Great Trombone Soloist Plus Nashville Jazz Orchestra Equals Lesson Learned Again

A Blurry Shot of Barry Green Soloing with the Nashville Jazz Orchestra at The French Quarter (June 21, 2011)

So last night I had the great fortune to make it to The French Quarter (a music venue in East Nashville, not the one in New Orleans) and catch the unofficial opening of the 40th International Trombone Festival.  Tuesday nights at The French Quarter is the usual weekly gig for The Nashville Jazz Orchestra (a group made up of the top-notch studio horn players in Nashville), but last night was truly special as they welcomed some of the ITF heavyweights to share the stage with them.

Hearing all of those guys (who play better on their worst night than I ever will on my best) was a great experience, but one truly stood out from the rest for me.

As this older trombone player came to the stage, the first thing I noticed was that he was wearing a fanny pack.  Now, I’m no fashion guru, but it struck me as a mildly amusing accessory.  As I was chuckling, they introduced him on stage and immediately I froze in my place and prepared to pay homage to a legend–at least to me.

As my brief bio states, I studied music at Tennessee Tech. In the trombone studio at Tech there was one former student whose name and accomplishments were simply legendary–Les Benedict.  You’re probably thinking, “Who is Les Benedict?”  The answer is you most likely have heard Mr. Benedict play even though you didn’t know it.

After finishing his undergraduate degree at Tennessee Tech, Les Benedict went on to play with people such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  Beyond that he succeeded in Hollywood as a studio musician playing on such film scores as Rocky, Glory and The Hunt for Red October.  See what I mean?  You’ve heard Les Benedict even if you didn’t know you’ve heard Les Benedict.  Legend.

I mean let me be real here for a minute, Tennessee Tech is a great school with a hidden gem of a music program–that’s why I chose to go there–but on the map of schools cranking out the top professional players its accomplishments are dwarfed by the North Texas’ and Eastmans and Berklees.  Still, someone made it to the top who started in the same place I did–that is why it is special and a thing of legend.

My trombone teacher for my first two years at Tech was Larry Hoepfinger.  Les Benedict’s teacher at Tech?  You guessed it–Larry Hoepfinger.  That’s one of the many beauties of being a musician to me.  It’s like a family of sorts.  We may have been students under Mr. Hoepfinger 25-30 years apart, but still we share that common bond and that to me is something special.

As for the lesson learned again that my headline references, it is this:  There are so many different and varied “right” ways to play the trombone.  Each soloist brought something different to the table.  One didn’t sound exactly like the other as you might expect.  It was the entire spectrum of tones, improvisational techniques, and overall style on display last night and the beauty of it all was that it was all “right”.  We all have our preferences–a sound or style of playing that we are naturally drawn toward–but ultimately there was no “winner” or “star” or “best of the best”.  It was all very different and very “right” and that to me is a beautiful thing.

Practice Is About Challenging Yourself

Here are a couple of thoughts I need to hear myself from time to time so maybe whoever runs across this blog will need to hear them too.

As I was practicing last night, I was pretty unhappy with my playing.  I was going through some old etude books (Rochut, Arban, Voxman) and I just wasn’t playing well.  To be blunt, I sounded like a seventh grader reading those etudes for the first time.  If I had been a seventh grader reading them for the first time, it probably wouldn’t have been that bad, but, I’ve played most of those etudes before (albeit some of them 15 years ago) and I have been playing the trombone a lot longer than any seventh grader has even been alive so it is not good when I sound that way.  Then I remembered something someone (I honestly don’t remember who) told me sometime (I also don’t remember how old I was) about practice.

PRACTICE IS SUPPOSED TO SOUND BAD!  Okay, so maybe not all the time, but at least at the beginning of something you are working on it is okay to sound not so great.  The idea is simple:  If you are working on your weaknesses (which is the point of practice) then you are making it better by working on it.  To put it another way, if all you did was play pieces and scales and exercises that made you sound at your best during practice then you are effectively going backwards in your development as a player.  You have to constantly challenge yourself during practice otherwise you will not grow.  When we challenge ourselves, we sometimes don’t sound so great in the beginning, but we develop new skills (or sharpen our weaker ones) to the point that we develop into better players.

The bottom line is:  It’s okay to sound bad when trying to make yourself better.

If you can’t take my word for it, here is a trombone player (Mr. Alan Raph) who is infinitely more accomplished than me applying the same principle to warming up.

The Trombone Player’s Creed

This is my trombone.  There are many like it, but this one is mine.  My trombone is my best friend.  It is my life.  I must master it as I must master my life.  My trombone without me is useless.  Without my trombone, I am useless.  I must play my trombone well.  I must play it better than my colleagues who are trying to take jobs from me.  I must play better than them before they play better than me.  I will…

My trombone and myself know what counts in this world is not the precision of our tonguing, the purity of our tone, nor the extent of our range.  We know that it is our ability to play musically that counts.  We will play musically…

My trombone is human, even as I, because it is my life.  Thus, I will learn it as a brother.  I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its mouthpiece and its slide.  I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my lungs, my arms, my eyes and my chops against damage.  I will keep my trombone clean and ready.  We will become part of each other.  We will…

Before God, I swear this creed.  My trombone and myself are the makers of music.  We are the masters of chorale playing.  We are the power and driving force of any ensemble.  So be it, until I have played my final note in this life.