Author: JC Heisler

Peter Sage

Tristano as a Teacher

A lengthy quote on Lennie Tristano’s teaching methods, taken from “Lennie Tristano: His Life in Music”

by Eunmi Shim

published by University of Michigan Press

---

Manhattan Studio 1 and 2 Documentary

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/manhattan-studio

Jazz Is Not a Language: Critical Thinking vs Imitative Learning in Jazz Education.

Presented by Brad Goode 

The University of Colorado, Colorado Conservatory of the Jazz Arts, The Jazz Trumpet Consortium.

Transcript by JC Heisler

---

---

---

Roy Poper on James Stamp

John McNeil on Carmine Caruso

Karl Sievers on Bill Adams

Roger Rocco on Arnold Jacobs

Jeff Purtle on Claude Gordon

“You may think that if there is no purpose or no goal in our practice, we will not know what to do. But there is a way. The way to practice without having any goal is to limit your activity, or to be concentrated on what you are doing in this moment. Instead of having some particular object in mind, you should limit your activity. When your mind is wandering about elsewhere you have no chance to express yourself. But if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully YOUR true music.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“If you understand the cause of conflict as some fixed or one-sided idea, you can find meaning in various practices without being caught by any of them. If you do not realize this point you will be easily caught by some particular way, and you will say, “This is excellence! This is perfect practice. This is our way. The rest of the ways are not perfect. This is the best way.” This is a big mistake. There is no particular way in true practice. You should find your own way, and you should know what kind of practice you have right now. Knowing both the advantages and disadvantages of some special practice, you can practice that special way without danger. But if you have a one-sided attitude, you will ignore the disadvantage of the practice, emphasizing only its good part. Eventually you will discover the worst side of the practice, and become discouraged when it is too late. This is silly.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“If you find some difficulty in your practice, that is the warning that you have some wrong idea, so you have to be careful. But do not give up your practice; continue it, knowing your weakness. Here there is no gaining idea. Here there is no fixed idea of attain-ment. You do not say, “This is excellence,” or “That is not right practice.” Even in wrong practice, when you realize it and continue, there is right practice. Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“So as long as you continue your practice, you are quite safe, but as it is very difficult to continue, you must find some way to encourage yourself. As it is hard to encourage yourself without becoming involved in some poor kind of practice, to continue our pure practice by yourself may be rather difficult.

This is why we have a teacher. With your teacher you will correct your practice. Of course you will have a very hard time with him, but even so, you will always be safe from wrong practice.

Most Musicians have had a difficult time with their teachers. When they talk about the difficulties, you may think that without this kind of hardship you cannot practice music. But this is not true. Whether you have difficulties in your practice or not, as long as you continue it, you have pure practice in its true sense. Even when you are not aware of it, you have it. So do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own development. Whether or not you are aware of it, you have your own true development within your practice.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“When we practice music we just practice it, and whether we find joy in our practice or not, we just do it. Even though we are sleepy, and we are tired of practicing music, of repeating the same thing day after day; even so, we continue our practice. Whether or not someone encourages our practice, we just do it.

Even when you practice music alone, without a teacher, I think you will find some way to tell whether your practice is adequate or not. When you are tired of sitting, or when you are disgusted with your practice, you should recognize this as a warning signal.

You become discouraged with your practice when your practice has been idealistic. You have some gaining idea in your practice, and it is not pure enough. It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it. So you should be grateful that you have a sign or warning signal to show you the weak point in your practice. At that time, forgetting all about your mistake and renewing your way, you can resume your original practice. This is a very important point.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it. So you should be grateful that you have a sign or warning signal to show you the weak point in your practice.

Here are several poor ways of practice that you should understand. Usually when you practice music, you become very idealistic, and you set up an ideal or goal which you strive to attain and fulfill. This is absurd.

When you are idealistic, you have some gaining idea within yourself; by the time you attain your ideal or goal, your gaining idea will create another ideal. So as long as your practice is based on a gaining idea, and you practice music in an idealistic way, you will have no time actually to attain your ideal. Moreover, you will be sacrificing the meat of your practice. Because your attainment is always ahead, you will always be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future. You end up with nothing. This is absurd; it is not adequate practice at all. But even worse than this idealistic attitude is to practice music in competition with someone else. This is a poor, shabby kind of practice.” – Shunryu Suzuki

---

Are You All In?

---

Compelled

My goals are of utmost importance. I feel a true sense of mission and purpose. I seek and enjoy putting in extra time and effort for my accomplishments.

---

Committed

My goals are of high importance and I am willing to do whatever is necessary. I put in extra time and effort to help myself perform exceptionally.

---

Compliant

My goals are important. I will do what I might to achieve these goals when I feel like it. I understand my goals and personal rules. I will do no more, no less.

---

Reluctant

I am hesitant, or afraid to commit to my goals. I usually do enough when prodded, but I cut corners when I can get away with it.

---

Resistant

I am not bought in to my goals and have no plan.

Pierre Thibaud – Pedagogy.

1.We need to practice  vocalize, the trumpet is like singing. All trumpeters should listen to Callas and Streisand; 

2.You have to practice every day.

3.Pedals  are important.

4  When practicing you need to alternate slur and staccato, simple double and triple and push on the speeds.

5.Practice the Clarke with all the variations in both major and minor. Caruso, Caruso and Caruso.

6. Practice about bending is very important, do it with the Schlossberg method, you must know by heart the studies of Reynolds, Charlier, Bitsch, Balay, Arban.

7. Sound and intonation must go on the same track. If you have a nice sound and you’re out of tune it won’t be of any use, if you’re in tune and you have a shitty sound it won’t be of any use. You don’t have to make a movie in your head but be realistic and study what isn’t going well yet. The trumpet is like a grenade it can explode at any moment.

Giorgio Baggiani post 11/23

Pierre Thibaud Facebook Memorial Group 

1) Practice, Practice, Practice;

2) Experiment, Research, Always Search;

3) Trumpeters don’t like studying scales. If you ask a violinist to play you scales in major, minor, diminished he’ll play them for you in the blink of an eye. Try asking a trumpeter and you’ll see. Study the scales.

4) Always practice what is worst for you, it is useless to always play what is good for you;

5) On the day you don’t study, hundreds of trumpet players are studying at that moment, and they are the ones who steal your place when you do the competitions;

6) Stamp, Schlossberg, Clarke, Caruso, Arban. Practice Caruso, create your own daily routine;

7) The study of the trumpet has equal dignity with all other disciplines; a doctor practices, a lawyer practices, an engineer practices…study and practice make the difference. We can all always improve. Don’t stop searching.

Giorgio Baggiani post 11/12/23

Pierre Thibaud Facebook Memorial Group 

Chapter One

What’s in a Note?

First, sound and all of it’s precepts, patterns, correlations, movements, and stories exist within the entire universe in one single pitch.

The wonder of Tonic, by the acoustical properties of our ears’ and the Harmonic Series, and the innate relationships resonating simultaneously there within, has endowed us with the miracle of our existence in ability to communicate musically.  

Tonic, in a word can be defined as the “Fundamental”; the foundation of our experience of pitch found within the first ratio of the Harmonic Series.

The ratios that follow within the Harmonic Series serve as a cosmic map of the harmonious nature innate to our existence, as they define a natural order within the relationships of these mathematic acoustical precepts.  It is the relationship of the extended ratios within the Harmonic Series to the Fundamental Pitch (1:1, the actual tone that we hear), that resonate the natural laws of acoustics and dictate the preordained choreography of Tonal expectation; our natural aural, musical existence.

It is by means of this relationship that musical artifacts are created, composed, and experienced through our songs, dances, stories, and performance.

~ Excerpt from personal “Music Book” manuscript by JC Heisler

One cannot rehearse tradition; one observes and LIVES a tradition…or not.

Tradition fashions by consequence of its boundaries, extolling awareness upon one’s unique personhood in THIS specific time and space.

To create is an indictment, to DARE to DECIDE. It is not to cajole, try, convince, preserve, nor replicate.

NO ONE, can stand in for you.