The Summerglen Files » music education

Our Latest Projects

summerglen — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:37:49 +0000

Greetings! Lately here at Summerglen, we’ve been working on 2 big summer projects: Trombone Ensembles for students, and our original CD (tentatively titled It All Started in the Middle of the Road). Both the students and our new material are truckin’ right along, and we’ve created Facebook pages for each of them, so that you can check out our progress over the summer. Please drop by and “like” us!

Summerglen’s Original Music:

Trombone Ensembles:

Choosing Your First Solo Pieces – Tuesday Trombone Tips #22

summerglen — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:01:55 +0000

Benefits of Working on Your Solo Chops – Tuesday Trombone Tips #21

summerglen — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:01:32 +0000

Over several years of teaching private trombone lessons, I’ve noticed a trend among students to focus their practice on the ensemble music assigned to them by their band director at school, and shy away from doing anything else. Unfortunately, band music for young trombonists doesn’t tend to be very challenging…so when it’s all that kids work on, they don’t make the musical progress that they’re capable of making. Also, when there’s no more band stuff to work on in the summer, many kids assume that they can put their horns away because there’s nothing to do!

So, our next three videos will present a challenge for young trombonists–to move away from homework-only practice, and add a healthy dose of solo trombone literature to their sessions. Enjoy!

3 Benefits of Summer Practice – Tuesday Trombone Tips #20

summerglen — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:08:52 +0000

Getting the Most out of Private Lessons – Tuesday Trombone Tips #19

summerglen — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:46:04 +0000

4 Ways to Succeed in Private Lessons – Tuesday Trombone Tips #18

summerglen — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:30:18 +0000

What to Look for in a Private Trombone Teacher – Tuesday Trombone Tips #17

summerglen — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:49:47 +0000

Why You Need Trombone Lessons! – Tuesday Trombone Tips #16

summerglen — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:14:53 +0000

Andrew’s Teaching a Drumset Workshop…and Taking Your Questions!

summerglen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:40:16 +0000

Happy Monday, Summerglen friends!
We’ve been insanely busy over here at the ‘glen. I’ve been working hard on setting up another after-school elementary band and some creativity workshops for businesspeople, and Andrew has been out playing solo percussion shows! (Pics of his latest show will be up within the next couple of days!)

But the thing we’re most excited about this week is Andrew’s upcoming Drumset Setup and Tuning Workshop at 2112 Percussion this Thursday at 6:30pm. Andrew has a really cool evening planned–including teaching how to set up your drumset to make playing easier, helping you decide which drumheads are best for you, and demonstrating how to tune your drums to get a great sound. This workshop is FREE, and is open to drummers of all ages!

If you have a burning drumset question that you would like Andrew to answer at his workshop, post your question to Andrew’s facebook page, and he’ll make sure to cover it on Thursday! If you don’t have Facebook, please feel free to ask your question here in the comments section. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Training my Inner Soloist

summerglen — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:35:44 +0000

Ugh. Today I’ve begun a huge transition in my trombone playing–from focusing on ensemble work to honing my skills as a solo player. For the past few years, I’ve centered my attention on strengthening my sightreading abilities, building my understanding of many different musical styles, and developing solid technique that I can incorporate into any ensemble. But lately, I’ve felt called in a different direction–solo work.

For the past few weeks, I’ve devoted ever-increasing chunks of practice toward working up some of my favorite trombone solos: the David, the DeFaye, the Weber, etc. All this work has given me monster technique across the entire range of my horn, and has boosted my endurance quite a bit. But so far, all this work has taken place in the privacy of my studio, with no audience except for the occasional bunny or cat. Until today.

Learning the notes, rhythms, and style of a solo piece is merely the first step in getting it ready for performance. After these basics are in place, it’s time for step two–to practice performing the piece in front of an audience. This is a field test, so to speak, where you see what happens to your beautiful tone when you play in a different setting, and experience how that insanely difficult lick goes when a roomful of people are listening. Often, the extra pressure of an audience can, er, affect your playing a bit!

This post began with an “ugh”, simply because this step isn’t very much fun–at least at the beginning. And today was the beginning, my first (albeit informal) solo public performance in years. It was pretty wretched. I cracked my fair share of notes, and my grace notes weren’t placed properly, and my endurance was shot because I was using too much mouthpiece pressure. Ugh.

But what’s cool is, the second performance will be better, and the third, still better, and so on, and so on. Just as it took time to learn to blend with various ensembles, it’ll also take time to learn to fill a big, empty stage on my own.

So here’s what I will do to continue my solo trombone training. Each week, I’ll record myself practicing one of my solos–and I’ll post the recording here for your listening pleasure. In addition, I plan to pop into one of the local open mics every couple of weeks, and perform a solo for a roomful of strangers. When spring rolls around, I’ll take my solos to the streets, and perform them on various sidewalks around Downtown Raleigh.

And with every performance and recording, this endeavor of mine will, hopefully, become slightly less terrifying and much better sounding.