John Ericson, 04/27/2008
Review: The Quantum 5050 Mellophone
Love it or hate it, mellophone playing is a reality for most horn players in the United States at some point in time. In terms of my teaching at ASU, marching band is a requirement (two years) for music education students (only), and mellophone is an option for others that participate in marching activities here [...]
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Dr. Deanna and Promoting the Horn
Yesterday I had a very enjoyable time in the Doctoral oral defense presented by Deanna Swoboda, who is currently Assistant Professor of tuba/euphonium at Western Michigan University and formerly served for six years as tubist of The Dallas Brass. Deanna has been working on ways to promote brass instruments quite actively for a number of [...]
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My Ears did not like that Flight Back
As noted in the previous post, I flew back to northern New York for the Potsdam Brass Quintet event last weekend. My allergies were bothering me to a point and on the flight back I was stuffed up enough that I managed to develop an ear problem. Some pretty good pain on the first descent [...]
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The “N” Words: Narcissism
Music, the arts and the Internet attract narcissists like a moth to a flame. Narcissism — the hope being that professionals (in any field – arts, business, journalism, or sports as examples) reading this might glean some valuable or useful information recognizing one of the darker aspects of human nature. It’s a big world out [...]
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The Potsdam Brass Quintet Celebrates 40 Years
How many currently active brass quintets have reached 40 years? Not many, the only three that I know of are the American Brass Quintet (1960), the St. Louis Brass Quintet (1964) and the Potsdam Brass Quintet (1968), the faculty brass quintet of the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York College [...]
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Two Things from a Trumpet Class
I often say that you can pick up a lot from other brass players. Soloist and Arizona State University Regents Professor of trumpet David Hickman gave on Wednesday a version of his presentation/demonstration for the ITG conference this summer for our Brass Area. In it there were two points that stood out for me. 1. [...]
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Get a Hobby
The readers of this blog all arrive with some interest in horn playing. However, if you make your living outside of music, music may be a hobby for you. This post is not so much directed to you, as you do have a real hobby and one that I applaud! Instead, this post is more [...]
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