Category Archives: Teaching Low Brass

Fifteen Steps to Playing a Better All-State Audition (Repost)

Today I am reposting, for the tenth year, one of the more popular articles on this blog. With high school students preparing for auditions for all-state groups and similar ensembles around this time of year, posting this article every fall … Continue reading

Posted in Auditions, Bass Trombone, Daily Routine, Education, Euphonium, Mississippi Lions All-State Band, Music, Music Education, Playing Fundamentals, Practicing, Scales and Arpeggios, Teaching Low Brass, Tenor Trombone, Trombone, Tuba | Comments Off on Fifteen Steps to Playing a Better All-State Audition (Repost)

Improvisation in Slow Motion

I have been arranging solo and chamber music for low brass instruments for almost my entire teaching career. As is true of just about everything I do as a teacher, my reasons for doing this have been mostly practical. The … Continue reading

Posted in Bass Trombone, Benedetto Marcello, Copyright, Georg Philipp Telemann, Improvisation, Johann Ernst Galliard, Johann Sebastian Bach, Micah Everett, Music, Music Publishing, Music Theory, Musical Interpretation, Orchestration, Performing, Sheet Music, Teaching Low Brass, Trombone, Tuba, Writing and Arranging | Comments Off on Improvisation in Slow Motion

“It Matters to This One:” Why I Still Teach Music

My twenty-first year teaching low brass at the university level is beginning in a challenging and fractious moment for our society in general and for higher education in particular. After the COVID-19 event appeared to be petering out over the … Continue reading

Posted in Alto Trombone, Apologetics, Baritone Horn, Bass Trombone, Beauty, Career Choices, Christian Worldview, COVID-19, Education, Euphonium, Higher Education, Music, Music and Theology, Music Education, Pedagogy, Politics, Practical Christianity, Society, Teaching Low Brass, Tenor Trombone, Theology, Trombone, Truth, Tuba | Comments Off on “It Matters to This One:” Why I Still Teach Music

Because It’s Pretty…Or, The Downside of Musical Competition

Once again this week I am finding myself without very much time to write, with the International Trombone Festival coming up in a few days and a new recording project just a couple of weeks after that. So, I thought … Continue reading

Posted in Beauty, Christian Worldview, Music, Music and Theology, Music and Worship, Music Education, Pedagogy, Performing, Practical Christianity, Practicing, Teaching Low Brass, Work and Leisure | Comments Off on Because It’s Pretty…Or, The Downside of Musical Competition

Make Sure It Stays Fun

Believe it or not (I’m not sure I can), I just finished my twentieth year of teaching at the university level. I started as a terrified twenty-two-year-old teaching assistant with nine students and no experience, spent time in both the … Continue reading

Posted in Career Choices, Education, Higher Education, Mississippi Lions All-State Band, Multitrack Recordings, Music, Music Education, Pedagogy, Performing, Practicing, Professional Organizations, Teaching Low Brass, The Business of Music, Work and Leisure | Comments Off on Make Sure It Stays Fun