Last updated: August 3, 2:59 PM CDT
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- Wednesday Morning
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Programs (pdf)
Daily Notes
Christan Griego provides Edwards readers with a minute-by-minute account of the daily activities at the Alessi Seminar. Check back often for new content.
Wednesday Morning
9:30 AM
Jason Malloy,a student at ASU, takes to the stage. He performs the Jorgenson Romances.
Joe: That was probably the prettiest thing I've heard this seminar. Right here. There was fantastic contour. When you have a simple melody you need to make architecture (arch), make an arch. Start off gentle, develop, end up gentle. You are not a trombonist anymore, you're a musician. The world needs more musicians playing trombone.
The things I would say are very minor. Let's just work through this from the start.
Jason plays
9:48 AM
Joe: As a creative musician you are going to play something 2-3 ways and then decide how to play the music. Give yourself some options. Without the options then practicing can become drudgery.
Jason plays
Joe: Ok, your legato playing is better than the articulated stuff. I hear the tongue getting started before the air gets there. The engines not exactly firing correctly.
Jason plays
Joe: Make it (articulation) a more air-related thing.
Jason plays
Joe: The only way to get better is to continually ask questions and then not freak out when you get the information. Use this information to improve yourself.
10:10 AM
Joe: Brent Phillips, Jon Lombardo, and Harold Van Schaik will do a combined session on excerpts.
When people come in and if they can't play a simple melody (which is the basis of all musicality), then they have no business playing excerpts. They should study and listen to excerpts (collect all the recordings). Many people prepare an excerpt but have never heard the piece. There are three things I did as a child to prepare for excerpts: 1) Dad gave me a recording of Chicago Symphony. 2) I bought records of Hungarian March, Schubert 9, etc. 3) I bought all of the Keith Brown books. Now that these are out of print you can always go to the Gordon Cherry CD (copy of all excerpts). My point is you need to know the piece. Lets start with Jon, what do you want to play?
Jon: Mozart Requiem.
10:19 AM
Joe: Good tone, beautiful phrasing. There was a little response problem, but I would probably let this go as long as the next excerpt was good. After the opening phrase, prepare yourself a little sooner for the next statement (Breathe a little sooner). Don't be afraid to be like a machine. If you are trying too much not to reveal your attack, it can be a little dangerous. Do not have doubts, just make your attacks and you'll feel better about your articulations.
10:25 AM
Brent plays the Mozart Requiem.
Joe: Lets talk about attacks. If you are going to play Mozart you must have very clear attacks. Do you try to conceal your attacks?
Brent: A little bit.
Joe: I used to do this, but I came to the conclusion that using no tongue for exercises is different from general practicing. In music and etudes I always use a tongue. When I used no tongue there was a variable result. Go ahead and start again and strike the traditional place (where the tongue meets the teeth). There's nothing wrong with doing this, it's healthy and what we need to do. We can work on making the sound less after getting healthy articulation.
Brent plays
Joe: Is there a hesitation?
Brent: Yes.
Joe: Then you must count yourself off. Throughout the day do this. (demonstrates) You must train yourself to count yourself off all the time and the problem will go away. It has to be clear counting.
Brent plays
Joe: If you're going to breathe in the opening phrase you must do it after the F and conceal the breath.
10:41 AM
Joe: Back and forth slide movement is very dangerous for trombonists. (talking about low Bb, D, F, D, F, Bb in requiem) Keep this clean going back and forth and perfectly in tune.
The biggest thing we've talked about is commitment to attacks. Be healthy on the instrument. Being healthy is attacking the note. Harold what are you playing?
Question from audience: I'm curious about the natural slur vs. the tongued slur?
Joe: I do natural slurs where applicable. It's better for young players to learn natural slurs so they can learn what the horn can do. Teach them natural slurs, and then later (much later) it's very easy to prescribe an entire passage with legato tongue. For advanced players you can use bit of each in order to keep things equal sounding.
9:48 AM
Harold plays a Mahler 7 excerpt.
Joe: The only suggestion I have is to not breathe in the opening statement. Harold is playing this more lyrical and he had stated that this is the Mozart Requiem for bass trombone and I agree.
Harold is at 100% capacity with his breathing. Most people only go to 80-90% and it's only that extra 10% of air that gives you total confidence when you play, even when you're nervous.
9:55 AM
Harold plays another excerpt
Joe: Two things. When you play an excerpt you must take every direction it (excerpt) gives you. Dynamics, you must show everybody out there that you are doing them.
Harold plays
Joe: I think you went beyond the safety zone (in pp area). Do it again.
Harold plays
Joe: I have a question for you. Three ppp's, is this subito piano? I've always been used to the subito piano. Piu piano. I didn't hear this difference here. It's definitely going to be softer than piano. You got louder, and you need to stay quiet.
Harold plays
Joe: Great (Applause). Jon, what are you doing?
Jon: Bolero.
Jon plays
Joe: Two things 1) dynamics and 2) style. On the repeated high Db's there are accents following these and not the gliss. I think if you hear the sax player play this you will hear what I am talking about. In the end many of us are trained to do a crescendo, but I think trombone players do too much of a crescendo. There's nothing saying we can't do a decrescendo on the last seven notes. Everybody should do this exercise for Bolero. I got this from Jon Whitaker.
Plays recording of orchestra by holding mic up to a PDA. Jon plays along with the recording. (applause)
Joe: I think it is good to play along with a recording because a lot of people don't know that you come in on a minor 7th. It's a whole new piece when you can hear it correctly.
Jon plays bass line while Joe plays solo.
Joe: At the end you're playing along with plucking strings, so to finish with a huge giant sound doesn't necessarily match up. Finish it with a more feminine feeling (can I say this?) might be a very beautiful thing.
10:20 AM
Joe: We'll take a 10 minute break then come back to more excerpts with the same group (Phillips, Van Schaik, Lombardo).
10:30 AM
Joe: Harold, play a few excerpts back to back, and we won't say anything until you're finished. (Excerpts: Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin [both octaves]; Beethoven 9; Wagner Rainbow motive)
I need to address what he did first. Harold did you select Lohengrin for a reason?
Harold: Yes, because of the upper octave.
Joe: Good, so you selected this excerpt to address the difficulties you have. So what do you feel is your problem with it?
Harold: Clarity in the upper octave.
Joe: Actually, your problem is rhythm (accuracy of the triplet figure). Because you labor on the triplet, your slide can't keep up. What is your tempo on Lohengrin? Sing the opening of the overture. (Harold sings opening)
Okay, that's the beginning of Lohengrin. What you sang wasn't convincing. You must sing the beginning of the piece on every excerpt in an audition. That's how you get the piece in your body. So in this case, you need to hear the opening of the overture, then make a good triplet based on the opening. Let's here the opening triplet.
(Harold plays opening triplet on middle d). Okay, go to the downbeat. Are you single tonguing? The single tongue is too slow. Try triple tonguing. Now try to play all the pitches with the triple tongue.
Personally, I think you're trying to put too much sound on the first three notes of this excerpt. You're a big sound guy, and we love your sound, but you have to drive a sports car here, not a Cadillac. Can you try less sound here? Try mezzo forte only. Okay, now try to pay more attention to your slide. (Joe blows through the instrument and moves slide in time).
Good, make sure you get the opening of the piece in your head. As an exercise, try conducting the opening as you hear it in your head. Also, the style needs to be more clipped. There isn't room for big long notes in this excerpt.
Okay, we need to move on to the other guys.
11:00 AM
Brent Phillips plays two excerpts from La Gazza Ladra.
Joe: Okay, I need to stop you. Who's the composer here?
Brent: Rossini.
Joe: No, say it like this: R-r-rossini (in Italian accent). How do you think a composer like this wants this piece?
Brent: I think I need to play it lighter.
Joe: Right, now play it again like Pryor in Blue Bells.
Brent plays
Joe: Now these players come here to this seminar to address issues. Everybody has their own bag of junk, even me. In your case, when you move the slide back and forth, as you get faster, the pitches become more inaccurate. You have to make sure you really play these pitches correctly. You have to index every single note. I'll show you what it feels like if I play (Joe uses Brent's hand as if it were the slide to demonstrate that the grip is firm, and the rhythm is precise, then plays). Okay, you see how I'm being really accurate with the pitches? Now you try.
Brent plays
Joe: Okay, you need to find a tape recorder, and play this back slowly, because I'm having trouble making sense of the pitches. You have to watch out for the "no man's land" in rapid, technical things like this. The notes can't bleed into one another as the slide moves back and forth.
Now I'm going to hear Jon.
Lombardo plays Symphony Phantastique; Brahms Second Symphony, both excerpts from the Finale; and the major section of the Ride.
Joe: The Berlioz, first of all -- you have to be committed to making an attack. Give yourself a count-off or a clear beat before you begin. Just practice the first note. I think it has to be more in your body. Glenn Dodson used to make me march when I played this, but I'm not going to do that right now.
Now Brahms -- the tempo you use in the second excerpt is how the first excerpt should be played. Think of the descending scale, then use that as the pulse for the first excerpt. I think my biggest concern right now is for you to make an attack.
The last thing was the same deal (the Ride). I think I'd like to hear you make more of a commitment in you attack. The only way you'll make a good attack is if you set up the rhythm ahead of time. All this rhythm stuff I'm talking about, that's when you put the horn down and sing or conduct yourself. Only then can you be really convincing.
I feel good about all the things I've worked on with each of you.
12:02 PM
Jon Whitaker takes the stage.
Joe: Ok, lets go back to the third variation. Two comments: 1) When Jason was up here we talked about different levels of intensity. Different levels of intensity is what you need. You have to explore. You are not exploring enough -- you are repeating patterns musically too much.
Joe demonstrates by stretching notes
I'm not just going up and down to the same level. You've got to make shadings. During different times of the day there are different amounts of shade and this is what you need.
Joe: You have to paint a picture with the piece. What are you thinking about?
Jon: Calming things that are musically unrelated.
Joe: Ok, lets imagine a dream. Play a dream. Think subtle.
Jon plays
Joe: I think your mistakes are page-related. I want you to memorize the music so that you are not focusing on the page. You have to read ahead at least 5-9 bars so that you don't make reading mistakes. Next time I hear you I want to hear something memorized.
Jon plays
Joe: Has anybody ever told you to read ahead?
Jon: No.
Joe: I think this is your problem and I think you can miss notes because of this.
12:30 PM
Joe: If I miss something once… it happens. When I miss something twice I take it pretty seriously. Make sure that it doesn't happen again. Take out your pencil, circle that spot, and make sure that it doesn't happen again. One more time with that.
Jon plays
Joe: Ok, I'm happy. Work on memorizing solos and not for performance, just for you to learn something. Play it every day for a while and then this should help you with your reading ahead.
On more technical parts you must hold on to the slide nice and firm. If not, it is too easy to let the slide get sloppy and then it will not sound clean. Be a surgeon going in to work on somebody's pancreas. If he misses then that guy is gone. He is going to hold on very carefully. Hold your slide to keep it accurate.