It’s a video taken in my second year at the Conservatoire (when I was 19). I was playing lead with the BMus Big Band at the time under Eddies Severn. This was the Big Band run for the regular course rather than the jazz specialists. After this I was asked to sit on the lead chair in the Jazz Course Big Bands for a few gigs.

It was interesting to look back at my technique a few years ago. The things that I’m proud of and things that I’m not For example, I think I have a good stance and sound but an inability to do a proper lip trill.

With a heavy pivot and far too much movement this show poor technique and doesn’t yields poor results at the expense of stamina (and risk of injury). [Check out 2:42]

I’m happy to say this is no longer an issue!!

It’s a bit different from a regular post so I hope it makes up for being away for so long. You can even spot Neil from The Shades (and the Abu Dhabi Diary) leading the saxes. Good times

Birmingham Conservatoire BMus Big Band
Piece: Hayburner
Lead by: Eddie Severn
Matt Roberts: Lead Trumpet

Old Big Band Video from Matt Roberts on Vimeo.

Last but not least I also need to look into London Diary services. I’ve never used them before but I need to keep making contacts down here.

Forums are a great place but very frustrating when you can’t find anyone who has the same issues. It makes me wonder if I haven’t just missed something really obvious but I’m hoping to hear back from Mr Presonus with some advice.

I’m out to a jam session at Ronnie Scott’s tonight (just to listen tonight). It’s my first time there so looking forward to it. Jonny’s coming with me and I might even drag Dr Birch (my flat mate) along for the ride.

I hope I keep inspired.

I recently bought a bass guitar and have borrowed a keyboard from the school I teach trumpet at in the hope to further understand my jazz theory. It has helped to SEE the notes and chords rather than to visualise linear lines. Plus I can keep practicing when my trumpet muscles are fatigued (leading to brain fatigue).

Funnily enough whilst we were talking another guy came over to chat with us both called Steve Brown, a new York jazz guitarist. He was passing through London to give a lecture before going to gig in Edinburough. He proceeded to recommend some books to us both – Whilst flicking through the selection he was throwing away comments about the authors like; oh he’s a friend of mine, I’ve given him a few lessons, we used to be in a small band together etc. It was great!!

My quick visit ended up taking the better part of an hour and costing me 4 times what I’d intended to spend.

Pete told me some great anecdotes. He told me about one of his contemporaries actually owning a shed called "Wood Shed" and when his family go to bed at night be goes out and Wood Shed’s is licks in his Wood Shed

I’m hoping to see Pete again at Ronnie Scott’s at some point.

I’ve spent the rest of my evening battling with Eurobusk 07 footage on iMovie before trying to reinstall software on my Tom Tom – with no luck I’d add.

On the plus side iMovie is fixed, so is my dvd drive, at least my Tom Tom doesn’t set on fire anymore when you turn it on and I’m counting the days to the arrival of my interface and mics. Good times!

And I’m busy – 3 gigs this weekend – "cash back!". At least I’ve got my awesome phone to post from if I need to. (I think I’ve found tomorrow’s Post Topic )

This is a fairly new project that we are working on together and the majority of our material to date are some of the more laid back jazz standards. We have a few other ideas to try enhance our repertoire but over the next couple of days we will be trying to find something to make us a little different from other duo’s currently on the scene.

We’ll both be in London together from September so thought it was about time for us to collaborate on a project together. The project name, recordings and gig venues will follow in the near future.

Hey Jason,

Thanks for sending me your email Jason. That’s a pretty hard question to answer but I’ll do my best : ).

I guess I can just tell you the things that I find tricky between the 2 genres. I think that you will have to draw your own conclusions based on your own strength as a trumpet player.

Orchestral – The discipline needed to be a good orchestral player is different from the discipline you need on the jazz side. You have to be an incredibly consistent player. Sometimes you can wait for 10 minutes with nothing to do and then out of nowhere you have to hit a phrase, first time, no splits no mistakes, one chance – It can be pretty high pressure. I can get the job done in an orchestra thanks to my training at college but I wouldn’t say that I was the worlds most fantastic orchestral player.

My friend Chris; who was the only other trumpet in my year at college and now working with The Royal Shakespeare Company – I think?, was an ace orchestral player. 100% reliable, had the right feel for the music (which can easily be overlooked) and a great deal of confidence to back it all up. (However he wouldn’t mind me saying that he wouldn’t go near improvising or jazz playing with a barge pole : P) .

Key Skills

Consistency – Getting it right the first time and every time.

Accuracy – Getting every not perfect

Confidence – Knowing that no splits shall leave your bell : )

Discipline – Making every single note as beautiful as possible.
Strong Technique – To support the music that you play.

Big Band – There are two main types of trumpet player in Big Bands and these ARE NOT mutually exclusive.

Lead Players – This takes years of practice and a great deal of understanding on how the body works and how notes are formed. The key factors are research along side trial and error. Playing high needs the knowledge of how to achieve a solid technique whilst still having the drive to pursue it. You’ll find that a lot of the top books (Arban, Dr Collins, Vizzutti) tend to tell you the same things but explain the process in a slightly different way. I find myself drifting away form your question but I think you have to understand that building yourself into a lead player takes a different approach to the sheer grafting that classical and improvisers do. I’ve been on this road for a couple of years and am very envious of those people who fell into this ability by luck or biology (i.e. the way there body is built). Still, they don’t know how they do it so they can’t teach it : ) (or fix it if it goes wrong) .

Improviser – These guys graft harder than any other trumpet player. Often not strong at reading but with an incredible ear and ability to duplicate phrases at first listen. A slightly more mathematical brain is required to be an improviser (in my opinion). Unfortunately you also have to put up with the unfounded reasonings of some who think that improvising is easy because ‘you make it up as go along’. However great trumpeters have an ability to strip the music away to it’s essences and effetely compose live music over the top of it. – Pretty cool.

Simply I think the Key Skills for a well rounded Big Band Player are:

Understanding – Reading into and reasoning why things happen when you play.

Dedication – To build on the knowledge you’ve attained

(Whether it is biological factors for playing high or to listening to new albums, transcribing and applying what you’ve learnt)

Confidence – Togo for the solo’s or the money notes

Discipline – Backing off when you need to (Lead), leaving space when you play (Impro)

Strong Technique – Giving you the abilities you need to us (lead), Enhancing the sound and range of your solos giving you more that you can do.

Summary

Well I hope that wasn’t to confusing for you and that you might find something useful in this post. In my experience no genre is easier or harder, only the approach to mastering them differs. Unfortunately I think that there’s not enough trumpet players who appreciate that both Jazz and Classical training is mutually beneficial. Wouldn’t it be great to have the control, consistency and discipline of a classical player whilst having the knowledge (both musical and physical), range and imagination of a jazz player.

This is what I strive for in my playing. Whether I’ll every achieve it doesn’t really matter. All I can do is try and improve along the way. That’s all you can do to.

All the best Jason.

It was a bit of a shame that the raffle, auction and speeches ran on as this left us with only a fraction of the 2 hours we were booked for.

But we gave it hell for the 45 mins we did play and despite the worlds most expensive cup of coffee – 11 coffees costing us a whopping £54.00!! – we all had a good night.

He laughed because I’d forgotten and knew I wasn’t too happy about it. The problem was that he couldn’t do the gig and his dep was coming to the rehearsal. Therefore I had to be there.

I’ve been a bit frustrated because I haven’t been getting my practice back on track to the extent I’d been hoping. It’s so typical of the trumpet!! My chops were great in last nights rehearsal, there’s no reason for it but I was slurring octave leaps to double G’s with no effort.

 I think it’s fair to say that the trumpet is the most temperamental instrument out there – I’ll work it out one day.