Brass Clinic Comparing Classical and Jazz Trumpet Playing By Josh Rzepka ‘good sound is a good sound, but the expecta: classical and jazz. Throughout the classical world, a good trumpet sound means something rather specific. A good classical sound is full and even, meaning that it has a good core to it and a full sustain. The volume is the same at the begin ning, middle, and end of each note; there is no taper. It shouldn't be too bright or brassy, but also should avoid being so dark that there are no highs in it. You want to have a ringing quality to the sound that projects, but also a vocal quality. A wide variety of sounds can be considered acceptable in jazz, but there is no excuse for having poor technique or an inability to play in tune. I have heard people say, “I'm just going to play jazz, 20 me msmeamnvraust /aancr ois so I don't need to work on my slurs or articula tions.” That is complete nonsense. Many of the best jazz players who ever lived had fantastic tech- nique and few limitations. No one should ever for- get that Miles Davis was a student at Juilliard for at Teast a semester before he got too famous. Clifford Brown had fantastic technique and a great articu- lation. As you listen to the best players, it becomes obvious that they all spent a great deal of time practicing. Sean Jones, one of the top ja peters today, works a great deal on technique Listening In my experience, few young trumpet players know how a trumpet is supposed to sound. They base their sound off of the best trumpet player =Task my students, “Based on how you just played, if you were sitting in the audience would you have been able to fill in where all the dynamics and articulations should have gone?” they've heard, who is usually the player siting first chair in their band. Their entire sound concept is based off of a beginner's sound. ‘What | tell my students is that you can only play what you can hear, and the quality of your sound is limited by the quality of your imagination. If you cannot hear or itmagine what a good sound is, then there is no chance you will play it. Usually what I will do is demonstrate or play along with younger students so they hear « more advanced sound, or 1 will give them recordings or tell them to look up someone specifie on YouTube. A Maurice André CD can do wonders fora student's sound. Listening works because students become more aware of both their sound and the sound that the trumpet can produce. It can be a moment where the li players may have no idea what the instrument’ capabilities are. I remember the first time I listened to Wynton Marsalis playing the “Camival_ of Venice." I didn’t even know what double ton; or triple tonguing was at the time. I had listened to L llespie and Maynard Ferguson before, s0 | hada good idea of some of the things that the trumpet could do, but hearing Wynton play was that moment for me. Hearing great trumpeters inspires students to emulate them Tf you are going to play jazz, you have to listen to it first, especially if you are going to improvise, which is the heart of what jazz is. To improvise is to speak a language, which means you need a You need to know the scales and understand what the chord symbols mean and what scales, chords, and tonalities they represent. You have to work on your accent, so to speak, jut as if you were learning Spanish. The letters in “Hola, me Hamo Josh,” represent different sounds in Spanish than they do in English. If you don’t say something the right way, it doesn’t mean anything. The best thing to do when learning a language is listen and repeat. In jazz, this can mean playing along with albums, transcribing, or finding a great bulb comes on, because inexperienced vocabulary player or teacher and playing along with them. Going to concerts is important, too. I go out to hear concerts as often as possible, because hearing new sounds and musical ideas is vital to our devel- ‘opment as musicians. [ encourage all my students and their parents to go to concerts. This can go a Jong way to motivate students. Plus, musicians should support each other Singing Singing is extremely important for both classical playing. You have to be able to hear in your mind what you want to play, because you can hot expect 10 be able to play something you cannot hear, you cannot hear something if you have never imagined it, and you cannot imagine something Josh Rzepka is the jazz trumpet instructor at the Merit School of Music in Chicago, where he teaches private mampet lessons and classes for the Alice S Pfaelzer Tuition-Free Conservatory. He also teaches private lessons nationally and internationally to stu- dents ofall ages through Skype. He earned a bachelor of music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory with a uble major in classical and jazz mampet perform- ‘ance. He eamed his master of music degree in per- formance from Boston University. Reepka may be reached through www joskrzepka.ciyou have never thought about. A good sound, good phrasing, and good intonation do not happen by Twill have n ci ; then play it. Sit ng help Students develop a lyrical quality and a better sense of pitch; it also forces you to first hear the notes in your head. The trumpet forces the player to the nearest partial, making it possible to. cheat, but when busing or singing no such help is available. udents must hear the pitches correctly and sin or buzz them properly. Learning how to sing and buzz accurately is going to improve the trumpet sound because students will buzz with more accura- cy and not depend on the trumpet to funnel them into the right note. Singing can make students uncomfortable, but it helps to remove the distractions an instrument can cause to inexperienced players, who are often sd on the mechanics of the instru st hold music, bu: extremely foct ment — or even it. Singing is a good ‘way to remind students that this is just music and the most important thing is the melody. It will really help them to produce more musical phrases while singing or busting, which should translate back to the trumpet. Te took me a while to understand and appreciate any first jaze lessons when T attended Oberlin. I was and a classical degree, so I had two lessons a week. In my jazz lessons | studied with Kenny Davis. He ass but we weren't working on improvisation very much; we would just play through the melodies together. Davis has played in the Ellington Band getting both a ja ane and with such people as Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. You don’t get gigs like that ‘ut being able to improvise, but in our lessons, we mainly just played through’ melodies. I remember asking whether we should solo over some of them, but he responded, “Ob, no, let's just play some more melodies.” What he was showing me was the importance of playing the melody. If you go to a jam session, some people won't know the melody ‘They know the chords and can solo over them, but the improvisation is supposed to be an answer to the melody. Meledly is important, because it is what people are dravin to, and the improvisation is what you play thar is influenced and informed by the original song. If you don't know the original song, how can you hope to improvise off of i? Buzzing Teach sustain through buzzing. When you b you have to move air the whole time, which mea {you are using a substantial amount of ait. If you ask students to play and hold a note, most will say they can do it, but you can’t actually hold a note, you can only sustain it. The difference between the two is that I can hold my phone and it won't go any where, but a note is something that is created and instantaneous. Ifyou hear someone play a note, and a moment later you hear the same pitch at the same volume, then it sounds like the same note, but real Iy every single moment that person is playing is @ new note. There is new air going through the lips, and a new vibration. A sustained note is actually a series of new notes that are being created rapidly, which produces the idea and image of sustain.Buzzing teaches young trumpet players that they are not playing and holding a note, but rather con- tinually creating the note. This gets students to understand how much air they need to use. You cannot just start a note and let it glide; the ait has to be steady and uninterrupted. I usually use the analogy of a light bulb. When we turn a light on, the room looks lit up. This is not because the bulb emitted light and the light stuck everywhere, itis just thar every moment light is shooting out of the bulb, constantly reilluminating the room. To our eyes it just looks like the room is lit up, but every moment itis brand new light. Buzzing also helps students develop their breath- ing. To be done correctly, buzzing must be caused by air, not tension. The buzz is the reaction of the lips to the ait. It is not forcing the lips into position that creates a buzz. If you're buzsing on your mouthpiece and you're relaxed and playing with full air, then it will help the embouchure as well, Time and Articulation After sound quality articulation is the next most important aspect of playing the trumpet. Articulation is the beginning of the note, and ‘when you play in an ensemble with 20, 50, or 100 people, there is an expectation of uniformity of articulation. If you think about how many begin- nings of notes there are in a piece of music, it becomes immediately evident how important articulation is. The goal in an ensemble is to avoid scattershot articulations where everyone comes in ata slightly differene time. To get everyone in at the same time, students should count before they play and then breathe in tempo. This sas important asa golfer’ back swing. You can describe different tempos by comparing the back swing used with a driver to that used with, a putter. Ifyou play in an extremely fast tempo, you might breathe for two or three beats instead of just use one beat would be too litle to get a full, relaxed breath. I always tell students to breathe in tempo, because if articulations, which are the air at the beginnings of notes, are to be the same every time, the immediately preceeding step, the breath, has to be the same every time a well Additionally, if we breathe in tempo that means ‘we will be counting the measure before our entrance, giving us a stronger sense of time. This helps students see how every aspect of playing an instrument ties together. ‘When discussing articulation with my students, 1 ask what produces the articulation, and they usual- ly say the tongue. I then ask how the tongue cre- ates the articulation, which stumps them. I then show them how it is only the air that creates the articulation. If air creates a note, and articulation is the start of a note, then air creates articulation, The tongue can't produce a pitch. Ultimately, every part of the hody and the inserument all inter- 24 TwensTHOMENTALST/ MARCH IIS act with or affect the air but only ir creates sound Tell students the quality of the ait is what deter- mines the quality of the articulation, and have stu- dents visualize how the air moves. If you want a crisp articulation, you need crisp ait. If you want a legato articulation, you need legato air. If you want an accented articulation, you need accented ait. Terms like these are concepts students ean grasp. ‘Once students understand these ideas we can start working on articulation studies through scales or Clarke studies. I like to kill two birds with one stone; learning scales while practicing articulations is simply more efficient. Why practice two things separately when you can combine them? When I practice scales and articulations, I usually change modes so I am playing something different ascend- ing and descending, to cover tice as many scales. also mix up articulations and sluts on the scales. With some planning, practice can become a lot more efficient. In my jazz lessons, what we were working on while learning these melodies was phrasing, time, and a solid swing feel. Time is what makes jazz what ic is. You can play the best notes and greatest licks, but with a poor sense of time it won't sound good at all. Students learn the importan by playing through tunes with other musicians. This is how to best demonstrate the ideas and con- cepts of jazz time. Students will listen to others play and pick it up. When switching between classical and j attention must be given to beat emphasis. In beats two and four are strong and the eighth notes, are swung, but this is the opposite of classical, in which the downbeat is the strongest, with the third beat in rime) important toa leer degree with the eighth notes being played evenly. In classical music, notes on beat one get more weight, but if you do that in jazr it will be phrased incorrectly. Even if note is written on the downbeat, it should be played less strongly than the note on beat two. Mosc of the music people hear over the radio grow- ing up has strong downbeats; this style is. pro- grammed into our brains, so it can be difficult for students to think about time differently at first. Inexperienced jazz players may overlook the importance of listening to the bass player. The bassist will give you both the time and the harmo- ny. The drumset keeps time as well and is ideal for showing the feel and emphasis of the beats, but the bass gives both the time and the harmony on every beat. Expectations for articulations are also different. In classical music, trumpet players should have an ‘extremely uniform articulation, whether they are playing in hand or orchestra or soloistically. In jazz articulations vary; certain notes are accented, and el continued on page 70Trumpet, cons. from page 24 Some notes might be leaned into. For the most part jazz articulations are alot more legato; trying to swing heavily tongued notes sounds strange. They are also a lot lighter, and the note blooms slightly late, This all goes hack to singing. Students should sing their music and then play it the way they sang it The technical expectations of a player compared to a classical player are different. In classical trumpet ‘music at a high school or college level a trumpet player would not be expect ed to play higher than written D6 or the expectation would be G6 or higher. In college I played lead trumpet on an arrangement of Recorda Me that went up to A6 of B6. The ‘When playing that high in aja ting, the sound and articulation expec- tation is that you peel some paint off the back of the room. The great lead trumpet players play notes like that with a degre of finesse, but if someone ‘writes a GO in a lead trumpet pat, the expectation is that it be heard In clas- sical music, something like che Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. is extremely high, but it is usually played ‘on a piccolo trumpet and is supposed tobe played delicately Even if a clasi cal trumpet part has a written high D ‘or E, most players will switch from a B> trumpet to one in C or Bs, ifnot a pic- colo trumpet. Another important aspect of playing classical music is following the instruc tions. Being a great musician means ‘aking all your talent, technique, and hard work and using it to interpret the instructions in the music. Composers spend a great deal of time translating what’ on their minds onto a sheet of paper filled with dots, lines, and let- ters. This is the blueprint. For some reason, it is taught that notes and rhythms are important but articula- tions and dynamics are an after- thought. However, these are just as important as the notes themselves. If you have a nore thar is supposed to be forte and you play it piano, you have totally missed the idea. Paying very careful attention to all the markings and style is important. The right note at the wrong dynamic is the wrong not, just as fingering low D with first 70 ‘rie ssrnunenraust/ aca sis and thind valve but without kicking the tuning slide out i the wrong fin seting. Allthe parts have to be there Task my students, "Based on how you papepOa einen ecice taithe atalence would you have been able to Elle gtaeg abe yene aeeel ee lations should have gone?” They say no every time. A characteristic of great performers is being extremely debe te with the markings. wane my st dents to get to the point at which if they play a note and it is in time but aculated.incorectly, they say that they played it incorrectly. Paying close attention to the lie details i what makes the music come alive. I the articulations and markings were uni portant, the composer woulda't have Equipment eerie ed 90 minutes a day, equipment int going tobe a ame changer. compare {tro runing: f you run one mile a day, it doesn't mater how great your shoes Surya eee fea prod es oe peers pe fe Suaena who pacts ony a itl Bit will never everrech the nitions of their equipment; to each the limite tie tee enecenc al acee t of practice, Otherwise, new equipment well mainly have a placebo effet. I child gets & new mouthpiece or trum pet it will encourage him to practice [ec more, He wil think the sound is better becate of the new instrument when really i because he has been playing the new instrument an hour or two a day. Ifyou gave a student inthis scenario back his old umpet, he would probably sound just as good. A the big music companies make great introductory nodel hom. You cannot sp wrong with any of them, Sidentshave to havea working horn with functional valves and slides Twill have a student show up with the ring Iroken off ofthe side, and i has been taped tack on. I tell students not to cone back until hey gti xed, and | call parents 0 tell hem thatthe instru ment is broken and has tobe repaired Practice For practice time, assuming that time spent listening is separate, ‘would break down a hal-hour session. for a middle school or high school trumpet player into three chunks Chunk one, for ten minutes, is spent fon. warmups and. technique. This includes time spent breathing, buzz and playing things like long tones ancl slurs. What most people call lip slurs 1 like to call air srs. The air is what proxluces the note change, not the lips, ‘The second ten minutes should be spent working on clasical music. This could be band music, solos, an etude, or duets The lst ten minutes would be either their jazz band music, working on Tearing a jaz: solo, transcribing, or even spending more time on tech nique, such as scales, Students can take the materials they worked on at the beginning of the practice session and play them witha jazz feel, rhythm, and articulation. Ifyou think through the exercises students are assigned to do, you can cover a lot of bases using fewer studies and exercises. You can repurpose music by changing it from a classical ta j This final see tion could also be spent learning some basic theory, like a blues scale or iodes. This keeps practice sessions simple: three parts equally divided berween warmups, classical, and Tadd piano playing t my practice sessions and am a big proponent ofall jact musicians knowing how to play the piano. The timpet is a single voice instrument that cannot play both melody and harmony, 0 advanced students should at least learn how to play the chords on the piano 0 they can hear how the chords sound and see how the voicings move. We are used to playing on our own fn practice, hut often the purpose of practice is to prepare ourselves to play with a group, whether that is in band co orchestra of with a pianist. If we keep this idea in mind during individ- ual practice sessions, it will make ensemble rehearsals smoother and per- formances more musical with a better ensemble sound. We all want to play together and have fun, and I find that the better players get, the more fun they have. a Classifieds AUDITION MANAGER makes handling large auditions easy. 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