Category Archives: Trumpet Lessons

Learning How to Make the Conversion to and from Braces: An Opportunity for All Trumpet Players to Improve

Posted on September 14, 2016 by bobgillis

  During the very early stages of this blog I wrote about playing the trumpet with braces, but after recently reading how some of the internet trumpet teachers approach this challenge, it seemed time to review         … Continue reading →

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Reharmonizing and Arranging a Song for a Student: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”

Posted on April 8, 2016 by bobgillis

Vander has been studying trumpet with me for a few years now, and due to his family’s busy schedule, had accumulated a lot makeup time.  To try and help him recover some of that lost time, I came up with the idea … Continue reading →

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Some Trumpet Practicing Guidelines From Another Discipline

Posted on August 8, 2015 by bobgillis

Alex (one of my high school students who has been mentioned in this blog before), recently had to miss his weekly lesson in order to attend a summer camp.  This particular one was held by the Civilian Marksmanship Program, and … Continue reading →

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Mapping Out a New Jazz Tune

Posted on June 30, 2015 by bobgillis

What kinds of things do you do to learn a new jazz tune?  Of course we learn the melody, but if you are planning to improvise on the tune and it’s chord changes, your work has only just begun.  I … Continue reading →

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Rhythmic Scales

Posted on April 27, 2015 by bobgillis

Jazz is one of the many languages of the musical world, and those who wish to speak it in a spontaneous way must be familiar with its vocabulary and grammar.  Complete command  of all the scales and chords that are the … Continue reading →

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Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks (or How to Break old Habits)

Posted on March 7, 2015 by bobgillis

First of all, this article has nothing to do with teaching an actual old dog new tricks, but I hear the saying often enough when an adult student says that they cannot learn something new.  They (and students of all … Continue reading →

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Pedal Tones- A Foundation for Correct Trumpet Playing or a Waste of Time?

Posted on March 23, 2014 by bobgillis

Years ago when I was in college, many of the school’s trumpet players began to follow the Claude Gordon Method, which started with a series of long tones chromatically descending into the pedal register of the instrument (named after the … Continue reading →

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2013-2014 Colorado All State Band and All State Jazz Band Auditions

Posted on June 29, 2013 by bobgillis

All of the information for the 2013-2014 Colorado All State Band and All State Jazz Band is now available on line.  Here in one place are all the links for trumpet and jazz piano players (and more), along with some supporting … Continue reading →

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Using Weber’s Law to Improve the Focus of a Trumpet Embouchure

Posted on June 26, 2013 by bobgillis

Not long ago I was reading an article in Stereophile magazine that referred to something called “Weber’s Law,” which states that “the least amount of change in a stimulus that is detectable is a constant proportion of the original intensity … Continue reading →

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Avoiding the Dark Side of Success

Posted on May 4, 2013 by bobgillis

The world constantly presents us with challenges.  Sometimes we find their solutions quite readily, or we may struggle with a problem for years.  And other times we might just give up, or even ignore the dilemma altogether.  Finding a successful … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Composition Lessons, Improvisation Lessons, Jazz Piano Lessons, Miscellaneous, Observations on Our Human Nature and Self Improvement, Trumpet Lessons, Uncategorized | 4 Comments