#8 - Brass Players are Musicians, Too!

August 19, 2004 - Revised November 18, 2006

A Three-Part Introduction

1. A fine accompanist once told me “I’m not sure why, but I didn’t expect you to be so musical. Maybe it’s because the brass players that I have accompanied in the past played the notes but weren’t great musicians.”
   
   
2. I have had trombone students who are also pianists tell me that they feel more expressive when playing the piano compared to the trombone.
   
   
3. In Matt Guilford’s article Audition Musings, he writes:
   
   “Too often, I encounter young brass musicians in training who are technically gifted yet musically bereft. Most need a bit more exposure, experience and time spent living life to become seasoned players. The typical music education in the U.S. places an emphasis on developing technical mastery of ones’ instrument. Nurturing the artistic and creative elements of a student is usually secondary to technique.”
   
   

Questions

What is going on here? Do we expect a string, woodwind, guitar, harp, accordion, or piano performance to be more expressive than a brass performance? More importantly perhaps, is that what everyone else expects? Is it more natural to play non-brass instruments more expressively, or are there just as many “musically bereft” musicians who play the other instruments? Why are there “technically gifted yet musically bereft” young players at all, and what can be done about it?

Causes and Solutions for Lack of Expression

1. Many people are inhibited or reserved, because of having that personality trait, a fear of making mistakes, or a perception that they will be frowned upon for being expressive.
   
   Whatever the reason, there are several things you can do if you are inhibited. You can think of yourself as an actor, inhabiting the character or atmosphere of the piece you are playing, just like you would pretend to be a character in a play. You can experiment in small doses to increase your comfort level: forget about playing well and cut loose for just two measures, aiming only for a quality like powerful, exciting, serene, frightening, peaceful, stormy, joking, scary, wild, intense, yearning, silly, or brooding. Gradually expand to four measures, or one whole piece. You can begin with easy music and move on to more challenging material, and you can gradually expand your audience from 0, to a teacher, to close friends, to strangers. This approach to adding expression is a lot like practicing slowly to learn notes and rhythms, and it is at least as important.
   
   
2. The repertoire you play affects your training. Low-brass players in particular are not called upon by orchestral music to play long, soloistic, melodic lines.
   
   Play the best music that you can, play music that you like, and steal from other instruments. Imitate recordings of your favorite artists and try to play along with them.
   
   Duets can be great when two people connect to the same aspect of the music or push each other to be more expressive. Accompanied music also provides inspiration (see Play-along Materials). You can make your own "play-along" by recording one part of a duet.
   
   
3. People often practice technique for its own sake, forgetting that music is an art form.
   
   There is no point to using a "technique book" without the ultimate goal of playing music. Exercises, after all, grew from passages found in music and only exist to develop the physical tools needed to play those passages. So when practicing patterns to strengthen intonation, evenness, articulation, or flexibility for example, try not to become so fixated and frustrated that you lose sight of the goal. And remember that even patterns can be played musically, phrased and rounded.
   
   
4. There is only so much time in lessons and expression sometimes gets neglected in favor of developing technique. When this happens, students carry the same backward priorities to the practice room.
   
   If you are a teacher, teach expression alongside technique at all levels. If you demonstrate it, even a sixth grader can hear the difference between a robotic interpretation and a nicely phrased version of the same piece, even if it is just Mary Had a Little Lamb. Don't just leave musicality to students who already have it or for them to discover it on their own.
   
   If you are a student, practice for expression with as much attention as anything else. Are you playing the written markings like dynamics? Are you using unwritten tools like vibrato, phrasing, bringing out important notes, and stretching the pulse when appropriate? Are you bringing out the character of the piece?
   
   Expression needs to be nurtured and practiced.
   
   
5. Besides limited time, expression can also be neglected due to laziness. It's easier to point out a wrong note or rhythm than it is to help a person's playing dance or weep. (If you browse around the web, you’ll find far more articles about breathing, articulation, and slide technique than about expression, and this is especially true among brass websites.)
   
   Teachers and students can listen for other things besides proper technique and find creative ways of bringing out character. Use metaphor, analogy, and imagination: "What does this piece sound like? What does it remind me of? What is the overall atmosphere? Am I expressing it?"
   
   
6. When music is more technically challenging, it takes more time to master. Therefore, many students simply stop their development of a difficult piece after only working on the technique, the surface of the piece. They never really reach the ability to be playful and musical with it.
   
   Getting deeper than the surface requires patience to thoroughly work out the technical kinks. It also requires a willingness to experiment and take musical risks.
   
   
7. Brass students sometimes take the jocular view that expression is “the easy part,” and they therefore don’t practice it. When I was at New England Conservatory, a fellow student basically said to me “anyone can play musically, but not anyone can play Blue Bells of Scotland."
   
   Be an artist and avoid louder-is-better type of thinking.
   
   

More Solutions

1. Ghost Play a passage with great musicianship: silently "play" by blowing air through your instrument and articulating as marked. Imagine producing your ideal tone, pitch, timing, and musicality, and then match that ideal when resuming actual playing. This helps develop a sound image, the sound you pursue when playing.
   
   
2. Sing or buzz a passage with complete musical abandon, then play it on your instrument the same way. By momentarily removing the instrument, you increase your musical connection. (Arnold Jacobs)
   
   
3. Write words or a story to go with a piece. Try to reflect the piece's changes in mood in your story and in your playing.
   
   
4. Record your practice and listen back for expressive qualities. To drive home the point, record yourself playing as inexpressively as possible, then as expressively as possible, and listen to for differences. Did you go far enough? Too far?
   
   
5. Play from memory or rather, "by heart." Playing from memory can be stifling if you are trying to remember notes while you play, but if the music is absorbed and you truly know it, playing without the printed music can be liberating. (Reader suggestion, 9/7/04)
   
   

Analyzing the Difference

Further Study

The Musicality and Interpretation chapter of my book has quotes from many accomplished musicians and teachers aa well as more techniques for increasing expression in one’s playing.

Here are links to more articles. In addition, the books listed at the end of my Performance Anxiety article are exceedingly relevant. Here are a few more: