The higher notes

If you play an instrument can you remember when you first started out? Or if you're starting one right now, you know how frustrating it is to strive to hit the higher notes, shred a killer solo, move at the speed of light. I was running through a few exercises from my Clarke Book of technical studies and I remember about 4 years ago sitting in the basement of the local music store playing alongside of Bob my teacher. I was always amazed at how easily he could study 1 at tempo markings faster than expected. I also can remember struggling to hit a g off the staff.

As I was playing, I flew through study one at the marking of 150 and suddenly remember the above memory. The frustration of just not getting it. The amount of times I punched my music stand because I couldn't play fast at marking 100. The amount of times I screamed "fuck" out to no one but the posters on my walls. It's amazing really to have the chance to see how hard this exercise was and how it is for me now. I'm not saying I'm amazing at it...I haven't tried doing tempo marking 112 half note.

Also as I progressed further into the study I hit number 20 and 21 and remember how hard of time I had trying to squeeze out a slurred g off the staff...better yet squeeze a g off the staff period. I found this feat to be quite amazing. I find the process of developing as a musician and gaining the skills needed to be fascinating. Why, there are days where a high C seems like nothing to me (but anything beyond that still boggles my mind and chops).

I'm not an amazing trumpet player as I boasted that I was in high school. I'm not the amazing trumpet player that my high school teachers relied on. I'm not the amazing trumpet player that made me out to be by words and hype. I was just a girl with a horn struggling to hit a damn g off the staff.

I can hit it now without much trouble...and I'm proud of myself for it. Hype and the weight of departments on my back aside...I'm proud of the work that I've put into the past 4 years so I can say...yeah I can hit a clean strong g off the staff.

Pocket Black book

A few days ago I started to keep a log of my practice times. I was reading on the board how you should monitor your time to see if you are practicing "enough" or doing more damage than good.

On the first page I have just my times followed by how many minutes it was. Then I started to put down my schedule of what I wanted to accomplish that day...

For example

7/11/08
1:50-2:32
6:34-7:10 PM

Run Through Hummel
Page 4, brackets
slow on the 8th note into triplet run
take down the last bracket an 8va
connect on the first page
trill-measured trill

Then I got bored of having a schedule to follow so I just listed what I did that day

7/15/08

Louis Davidson-warm up
Kopp exercises
Arban's scales exercises
-Major
-Minor
-Chromatic
M/m/+/o triads

that was just one part of the day. I started to do sets of 20 or more minutes with lots of rest in between. I miss school sometimes because I know I'm in a practice for 1 hour or 2 hours...even if I'm not playing I have the instrument in hand, fingering the piece, listening to the piece...all that is practice to me. Also I tend to play more in practice at home during the school year because I'm used to playing so much.

Maybe I'm just lazy or maybe it's my job and fatigue creeping up on me. I haven't had a vacation over a day in 3 years (as in a vacation where I went somewhere and chilled out). I haven't been to the beach yet, I haven't gone fishing yet, I haven't done a lot of summer things yet because I'm tired and at work. My "part time" job has turned into a full time job with part time pay...(I barely work 40 hours a week...I think I made 41 hours last summer one week...and I got the overtime...I hung up that pay stub for a while cause I thought it was awesome).

Whatever it is...it's no excuse.

But I can tell you one good thing...

I'm now certified to be a Brownie Girl Scout leader. I went for 6 hours of training yesterday and today...I have 3 more to go for my cerification in girls 11-17. But nonetheless I now can take charge of little girls selling boxes of cookies and go caving...

yes I said caving.

Anyways, I like my black book. It's keeping me on track and i will now and then write my thoughts on certain parts of the piece. I'm off to brush up on some music history because my professor is about to rip my head off for not remembering her course...

DAMN THE ACCIDENT!!

PoJ

Yes I know I'm behind

If you are reading this blog you have notice it has gone through several updates.

I am no longer caling it "Inside the Psyche of a Jazz Trumpet Chick"

Why was it called "Broken Heart Musician" for a bit?
My girlfriend and I broke up and then got back together...hence the Johnny Cash song. But now I am writing in "The World of a Trumpet Girl"

What have I been doing?

Between work, the girlfriend, trumpet, Liberty games, and now Met games, I have been living life as it comes. I recently joined Trumpetmasters.com which is an online trumpet forum. I haven't posted much up there, but there is such a fountain of knowledge over there. Trumpet players-beginners to professionals, from all over the globe come together and talk...trumpet.

It's fascinating to read what others think about the trumpet and several practices, as well equipment and the like. There are debates about Bach Megatones (Are they really worth the hype or not), there are debates on brands of mutes (Tom Crown vs Humes and Berg). It's really amazing...and the best part-it's full of well thought out answers (of course there is the one or two whiners who start shit on the board...)

I used to be on a lesbian board called kimandkerry.com.It was a community of lesbians of all ages. I was only 14 when I joined and felt like I was one of the more mature "tweens" they would call us. I never started a fight with others like some of the teens there...then again several fights were caused by the more "mature" posters.

I miss the KK board, it mysteriously disappeared about a year ago, so I was excited to find this board. While I'm not used to the set up (I think I was spoiled by the well organized structure of KK.com) it's a community I've been longing for.

I don't know if I had mention this but I am tackling the Hummel Trumpet Concerto over the summer with the aid of my trumpet professor. It's actually quite demanding (but then again...I say most pieces are quite demandind). I'm halfway through my summer "school of trumpet" and I'm still on the first movement. I guess that good in a way...or bad

Pros:
Intently studying the structure of the piece
Taking my time to nail it
Finding my expression within the piece
Understanding the piece

Cons
What if I had to learn the three movements in real life in a month? I'd be screwed!

I'm always still visiting my good old friends Haydn and Hindemith (there is that thing called "Senior Recital" so...yeah)

I went trumpet shopping and I found a Phaeton. I never heard of the brand in MY LIFE, but it's a nice sounding trumpet. I played on a range of trumpets from student models to professional models from 400 dollar trumpets to 3,000 dollar trumpets. I actually played a Bach Strad and quite personally it was very hard to blow through. I got a lot of resistence. I found that odd since my entire childhood of trumpet playing lead up to the Bach Strad.

Then again I am a rebellious persona in life so I guess meeting the Phaeton trumpet was fate.

If you ever seen this trumpet...it's interesting to look at.



It's a nice dark sounding horn...and affordable averaging around $1500. I think I fell in love with it when I played it. Very free blowing, and just amazing to play.

On that note, I do have some playing to do...until next time...

PoJ