Background

I founded BrassMusician on the 1st of May, 2010 as a simple blog project with the intention of providing a service “for brass players, by brass players”.

Within a few short months I was noticing that BrassMusician.com was receiving traffic and comments from enthusiastic brass players from all around the world. The blog project needed more authors to help provide broader information and services to you, the global brass playing public. It was then that I joined forces with Michael Barkley, who became a popular forum admin and major article contributor.

Design

During the 2+ years that BrassMusician has been online, I learned a lot about web programming and SEO, and created the design that you see today BM-Mag 0.1 – a custom made theme for the wordpress platform. In conjunction with the launch of the new theme, BrassMusician took on another administrator in Raquel Jimenez, and several new regular and guest authors.

By the way, if you’d like to see it, the original design layout for BrassMusician.com when Mike and I were the only authors can be found here, or using the wayback machine, here.

I take my leave

Now, with a steady monthly readership base in excess of 10,000 people, it’s time for me to move on, and to let fresh blood take over the BrassMusician brand and website. So, I’m happy to announce that Casey Thomas of the Solid Brass Music Company has bought BrassMusician and will be taking over the site in July!

Thank you!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE that has supported BrassMusician over the 2+ years the site has been online, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site once Casey takes over. I’d also like to wish Casey all the best for the future and I look forward to seeing what he has in store for BrassMusician!

Jon Gorrie – founder, BrassMusician.com

Gold, silver, lacquer, and brass – they can all succumb to the effects of acidic sweat.

The leadpipe on my old Bach 43  became so thin from pitting that you could virtually see through it. Wrapping some black electrical tape around the leadpipe prevented any further acid from getting at the brass, but the damage had already been done.

It was then I discovered a cheap, simple, and extremely effective way of protecting brass instruments from acidic sweat.

The answer?

Clear nail polish.

I’m not kidding. Once it hardens, clear nail polish is extremely durable, and more or less invisible. To protect your horn from acidic sweat, and extend its useable lifetime, do the following:

Step #1 Go shopping.

Purchase a high quality clear nail varnish / nail polish from any cosmetics store.

Step #2 Prepare the surface.

With a soft, clean cloth, polish the surfaces on your horn that come into direct contact with your fingers and hands. Your local brass instrument store will be able to recommend one for you.

Step #3 The first coat.

Apply a thin coat of clear nail varnish to each of the polished areas. Allow time for the nail varnish to dry.

Step #4 Once again.

Apply a 2nd thin coat. Again, allow time for the nail varnish to dry before touching your horn.

Step #5 Like watching paint dry.

Leave your horn in a safe place for several hours after the final coat has hardened.
As nail varnish often has a fairly pungent smell, I would recommend that you apply it in a well ventilated room.

Note: Do NOT apply nail varnish to any interior surfaces on your horn, such as valves or slides!!!

Disclaimer: No responsibility will be assumed by brassmusician.com or it’s writers for damage caused as a result of correctly or incorrectly applying the information in this article.

By Bill Muter

Bill Muter, tuba player for the international touring production of “Blast!” has just released the first edition of his brass pedagogy book entitled “A Practical Approach.” To celebrate his release, Muter will be holding a virtual book launch party during the month of May. The launch will include sweepstakes to win free prizes, a live interactive radio show and samples of Muter’s exercises provided by the International Tuba Euphonium Association website.

A Practical Approach is a brass technique book for beginning to intermediate music students. The book includes numerous exercises and outlines an efficient warm up brass routine from start to finish. The book will be available in late May on Apple’s iBook store as well as Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, billmuter.net and selected retail music stores.

About the Author:
Muter is arguably best known for his eclectic bass and tuba playing with avant-garde singer/songwriter Mike Mineo. Their works together have been featured on CBS Daybreak, E! Television and Austin’s KGSR Radio. Muter has also performed around the world with the Tony and Emmy award winning show “Blast!” for the last 5 years as well as Haitian compas music stars “Gabel.”

Is it that we “outgrow” them, not needing to do them as our basic technique is already fixed?

Does the practice of long notes lead to inflexibility?

Or do we simply just get bored playing them?

Like a whisper

In his method book from 1973, Cat Anderson instructs the student to play a 2nd line G (concert F) “like a whisper” for 20 minutes. The student is allowed to breathe when necessary, and is also allowed to take the mouthpiece off the lips when doing so.

More than just a high note exercise

Many ‘high-note’ players, including Anderson himself, have claimed that the “20 minute G” is the secret to their upper register. Although practised correctly, this exercise can be much more than an upper register exercise. Played with relaxed breathing and a suitable rest period afterwards, the “20 minute G in a whisper” may aid in overcoming excessive mouthpiece pressure, building endurance, aid control and articulation, and, as Anderson mentions, improve upper register playing.

Resolving tension

The thought behind this is that whilst carrying out this one simple exercise, your mind is free to focus on areas of your body where you are holding tension. Where tension is found, it can then be gradually resolved, leading to a more efficient overall physical ‘setup’.

How to get started

To get started with the “20 minute G”, one suggestion is to begin with the “30 second G”, increasing the duration of the exercise over several days to 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on.

Have you worked with the “20 minute G”?

What are you experiences?

Source: theweeklyconstitutional.com

A strange ominous Trumpet like sound has been heard all over the world.

A trumpet sound (best described as the trumpet noise Christopher Nolan seemed to be in love with in Inception) has been heard again all over the world, leaving millions to wonder where the sound is coming from.

While strange, off putting, and just a tad ominous (especially with all the Apocalyptic fervor surrounding the 2012 myths) this is not the first time that the horns have been heard.

Reports have been pouring in from the four corners of the Earth, claiming to have heard this same mysterious sound since August of 2011 (the reports seemed to died down some time in October of 2011 with them recently starting to crop back up).

Check out these videos featuring the noise…

(There are a couple here. Please check them out. It is really a rather neat phenomenon…)

Video #1

Taken in Manitoba, Canada on January 15th, 2012. Clearly, the sound is not thunder. The noise bears a striking resemblance to the roar of the Cloverfield monster.

Video #2

Taken on January 14th, 2012 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Sounds very much like the noise in the previous video.

Video #3

This is an audio recording of the same noise being observed in Kiev, Ukraine from August 3rd, 2011. Really worth listening to for a minute or so…

Video #4

It’s an 11 minute video of these “Trumpet” sounds being heard in Russia again on August 11th, 2011.

It’s an off-putting sound, ain’t it?

Remind anyone else of that weird space probe from Star Trek IV (the one where Kirk and the crew had to go back in time to fetch some Humpbacked whales in order to sing to the alien probe intent on destroying our world)???

There seem to be as many varied explanations for the noise as there are ears that have witnessed it…

Religious zealots of every faith feel it is the sounding of the Trumpet of the Almighty, signalling the beginning of the Apocalypse.

Others claim the sound to be the thrusters from an enormous alien mothership as it passes over a city/area (this video is supported by Video 5). Needless to say, those who dreamed up this nutty explanation claim that the alien mothership is making this noise while cruising along cloaked by some sort of invisibility field.

There are some (admittedly, these are those who have just shit for an imagination) who feel that the noise could be an earthquake or some other geological release of subterranean pressure.

And of course, you can’t do an unexplained phenomenon story without the “this is total bullshit” crowd making sure we all know that they know that this is nothing more than some lonely asshole’s cries for attention (these guys, I might add, suck)…

While we might never know what it is causing that noise (unless, of course, either this is an alien invasion or all Hell is loosed upon the Earth…) we at The Weekly Constitutional will be sure to let you know of anything the second we hear about it (Because while there seem to be as many theories as there are witnesses, strangely absent from the above listing of explanations is the World’s governments thoughts on the matter).

Real or fake? Comment below.

It’s not often I come across causes such as this one, so as soon as I saw the site I felt I had to share it with the brass playing world.

From www.trumpetsnotguns.com

Our Mission:

To help preserve the culture of traditional jazz and to enrich the lives of children through music, not violence, by providing musical instruments to the youth of the City of New Orleans.

With an array of support from the community, our local jazz artists, and specifically John and Lisa Grillot and Glen David Andrews, we plan to raise money musically, to help get guns out of the hands of our youth and replace them with trumpets and other musical instruments.

Our goal is to help local schools and other music foundations get the instruments that are so badly needed into the hands of our children. Get the guns out, put the trumpets in, and take back our streets one horn at a time.

If you live in or around the New Orleans area, check out “Trumpets NOT Guns” and offer your support to this important cause!

www.trumpetsnotguns.com

By James Boldin

Bruce Hembd’s great series on Horn-tastic TV Themes at Horn Matters got me thinking about all the amazing horn solos in movie soundtracks.  There are too many to list in this post, but I thought what might be fun is to consider only those horn solos that appear in the opening few minutes of a film, either in the opening titles or the first scene.  Here are two that came to mind.

Braveheart “Main Title,” composed by James Horner, London Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Jones?, solo horn [Solo begins at 1:55.]

Wyatt Earp “Main Theme,” composed by James Newton Howard, ?, solo horn

Can you think of any more film scores with solo horn (not sections) featured in the opening titles or main theme?  Further information on the soloists for Braveheart and Wyatt Earp would be great too.

If horn playing in film scores interests you, some great resources are Cindy Liu’s dissertation from the University of Cincinnati, The Examination of the Appearance and Use of French Horn in Film Scores from 1977 to 2004, and the website Moviebrass.

By James Boldin

Most music students will at one time or another need to write their own program notes, but this useful skill often goes overlooked in an undergraduate curriculum.  The ability to write and speak engagingly about performance and repertoire is important in every musical career I can imagine.  As with anything, practice and preparation are crucial.  You don’t want your opening band or choir concert during a first year teaching job to be your inaugural experience with written (or spoken) program notes.  Take every opportunity you can during your college years to refine your abilities – draft program notes for studio class performances, chamber music concerts, and of course recitals.  Even if your studio teachers don’t require program notes for recitals, take it upon yourself to create them.  Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.  Here are a few tips for writing program notes, as well as some resources to get you started.

Read!
The best way to become a better writer is to read a lot (and write a lot).  Read anything and everything you can about music – journal articles, recording reviews, CD liner notes, blogs, program notes from other recitals, etc.  Keep mental notes of the writers you enjoy the most, and try to figure out what it is about their style that you like.  Don’t worry about consciously imitating, or trying to avoid imitating, their style.  Just let your brain absorb all of this information.

Find your voice.
This will take some time, but eventually you won’t feel like you’re copying the language your teachers and textbooks use.  You have to start somewhere, so if you like the rhythms and patterns of another author or authors, try incorporating small parts of them (without plagiarizing!) into your own writing.  Your growing reading experience (see above) will tell you when things work or don’t work on the page, and you can adjust or tweak things as necessary.

Know your audience.
Program notes for an informal summer recital at a church should be different than the notes for a degree recital.  Are you writing for an audience composed mainly of musicians, non musicians, or a mix?  Will lots of music appreciation students be attending your concert/recital?  These are all questions to take into account before and during the writing process.  If your studio teacher or music school has specific requirements for content or format, make sure you follow those.  Ask your professors for help whenever necessary – they won’t write your notes for you, but they can give you helpful advice and let you know if what you’ve written makes sense to them.

Stick to the basics.
I think program notes should have some essential information – the composer’s dates and nationality (unless widely known), a few general comments about the composer’s overall style, and how the work being performed fits, or doesn’t fit, with those trends.  It’s also nice to include when and where the piece was originally performed, especially if it makes for a good story.  Consult a thematic catalog if necessary to find this information.  If the work is programmatic, include some background on those extra-musical associations, and any other information you think your target audience will find interesting.

Avoid jargon.
Unless writing specifically for an audience of trained musicians, avoid overusing technical terms related to form, phrasing, harmony, etc.  It’s best to try to put descriptions in your own terms, unless you wish to include a brief but pertinent quote from an eminent scholar or performer.

Make it personal.
The audience not only wants to know something about the pieces you’re performing, but they also want to know a little bit about you.  Lots of information on composers and dates can easily be found on the internet today, so your program notes should go beyond that in some way.  Briefly explain what it is about the piece that inspires and provokes you, and why you think it belongs, or has remained, in the repertoire.  This works for both new pieces and warhorses.  If there are specific passages that you feel the audience should pay particular attention to, point those out, or even demonstrate them, making sure that you plan/practice any excerpt demonstrations in advance.

Edit/revise as often as necessary.
Practice your delivery often if giving spoken notes, then record yourself and listen back to it.  You can use the recording to adjust pacing and content as needed.  Prepare written notes well in advance of the performance so that you have plenty of time to edit and revise, taking into account input from studio teachers and any other professors who are willing to read over your program.  Save electronic and hard copies of your program notes – you’ll want to refer to them again when you program those pieces in the future.

A regular (or semi-regular) fitness routine can be very helpful for brass players, whether it be running, swimming, biking, or some kind of light weight training combined with aerobic exercise. Listed below are what I feel to be the music-related benefits associated with overall fitness and physical well being, followed by my favorite exercises. *Note: If you have or suspect you may have any medical issues, consult a physician prior to beginning a workout regimen. I am neither a physician nor a fitness instructor – what follows are simply my suggestions.

Heart Health=Better Performances
Regular aerobic exercise is great for your cardiovascular system, and results in a more resilient heart. When stressed, a healthy heart returns to its resting, or calm state more quickly than one that is out of shape. What this means for performers is that you will be able to calm yourself more easily before an important entrance, concert, or recital. A relatively low resting heart rate is a good general indicator of cardiovascular fitness.

Less Chance of Performance Injuries
Good muscle tone and a strong core can help prevent overuse injuries, especially in the shoulders, neck, and back. Overuse injuries often result from the unbalanced use of a specific group of muscles. Strengthening the muscles we use to hold the instrument also allows us to practice longer without fatigue.

More Efficient Breathing
Although they can’t actually increase your lung capacity, aerobic exercises can help train us to take quicker, more efficient breaths, which often gives the illusion of increased capacity. Publications such as The Breathing Gym take an athletic approach to breath training for brass players.

Sound Body, Sound Mind
Regular exercise can help you sleep better, leaving you feeling more rested, and therefore more focused and alert during practice sessions and performances. Better practicing leads to more confident performances, which leads to greater peace of mind. This is perhaps an oversimplification, but I do believe strongly in the connection between physical and mental health.

There are plenty more, but these should be enough to get you interested – they certainly were for me! Ok, so now that you’ve decided to embark on a fitness plan, what should you do? As mentioned above, any kind of activity which combines strength and endurance is great, like jogging (watch those knees and shins!), swimming, or biking. It is very important to start slowly when you begin working out, as it will take your body a little while to adjust to this increased activity. Make sure you are observing the proper form when exercising, as this is as important as the exercise itself. Also feel free to mix up your routine when you get bored – you want to keep things interesting enough so that you enjoy exercising. Lately I’ve settled on a combination of weight training and aerobic exercises I can do in a small space, like my office. Websites like Men’s Health and Women’s Health have dozens of ready made workouts to fit various environments and time constraints. I like the following exercises, and in general for musicians I suggest concentrating on lower weights and higher repetitions (reps). We are aiming for improving strength and endurance, not bulking up. If you are unfamiliar with any of these exercises, they can very easily be found on the internet, with both written descriptions and photo or video demonstrations.

Pushups: Great for building arm, shoulder, and core strength.

Shrugs (with or without dumbbells): Also great for shoulder strength.

Squats/Lunges (with or without dumbbells): For balance, flexibility, and lower body strength.

Dumbbell Rows, Bench Press, Push Press: Again, for core and upper body strength.

Some Sort of Abdominal Exercise: I’m not a huge fan of traditional crunches and sit ups, as they tend to make my abs feel pretty tight – not good for breathing! We aren’t going for a six pack, but we do want to have some strength in our midsection. Instead I recommend planks or mountain climbers. I think research has shown that these are better ab workouts than crunches and sit ups anyway.

By completing these exercises in a circuit and resting only as necessary, you can also get in a pretty good cardiovascular workout.

By James Boldin

A video by James Boldin, assistant professor of horn at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.