We asked our experts about the best way to clean curved lines in drill. Here are their responses.

   For the first several years of my career I taught drill the way I was taught: somebody, (the director, a section leader, or a staff member) told each student where to stand, and then students marked with paint, a poker chip, a wallet, or a hole in the dirt. This was followed by the director repeatedly instructing the band to dress the form.
   I spent a tremendous amount of time talking to students about making sure that they were spaced equally from each other, showing them how to line up body parts (“make sure your left elbow is even with his right clavicle”), and then endlessly adjusting and readjusting the forms throughout the season. Some years everybody in the band received full drill charts and sometimes only the officers and staff did, but the general principle was always the same –  close enough is good enough.
   When I arrived at the University of South Florida it quickly became apparent that this method was not going to work, there was not enough time to learn and clean drill for multiple shows using the “get close” method. Several staff members convinced me to pass out dot books instead of drill charts, and the results have been fantastic. In this system each student gets one sheet of paper that lists assigned coordinates for every picture. Drill design software can produce these sheets with a simple click of a button, and as an added bonus, it saves a tremendous amount of paper compared to passing out full charts to every student. After students are taught how to decipher what each coordinate means it takes them little time to set each picture. Also, rather than trying to remember which poker chip or hole in the ground belongs to whom, they know exactly where they are supposed to end up.
   Many drum corps and college and high school bands have been using dot charts for years. I had long been skeptical because I thought that the ability to stay in the picture was more important than hitting the exact spot on the page. I am now a complete convert. Rather than asking students to simply fit into a form – possibly paving way for a whole slew of marchers to be wrong – it puts responsibility on each person to know exactly where the spot is, thus making large mistakes far less likely.
   Therefore, I would answer the question about getting the curved lines right exactly as I would about how to get diagonals, vertical, or horizontal lines clean. Make sure the students know that they alone are responsible for hitting the spot that is designated to them. This works for bands of all sizes, ages, and ability levels. High school freshmen are every bit as capable of doing this as are college seniors.
– Matthew McCutchen
The University of South Florida

   The secret is to set the curve, then have the students hold up their instruments in playing position and memorize what they can see – how far behind and off to the side they are from the person in front of them. Students must set based off of the people in front of them, and the people at the very front have to set off of the sideline or hash marks. The whole idea is that they should be able to set the curve even if there were no lines on the field, because they are setting off of each other as opposed to a spot on the field. Additionally, circle drills during marching basics really help students get used to keeping proper intervals in curves.
– Daniel A. Kiene
Richmond Hill High School
Richmond Hill, Georgia

   Students should know their spot in the drill and make every effort to arrive correctly every time. Tape, chalk, spray paint can be used as this will help with muscle memory. In addition, students should fight the tendency to look down; keeping their heads up will force students to learn their paths and have a consistent step size and angle. Awareness of their responsibility within the form and the space between them and their neighbors will create cleaner forms.
   After each drill set, students should adjust with horns down. When the form is correct, have them put up horns so students can see how the form looks from their vantage point. This is important for giving students a reference to what they should see while marching.
   After some time, the dot system should be dropped and students should start relying on dressing to the form. Many times students will go to their spot even if this puts them out of the form. This should be avoided.
   The circle drill can be extremely beneficial when learning spatial awareness.
– Raquel Rodriquez
Northern Kentucky University

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   Throughout 13 years of experience as an elementary and middle school band director, I have never had a percussion section exhibit the same notereading speed and accuracy as the wind players in my band. There are usually a few individuals who take private piano or percussion lessons and read very well, but the great majority struggle with notereading compared to the wind players.
   I had an excellent seventh grade clarinet player whose instrument was in the shop, so I asked her to join the percussion section for a day. She had no piano experience, and had to be shown where middle C was on the marimba. Within ten minutes, she was reading and playing better than most of the others in the section. They were aghast that a non-percussionist could sightread a piece that took them hours to learn.
   In another example, a seventh grade percussionist found her mother’s old clarinet in the attic. She decided to come after school for extra lessons so she could learn to play it. Within two weeks she worked through more than half of the method book. It was at this time that I asked her to sightread a new piece on xylophone. She looked at it briefly and then gleefully exclaimed, “I know these notes. I played them on the clarinet.” The funny thing was that she knew those notes all along. As a percussionist she had been taught those notes in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, with three different teachers. Something had changed in how she looked at notereading. This experience made me think about how I teach notereading to percussionists.
   The major music pedagogical models propose that tactile learning is essential for understanding pitch and literacy, particularly Orff, Dalcroze, and Suzuki. I thought it might be helpful to give percussionists a different type of tactile experience to see if their notereading skills would improve.
   Consider how percussionists traditionally learn pitches on bells. When struck with a mallet, Bb feels the same as a C. Out of context, a student has no way to know if it is even the right note. Further-more, a bell player always has two visual targets at any given time: the music page and the key or bar on the instrument. Beginning bell players rarely learn how to follow the notes on the page properly because they keep switching their eyes from the written pitches to the bell set.
   A clarinet player can feel the difference between Bb and C. The difference in touch is reinforced by the difference in sound. Clarinet students also learn to track more  easily because they are not shifting their focus from the page to the instrument.
To test whether teaching percussionists a six-week unit of tactile-based music reading would improve their reading speed and accuracy, I adapted my teaching methods with fourth grade (first year of instruction), fifth grade (second year) and the seventh grade students (fourth year).

Study Design
   With funding from my district’s foundation, I purchased 30 clarineo instruments. A clarineo is an inexpensive clarinet pitched in the key of C. Because it is a non-transposing instrument, percussionists can play it in lieu of a mallet instrument. It is constructed almost entirely out of plastic, and the holes and keys are spaced together to make it easier for smaller children to play. There are no redundant or duplicate keys like a clarinet has, but it can play a chromatic scale.
   I chose the clarineo over the recorder because all of my students had previous recorder experience in school, and the recorder fingerings are not as intuitive as the clarineo. Once a student moves beyond the basic six notes, the recorder loses its predictable fingering patterns. An unexpected benefit occurred when the percussionists found that they were using the same fingerings as the clarinet players. It sparked a lot of musical discussion between the two groups that would not have occurred otherwise, such as when it is appropriate to use a Bb fingering instead of a B natural fingering. I also chose the clarineo because in a study where the feel of a note was crucial, I wanted an instrument with more substance than the simple hole of the recorder. The rings around the upper fingers, the pinky keys, the A key, Ab key, and register key added an important element.
   Prior to the clarineo instruction, I gave students a survey and asked them to indicate how comfortable they were playing three progressively harder excerpts using a range of notes that were common for a mallet player. I also asked students to disclose whether or not they had significant piano experience (two years or more). For the purposes of this study, I excluded those students, since they had a clear advantage.
   Students then progressed sequentially through the method book that was included with the instrument. As a group we played through at least three or four lines each week. I then directed students to advance as far as possible for the next lesson. In addition to the method book, I also taught the seventh graders how to play our full band warmup on the instrument, which includes a chromatic scale. The lesson groups remained fairly evenly paced, with a few advanced students given permission to work ahead when ready.
    Following the six-week unit, students completed a second survey. I measured the differences in perception about their experience and also made my own evaluations of the changes in their playing abilities.

Results
   The results of this study were surprising. Most seventh graders completed the book (9 out of 10), but only a few fourth and fifth graders were able to finish it (4 out of 14). The seventh graders were nearly unanimous in their findings. All players except one found that the unit improved their confidence, notereading speed, and notereading accuracy. In fact, 6 out of 10 players wanted to keep the instruments. Several talked about forming a small ensemble for the district solo/ensemble festival. I believe that much of the the excitement about the instrument came from the improvements that they saw each week.
   The seventh graders worked exclusively on the clarineo in lessons while they rotated between clarineo/mallet parts and non-mallet parts in full band rehearsals. As a result these students had many opportunities to connect the notereading advancements on the clarineo to notereading on the mallet instruments. The combination of the lessons and band allowed them to progress at a fast rate – enough that at times they could see steady improvement from one day to the next. The seventh grade students all felt they read notes more quickly and accurately after the unit. Their subsequent mallet playing throughout the school year demonstrated improved playing ability. 
   The fifth grade class saw similar increases in their perceived ability to play and read music, but not as much as the seventh graders. The fifth graders immediately saw the value of playing the wind instrument. However, with less experience on the mallet instruments, many found it difficult to connect the two dissimilar instruments. They were excited about the project but did not see the same marked growth. Only three fifth grade students finished the method book. The survey after the unit revealed slight gains in perceptions about their ability to read faster and more accurately. The smaller gains may be partly because they had less instruction time each week than the seventh grade students.
   The fourth grade beginner class made the least progress with this project, largely because they signed up for band to play percussion, not clarinet. Without any prior experience, nearly all of these students struggled to progress past the first three notes. They were slightly skeptical of the study, even after I explained how it would help their notereading. They also had the most difficulty producing an initial tone on the instrument, which came easily to the seventh graders.
   When they transferred to bell sets, we had to start over in the  band method book. I saw little evidence that the fourth graders carried concepts from clarineo to the bells. Contributing to the lack of progress by the fourth graders was limited lesson time; these students met only once a week for a percussion lesson. Unlike the fifth and seventh graders, they had no mallet experience to provide a context for note-learning and did not have a weekly full ensemble rehearsal to practice the notereading they had begun in lessons. (Beginners do not join full band until their tenth week). They also did not feel that they had improved as much as students in other grade levels.

Conclusions
   I will definitely continue clarineo instruction as an annual notereading unit with seventh grade students. It is also a useful tool to assist experienced percussionists who are uncomfortable with reading and performing mallet parts. Whether it is used with an entire group or an individual student, learning to play a simple woodwind instrument improves percussion students’ notereading skills. I will also continue using the method with my fifth grade students. After a year of instruction, they have learned enough about playing a mallet instrument and notereading to apply the skills they develop on the clarineo back to their percussion playing.
   Beginning percussionists are anxious to play percussion and only percussion. They do not have the same motivation and knowledge as more experienced percussionists to fix a problem that they do not yet know exists.
   It is unclear whether the positive results found in the seventh graders are a result of age and cognitive development or just greater playing experience. It would be interesting to see how a beginning seventh grade student would do. It is also possible that more lesson time would produce better results in younger students. I do not intend to use this method again with my beginners, but will continue to teach this instrument to older students to advance their notereading speed and accuracy on mallets.        

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   Sightreading is intimidating, daunting, and mysterious to many musicians. Too often students are told that the best way to learn to sightread better is simply to practice sightreading without any direction or method. This non-answer causes confusion and frustration. Merely sightreading more music without clear guidance is like slinging wet mud on a wall in the dark expecting to create a beautiful picture. Some of the mud will stick, but it will not be pretty.
   Sightreading is a true test of independent musicianship. If you want to prepare your students to both desire and to be capable of participation in music after they leave high school and college, then you must help them become independent musicians. Good sightreading skills enable students to form chamber ensembles, play successfully in church ensembles, and participate confidently and successfully in community bands and orchestras.
   The following techniques work well with small ensembles as well as with the full band and orchestra. They are simple to develop and easily incorporated into warmup and reading time. Directors can insert sightreading opportunities throughout rehearsals. Students should also use the techniques in their private practices. For the band director who wants to equip students to earn district and state band seats, or win college scholarships, sightreading is the key component that often separates the top positions in any ensemble.

The Perusal Stage
   Studies have shown that the ability to organize and sort through information while sightreading is divided into two parts: the perusal phase and the physical act of reading. When the music is placed before a musician the initial step is a period of examining the music. Students are typically given little guidance on how best to use these precious minutes before the clock stops, and they begin to play. Some common problems include staring at one section of music too long; lack of proper scanning; little focus; not mentally hearing the music, or using an  internal metronome. These and other distracting elements affect the concentration of the performer. Fears often creep in, mental barriers develop, and the piece becomes overwhelming to the performer. This makes an audition or first attempt at a piece even more daunting. In an audition, the time allowed to look at a piece of music usually ranges from thirty to sixty seconds. To best utilize this limited time, students should have simple, memorable steps to follow that create a systematic methodology.

Step 1: Time Signatures
   Students should first rapidly scan the excerpt to discover the meter of the music, and at what (if any) point in the selection there is a meter change. The performer should take critical note of the meter. Does it change from simple to compound time? Does the excerpt have a complex meter? What is the feel and meter within the selection? This should take no more than 2-3 seconds to scan, locate, sound out, and count through.

Step 2: Key Signature
   After checking the key signature, scan through the piece to locate any changes. Keys with multiple sharps or flats often include other accidentals. The performer should finger through the key on the instrument, mentally noting the names of the notes that are altered. Then he should slowly finger through the accidental passages. The initial scanning time should take no more than two to four seconds.

Step 3: Range of notes
   Determine the highest and lowest notes in the excerpt. It is often a refreshing surprise to realize that the excerpt includes only one octave, even if it is difficult to perform. This should take no more than two to three seconds.

Step 4: Speed and Rhythm of difficult passages and patterns.
   This stage should take the most time. Students should start by looking at any rhythmically challenging figures, syncopations, odd meter rests, and strangely written phrases. It is helpful to look for rhythmic or diatonic patterns. Phrase markings within the music frequently highlight similarities in rhythmic patterns. Where the slur starts and ends within a rhythmic passage will clue the performer that this passage may occur again.
   As the rhythmic challenges are discovered, the performer should sing and finger the notes at a slow tempo several times. Vocalists should whisper the rhythms on their lips as they sound out the lyric. As the passage becomes more comfortable, performers should rapidly pick up tempo, reaching as close to performance tempo as possible.

Step 5: Style, Tempo, Articulations and Phrases.
   Next look at the written style, overall tempo, and specific phrase markings within the excerpt of music. This should take 4-5 seconds. As the musicians practice these steps, it becomes easier to scan the music more fluidly.

Advanced Techniques
   More complicated excerpts require additional techniques. Students in private lessons often excel in sightreading because they employ the following techniques as they prepare for placement auditions and college scholarship competitions.

Tongue The Ties
   Counting rhythmic passages can be difficult when there are tied notes over a bar line or weak beat. In this instance, it is best to tongue all notes within the tie and omit the tie. The passage becomes much easier, and although it is not exactly what is written, it includes keeps the rhythm and technique properly placed within the phrase. Ties can easily be added the second time through.

When in Doubt, Leave it Out
   This corollary applies to ornamentation, appoggiaturas, mordents and trills, turns, and any other phrase decoration. Simply leave these nuances out of the phrase when the excerpt is played for the first time. It is more important to perform the correct rhythm.

Front to Back
   When a student encounters a challenging rhythmic passage that is hard to count, the tendency is to read from left to right, hoping to eventually find relief from the rhythmic challenge. A better approach is to look at the passage differently. If the start of the passage is hard to count and the down beats are unclear, go to the end of the measure and find where the final beat falls. From this point gradually back up, one beat at a time and sound it out by singing and fingering the notes. Essentially, the passage is approached from the end to the beginning. This technique, when employed correctly, is highly effective and efficient.

Mental Hashmarks
   This advanced technique is a wonderful way to sound out difficult rhythms. Without a pencil available in an audition, a reader mentally targets difficult rhythmic passages. One of the best ways to sound out harder rhythms is to place a mental hashmark above the spot where each beat actually falls within a measure of music. It is easier to sing and finger the notes when the down beat has been identified. All divided and sub-divided rhythms become much easier to read and count.

   When individual musicians become proficient in sightreading techniques, it is a component that catapults an ensemble to higher levels of literature. Although it may seem time consuming to teach the techniques to the entire ensemble, the advancement in playing ability makes it worthwhile. When the director can choose more challenging music, it enhances the experience for students and audiences. The more difficult literature offers students the preparation to further their education in music beyond the high school level.

Further Reading
Teaching Band and Orchestra: Methods and Materials by Lynn Cooper (GIA).

The post Systematic Sightreading appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

   In mid-June the National Brass Symposium brought together brass players from six of the top American orchestras, many of whom are principals of their sections. These notable brass players performed, spoke candidly about their experiences, and mingled with the hundreds in attendance.

   These following comments were excerpted from a session called Dealing with the Tightrope, given by a dozen or so professional players.

James Sommerville, principal horn, Boston
   I’ve played Brahms’s Second many times, and there is a tough horn solo at the end of the first movement. On one occasion I bobbled a few notes of it and afterwards realized that the problem stemmed from practicing it so much that I no longer looked at or focused on the music during  practice sessions. To correct this I decided to write the fingerings for every note of the solo. Even so during the concert I had the bad feeling that I wouldn’t be able to play the solo, that something would go terribly wrong. I did not know what it was, but I was determined to get through it. During the concert I actually closed my eyes and didn’t look at the music. The solo went just fine. 
   First horn players make their money on soft, high passages by not cracking a note. This is a tricky act to pull off. The secret to doing this is to develop the faith in your preparation. One of my teachers prescribed an exercise starting on the G at the top of the staff and playing it six times absolutely perfectly. If one of the six is off, I have to go back to the beginning. Four or five of the six is not good enough. After playing six perfect Gs, I play six G#s, six As, and so on until I reach high C. This very simple exercise has the advantage of repeating troublesome notes. I have played this exercise every day for the past 15 years. Whenever there is a high G#, I tell myself that I have played it 20,000 times a year for 15 years and my confidence returns. I have proven to myself that I can do it.
If you practice well and learn from your practice sessions, it becomes much easier to stay calm during a performance. You won’t have to second guess yourself or be tempted to write in the fingerings at the last minute.

Thomas Hooten, principal trumpet, Atlanta
   In graduate school I made an embouchure change that left me feeling that I had regressed in my playing. I lost the confidence to play well, to sell a passage I played. Somehow, I made it into the Marine Band and was given a year’s notice of an upcoming solo performance. I chose to play the Tomasi and vowed I would dot every i and cross every t in preparing effectively. I sang and buzzed every interval, sometimes at one eighth speed, and I took a full year to prepare carefully. At the performance I even nailed the high D at the end. Afterward I analyzed why the performance was such a success and realized the answer was taking my time and feeling no pressure to reach the level I sought. However long it took, I was patient. This year of slow progress raised my playing level permanently. My advice to others is to take your time and never be in a rush. Work on small improvements and great form; play each passage over and over until it is perfect.

Michael Sachs, principal trumpet, Cleveland
   Many of us get caught up in the context of playing things and think about who is conducting, what the piece is, and other unimportant matters. As you play a section of the first movement of Mahler 5, don’t think about anything that comes later on in the work. Focus only on the measures at hand. Stay in the moment, and you will be more successful. I am most successful when my thoughts are solely on what I’m playing and how it fits into the larger whole. Sometimes I sit at home with the music in front of me and simply visualize exactly how I want a phrase to sound. If I start to get nervous while sitting in the orchestra, I think back to my preparation and trust that what I have played at home will sound the same in concert. It is the same music, the same horn, and I’m the same guy. Whether I’m playing at home or in Carnegie Hall, everything will be the same. By separating myself from the context and focusing on the music, I stay on task. I try to keep all other variables from entering into the mix because they will only block what I need to focus on. Trust your preparation. It’s not intangible, and it won’t go away. Trust that it will be there when you call upon it. Certainly there are ups and downs in an 85-90 concert season, but just move on after one of these occurs. I’m a frustrated baseball player and would have loved to play for the Dodgers. I loved Sandy Koufax, but even he got shelled for 10 runs in the first inning occasionally. He also threw some no-hitters. Just keep your mind on where you are going and simply let the music unfold.

Christopher Martin, principal trumpet, Chicago
   I’m a perfectionist like everyone else on this stage, and when I was younger, I used to get very nervous before concerts. I spent lots of time before concerts trying to relax and be calm. However, out on the stage I had so much pent up energy sitting around for three hours that I grew impatient for the concert to start. Much later I realized that a better course is the exact opposite of what I had done in trying to relax.
   I have learned that it is better to exercise and be active, to burn off some of this nervous energy. Running and exercise, especially before a concert (but not immediately preceding), leave me more relaxed. Don’t be crazy and do 1,000 pullups or swim a mile before a concert, but follow a regular program of exercise. Just as it helps to play long tones to warm up each day, I find that my body is calmer and my mind calmer after a workout. However, I have also discovered that I play better if I’m not too relaxed for a concert. I need to be energized and charged. I recommend the books by Don Green on personality types and tests that can help us to understand how and what we are.
   Veterans in the C.S.O. tell stories about trumpeter Bud Herseth and how during the intermission before a big piece he would sit in the locker room getting charged up. The bigger the piece, the redder his face was. Certainly he played brilliantly all of the time, but he had learned to use his inner fire in amazing ways. Whenever I feel nervous onstage, it is because I am wrapped up in myself and have forgotten about the other wonderful people on the stage. A great many trumpet players think only about themselves and believe everything revolves around them. It really doesn’t. The truth is that music is a group of people playing together and sharing what we do onstage. Remember this whenever you grow nervous. Even with Mahler 5 for trumpet players or Rhenish for trombonists, the music is still about everybody working together.

Colin Williams, principal trombone, Atlanta
   One way to become comfortable before an important concert is to take time to visualize the performance in great detail. For auditions I often stood in an unfamiliar hall with my trombone in hand. I closed my eyes and imagined every detail of the hall. I thought about how the air felt and what it would feel like to take a breath and play. I did this two or three times a day as a way to get my subconscious prepared. Now, if a rehearsal goes badly because I missed some notes, my subconscious mind will remember the thoughts and doubts I have had. The mind is a pure, innocent child. If you tell your subconscious mind that Santa Claus exists, it believes. If you often think that you’re no good, the subconscious will believe this and the doubt manifest itself in your playing. Believe in the power of visualization, but be mindful of what you tell it. The power of positive thinking isn’t just a cute slogan, it’s a scientifically based idea, and I find it to be an important part of my playing.

Toby Oft, principal trombone, Boston
   When I joined the Boston Symphony everything went fine for a while until we played the Brahms 2. It has difficult trombone licks and a high D. On a particular Saturday, which was the last concert before my tenure committee hearing, I missed every one of those Ds. By the end of the first page I was mortified because I had rehearsed the Brahms so much. In retrospect I realized that I had practiced too much and listened to too many recordings of the work. The result was that when I sat in the orchestra, I had switched from being engaged in the music to being almost passive about it. I had thought about it way too much. Soon after this clambake we took the Brahms to Carnegie Hall and everything was great. I redeemed myself by becoming completely engaged in the music around me. I sought out new and exciting things my colleagues did. As a result of this Brahms disaster I developed the habit of being completely engaged in the music around me during the rehearsals leading up to a performance. This is not something you can switch on just before a performance but is an ingrained habit that has to be developed.

Thoughts from Thomas Rolfs

Principal Trumpet Boston Symphony Orchestra

   During my freshman year at the University of Minnesota, I won an audition to play at Tanglewood the next summer. I was partly motivated to go there to avoid working another summer at a Hostess cupcake factory, but I had only vague notions of becoming a professional musician.
   At Tanglewood I worked under Gunther Schuller, who taught me so much in a single summer. I might add that his comments often beat me up, but I must have passed some of his tests because he asked if I was interested in playing the Brandenburg Concerto. I had no idea what this was, but gave a vague acceptance because I had just bought a piccolo trumpet. Later I looked at the music and went back to him and said I wasn’t sure I could play it. He seemed a little disappointed in me for not trying.
   That year the Tanglewood orchestra played the version of Symphonie Fantastique with a cornet obbligato part in the waltz movement, which I was asked to play During that summer I worked with Schuller, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, and Neville Marriner and together they changed my life.
   During high school I had played sports and was a typical teenager, but I always practiced in the morning before school. I never put in massive hours on the horn, but practice sessions were intense and I moved through materials quickly. I still practice every morning, and now I am uncomfortable whenever I cannot fit in a morning practice session. My routine has evolved over the years. I now focus on the Clarke Technical Studies, using all forms of articulations and speeds. I may try to play as long as possible in one breath or as long as possible without taking the mouthpiece off my lips. Sometimes I play Arban gruppetto exercises at a fast enough speed to get through an entire page in one breath.
   During a lesson with Arnold Jacobs, he asked what aspects I wanted to improve. I replied that I had never been satisfied with my range and could use greater endurance, which he said were easy to fix. He took out the Arban’s melodic studies and told me to pick one of these and play just four measures, but an octave higher than it was written and at mezzo piano or mezzo forte dynamic with vibrato. I was to play it three times, but if the higher notes did not come out after three attempts, I should move on to the next study. I was to work on these for five minutes every day. Before this lesson with Jacobs my approach to high playing was to use full volume and move lots of air. He explained that this caused the embouchure to collapse, which in turn caused me to use more pressure. By advocating soft playing with a beautiful tone, the muscles began to develop, and before long my range increased.
   Regardless of how tight my schedule becomes I will work on endurance in the high range for five minutes on the piccolo trumpet. As I get older I have to work longer each day. Quintet playing entails a different kind of endurance, while orchestral work is generally comprised of short, splashy passages with long rests in between them. Quintet playing just goes on and on, and for regular quintet work I would add new endurance practicing to my routine by playing Arban melodic studies many times longer than I do now.

Favorite Pieces
   In my years at the Boston Symphony I have grown to love the opening of Mahler’s Sixth, and I enjoy this more than the opening of Mahler’s Fifth. On a passage in the finale of Mahler’s Seventh. I still can hear how Bud Herseth played it. In my view, Mahler’s Second is an imposing and very difficult piece. Certainly, it has many beautiful moments, but I never get to relax and enjoy them because the piece is so much work. I think it is more fun to listen to this piece than to play it.
   My father was trumpet player and had a large collection of LPs and on more than a few occasions where I pretended to be sick and stayed home to listen to these. Back then I especially loved the playing of Doc Severinsen, the Dukes of Dixieland, and Louis Armstrong. Today I most enjoy hearing the playing of people I went to school with, including Neal Berntsen and Mark Hughes.

Thomas Rolfs graduated from the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University and is presently principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Comments from Michael Sachs

Principal Trumpet, Cleveland

   Although many of us gathered here in Atlanta have played together before, we have never all converged at the same place. It is marvelous to be surrounded by so many exceptional brass players at one time. When Chris and Mike Martin first talked to me about this symposium, my only question was whether I had the dates free. It is wonderful to step outside of my normal zone of playing and join with others from Chicago, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Each of us has a comfort zone and a formula for playing, and it was uncanny to hear Chris Martin articulate the same ideas I believe in and approaches I use, but in slightly different words.
   The acoustics in each of our halls are dramatically different. Boston’s hall is more like Cleveland’s, New York is probably closer to Chicago, and Philadelphia falls somewhere in between. When I played a Wagner excerpt with Chris, I could hear each of us shifting toward the other’s sound. At first we released some notes differently because this suited the halls we are used to, but we quickly adjusted for better blend. I love the rapid adjustment this group makes as we feed off of what we hear. This is such a remarkable event, with great players who enjoy each other’s company,  but who have never played in the same ensemble until now.

On Warmups
   I use two different warmups, and today I chose my James Stamp warmup. I start with some buzzing on the lips and mouthpiece on descending exercises and work down to pedal notes and back up as high as is comfortable. Today this was about a concert Eb above high C. I work for an even sound at a mezzo dynamic. Next I went through some pedal exercises, scale exercises, and note bending. Then I turned to the Clarke second, third, and fourth studies with little or no articulation to complete the warmup.
I concocted the other warmup and included it in my fundamentals book. It begins with lip and mouthpiece buzzing, long tones played slowly and low a la Schlossberg page three, the G to F# to G, 20 counts minimum. I will play long tones for from 30 seconds to a full minute if I’m working efficiently. Next I play low intervals and add harmonics on top, starting low and slowly and later adding articulations. Next are more lip slurs at increasing ranges until I have played from low F# to Ds and Es above high C. I look for evenness of the range and sound, flexibility, and good articulations. My goal is to align these basic elements every day at the outset.

Background
   I grew up in Santa Monica, California, but my parents were not musicians. There was a wonderful music program in the schools and when one student got up and played “Never on Sunday,” I thought this was the greatest thing I had ever heard and begged my parents for music lessons. I was only four at the time and had to wait until my front teeth grew back. Someone told my mother that the great trumpet player Ziggy Elman taught at the local music store, and she set me up with him. He started me on cornet at age six and a half. Through elementary school, junior high, and high school I played in the school band, orchestra, jazz band, and even had a rock band after school.
   When it came time to go to college I wasn’t quite sure what direction I would go in, and my parents encouraged me to get a broad liberal arts education at a large university. I went to U.C.L.A. and earned a history degree, not a music degree. Near the end of high school a friend hooked me up with Tony Plog. Study with him was a revelation and became one of those moments when things come together and my playing rose to the next level. I studied with Tony through college, went to Aspen at age 19, and played music all summer for the first time. That experience in 1982 at Aspen and the lessons with Tony Plog were a revelation, and I discovered that this was what I really want to do. It became my passion.
   As Tony began to compose more, my lessons were soon down to once a month, so I started studying with James Stamp. His teaching concepts included better ways to use air to produce sound and ways to play softly and loudly in all the ranges.
I have never really fallen to the equipment vortex and have used the same mouthpiece since I was 18, with one slight change in throat size when I was 22. I have played just two Bb trumpets and two C trumpets my entire career, and they are basically identical to each other. It is the concept of what sound you want that transfers through the instrument and becomes the physical manifestation of what sound is in your mind. I developed this concept by listening to a broad variety of trumpet players, other instrumentalists, and singers. Ultimately playing an instrument comes down to singing. Arnold Jacobs, Vince Cichowicz, and James Stamp all talked about this. Each focused on the same destination but used different terms to describe it. In my view everything derives from a vocal approach to tone quality.
   The older I get, the more I’m trying to simplify the variables. I want to get all the barriers out of the way. We can make the process of producing sound so complex, but I just want to move some good air through the instrument and sing on the horn with a sound that is appropriate for the musical moment.

Favorite Pieces
   For me, it is any Mahler symphony, and my current favorite is always the one I just played. I just love playing Mahler symphonies, I love the journey of preparing them, and the emotional gamut I have to bring to the table with each of them.
There is a wonderful newer piece that John Adams extracted from his opera, Doctor Atomic. He took an aria from near the end of the first act about the creation of the nuclear bomb in the Manhattan Project by Robert Oppenheimer. The aria is about Oppenheimer’s intense internal turmoil because on one hand he’s on the verge of one of the greatest scientific achievements ever, yet this breakthrough could be used to destroy civilization. Adams extracted a symphony from the opera, and the last nine minutes feature this aria, and the entire thing is played by a solo trumpet. This is one of the most lyrical and poignant moments I have ever played.
   I also love the Mahler 3 posthorn solo, and I play it on a hybrid of a flugelhorn and a cornet that I found several years ago. It has just the right definition and warmth for this marvelous piece.

Michael Sachs grew up in California, graduated from U.C.L.A., and has been principal trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra since 1988.

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