David Zerkel Master Class Quotes (Part 1 of 3)

In September, we were honored to welcome world-renowned tuba player and pedagogue David Zerkel to George Mason University.  David is currently the tuba and euphonium professor at the University of Georgia, where his students regularly win auditions of all kinds.  He is also a former member of the US Army Band here in Washington, DC.

The master class he presented was so good that I took down almost 90 quotes! He is a master teacher and communicator and he left my studio energized and inspired.  Because there were so many quotes, I am breaking them up into three posts.  Here is the first installment!

(Click here for Part 2 and Part 3)
 

• "When you played the theme you had a very tentative approach to making music. It was like you were tiptoeing through the melody."
   
• "You would have 15 different versions of breathing and blowing if you were to ask every wind professor at this school."
   
• "Breath control can be distilled down into four words: blow until you stop."
   
• "Your breath should be the same every single time you pick up the instrument."
   
• "Your brain is brilliant. Your lungs are stupid lungs."
   
• "If you spend half of your time having your brilliant brain sending your stupid lungs instructions you won't have the ability to make music."
   
• "Blow to a spot that's right here at the top of your bell. Keep your tone a dial tone."
   
• "Can we get a better connection between the C and the D? When you're shifting it's an automatic transmission. You don't have to put the clutch down to shift notes."
   
• "Whether you're playing one note in one breath or 32 notes in one breath, your exhale is going to be exactly the same."
   
• "I always want to make my tuba playing like singing, because singing is the most natural instrument."
   
• "A 4-year-old at a birthday party sings perfect phrases. It's great."
   
• "Singing is a really simple exhale. That's what singing is."
   
• "Go for your best sound right at the beginning of every note."
   
• "Blow until you stop. Once you initiate don't stop."
   
• "16th notes and 32nd notes are not fast, they are melodic."
   
• "If you do the blow until you stop, the 16th note won't sound different than the long note."
   
• "Play a repugnantly bright B-flat or C when you're 'topping out' on the horn."
   
• "Feel free to use a lot of air."
   
• "For every octave you go up, you double your mph. (Pedal C is 15 mph. Low C is 30 mph. Middle C is 60 mph. C above the staff is 120 mph. Screech C is 240 mph.)"
   
• "Tuba has two primary functions: foundation and time."
   
• "When you're playing an audition, make it really easy for a committee to sing their part, because I promise you that's what they're doing. That's how they can tell if you're good at context."
   
• "Take the Fountains of Ramp vamp up a minor third and then bring it down chromatically."
   
• "I always start with what I can do because starting with what I can't do sucks."
   
• "This time try and make the low E less involuntary when you finish it."
   
• "One of the things that's hard for tuba players, actually it's hard for everyone, is that you need to sell the concept of time when you are playing long notes. It's hard."

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes from 2008 ABA Convention (2 of 2)

Here is the second installment of quotes from Joe Alessi, Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic, from his master class at the 2008 American Bandmasters Association Convention.  Click here for the first installment.

• After a less than stellar first attempt by a student playing in the master class: "Let's hit the reset button and try again."
   
• "In my lessons at Juilliard, you have to play one with a great sound or the lesson doesn't start.  It's like putting on your seatbelt in the car."
   
• "When you take a breath don't lean into it."
   
• "Really think about the sound you want to play with on the first note of every passage."
   
• He had the student "mime" the passage by breathing with the slide: "Get everything timed."
   
• "Mime a fast lick very short and slow.  Like getting the timing right on your engine."
   
• "Stay in a good stage presence between sections."
   
• "Don't think of a note being suspended in the air and you are playing up to it.  Think that you are suspended and the note is below you."
   
• "Brass players blow too fast when nervous and our air columns become narrower."
   
• "Listen to yourself at half speed."
   
• On jaw vibrato: "Move your jaw, not your muscles."
   
• "Remove vibrato at the end of a note to produce a beautiful taper."
   
• "Louder equals more tongue.  Softer equals less tongue."
   
• "Air and tongue can be adjusted like the oil/as ratio in a mower."
   
• "Forte is 90% air and 10% tongue."
   
• "You should practice with no tongue."
   
• "Practice playing really softly without any tongue."
   
• "Practice diminuendoing notes down to niente.  It will help with the attacks."
   
• "ppp is the essence of your tone right in your face."

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes from 2008 ABA Convention (1 of 2)

In an effort to clean up my office I just stumbled upon a small notebook with notes from a number of master classes.  One of those classes was by trombone virtuoso and master teacher Joe Alessi, Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic.

This class is from March 5, 2008 at the University of Miami and was a part of the American Bandmasters Association Convention being hosted there.  There are some great quotes in here for all musicians, not just trombone players or brass players.  There were enough that I have broken them up into two blog posts.

Enjoy!
 

• "A low sound like Darth Vader when breathing means there's friction.  I like low-friction breaths."
   
• "Auditions are all about time and when you reset your embouchure you will come in late a lot."
   
• "Practicing without the instrument, like singing while conducting, is very important.  I sing and conduct through a piece with a new accompanist."
   
• "You must have a pulse to conduct and you must sing the right pitches."
   
• "I feel like you're reading the music, not playing the piece."
   
• "It's a whole different part of our brain if we're not just reading the music."
   
• After having the student play from memory to the back wall: "Look at the music but only refer to the music, like a big band.  Bell's up, music down low."
   
• "Sometimes we have a good sound and we just don't use it."
   
• "Your back should be convex with a slight arch forward when standing."
   
• "If you stand healthy you will probably play healthy."
   
• "You can tell (in an audition) how someone will play by how they walk into a room and sound."
   
• "The breath is like a pitcher's wind-up.  You don't have a wind-up right now."
   
• "Get set up earlier with the face (before an entrance.)"
   
• "I like to watch the belt area when people are playing to see if they are supporting."
   
• "You have a really nice sound but you're not always ready to use it."

Jascha Heifetz Master Class: Monday YouTube Fix

The internet never ceases to amaze me.  Getting to witness a master class of one of the greatest violinists of all time some 50 years after the fact is pretty remarkable.

Here is a master class in four parts that the great Jascha Heifetz gave at USC in 1962.  The intensity he portrays in this class reminds me of how he played the violin.

My favorite comment from the class: "You're playing it too safe."

Enjoy!

Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser Master Class Quotes (Part 2 of 2)

The fantastic master class I attended summer by the one and only Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser had so many good quotes I needed to split them up into two posts.  It was a class for band directors but there are great lessons for all of us in these.  Here is the second installment. (And click here for Part 1 if you missed it.)

• "Band has to be challenging."
   
• "We have to put people in an atmosphere with courage."
   
• "If you want to win a trophy, go buy one.  It’s easier and you don’t have to rely on someone else’s subjectiveness."
   
• "Positives come and go.  Negatives accumulate."
   
• "When we put the attention on others, they will follow us anywhere."
   
• "How Do We Motivate: 1. Competition 2. Cooperation 3. Creation - Of those three, the highest level of motivation is creation."
   
• "Create what isn’t."
   
• "Happiness isn’t getting what you want, it’s wanting what you get."
   
• "This is our lives.  This is not a dress rehearsal.  This is it.  The cameras are rolling."
   
• "Pessimists see the challenge in every opportunity.  Optimists see the opportunity in every challenge."
   
• "If it come between being right and being kind, be kind.  Because you can always go back and be right."
   
• "At every moment we are either appreciating or depreciating the environment."
   
• "Leadership isn’t something you do but something you are."
   
• "Criticize in private, not in public."
   
• "When we change the way we look at things, we change the things we look at."
   
• "Communication is the key to all problem solving."
   
• "Whatever we want is what we should give away."

Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser Master Class Quotes (Part 1 of 2)

This past summer, I ran into one of my favorite human beings, Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, when we were both presenting at a drum major leadership camp in West Chester, PA.  Luckily for me, the Boston Brass stuff was at a separate time than his master class for the directors so I was able to be there.  And as with every Dr. Tim class I've ever attended, I left ready to change the world. Some of these are music educator specific and some are just great tidbits to make us better human beings.  Dr. Tim's constant ability to make me think is truly remarkable.  He is one of the most gifted communicators I've ever seen in action and it is an honor to call him a friend.

There were enough quotes that I have split them into two posts.  I've put the ones that really stand out to me personally in bold:

• "It’s only when knowledge is guided by wisdom that value is created."
   
• "The world of academia is famous for pushing knowledge, not wisdom."
   
• "It is easier to work with someone with a great attitude and a little bit of talent rather than someone with lots of talent and a bad attitude.
   
• "The intention (of students) is always to be good.  The trick is to get to outcome.  That’s where wisdom comes in."
   
• "Band is not about being right."
   
• "No (band director) gets fired because they’re not a good musician.  They get fired because they can’t handle the other stuff."
   
• "Flutes are nice, they smell good and you can let them be treasurer."
   
• "Percussionists are the bottom of the food chain.  We’re one step below blenders."
   
• "Maturity is the ability to understand how your behavior affects other people."
   
• "How do we go from competition to cooperation?"
   
• "Each layer of self-doubt puts another wall around your comfort zone."
   
• "Don’t get positive and happy mixed up."
   
• "10% of a band or organization are positive leaders.  80% are followers.  10% are negative leaders."
   
• "It takes 6 positive leaders to counteract 1 negative leaders."
   
• "The quickest way to get attention is to do something wrong.  It works every time."
   
• "The whole game of teaching is energy."
   
• "We don’t teach as we’re taught to teach.  We teach how we’re taught."
   
• "People don’t feel better by making them feel worse."
   
• "Nobody in your band is coming out of their comfort zone if it’s not safe."
   
• "Successful people don’t know how to not be successful.  That comes from being young and giving up giving up."

Click here for Part 2 of Dr. Tim's quotes.

Charles Lazarus Master Class Quotes (Part 3 of 3)

Here is the final installment of the wonderful Charles Lazarus trumpet master class at the National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University this past March.  I always love going to the NTC master classes and this was one of the best I've ever seen.

In case you missed them, here are Part 1 and Part 2 of the quotes from his class.  So many nuggets of wisdom!

• Minnesota Timberwolves physical trainer: "It takes 10,000 repetitions for someone to learn how to swing a golf club or shoot a basketball. But if you are trying to relearn something the right way, double that."
   
• "Slow, methodical practice. You can slow things down. You can add a note at a time. You can play an entire phrase and slowly take one note away at a time. You can change the rhythm."
   
• "There are eight aspects of practicing: high, low, loud, soft, fast, slow, articulate, slur."
   
• "There are three ways to play them: through the range, interal studies, isolate the ranges."
  
   
•  "I’ve started writing a practice book 20 times but then realize that everyone’s needs are going to be different.  It’s just important that you touch all the bases every day."
   
• "I’m a big fan of short practice sessions, often."
   
• "Adolph Herseth told me he never practices more than 30 minutes at a time."
   
• "It is better to practice 15 minutes, 4 times a day than playing for one hour straight. Then you have to wait 23 hours until you play again and there is a lot of muscle memory."
   
• "Joey Tartell can play quadruple high Q’s but still get a great sound on the Haydn."
   
• "I recommend that you practice with straight tone.  Add vibrato later for musical reasons."
   
• "If you’re phrasing, you can’t really fail. You can miss a note but people won’t really care."
   
• "You can tell by how I’m playing that E that it’s going to go somewhere."
   
• "You don’t need to open up so much to play the low notes. I think of my embouchure as adjusting to stay the same."
   
• (After playing call and response with student on one lick in time) "That one was statement/statement. The first ones were statement/question statement/question."
   
• "For most of my range, I try to stay set. I don’t stay completely set but I don’t over adjust."
   
• "I like to sometimes think of the (previous) note as the beginning of the inhale."
   
• "You played the G like you were testing the note. There’s no testing."
   
• "(Instead of a metronome) I like to practice with the shakers on Garage Band."
   
• "Internalizing the rhythm is the hardest thing for playing orchestral excerpts by yourself."
   
• "In soft lyrical playing, people frequently don’t articulate enough."
   
• "Playing trumpet you want to be fluid and sometimes we can get position oriented."

Charles Lazarus Master Class Quotes (Part 2 of 3)

Here is part two of quotes from the wonderful master class that trumpet great Charles Lazarus gave at the National Trumpet Competition this year.  In case you missed it, here's part one.  I can't believe how much I learned from this class.  I'm awfully happy that I braved all those trumpet players! I'll post part three on Friday.

• "As basic human beings, we react to rhythm. Rhythm is a very primal and fundamental thing that humans react to."
   
• "Rhythm gives you the framework to coordinate all of the physical things that have to happen in synchronicity when playing the trumpet."
   
• "Rhythm, more than anything else when you’re playing, dramatically affects your physical coordination."
   
• "Most missed notes are early.  Some are late, very few missed notes are on time."
   
• "I subdivide everything I play, all of the time if I’m playing well.  If you hear me kack, I probably am not subdividing."
   
• "Why did I biff the E? Because I wasn’t subdividing and I tried to play the E before it was time."
   
• "Heldenleiben duh duh-duh splee-ah  - the splee would be before the downbeat."
   
• "Every single day you should play with a metronome, especially in your warm-up."
   
• "Play with a metronome every single day and then turn it off. Learn to internalize it."
   
• "If you are a jazz player and you can’t tap your foot on 2 and 4, that’s a problem."
   
• "I ask myself three questions if the sound is terrible and the feel is terrible: 1. How did it sound? What do I want it to sound like? 2. Am I phrasing? Am I taking in air and phrasing with that? 3. How is my time?"
   
• "I’ve found that if those three questions are addressed, any technical problem can be solved."
   
• "Don’t worry about aligning your wheels if your engine won’t start."
   
• "You need to address those three questions before you go looking for the magic mouthpiece. You have to have your priorities straight."

Charles Lazarus Master Class Quotes (Part 1 of 3)

I had the privilege of attending a wonderful master class by trumpeter Charles Lazarus at this year's National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University.  Charles is one of the best musicians I've ever met.  He can play not just well in a frustrating number of diverse styles but amazingly well in said styles.

His diversity is legendary.  If you were to hear him play a baroque trumpet solo, you would assume he does it full-time for a living.  If you were to hear him play with a brass quintet, you would assume he did that for a living.  Same with him playing with the Minnesota Orchestra or playing as a solo jazz player.  Really, he'll either drive you mad or to the practice room.  One or the other!

I had heard he was a great teacher but had never had the opportunity to see him in action until this master class.  I came away with enough quotes to share in a one hour master class that they are being split into three separate posts.  Some of them resonated with me to the point of being shared in almost every lesson I taught the following week after spring break.  I hope you enjoy these great Lazarus quotes as much as I have.

• "No matter what you play, Body and Soul or Mahler 5, people only hear the sound that comes out of your bell."
   
• "If your focus is on your sound, you will get to your end result faster."
   
• "If you give a beginner a tone to try to match, they will sit up straight and their sound will get better."
   
• "Technique is the ability to control your sound on any given note. At any given dynamic, 100% of the time. It is very easy to forget that when you're working on a lick."
   
• Doc Severinsen: "I spent days and days and days trying to imagine the sound I’m trying to achieve.  I came up with my ideal sound and then I go for that."
   
• "Not to say there’s not a physical side (to playing), but you have to know what your goal is."
   
• "Rather than air support I like to think of tone support."
   
• "I like to think of breathing as phrasing.  If you keep the air moving, your lips will vibrate."
   
• "If you take in a full breath, there is some natural compression."
   
• "If I want to get a fuller sound, I actually back off."
   
• "When I talk to you, there are certain words that I emphasize. It is the same with phrasing."
   
• "When you phrase, the sound and style will make sense to people."
   
• "Our lips are like the string and our air is like the bow."
   
• "If you’re phrasing with your air, you are going to take in enough air and you are going to keep it moving."
   
• "If your chops are feeling stiff, keep the phrasing and the air moving."

Quotes from Marty Hackleman Master Class at George Mason University (Repost)

Two years ago this week I posted the following quotes from a Marty Hackleman class at Mason.  I still use many of these quotes in my every day teaching and thought they were worth reposting.  I hope you find these as insightful as I do! -----

Last night, Professor Marty Hackleman gave an amazing master class at George Mason University.  Marty is the principal horn of the National Symphony and a former member of both the Empire Brass and the Canadian Brass.  In my opinion, he is one of the premier teachers and performers that the brass world has ever known.

I have put a few of the quotes that really spoke loudly to me in bold.  What quotes jump out at you? Please comment with your favorite quote and how it relates to your playing.

Here are the highlights from the class:

• It's not that you work, it's how you work.
   
• How simple can you make the problem?  How simple can you make the solution?
   
• We don't see the causes.  We see the symptoms.
   
• All that you want to do is make it slightly better than yesterday but not as good as tomorrow.  And you enjoy the chase.
   
• When you do a daily routine, don't sit in front of the TV wasting your time.
   
• Think of your routine as a physical brass mediation.  Enjoy the time alone.
   
• The routine is a question of how you play and not what you play.
   
• A lot of times when you have a problem with your playing and you think you know the solution try the exact opposite.  85% of the time it will work.  And that comes from personal experience.
   
• I only breathe as much as I need when I'm warming up and I focus on quality over quantity.  But if you're playing a different instrument, like the tuba, it may be different.
   
• It is more important to practice efficiently than a lot of inefficient practicing.  If you don't feel like it, stop.  Get a cup of coffee and then come back.  Then suck it up and make yourself feel like it for even 15 minutes.
   
• Even if you can play your ass off, try to make it easier.
   
• Make it as simple, natural and easy as you can.
   
• Don't save the high notes until the end of your routine.  They shouldn't be that precious.  They should be a natural extension of everything else.
   
• I failed first.  Everybody failed first.  But do you stop at failure?
   
• You'll be surprised that if you ask yourself to do something regularly, you'll find a solution.
   
• If tension is creeping into your playing, your routine is where you find that out, not in rehearsal or in performance.
   
• Support isn't caused by air.  They are separate things.
   
• You want to use your routine to make yourself better, not just make yourself functional.
   
• I know (my routine) works because at almost 60 years old I believe I can play better than I've ever played in my life.  And it's not luck.  I promise you.
   
• First thing is you have to make sure that your horn sounds like what's in your head.
   
• You have to be more responsible about being a musician and not just a horn player.
   
• We make crescendos and we don't come all the way back.  If you come all the way back you have somewhere to go again.