The trumpet player's listening library

[Still Trying]

When I was a kid, I used to go to sleep at night with a 12 piece dance band rehearsing in our living room. My dad had his own band for years. He also had a unique set of tastes in the kind of music he liked to listen to. As I grew older we always always always had some form of music playing on the old phonograph. If Daddy picked out the record, it was likely to be big band (30s-40's era) jazz. I think we had every LP of Glenn Miller music ever recorded, but we also had Benny Goodman, the Dorsey brothers, and everything back to Bix. Daddy also liked stuff as diverse as German brass bands playing polkas or what have you. He also collected Al Hirt records.

Mother on the other hand had been trained to play classical piano and she liked symphonic music and anything Mexican or Spanish. Mother collected every Mendez album ever made-literally. After she died I discovered she had worn so many Mendez albums out that she had three copies of some of them. Us kids were in love with Mario Lanza and opera. We also grew up during the birth and development of rock n roll, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and all the other types of music that appeared on the scene during the Viet Nam War era.

The point being I grew up listening to music-all kinds, all varieties. When I play in a band, and the conductor hands out a piece that's supposed to sound Spanish, for example, I know how to style it. If it's rock, I know how to style it. If it's big band, I know how to style it. Whatever it is, I know how to style it, because I've spent thousands of hours listening to different kinds of music. I'm always surprised, although I shouldn't be, when the conductor hands out a piece of music and the band or trumpet section doesn't have a clue as to how to style it. How can someone grow up in America and not know how to swing? But since most section members also have never learned how to listen for the lead trumpet, they don't know how to mimic his style either. At least this is true for community bands, I've played in.

And now I'm teaching my grandson to play trumpet and I have this self imposed assignment to design a listening course for him, because I want his ears exposed to all the different styles he may one day be required to play. And suddenly I feel overwhelmed. Where do I even start? I don't want him to just listen to fine trumpet players, although that is a start. But I learned a great deal of what I know about phrasing and interpretation from listening to Lanza. I learned to appreciate beautiful music, for example, by listening to great pianists. In my humble opinion, the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto is the most beautiful piece of music ever written. I want my grandson to appreciate beautiful music, even if it's not beautiful trumpet music. I learned what a trumpet section is supposed to sound like by listening to big bands as diverse as Glenn Miller and Stan Kenton. So like I said, where do I even start with my grandson?

I wish I could take all the memories I have had from 6 1/2 decades of listening to music and transfer it to his memory banks. But I can't. He's going to have to do it for himself. I sure hope he makes it. I hope I'm smart enough to make the right choices to get him started.
_________________
S. T.

What do we have that we did not receive, and if we received it, why do we glory, as if we received it not?

[stevesf]

The fact that you are concerned if you are smart enough to pass on your wisdom proves that you are indeed smart enough.

My parents and grandparents were the same way. They had very diverse tastes in music. It was just as likely I would hear Sons of the Pioneers playing out of the record player as it was Rachmaninoff or Glenn Miller.

All I can say is plant the seeds of curiosity in their mind . Expose them to some of your favorites first then keep your music library open for them to explore for their selves. If you are concerned that your prized lps or cds will get scratched, then make recordings or copies of the originals but keep the liner notes handy for them to look at.
_________________
Steve Shults

Yamaha 6310Z - Bb Trumpet
Bach Strad 229/25H - C Trumpet
Yamaha 631 (rose brass) - Flugel
Warburton 4 series mouthpieces
-------------------------------------------------
Know Music, Know Life....No Music, No Life