Emailed in Question; Orchestra VS Big Band

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.