Bobby Shew's notes on
"Further Notes on Developing the Trumpet Section"
Considering that quite alot of good material has been written
on this subject, I'm not certain whether or not I'll be able to add much
new data, but hopefully another point of view might be of some interest
and hopefully can be used as a rough guide line to building a musical section.
There are probably as many methods as there are teachers or trumpeters,
but all trill be found to contain much of the same material and concepts
or it just won't happen. Any attempts to be more contemporary still require
a strong foundation built on roots that are no different than those established
by Louis Armstrong and many others of that era of jazz.
TEAMWORK
The section id only a part of the whole, and must not
lose sight of this basic function. All efforts should be directed toward
contributing to making the BAND sound good, not to show off one's own talents
such as playing louder than the others, screaming out tons of high notes,
looking good for the chicks in the front row, etc.. True acknowledgement
will come for being a part of such a good team, and will come to the individual
in a manner that he can take pride in. Each guy in the section has specific
duties just as if he were a member of a football team; he has his own "hat"
to wear, and it doesn't say "HERO" on it:
It takes a great deal of hard work on each section member's
part to have e really exceptional team and if you don't expect it to be
exceptional, you maybe shouldn't be doing it. So first approach
it with the intention of your section being GREAT and then proceed with
that attitude. This will help keep everyone thinking that way.Any wise
lead player knows that his section can make him sound good or bad. Even
if he is very strong and stable, a poor.section can turn a pleasant experience
into alot of brutal work for thdt player. I have the greatest love and
appreciation for those guys that have made me sound worthy all of these
years. In addition, an exceptional lead player can and often must make
a lousy section sound better than it is . Just realize that it will always
work better if everyone in the group jumps in and helps get the job done
as musically as possible, as easily as possible, and as much fun for all
concerned as is possible. Therefore, one must learn to do this without
being on a big ego trip. Admit to your weaknesses so that you can handle
them and grow out of them, rather than hiding them so that you never confront
improving them. Much confidence can grow out of honesty, and for sure
musical integrity will come from it.
MENTAL ATTITUDE
As with most people, you will probably experience times
of positive thoughts and times of negative ones. Ideally, it 'would be
nice to have only the positive ones but I wonder if the game would be quite
as interesting or as much a challenge. So Just accept the game and play
it without taking it so seriously as to get up tight about yourself. If
you resist the negative thoughts or try to fight them, you'll find, I
think, that they'll only get bigger and harder to handle. You've gotta
learn to deal with them without shifting the majority of your attention
to them. I suppose one gray to do it is to not try to handle your fears
in the middle of playing a chart; best to wait until after the gig:
Your personal involvement with your horn and with music
in general is of tremendous importance to your success and your happiness.
I have often felt as if I were married to music; I am committed to it,
and try to work with it and make it work for me, all the while keeping
my level of affinity high by not blaming my failures Problems on the Art
or the instrument.This kind of emotional involvement has taught me much
about myself as a person. I believe that this kind of love for music will
enable you to accomplish much in a shorter period of time, and will bring
you a great deal of happiness.
p. 2
You must, above all, maintain your belief in your potential,
and never minimize your abilities at all. Don't get to the point of tolerating
ceilings or limitations aS to how far you can go. Your own thoughts will
be the only thing that can and will hang you up. As you develop and reach
goals (and you've gotta learn to recognize WHEN you do reach them),
you'll have to put new goals out in front of you or the game is over. Keep
looking forward to these new and bigger goals and ...AVOID GETTING HUNG
UP ON YOUR PAST ACHIEVEMENTS. Once they're done, they're over with. It's
OK to recall them for lots of good reasons, but if you get hung up, you'll
find yourself sticking your abilities at that level and your outward growth
will slow down. Surely you've seen or met guys who are musically stuck
in a given era or style of music.
The average person it seems, spends quite alot of his
time minimizing his strength and abilities. Therein lie about 90% of your
problems with your horn. So, the sooner you can become aware of this,
the sooner you'll be able to eliminate it,. and therefore succeed in accomplishing
everything you set out for. HOWEVER, there are a few sand traps along the
road that will try to keep you from knowing, but these have no real power
unless you give it to them as in the earlier mentioned case of resisting
negative thoughts. One of the traps in setting goals is that you can skip
a gradient approach to success and find yourself in over your head. If
you set such an extremely high goal and standard for yourself that it keeps
you frantically racing as if to put out a fire, you'll miss alot of the
fun of being a musician, and can prevent you from being objective about
your growth and from enjoying your PRESENT TIME abilities. More simply,
if ALL you see is your "ultimate" goal, you'll be constantly putting yourself
down as you play in present time because it'll always be compared to the
ULTIMATE goal rather than to how you're actually playing at that moment.
The ultimate hopefully trill always be changing anyway and I dream sometimes
about becoming a "perfect" player, but as long as I keep creating new levels
to climb to, I'll never be perfect and will therefore have plenty of good
reasons to keep playing and studying.
COMMUNICATION
Communication is the key ingredient in music of ANY type. It really
doesn't seem sane to play to oneself of to the music stand or wall. So
the person(s) at the receipt point is as important to the experience as
you are. It's the emotional reaction to your creation that completes the
action. The emotional communication takes precedence over style and technique.
You need plenty of technique, but only enough to execute what you hear
and feel. S0, study emotions ; it'll intensify your playing.
Another area of communication that's very important is in your ability
to communicate with the other guys in the band. In fact, if you have trouble
with this, it'll show up in your playing. You're in a sense "rapping" with
people when you play. If the entire band maintains a high level of communication,
the affinity will be high for each other, the "vibes" will be right,
and the band will swing: It might be worth mentioning here that lots of
people apparently misunderstand communication in thinking that they must
just talk, talk, talk, when in reality, the art of listening is super important
and can help to smooth out your relationships with other people. This then
will increase your ability to listen in the section to your lead player
of the rhythm section or Whatever. Do you see the point? It all fits in
together and the picture starts to clear up end make sense.
p. 3
WEAR YOUR OWN HAT
As mentioned earlier, each team member has his own specific role, job,
or "hat" to wear in the section and/or band. It's easy to say teamwork,
but very seldom does one see a truly great trumpet team. The following
are a mild., first attempt at clarifying these hats in a basic manner.
LEAD PLAYER
The World Book Dictionary,in part, defines lead as: 1. a. to guide;
to show the way by going along with or in front of: b. to serve to guide
4. to be a way or means of bringing something to a particular condition
or result.
Clearly it can be seen that a lead player has a big "hat" to wear. It
consists of
a). being able to interpret the music in the correct style;
b). communicating openly with respect and affinity for the other members
of his section;
c). being consistent enough to provide predictability for the rest
of the band, especially phrasing and style;
d). being strong enough to "crack the whip" to get the band off of
the ground and poppin' rather than merely playing the notes, but being
sensitive enough to play gently when called for especially being able to
tell the two apart);
e). being a good jazz player because the most musical tiny to play
a lead part is as if it were a jazz solo in ensemble form. This is
how to make it swing.
f). delegation of power.
Regarding a), this is just versatility and experience. An important
point, though, is that if at arty time the lead player has difficulty with
the style he must freely admit it and proceed to find out how it should
be done even asking other guys in the section. It might be that another
player could do a more stylistically effective job and it would be wise
of the lead player to pass the part so the whole section and band sound
better on the chart. Think of the right guy for the job.
On c), this comes through alot of experience and lots of listening to
other than the "Top Ten" current bands. Try to get around to lots of rehearsals
and concerts to hear live music and dig how the pros pull it off. Ask them
if you can do it without being a pest. Alot of it is gaining the confidence
and the horn/mouthpiece thing off of your mind so that you can play without
being mentally distracted by your own thoughts.
As far as b), it's a common sense thing BUT takes alot of work on your
part to pull it off. Avoid "games", jealousies, etc.; if they show up,
don't wait for the other guy to straighten it out. All of this Junk can
really spoil a dynamite band, and prevent you all from having one of life's
greater pleasures playing good music pith some good friends.
The remainder (d) are mostly a matter of experience where you develop
them, and require much space to go into further here but, I would like
to express a point of view : I Would hope that anyone trying to become
a lead trpt. player should hope to be able to string or cook ( mostly a
tray of saying good time and relaxed way of executing the part )j, and
not concentrate so much on just the high register. There are many kids
waning up today that have lots of high chops but I rarely hear a student
who can "lay it down". So there's work to be done, for sure!
p . 4
SUPPORT PLAYER
As was stated earlier, a smart lead player knows the true value of
having an exceptional section in 1) making his job easier, 2) making him
sound better, and 3) having a good time with the music. So a good support
must learn to be totally unselfish towards the overall team effort and
must develop a terrific set of ears. You must learn to get "inside the
head " of your lead player and play right along with him, but,just under;
never blow so hard that you can't hear everything your lead player does,
even those little turns and things that are on the lighter side. Playing
up to your lead player doesn't mean blasting as hard or harder.., the lead
player will naturally be working a bit harder because of being the higher
voice. As a section player you'll eventually find the "slot" where it feels
comfortable. If the whole section is overblowing, the band will sound rotten,
the pitch will make your spine rattle, and this is a perfect occasion to
start having chop troubles. When in doubt, lighten up a bit until you can
really hear everything and then play there : You must have personal and
professional respect for your lead player and be willing for him to be
right. He'll have to make the decisions and keep some degree of order in
the section, come up with riffs,etc., and he'll need every bit of help
you can give him Anyway way that's your gig : You have a big responsibility
toward the band to see to it that you play the book the very best that
you possibly can and you have a big responsibility towards your own personal
integrity as a musician. One last thing on this..; without a doubt I it's
understandable that every section player would like to have the lead chair,
but when it's your time it will come . The message is : be patient, be
prepared and be cool ! Just go ahead and have a good time, take your life
with some leisure, and enjoy it as a musician.
On the subject of pitch, there are more frequent problems with pitch
in jazz/pop/rock than with more classical forms, many of which are due
to the excess volume that is required and the addition of electronics in
the rhythm section. I think that the acoustic bass is easier to tune with
because of it's sound quality ; the electronic bass (or fender) doesn't
center as well. There are plenty of exceptions and if you're fortunate
enough to work with a fender bass player that does it really well, savor
every moment. Alot of it is just the overall volume of the rhythm section.
It can make you pump your brains out. Thru a much trial and error you'll
find your own easy of dealing with it. Just be aware that's it's possibly
there, and remember to avoid blasting just to hear yourself. It makes the
problems worse. Also realize that possibly all of the horn players will
be is the same stew, so just back off and try to get thru it.
Another area that really needs more development is the area of alternate
fingerings. One needs to master the science of acoustics to get the job
done right however, here are a few things that might get you started. These
also ray not necessarily apply to each person or situation,, but worth
checkin' out. When you play a high D in an Eb key, it resonates or vibrates
differently than the sane high D in a D chord or any other chord for that
matter. In one key you night want to play it open (o) While it could work
better with 1st valve in another key. With this we have the difference
in intervals between the 1st part and the other voices in the chord. A
high D played over an A should work better if played open because the A
tends to be sharp and by playing the D open (also sharp) the intonation
will line up better within the band. Also if the 2nd voice is voiced too
close to the lead the vibrations are too close to each other and tend to
eradicate at least in part, the tonal center of the horn.
p. 5
Just as important is the fact that the A can also be played
with alternate fingerings all of which do similar types of things to the
intervals, which incidentally, is what you're doing when you tune up ....listening
for the intervals of the voices around you. The lead player, surprisingly
enough to zany beginners, gets the strength of his intonation help from
the bass player. And it does well for the rest of the section to listen
not only to their lead player, but to the bass as well. First policy, however,
is go with the lead player. As you expand your ability to hear more things
going on at the same time, you'll start to notice that the baritone sax
and bass trombone will be further support for the pitch if they've tuned
well to the BASS, (in addition to their section leader. Most people run
off to a piano to tune up, but in most clubs the pianos won't be consistent
and besides, the band will tend to scttle into it's own Pitca, mostly based
on the bass. Believe me, there's alot more to working in a big band than
meets the eye. It's not all shuckin' an' jivin' ham in' around busy being
hip, etc.; it takes alot of responsibility to the job and yourself, so
things like the above are worthy of your attention. Eventually you'll get
to the point of being able to hear any one or all of the parts in the entire
band while you're playing, and being able to control what you want to hear
within reason.
Suggest that each make up a chart of alternate fingerings.
Figure the= out or, your ova if you rust, but at least explore the other
areas of the horn. I've thought several ties ....wouldn't it be ridiculous
if at some time in the past, someone,at random, came up with the set of
fingerings that are "accepted by the very finest" and these having been
carried on for ages being the only ones taught, and then discovering that
the original chart had been his translated and we've been using the wrong
set all these years : Aside from that, there are many more sounds to be
developed on the horn and all seem to me to be a part of playing it COMPLETELY.
Many jazz players use numerous alternate fingerings in their solos for
added ease in executing certain licks or whatever. The quickest way to
start figuring them out is using the harmonic series of any valve combination
,(all of them, in fact); don't forget to use 3rd by itself. After you've
figured them out a bit, test them at a rehearsal, but keep quiet about
at first; don't get into a group discussion and get other guys in the section
favoring you or whatever. You just want to try them in a natural way to
see if they really help. If they do, then let the other guars know what
you've discovered; they'll hopefully be happy to receive it. Some will,
others won't at first (or ever), but go straight ahead and do your job.
DEVELOPMENT
Practicing has had a bad reputation with many young players
(old ones,too) for as long as there was something to learn, and it's worth
trying to figure out exactly why, because I've never been one for practicing
at least in the conventional ways that we pick up from God knows where.
I realized one day that we are never really taught how to practice or for
that matter, how to even sit down and learn anything at alb.. Somewhere
in the basics of education, probably in pre-school, children should be
taught how to study so that the doors will always be open for them. As
far as practicing an instrument, it all ties in with one's ability to study.
When you sit down to put together a trumpet section, you
had better plan on a considerable bit of sectional rehearsing, naturally
depending on what level you're working with, but even at a professional
level, lack of it can make or 'break your section. There are many things
about ear training and just
P.6
playing in general that can possibly be learned only here. You wouldn't
believe the difference in a section that has suddenly had a sectional after
having been together for awhile without one. They shouldn't be a regimented
experience. I don't believe in having the leader there or anyone as far
as that goes. It should be a private meeting of the minds of the section
and should be attentive, purposeful, and loose. NO conductor is best. In
some cases, especially in lower levels of schools, it's cool, but as soon
as you've got them going, get out of their way and let the kids take their
own responsibility for themselves and their section. They'll possibly goof
off a bit, but they'll get into it at their own natural speed and they'll
end up being much stronger in the long run. A couple of embar concerts
will do wonders for getting some sectionals going. At the higher levels,
the familial relationship is vital in executing some of the professional
level music, so it's good to start building the foundation for this kind
of communication at an early age.
As far as more technical things, a guy playing an inside
part may never have the joy of knowing what it sounds like or what it has
to do with the arrangement until he gets to play it in a sectional. It'll
help each person learn to play better pitch, time, phrasing, all of it
in fact. Also a good idea in school situations is to let everyone get a
chance to play a lead chart and a jazz solo. Learning is EVERYONE'S right.
If you're able, occasionally record the section and all
sit down and listen to it; you'll find some interesting things, I'm sure.
Just avoid getting too particular about yourself, or rather, whatever you
dos avoid getting into a self put down trip. Nobody' s (fortunately) perfect
but it's OK to try to be as long as you know that if you ever achieve it,
the game's over. I prefer to play the game. I hope you do too!
Thank you.
Bobby Shew
1/21/76 NAJE
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