A high school band director in my state recently asked if I would contribute to a project compiling advice from university faculty members for prospective music majors on their instruments. He mainly wanted lists of skills and competencies that such students should have, but his request led me to consider broader ways of thinking about music and music-making that lead to success. I have written with prospective low brass majors (and their teachers) in mind, but many apply to players of other instruments, as well as to students hoping to continue playing seriously without becoming music majors.
- Your instrument is a musical instrument. Perhaps this is less of a problem for players of more traditionally melodic instruments, but I sometimes find that young low brass players do not think very musically about their playing. Some perform with their ears somehow disengaged, playing entirely by feel and missing multiple partials as a result. Every student, even those whose instruments normally occupy background roles, should be reminded of the artistic purpose of what we do, and given opportunities and assignments that promote that way of thinking.
- If you can sing it, you can play it. Brass playing is much more like singing than playing any other family of instruments. Just like singers, brass players vibrate a part of the body to make music. The pitch at which that vibration occurs is determined by the signal sent from the ear and brain to the embouchure; the vibration is then amplified and colored by the instrument. Because brass instruments can produce multiple notes per fingering, accurate audiation is especially important. Learning to sing well promotes this necessary skill, as well as the musical way of thinking discussed previously.
- Complete development as a musician requires finding and preparing more challenging music than your band or orchestra parts. I began writing this article between the services of a weekend orchestra gig, and over lunch the other trombone and tuba players and I discussed how simple our parts often are compared to those of the string and woodwind players. To some extent, this is necessary, as too many fast-moving passages for the low brass can create muddiness in the overall sound of the ensemble, even when played well. Composers’ practice of writing comparably simple low brass parts begins at the middle school level and can lead to low brass players becoming lesser musicians than their colleagues if the large ensemble music is not supplemented by more challenging materials. Directors should seek out band and orchestra music that at least occasionally challenges their low brass players, encourage them to prepare solo repertoire, advanced etudes, and chamber music, and direct them to find study and performance opportunities that will give them appropriate challenges.
- Complete development as a musician requires daily and systematic practice of playing fundamentals. While musical objectives should be at the forefront of our thinking when practicing and performing, certain daily calisthenics are needed to ensure the whole tone production apparatus—including not only the embouchure but also the physical structures related to breathing—is in optimal shape. A daily routine that reviews and extends one’s capabilities with long tones, articulation (single and multiple), flexibility (lip slurs), finger dexterity and/or handslide accuracy, and high and low range extension goes a long way toward ensuring optimal playing development and productivity in the remaining parts of one’s daily practice. There are published books of exercises and routines for this purpose, and many teachers have posted theirs online for free. Students should be encouraged to find, use, and even create routines that work for them.
- Complete development as a musician requires thorough mastery of scale and arpeggio patterns. Most students learn scales and arpeggios for various auditions or pass-offs, but few seem to truly understand their utility for improving reading and playing. For one thing, most technical passages in music follow some common pattern or another, whether it be a scale, an arpeggio, or some derivative like a scale in thirds or fourths. The more familiar one becomes with patterns like these, the more likely one is to recognize them when encountered in pieces of music and execute them almost automatically.
- Practice beyond your comfort zone in every aspect of playing. One surefire way to fail to grow as a musician is to only practice things one already does well. Every day’s practice should have one playing higher and lower, faster and slower, louder and softer, longer and shorter, etc. than is comfortable. Do those extremes always sound great? No, but it’s okay to sound bad in the practice room if those bad sounds are in the service of promoting growth as a player. I still practice this way and can therefore step on stage knowing in performance I will come nowhere near the limits of my technical capabilities in any area.
- The internet is a great resource…if you know how to use it. Internet access first became widely available while I was finishing high school, and since then I have marveled at the ready availability of so much information. The websites of various brass-playing-related organizations, ensembles, teachers, libraries, retailers, and professional musicians offer an ever-growing collection of helpful and often free resources for players of all levels, to say nothing of the seemingly infinite array of audio and video recordings available on YouTube, Spotify, and other services. You still must exercise caution. Anybody can publish a website or blog or podcast, and not everything on the internet is true and reliable. Online forums, while often helpful, can sometimes become toxic, so learning to navigate these wisely is a must. Similarly, when seeking reference recordings students should take the bit of extra time needed to find and listen to the very best players. Sometimes the first “hit” on YouTube is a recital video of another student with problems similar to your own!
- Learning to read in different clefs is not that hard and vastly expands the repertoire available to you. Serious trombonists should start learning to read tenor clef while in high school. This is a standard expectation of composers once the music reaches a certain level, and study materials are readily available. Alto clef reading is also expected of tenor trombonists, but with less frequency. Euphonium players should learn to read in both bass and treble clefs, as both types of parts are not available in every situation. Reading treble clef parts fluently also facilitates “stealing” great music for trumpet, cornet, clarinet, etc. Future music educators will find that reading various clefs provides “transposition shortcuts” that greatly enhance score reading.
- The “which tuba should I play?” question is worth asking. Professional tubists usually play at least one contrabass tuba (BBb or CC) and one bass tuba (Eb or F). The bass tuba question can be left until after students enter college, but the contrabass tuba question should be considered by prospective music majors while still in high school. In the United States, most professional tubists play the CC instrument as their large tuba, but practically all students in school bands start with the BBb instrument. The CC tuba does offer certain advantages over the BBb, but it is not unequivocally “better.” Students should take the time to explore the relative merits of both instruments, and to consult their likely teachers at the next level, as some college and university studios demand their students play CC tuba.
- Start exploring improvisation. These days the line between “jazz players” and “legit players” is becoming increasingly blurred and versatility is very much in demand. Besides, learning to improvise well fosters thinking about music on a structural level that improves sight reading, score reading, and overall creativity. Think of improvisation as being a little like songwriting, beginning with variations of the head and then expanding to new melodic material over the changes. Thorough familiarity with scale and arpeggio patterns (remember those?) gives one lots of material with which to work. Online backing tracks and apps like iRealPro have made improvisation practice easier than ever these, giving ample freedom to experiment with new ideas in the privacy of your practice room. This is not just for trombone players, either. Tubas and euphoniums are perfectly capable of playing jazz and commercial music, and learning to create walking bass lines when reading from a lead sheet is a great skill for tubists.
- Have fun! Playing music should be enjoyable, not stressful or painful. All of us go into music because it brings joy to ourselves and others, yet we often find ourselves stressing ourselves about performances and other responsibilities. While playing our instruments should be a physically simple and enjoyable experience, we often adopt approaches that are laborious, tense, and inefficient. Remember, the simplest way to physically execute a playing task is usually the right way. Regarding emotional stress and anxiety, I once heard the greatest trombonists in the world remind his audience, “it’s just a trombone.” Is music important? Of course. Is it “life-and-death-important?” Not usually. Relax and allow yourself to enjoy the process, to learn, to succeed, to fail, and to grow. In so doing, you’ll bring greater joy to your audiences, your students, and yourself. Have fun!
Micah Everett is Professor of Low Brass at the University of Mississippi, Principal Trombonist of the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and Tubist in the Mississippi Brass Quintet. He holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Delta State University.
