It’s official: two ten-hour car rides and several sleep-deprived nights later, I have successfully taken a prelude ensemble to an ITG conference and back, without suffering any casualties.* It was truly an honor to be able to conduct members of the Ball State University Trumpet Ensemble, in what I think may have been the school’s… Read More ITG 2014 Wrapup

Thanks to Malcolm Gladwell, most of us have heard of the so-called “10,000 hour rule,” which posits that an individual must invest approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate, focused practice in order to master a complex skill (i.e. trumpet playing). Visit the business section of any major bookstore and you’ll find titles such as The Talent… Read More The Dark Side of Mastery

When I arrived at Ball State, someone asked if I had bought a new car. I suppose this is what college graduates do when they land full-time jobs: buy cars. While we could argue that this may be in my future, as evidenced by a number of untimely complications courtesy of my 2002 Ford Focus,… Read More New Lessons From an Old Horn

When I was in college I had a colleague who wanted to play a relatively unknown, unpublished piece by a relatively well-known living composer. She emailed him, asking how she could acquire the music for her recital. He responded, and she programmed the piece. While preparing for the same concert, she also had to contact… Read More Contacting Established Professionals (go ahead, send that email)

I’ve always intended to run a blog through my homepage. I’ve held off because so many of my ideas are better presented on TrumpetPedagogyProject.com, the sister site to this one. However, my recent transition to Ball State has given me a new set of topics to consider, and a college-aged audience that might like to… Read More To Teach or Not to Teach: Is This Really the Right Question?