The Summerglen Files

Often, people comment on how fun my line of work must be. After all, I get to “play” for a living! While it’s true that being a musician is a super-cool job, it’s definitely not all fun and games. Like my grandmother said, “The work must be done in order to play.” As an independent [...]

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On Friday evening, I had the pleasure of playing with my favorite band, Keith Henderson and the Illusions. Why are they my favorite band to play with? Well, Keith Henderson puts on quite a show, and he’s won numerous awards for his tribute to Elvis. And all the guys in the band are excellent musicians [...]

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I’ve written on this blog and in several other places about this summer’s student trombone choirs, and how exciting it’s been to work with them. But I haven’t written much about the reasons for my excitement–the amazing transformative powers of chamber music! The defining characteristic of chamber music is that only one person plays each [...]

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As I’ve worked through my new technical routine, I’ve done a lot of tailoring to make each exercise fit where I am and where I’m going as a trombonist. It feels like I was given a pair of pants that was far too long, so I hemmed up the legs so they wouldn’t drag the [...]

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I just completed the first half of my trombone practice project, and I’m definitely on a different path than I originally set out to follow. As I’ve worked on goals in the past, I’ve learned that sometimes plans go their own way, and that often that way is exactly right! Earlier in the month, when [...]

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