant part. For the past decade he has been teaching at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Created as the product of a federal grant, the Center deals with five disciplines: music, visual arts, theater, creative writing, and dance. “I was hired,” says Ellis Marsalis, “to round out the faculty from the jazz point of view. The entrance quali­fication is simply based on auditions; there has never been any other way to get in. Lately, the word has gotten around about the high level of training; as a result a number of private school students are enrolling.”

Contrary to a popular misconception fostered by certain generalizations in the media, the extraordinary successes and fame of Wynton Mar­salis and brother Branford cannot be attributed simply to the help of their father. True, they both attended the Center and were offered guidance by him, but that is only part of the story. Before fill­ing in the gaps it is necessary to examine Ellis Marsalis’ own training and background.

Ellis’ Youth
He was born in New Orleans, where his father was the proprietor of a motel. “My father was always in business; he was self-supporting, and never had to take a porter’s job. My mother never had to worry much about finances, though at one time she did go to work as a maid for a white doc­tor, and I suspect that a lot of the things she ob­served in that family influenced how she wanted to raise her children. She sent my sister and me to Xavier University Junior School of Music. My mother thought that this was what people did with their children – music and dance lessons; this was what a cultured family did.”
The university was run by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Their attitudes typified the. musical stance at virtually every university in those days. As Ellis Marsalis puts it, “Every Euro­pean composer had a halo around his head and could do no wrong. There was no other kind of music. There was absolutely no recognition of jazz – not even of its existence, let alone its validity as an art form.”

Nevertheless, when he began to raise a family, he did not place any emphasis on classical music. In spite of the attempts to inculcate an interest at Xavier, he says, “My knowledge in that area was almost nil, except for a few things I had listened to for my own enjoyment.” (Nevertheless, after extensive piano and clarinet studies, he took up cello at Xavier and continued at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, where he played it in the symphony from 1964–66.) “Basically,” the senior Marsalis insists, “I was a jazz player from day one.”

Big Band Bebop
Day one came about when he began listening to a local radio program. “The bebop thing had just taken over, and I heard Dizzy Gillespie’s band, also Jackie Cain and Roy Kral singing with Charlie Ventura’s band. We all knew about these things even back in high school. Then I heard that Dizzy was bringing his big band to town, and I couldn’t wait to see him.”

This was 1949; Ellis Marsalis, 13 years old, had never heard anything like the live sound of that seminal orchestra. Later he heard Norman Granz’ Jazz at the Philharmonic touring group, Nat King Cole, and others who would shape his musical direction, though for a long while he learned noth­ing technically, because there was no place to turn for jazz education.

“I finally learned from a friend, Harold Battiste, who was a senior at Xavier. We were in the band room one day and he said, ‘Hey, man, play me a C7 chord.’ I said, ‘What is that?’ So he went to the blackboard and constructed some chord symbols. That was the first formal jazz lesson I ever had.”
Marsalis continued to learn, “patchwork style” as he calls it, mostly empirically on some of his early jobs. In due course he was able to live a double life as performer and teacher.

“I played at a jazz club here for about a year and a half, which is some kind of record for New Orleans, and during that period I was teaching parttime at a small university. You can imagine the kind of money they paid, particularly part time.”

Despite his continuing work as an educator, Marsalis never stopped playing. “Some people would say ‘Yeah, I’m trying to earn some extra money.’ Well, playing was an important part of my financial balance, to keep the family going. To me, none of it was ever extra – if you know anything about the salaries that are paid for teaching school, you realize that nothing is really extra. Perhaps I could have made about the same amount of money if I’d just been out hustling gigs, but the point is, there’s no security in that, and it would have driven my wife crazy.’’

Ellis the Educator
Marsalis had been married for two or three years when he began teaching in 1963. “I was supposed to be a band director, but the political system that engulfed the school was so bad, I ended up teaching seventh and eighth grade science classes, and some general music; and at this time we were right in the throes of the desegregation crisis.’’

Disillusioned, he quit and, with his wife, moved bag and baggage to the small town of Beaux Bridge, Louisiana, where he was a band director for two years.

“That was Cajun country. My mother was raised in that kind of environment, so I was familiar with the Creole language. I learned a lot from that experience, but after two years my wife and I felt we had to get back to New Orleans.”

Marsalis started working at the Playboy Club. “It was a solid six-nights-a-week gig, but it wasn’t advancing me musically. I was still a little ideal­istic; I’d run down the street between sets and catch Buddy Rich’s band at Al Hirt’s club, and later Duke Ellington. I’d played jobs accompany­ing some of the acts at Al’s place, and I knew Al’s partner, Dan Levy, pretty well.”

Quitting the Playboy Club, he went through a fallow period. “I wasn’t doing much of anything – I was working at my daddy’s place – kind of dis­illusioned. Then one night I ran into Dan Levy, told him I wasn’t doing anything, and he mentioned it to Pee Wee Spitelara, Al’s clarinetist. Pee Wee called and asked if I’d like to join the band. I said ‘Yeah!’ and that was sort of my ticket back into music. I stayed with Al three-and-a-half years.”

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton’s First Horn
During this time, Marsalis would sometimes bring Wynton and Branford along to rehearsals at the Bourbon Street club. As Hirt recalls it, “Wynton would start banging around on the piano. I finally said, ‘Hey, let’s get that kid away from there. I’ll give him this trumpet.’”

That he allowed the gift horn to remain in its case for six years is a curious aspect of the Wynton Marsalis story. His father, though, has a simple explanation regarding the long gap. “Wynton was just busy being a kid! He was playing baseball, little league football, and he really loved basketball.
“Branford wanted to go to an all-boys Catholic school, and his mother didn’t want him to go alone, so she said: ‘Wynton, why don’t you do your eighth grade year there?’ Wynton auditioned for the band, but he didn’t make the big group – they put him in the second band.’’

“I Really Need a Teacher’’
Then came an incident that was to be crucial in the youngster’s life, one that illustrated how important the competitive instinct was in him. “There was a kid about the same age, studying with the same man who later taught Wynton. The kid could really play rings around Wynton, whose ego was bruised by this. So then my son got serious and said to me, ‘Oh, man, I really need a teacher.’”

Wynton Marsalis

Ellis investigated extensively. The first teacher he found who set Wynton on the right track was John Longo, with whom he studied for a year or two. In his sophomore year Wynton left and began taking classes at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

It is difficult to determine which musical idiom first engaged the young trumpeter’s serious attention. At one point he and Branford played in a rock and roll band; they learned the repertoire of groups such as Earth, Wind & Fire, becoming one of the few bands in the city capable of dealing with this genre.
Wynton’s training with Longo was classical, his father says, “only in the sense that if you study an instrument formally, you use the standard method books. Although Longo was exceptionally well-trained, there was no study of the classics systematically – no awareness of the Baroque, Renaissance, and other periods. Wynton’s study of classical music really began when he started at the Center.”

Wynton’s introduction to jazz also came about gradually. His father worked with him on the concept of improvisation, but in the early years – sixth and seventh grades – he displayed indifference when listening to a Miles Davis record. “But I had a lot of recordings, and eventually he really began to listen to all the greats like Clifford Brown, Dizzy, Miles – he would even learn to play a Miles Davis solo, note for note, off the record. But all the while there was ongoing classical training, so that his development was well-balanced.”

What the records of the jazz giants did for Wynton in that area, a tape of Maurice André accomplished for him when, at the age of 13, he now says, “All the jazz musicians were in awe of the classical guys, so I decided to look into it.” He practiced continuously, though today he resents the stories that describe him as classically trained. “I’m just a cat who started playing the trumpet, and who happened to like classical music,” he says. “Training is training, no matter where it leads you; you keep practicing scales and exercises, and you use this experience to play anything you want.”

All this happened around the time Wynton, in addition to attending a regular public school, began to double up at the Center for Creative Arts. He made such rapid headway that at 14 he played the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the New Orleans Symphony.

“All I did was think about music, practice it, play it. It’s a constant process of investigation, refining, absorbing, eliminating, and trying to understand, whether it’s Maurice André or Clifford Brown or Charlie Parker.”

Branford – Like Father, Like Son
Branford Marsalis was less eclectic than his brother. “Piano was my first instrument – like father, like son,” he recalls. “Then I took up clarinet, but realized I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to sit in a chair for the rest of my life playing music that was already written. So I had my dad get me an alto saxophone for Christmas.”

Branford Marsalis

Branford left home in 1978 to continue his studies at Southern University in Baton Rouge. While there, he switched to tenor sax and found role models in the records of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Joe Henderson. Then in 1979, Wynton, a few months before his 18th birthday, left for New York, where he studied at Juilliard, played in a pit band for a Broadway show, and worked with the Brooklyn Philharmonia.

Around this time, despite his modest disavowal of classical credentials, Ellis Marsalis was making headway on significant levels. He performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony, and in 1980 premiered his own composition, Ballad for Jazz Trio and Symphony Orchestra, for which his own small group teamed with the Symphony. At the same time his jazz career continued apace: between 1976 and 1981 he worked in a club at the Hyatt Regency where his trio was teamed at various times with such veterans as Clark Terry, Red Norvo, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and Harry “Sweets” Edison.

More by accident than design, all three Marsalises put in time with the legendary drummer Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. Wynton, not long after his arrival in New York, sat in with the band and was promptly offered a job. Before leaving Blakey in 1981 he had become the group’s musical director.
Branford, who transferred to Boston’s Berklee College of Music late in 1979, accepted an offer during his summer vacation to go on the road with Blakey, who at that point had two trumpeters, Wynton Marsalis, and the Soviet jazzman Valery Ponomarev. Completing the family cycle, Ellis Marsalis worked with Blakey in Houston in 1981.

Recent Triumphs
The story of the past two or three years is an often–told tale. Branford, after returning to Berklee for a while, went on tour with Clark Terry’s big band, eventually joined Wynton’s Quintet, and recently, in addition to leading a small group of his own, attracted the attention of Miles Davis, who used him on his latest album, Decoy. Both Wynton and Branford also toured with Herbie Hancock’s VSOP group, an experience they found particularly stimulating. (“I was never nervous,” says Wynton, “because they didn’t treat me like some young kid – they treated me with respect.”)

Branford Marsalis

Wynton’s contract with Columbia Records was without precedent in the history of the recording industry. He was guaranteed albums with his own jazz group and with a symphony orchestra. As a consequence, this year he won Grammy awards both for his album of Haydn, Mozart, and Hummel Concertos for Trumpet and Orchestra and for his quintet’s Think of One. Again rounding out the familial picture, all three artists have been heard in one side of an album, Fathers & Sons. The other side of the LP featured two saxophonists, Von Freeman and his son, Chico Freeman.

Asked to explain the prodigious nature of his sons’ success, Ellis Marsalis replied: “I think Wyn­ton would have succeeded at whatever career he might have decided upon. He was always a good student. Also, at the Center, where Wynton and Branford both studied, we have a unique situation. If someone is mature enough at an early enough age, and if he doesn’t mind practicing and developing a thorough discipline, he can go in any direction he chooses, be it classical, jazz, or what have you.”

“What,” I asked, “were the major differences between Branford and Wynton as individuals?”

“I always thought that Branford had the most natural ability. But he was a lot more like me, and Wynton’s like his mom. It’s a hard thing to explain, what makes one person determined to study, as opposed to someone who says, well, I’ll do that later. The thing that motivated Wynton, of course, was that kid I told you about who outplayed him. Wynton in any case has more natural leader characteristics than Branford.”

While he watches his children going from one triumph to another, Ellis keeps a firm hold on his own career. “I quit a regular playing gig a while back, because it was too hard to work five or six nights a week and teach too. But I still have a regular gig, every Monday at a place called Tyler’s, in a duo with a guitar player.”

As Ellis confirms, the Marsalis family saga is far from complete. “My third son, who’s 20, is a student at New York University, majoring in history. He’s Ellis III – I’m a junior. My fourth son, Delfeayo, is a student at Berklee, in audio engineering. He produced my last album. Our fifth son, Mboya, is autistic; he’s 13. The last one is Jason, who’s seven, and probably more talented than all of them. Right now he’s playing drums and violin in a Suzuki class. He has perfect pitch.

“We were riding down the street the other day and I had a tape on of Tommy Flanagan’s piano album dedicated to John Coltrane. Delfeayo said, ‘Who is that?’ I said, ‘That’s Flanagan.’ Then he asked, ‘What’s that he’s playing?’ And Jason piped up and told him: ‘It’s Giant Steps! This was right in the middle of an ad lib solo! He listens all the time and can tell you about all the great drum solos by Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, and the rest. People ask me, ‘Do you make him do this?’ and I tell them, ‘Hey, have you ever tried to make a seven year old do anything?’”

“You must be terribly proud of them all,” I commented.

“Oh, indeed I am.’’

More proud, I suspect, than surprised.

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The first note taught in most band books is the Bb, and then they continue on with C, D, and Eb. This sequence of notes is one of the most challenging on the flute. Professional flutists struggle to keep the instrument still and well-balanced while executing these notes. They practice hours in a mirror to develop economy of motion. To prepare students for the challenge of the Bb, C, D, notes, many teachers opt to teach B, A, and G first. These notes may be played with the right hand on the barrel to stabilize the flute in the chin. Once the flute is stabilized with a good hand position, flute students can join the group working from the band method book with the right hand in playing position.

Once students have learned B and A, have them trill in quick spurts from A to B and then G to A. You may also introduce trilling starting on the top note too – B to A and A to G. At this time, mention that trills in band music will go up as in A to B, but in their solo music, especially the music of the Baroque and Classic periods, the trill may start on the upper pitch. In either case, the first note of the trill starts on the beat, not before. Muscles learn in chunks so playing a trill followed by a rest ensures that this information is put into muscle memory quickly.

A to B and G to A quarter note trills

Since the fingers are not visible to the flutist when playing, start teaching trills with the end of the flute resting on the student’s knee so they may see what the movement looks like. Practicing trills in front of a mirror is also beneficial.

When playing a trill, the movement of the finger is executed at the third knuckle back from the nail except for the left index finger where the movement is done from the second knuckle back from the nail because the tube of the flute is resting just above the third knuckle.

To trill well and fast, the fingers must work efficiently with no extra motions. The movement of the fingers should not disrupt the embouchure or produce any movement in the headjoint or flute as a whole. The key is closed by the fleshy part of the tip of the finger. Nails should be short as when playing the piano or a string instrument. When lifting the finger, it remains as close to the key as possible. The arch of the finger is maintained throughout and the finger is not straightened when lifted. This playing position is what students should develop for playing all notes of varying lengths.

As each new note is added, introduce trilling to and from that note. Most trills are based on regular fingerings with the following exceptions. (Check a trill chart for these fingerings.)

C to D in the 1st and 2nd octaves
E to F# in the 1st and 2nd octaves
Ab to Bb in the 1st and 2nd octaves
B to C# in the 1st and 2nd octaves

The most common exception is the C to D trill fingering. This involves the use of one of the two trill keys. A good way to remember this is the first trill key is used in the first octave and the second trill key is used in the second octave. The question though is which finger goes on each trill key. To teach this rotate the fingers to the player’s left (towards the headjoint) with the F finger playing the Bb lever, the E finger playing the first trill key, and the D finger the second trill key. This usage of fingers is exactly the same as when playing the top octave Bb and B. Consistency means using the same finger on the key each time it is used.

Right hand in regular position

Right hand in auxiliary keys position

In addition to developing a good hand position, practicing trills can improve control of the musical line. Beginning instrumentalists often pulse with the air on each note they play. When trilling, many notes are played on one blow of air. This will eventually translate into playing several slower notes on one blow of air. Try using this concept with the first three notes of a scale ascending and descending while keeping the air stream constant. To do this well, students will learn that the air stream is separate from the fingering sequence. Later, move on to tetrachords, five note patterns and nine note scales.

When building a technique, it is important to learn to move the fingers while keeping the tube of the flute still. For intermediate level students, playing one trill or a mordent on each scale step reinforces their knowledge of the trill fingerings, but also keeps the fingers light and ready to play. Remind students that mordents are played in a short, short, long rhythm – two sixteenths followed by an eighth note – not as a triplet.
For more advanced students, playing gruppettos scales are a wonderful way to learn to balance the flute in the hands.

Introduce the concept of a gruppetto as a group of five notes starting on a pitch, moving up a note, returning to the initial pitch, then moving down a note and finally returning to the initial pitch as in F, G, F, E, F.

Playing a gruppetto on each note of a scale slurred teaches how to balance the flute. Trill keys are often employed in playing gruppettos in order to achieve speed and an even technique. Of course, if the trill key compromises the pitch, then the regular fingering should be used. Playing gruppettos as well as other scales patterns develops and reinforces the concept of which note might come next in a passage which in turn is helpful in sightreading. Gruppettos may be executed in three rhythms. Begin with rhythm 1 first and then no. 2. If the written gruppetto is written just after a dotted quarter, then use rhythm 3. While younger students will probably not see gruppettos in their early repertoire, they may occur when playing Romantic transcriptions and in regional and state audition materials. However, practicing trills, mordents, and gruppettos are beneficial for developing an ergonomic hand position and air control. Plus, kids love playing these gestures.

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As a college bassoon teacher, I am passionate about people playing the instrument. It is the tool I use to teach others about music and also the one I use most often to express myself musically. It is also a fun instrument to play and a fantastic addition to an ensemble. Here are some tips to help you start students on the instrument.

Having bassoons in your ensemble provides a richer musical experience for students and audiences. The more instruments available, the greater the choices for the different colors to make music interesting. Bassoons also help fill out parts across the bass/tenor range of the ensemble. They add clarity to trombone, euphonium, and tuba bass lines and support horn, saxophone, and even clarinet melodies. Sometimes they even get the rare chance to shine in solos ranging from wistful to comical.

Selecting Bassoonists
When considering who should play the bassoon, the answer is simple and clear – any student who wants to play the bassoon should have the opportunity to give it a try. Even if they don’t end up playing for more than a few minutes, learning how to hold the instrument and make a sound gives a better understanding of what a bassoon does and how it is played. Be sure to look for multiple bassoonists. It is lonely and disincentivizing to be the only one in a section.

When choosing an instrument for the longer term, it truly is better for them to self-select (with some thoughtful nudging, of course). If you are switching a current ensemble member to the bassoon, a clarinetist will have to re-learn their embouchure; a trumpet player will have to learn how to play on a reed; and a flutist will have to learn to read bass clef. They will all need to learn something new, so the best qualities a student can have are curiosity and perseverance. With your support, the rest will fall into place.

One note here: students must be able to hold the instrument and cover the tone holes with their fingers. If a student’s left-hand ring finger cannot keep the third tone hole covered (either with the finger or with the key, if present) while the left thumb presses the keys for the low notes, then their hand is not yet big enough to play the bassoon. If you are starting bassoonists at younger ages, it is useful to have a couple short-reach bassoons. These instruments are specially designed for smaller hands.

Bassoon Basics
While the bassoon is physically a bit ungainly to work with at first, there are many online resources (and your notes from your instrumental methods class) to get you started. Plus, a little logic goes a long way. Bassoon-specific online groups can also be helpful, but be aware that many questions end up with multiple conflicting responses.

The bassoon embouchure is also not anything crazy. If you know how to make a saxophone embouchure (think “drawstring bag”) then you are most of the way there. The corners of the lips come in, the chin is flat, and the internal space is big and warm. If you make sure the lips cover both top and bottom teeth, you are more or less set.

Bassoonists need to use their air well just like any other wind player. Students should sit in a natural upright position with no awkward angles and take relaxed breaths followed by natural, supported exhalations. Articulation is also not much different from other instruments. Students should use the area just behind the tip of the tongue to contact the leading edge of the lower blade of the reed. Doo or Da syllables are just fine.

Fingerings are perhaps the trickiest part, but the basic (no sharps or flats) middle-range fingerings on the bassoon from low F to the F an octave higher are similar to the clarinet’s low F to the F an octave higher – Bb/Bn being the exception.

To brush up on how a bassoon should sound, check out a few professional players on YouTube. Notice that in an ensemble they blend but do not completely disappear. For a solo, they step it up like any other player. Once you have a few favorite pro players in your playlist, share them with students so they can begin to understand what the bassoon is capable of.

Instrument Set Up and Cleaning
Before starting students on the instrument, make sure the school’s bassoons are in good condition. First, make sure the bocals are clean and in good shape. For this, you will need a bocal brush. This is one of the only bassoon-specific items you need in a tool kit. There are many available online, and they all do the same thing, although many players have a slight preference for the Dutch variety. With water running through the bocal (if possible), and being careful to avoid bending the tiny vent tube that protrudes into the inside of the bocal, draw the brush through multiple times until nothing but clear water comes out. A dab of dish or hand soap for particularly gross bocals does not hurt. Before you finish up, take a few stiff bristles and make sure the bocal vent is also clean. Check that the corks are in good condition and give them a quick swipe of cork grease. This job could easily be given to an enterprising student. Be sure to ask that they do not accidentally swap bocals between cases. Certain bocals work better for particular instruments.

Once the bocals are in good order, you may want to review how to put the instrument together and how to attach it to the seat strap before showing students. Once you have practiced getting each of the bassoons in your school’s collection together and apart a couple of times (and back into the case – which can be tricky), you are ready to make sure the instruments work.

For this, you will need a reed. If you only use a bassoon reed for such purposes, a decent one can last for years. If it has been sitting around dry for a long time, soak the entire reed very well for about eight to ten minutes and make sure that the wires or wrapping have not fallen down to where they should not be. If they have, just use your fingers to move them back to where they once were and keep soaking until they stay put. Once you have the reed soaked, make sure the tip is open only about one millimeter in the center. If it is too open, use your fingers to flatten down the wire nearest to where the lips go. Now, holding the bassoon, place the reed on the bocal and using a good embouchure and air, make a continuous sound.

This task does not require you to have a great sound – only a continuous one. You are just checking to make sure the instrument works. Keep your left thumb on the whisper key (that’s the one that closes the pad against the bocal vent) and walk your fingers down while playing with a single stream of air. If you can get the instrument to play with a solid, free sound all the way down to low E (that’s low F plus the pancake key), you are almost there. Once you get to low E, grab another breath, play low E again, lift the left thumb from the whisper key and use it to press the left thumb low note keys, adding one at a time until you’re honking out a low Bb. Once you have done this successfully, take a moment to press each key on the instrument. You don’t need to be playing for this. Check whether each key operates smoothly and if the pad it is meant to open/close is still present. If the notes you played do not come out no matter what you try or something is amiss when you press a key, it is time to send the instrument to the repair shop with a note clearly pointing out what is not working. You or one of your bassoonists should do this for each school instrument every year. If a student owns or is renting an instrument, it is still a good idea to have them run through this simple diagnostic in your presence so you can make sure everything is in order.

In the Bassoon Case
• An instrument with pads that seal and joints that are properly strung/corked
• A bocal that isn’t split or overly bent and has its cork intact
• A seat strap that attaches securely to the instrument
• A hand rest (unless the student’s hands are small to the point that removing the hand rest – and possibly the hand rest bracket – are the only way they can reach the keys)
• A proper reed case so the reeds don’t get lost, broken, or moldy
• At least three playable reeds
• A proper and recently cleaned swab of the pull-through variety. (Stick-style swabs should be consigned to the trash.)
• A tube of cork grease for anything that is both squeaking and is actual cork. Do not use it on string wrappings. Using nothing on string is usually the best bet.
• Metronome
• Tuner

Not in the Case
• Multiple plastic reed tubes and boxes
• Dead reeds
• Too much space that allows the instrument to rattle around
• Random screws, pads, or keys – find out where they came from
• Pet hair
• Candy

First Lessons
Once the instruments are ready to go, it is time to introduce your students to them. While it is possible to outsource most of the bassoon teaching to a local professional, I believe that this first lesson is best done by the director. It is a chance to demonstrate that you care about what they are about to undertake and show that you have the expertise to have standards for their progress.

It is a good idea to have at least two new bassoon reeds and two copies of your favorite edition of the Weissenborn Method for Bassoon on hand at all times. This allows you to start students when you are ready instead of waiting for parents or guardians to obtain the necessary materials. If they are on hand, you can just give them to the students and then charge the parents. If a local bassoon teacher will be teaching your students, stock the reeds and Weissenborn editions that they prefer. There are plenty of great double reed supply companies and bassoon reed makers who sell their products online. (But please, do not order them on Amazon.)

In that first lesson, demonstrate the instrument for students and get them set up and making a sound before they leave. If you are not sure about something, both of the new editions of the Weissenborn Method (one by Frank Morelli and one by Douglas Spaniol) have good descriptions of instrument position, posture, embouchure, etc. Even if a student does not read bass clef, take them through the first lesson in whatever book you are using, even if it is a band method book.

Next Steps
You have an important choice to make about what happens after that first lesson with your new bassoonists. Do they then then shift over to a private teacher or continue meeting with you on a regular basis? Young students don’t necessarily need to study with an orchestral player or a college professor, but they will need good, regular teaching. Local college students are sometimes a good option, but they graduate and move on, and many are juggling a lot already.

Often the director may be the best bassoon teacher for a beginning student. In addition to playing in tune and with good rhythm, encourage them to make a big sound. Focus on using good air and correct fingerings and keeping their embouchure in order (a flat chin is always better than a scrunched chin). You don’t have to be an expert on the bassoon to get them off to a great start. With good reeds, an instrument in good shape, and a role model who keeps them motivated with regular bassoon-specific contact, they will progress quite well.

Useful Books
Weissenborn:
Morelli, Frank, The First Complete Weissenborn. This is a large book but one a student can use for years and years.
Spaniol, Douglas E., The New Weissenborn Method for Bassoon This is similar to the Morelli edition but comes in two volumes for easier carrying and has a slightly different pedagogical approach.

Other Options:
McDowells, D., Book of Practical Studies for Bassoon, Vol 1 & 2. This is a lesser known but very solid set of tunes that are great for individual study or sightreading
Pierce, Amanda J., Blue Moon Bassoon. This is a newcomer on the scene with a refreshing take on making early bassoon playing as musical as possible
Skornika, J.E., Rubank Elementary Method: Bassoon. This is very affordable and a classic that has held up for generations of players. It is then easily followed with the Rubank Intermediate and Advanced books

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In many districts, the high school band director can be assigned chorus, middle school band, study hall, and several other jobs. There is no time, either during or after the regular school day, for combos. Choices are limited to playing written solos, finding a private teacher for selected students, or trying to teach improv to the whole group.

Steve Massey, former director of the renowned Foxboro (Massachusetts) High School Jazz Ensemble put it best: “A jazz program without an improvisation component has dubious merit…A jazz experience isn’t playing fourth trumpet on a Basie chart.” Massey has a point. If your program fits this description, you can use circumstances to your advantage. It takes courage, but jump in.

Your first tasks are to make improvisation a natural part of the rehearsal day and convince every player that improv is something they can do. (Jamey Aebersold has often said, “Anyone can improvise.”) From moment one, create a safe haven because some students will be reluctant. Their self esteem is at stake.
Start this way: “Rhythm section, play a Bb chord in a four-bar loop. We’ll call this 123. Horns, play the first three notes of a Bb concert scale. I’ll count you off and you will put together some rhythms using any of those three notes. Use one note if you want.

“There is going to be a lot of activity, but if you stay in your lane, it will sound great.” With everyone playing at the same time, it is a perfectly safe environment. Everyone has improvised, even if it is just a little bit.

Recently, I was asked to give a clinic for two combined middle school bands with nearly 50 students who had never improvised. The instructions from the teacher? “Improv.” So, we did what is described above and produced a highly active but glorious sound. We then had saxes and rhythm alone, then trombones, then trumpets. Then, one section against the other. Eventually there were volunteers to play solo.

The next steps were to add the fourth note of the pentatonic (the fifth) and then the last (the sixth.) Every student left that session with the tools to sound good over a Bb progression. The pentatonic is the springboard and the secret sauce.

If circumstances require teaching improvisation to an entire big band, this is where to start. You need to devote some time every rehearsal to this, even if it is only five or ten minutes. You want to make improv as natural a part of the jazz experience as playing a concert Bb scale.

The next step is helping students develop a rhythmic vocabulary. This is the most important part of developing soloists. Students will learn quickly what notes sound good. The reason judges hear so many long note and quarter note solos from young soloists is that they lack ideas for what to play rhythmically.

Take out your horn and play a simple jazz rhythm or two and have the students do this as a call and response. Call it “rhythm du jour.” Then, play it on tones one and two of the pentatonic and have them imitate you or a strong player in the band. Then, go through the pentatonic. Soon these rhythms and note choices will start appearing in their solos. You can also add this: “I will play a rhythm. You play one that responds to it.”

Some students may ask if they can play the written solos provided in some charts. The answer is yes, but only if this doesn’t substitute for learning how to improvise. For a while, some publishers provided the song’s melody as the solo in the solo section. This is a great idea if you teach the soloist not to play it straight but to alter it. I might suggest, “Keep the notes the same, but change the rhythms. Jazz it up.” Then you can teach some chromatic approaches, arpeggios on long melodic notes and style – growls, glisses, and bends.

It helps to give each potential soloist a copy of the original tune and approach it in this way. Have them memorize the tune. Many players run away from the tune rather than referring to it in their solos. Melodic paraphrase is a great way to keep a solo grounded in the harmony and to provide cohesion to the overall arrangement. Soloists need to understand that their responsibility isn’t to themselves alone. Improvising is a highly collaborative process.

If you have a written solo that goes beyond the melody (the more common practice these days), you can have the soloist learn the solo but then change it up rhythmically, with chromatic approaches, rhythmic deletions, shifting dynamics and anything else they can handle. With increasing experience, they will prefer to create on their own.

Using these techniques in class will lead to several students wishing to pursue improvisation more seriously. At this point, provide a list of recommended recordings and set them up to improvise with a recorded rhythm section.

The Aebersold recordings have been the industry standard for many years. The lyrics and recommended listening lists, in particular, are gold. Most band rooms have several Aebersold volumes. In recent years, I have used IReal Pro, a popular practice app. This has two advantages – tempo, style and key control and access to 1,500 sets of chord changes. The disadvantage is that, unlike, Aebersold, just the chord changes are provided. You would have to purchase Real Books for the melodies.

Say you are playing Summertime as a festival tune. Send students to practice rooms with either of these two resources, and they will make progress. Soon they may ask to lead combos themselves. Set them up with The Real Easy Book. It has changes, melodies, sample bass parts, guitar and piano voicings and good tunes.

This is how to establish a jazz culture, regardless of your scheduling circumstances. Every student deserves a good and complete jazz experience and, with creativity, any one of us can provide it.

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