Yesterday I had a great time listening to the University of Iowa's faculty brass quintet and they offered some solid advice to the groups that performed for them. It was amazing when faculty tuba, John Manning, played with one of the quintets and you were able to hear what a huge difference just that one change made. He says that when he plays he is always thinking about how he can make the overall sound of the group better, and not just his own. Manning then made the point to say this in an amusing quote, "Ask not what your brass quintet can do for you, but what you can do for your brass quintet."
I also had a chance to talk with the horn player from the quintet, Jeffery Agrell, who is quite well known in the horn community. Besides being on the faculty at Iowa, he is also going to be a faculty member at the Kendall Betts horn camp this summer. We had a chance to discuss a variety of topics from college and career choices to developing multiphonics. One of the really cool things I discovered is that Agrell also has his own website, where he collected a vast amount of horn knowledge from throughout the internet that every horn player should definitely check out.
- Agrell's Horn Website
- Kendall Betts Horn Camp
This is in response to my "And Then I Learned Hate" article, I had my weekly lesson this last Monday, and after hours of practice of on Kopprasch #18, I finally passed off the etude. Thank God! So now that I feel that mental barrier break down a bit more I have three more Kopprasch etudes that I'm starting to work on for next week since she expects me to get through Book 1 before I get into college. She also made sure to mention that I should remember that Kopprasch is not only about mastering technical skills, but also that most etudes should be done in multiple transpositions. I'll be in for a busy, and fun time, this summer.
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