The key is to keep your brain interested; keeping your driving instincts sharp and your internal timer on fast forward. The way to do this is simple. Apart from my Tomtom (which is the worlds greatest gift to anyone who drives) the iPod / mp3 is a must have for your car. Music and podcasts keep me focused and happy for all the massive journey’s I do.

More recently I’ve taken to ordering a few audiobooks online. It started with the latest series of the Ricky Gervais Podcast (which is classed as an audiobook) and frankly if you enjoy Gervais’s style of humor, want to find out a little more about Office and Extra’s Co-writer Steve Merchant and an Orange-Headed Shaven Chimp called Carl Pilkington who is such an idiot he’s a comedy genius – this is the thing for you.

I used to listen to them in the morning on my my way to practice at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Thoroughly entertaining and brilliant to listen to again and again. But be aware, the more you listen the more you start to understand the special thoughts of Carl. You’ll understand the last 2 paragraphs if and when you’ve heard their show.

After that I found the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy on Audiobook and after listening to them on the way back from Leicester (to London) last night I was almost sad when I got home as I’d have to wait to find out what happens next. Now when you’ve driven 250+ miles in a day and it’s 2 o’clock in the morning that says something about the power of audio books.

So if you do a lot of tedious driving and can’t stand the watered down rubbish that plays on the radio there are plenty of podcasts to download including some great comedy; The best bits of radio 1 (Chris Moyles and Scott Mills), 8 out of 10 cats, The Adam and Joe Show and loads more. There are more Audiobooks that you can believe out there and enough to suit most tastes. And don’t forget to load up your mp3 with loads of great music!!!

Oh, and don’t forget that the MR Music Podcast will be released very soon!!

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.

Not to forget a New Track that I’ve added to my Virb Player called Trumpet Soloist Samples. So you can check that out as well. It’s a few sample clips fomr the solo recordings I made last year that I’ve finally get round to mixing down.

My next aim is to carry on and mix down the other recordings that I made from that session. These include music from the Quarter Tones, Ben Kennedy, Sarah Broder and The Fanfare Lads. The problem is it’s such a time consuming process I can either do the Eurobusk footage first or the mixing. I haven’t decided which yet. I’ll let you know.

So in an effort to re-inspire and pick myself back up I will be trying a 30 day run of a new technique inspired by a fantastic trumpet player (to be named in an up and coming post).

It may be great. It may be crap. But in my experience you can always walk away with something valuable by exploring the techniques and mind sets of trumpet players you admire.

The flaw in this plan is that the technique book I need is currently in Liverpool and I am not. So rather than waste time I want to get my chops back on track, hence; The 1 to 7 Arban Challenge.

I have set myself the first of 2 Arban challenges. That means over the next 2 weeks I’ll be hammering out the first 7 Arban studies with a view to record them for the site in the near future. Not the most difficult of studies to play, but I think they’re some of the hardest to play well.

For example tom tom, blue tooth hands free, ipods, podcasts and for the early morning drives The Chris Moyles Show.

I’m looking forward to my MOT next week to find the tole this excess milage has taken on my car.

The plan is that hopefully I will be able to sit in on the show at the end of February. I’m really looking forward to it as I will also get to meet Chris who’s the trumpet player on the gig and has a CV of incredible work a mile long.

Hopefully there won’t be any complications and I’ll be grabbing a drink with the DoLittle crowd by the end of the month. – Fingers Crossed.

Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Micheal Buble and Jamie Cullum are but some of the artists music and arrangements we play. If you want to hear some of the stuff we do visit my Virb Page for our promotional recording with fantastic lead playing by me : ) .

I’m sure I’ll post on this once I’m into it a bit more. For now I’ve updated my albums on My Virb Page to include The Sound Ideas Film Orchestra, a few samples of my studio playing and now the big band recording I played lead on with The Big Swing.

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Kelly is the latest up and coming female vocal artist in Britain. She has a new album out which is available to download on iTunes. It has reviews in the Music Unions magazine is featured artist on the PRS podcast and has regular plays on thejazz (DAB digital radio).

I first met Kelly in a Big Band that I play lead in a couple of years ago where she sang a few charts like Black Coffee and Orange Coloured Sky. She said she did it for a bit of a laugh as it was a change from her normal stuff but she made a good job of it.

When I got to know her a little more I found out that her album had just hit the No.1 download at Indie Records and things where starting to happen for her. All her charts are her own original works and completely unique despite having a distinct folk/blues influence.

Check out Kelly’s Webpage to hear samples of her music, see a live video and to find more about her and where you can see her next gig.