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What makes a great player stand out from another?


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Turkle
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As trumpet players, we work on technique, technique, technique. All day and night. But it's easy to forget the purpose of technique, which is to develop enough technical facility to be capable of musical expression.

And what is expression? We express the written music, we express the performance situation, we express the sound of our instrument, we express the sound of the ensemble, we express ourselves and our feelings and our interpretation of the music. All of the above are part of the global category of musical expression.

I think that you'll find that what makes a trumpet player stand out isn't their high range (although that can help!), it isn't their Mendez triple-tongue, but rather it is their capacity for magnificent musical expression, the kind that imparts meaning and feeling into music and allows the audience to feel something they'd never feel otherwise, or perhaps reminds them of something they haven't felt in a long time.

That's why we work on technique, and learn all our etudes and music, it's why we shed our bebop licks, it's why we learn all those standards, and it's why we still play our Schlossberg and Clarke every day. It's to be capable of musical expression.

Hope this is helpful - cheers.
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O00Joe
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I remember correctly, a well known and highly respected trumpet professor said that the equation was "Pitch + Rhythm + Style = Success". "Style" included sound, articulation, direction, musicality, etc.

I think I heard a story that in a lesson with Barbara Butler, she would read the newspaper and if you got her to pay attention, you were doing something right (or seriously wrong).

In a masterclass I remember someone saying that judges will tap along with the person auditioning. If their tapping is disrupted, it's an automatic "NEXT"!

In my own opinion, a good player is always in the moment, makes everything seem easy yet beautiful, and when appropriate, demanding in attention.
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cheiden
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Turkle wrote:
As trumpet players, we work on technique, technique, technique. All day and night. But it's easy to forget the purpose of technique, which is to develop enough technical facility to be capable of musical expression.

And what is expression? We express the written music, we express the performance situation, we express the sound of our instrument, we express the sound of the ensemble, we express ourselves and our feelings and our interpretation of the music. All of the above are part of the global category of musical expression.

I think that you'll find that what makes a trumpet player stand out isn't their high range (although that can help!), it isn't their Mendez triple-tongue, but rather it is their capacity for magnificent musical expression, the kind that imparts meaning and feeling into music and allows the audience to feel something they'd never feel otherwise, or perhaps reminds them of something they haven't felt in a long time.

That's why we work on technique, and learn all our etudes and music, it's why we shed our bebop licks, it's why we learn all those standards, and it's why we still play our Schlossberg and Clarke every day. It's to be capable of musical expression.

Hope this is helpful - cheers.

Great post.

I think that trumpet playing can be so physically demanding that we get caught in the fallacy that competence alone is sufficient. It's not. But often times you have to had a decent level of proficiency before you can start finding your voice. That means you don't just get all the notes and rhythms right, but that you can make nuanced decisions on when to follow and when and how to lead. Good players oftentimes can be transparent which is a good thing. Great players don't just blend in (though they certainly can), but they know how and when to make statements that both follow the written page and simultaneously elevate it into something much greater. Great players routinely bring an element of surprise that transcends expectations.
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area51recording
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When everyone in the section is a great player, then I think it comes down to mentality. In the orchestral realm, it was said of Nat Prager that you could write "2nd Trumpet" on the top of a flute part and the guy could play it, but Nat apparently wasn't all that motivated to sit in the hot seat......
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Josh_Harris
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 11:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tone quality and musicality.
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blbaumgarn
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 11:09 pm    Post subject: What makes a great player stand out from another? Reply with quote

I think this is a fascinating topic and all the additions have been so good. I just want to add that as an athlete I always felt you were a leader if others would follow you down a dark alleyway knowing there was a fight coming.. That was a leader. Music isn't the same. The great trumpeters I have known didn't care one iota about the mantle of playing principle or lead. They looked upon it as a responsibility. There is a subtle but significant difference there I believe.
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Robert P
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 4:24 pm    Post subject: Re: What makes a great player stand out from another? Reply with quote

CJceltics33 wrote:
But what good does that do if the repertoire is already easy for you and every other fellow trumpeter in the band?

On this point even if your section can play the notes, the range isn't difficult, do they sound just as good as any section you've ever heard? If not, there's more room for improvement.

You can never have too much facility on the instrument.

On the issue of what makes a great player, part of it might be the perception of the listener. There are players I used to be impressed with that I'm not enthusiastic about now, people labeling them as "great" seems to be mostly predicated on banging out high notes. Thinking of one particular player who shall remain nameless who I can hardly stand to listen to now, their playing sounds like a parody to me - didn't always feel that way. As my awareness evolved my perception of their playing changed.

I've also seen people criticize players I like for reasons I don't find valid.
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