coaching

you can play music professionally!

Hi!
I started singing in church as a young girl, and with my family. When I was in sixth grade, I started playing the trumpet (cornet). I played in the school concert band and marching band. In high school I played in the jazz band and learned about jazz trumpet players like Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown and Miles Davis. As a trumpet player, I have always enjoyed a variety of styles. I love playing in Brass Quintets, chamber ensembles, reading sessions, jazz big bands and jazz combos. I love to read and play new music, and I also love standard classical and jazz repertoire. I practice Clarke technical studies and long tones. I play Charlier etudes, Clarke and Arban's Characteristic Studies and Walter Smith Top Tones for endurance and melodic content. No matter the style, these exercises keep trumpet players in maximum condition.

As a teacher, I also enjoy a variety of styles with my roster of online students. In my 14 years on faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston, I taught Brass and Voice Private Studio, Reading and Jazz improvisation Labs, Performance and Ensemble divisions and Ear training department.

Since I was a teenager, I had one goal, and that was to make a living as a musician. Let’s face it, most of us are not getting into music to teach. You want to play music!

I have made my living primarily as a trumpet player and also as a vocalist and educator.

I can’t remember not being in a band or musical group.

While on faculty at Berklee , I designed my own courses, based on what I was doing in bands in real life. I continue to prioritize playing in a band(s) and do my best to impart this to students in my masterclasses on Performance.

My philosophy is simple:

To me, teaching is more than merely imparting information. Teaching is setting an example and creating opportunities. Teaching is inspiring and encouraging. Teaching is not “Do it my way, I’ll impress you…” Teaching is showing other musicians how to develop their unique talents. If there is a struggle, teaching is finding out why, helping the student realize they can teach themselves. There will be better singers and trumpet players than me, I hope so! I love to find them, help them realize they are good enough, and encourage them to cultivate their light for it to shine.

There is no one method that works for every trumpet player, singer, guitarist. We don’t all want the same things or come from the same background. The style of music I like might be different than the style you like. We can all do it! The network of professional musicians, band leaders, composers, orchestrators, songwriters, producers, sound engineers, educators, I know is virtually endless! If we all did the same thing the same way, very few of us would actually be making a living.

Yet many private lesson teaching programs are designed for students with limited interests or practical use, and often taught by musicians who don't play the same kinds of gigs as their students. Find a teacher you would want to trade places with! My biggest influences in music were ones who taught me on the bandstand, the cats who could demonstrate. Music can be learned in a classroom but it should not live there. The band stand has always been the best classroom for me and the musicians I admire.

Many of my former and current students are working in the music business. After years of trial and error I have come up with a system of goal setting that works regardless of what you want to do in music.

I focus on the importance of building good technique, good fundamentals on your instrument. This process of expectations and development often leads the student to adjust their path, for, to some, being in a practice room is not as fun as being on stage. Only through the process do we come to realize the importance of both, and if we are up to the task. I focus on the person, their goals, and what they realistically would like to accomplish. I’m more like a coach, a music coach.

Maybe you need a plan of action, a few how-to’s or some extra encouragement.

You just have to want it, and the sooner you know that……the sooner……

YOU can make a living in Music!