Standing room only does not adequately describe the scene. People were seated in chairs, standing in the room, standing in the hall and in the doorway, and sitting on the floor in an effort to learn from Ms. Speziale ("Marie" to all who know her).
Marie continually stressed the importance of emphasizing the positive aspects of a student's work find something good to say about their presentation, reinforce that, repeat that, establish a good feeling, and then begin to modify their product to address whatever needs to be improved.
One after the other, Daniel, Kelly, and Karen came forward and functioned as subjects for Marie's demonstrations. Common threads in her work with each student were the challenges to "not just play notes, make music," and "don't be so technically oriented that we lose the music." She further emphasized that, according to a study by Scott Nelson (available in his book "Breathing for the Musician"), the professional trumpet player will use 14 times more air than the amateur. Through various pedagogical techniques, ranging from having the student make "pitch vibrations" on the mouthpiece on an ascending C scale to making "pitch vibrations" on the leadpipe, Marie was able to get each subject to deliver quite a bit more air than at first. Consequently, she successfully got each student to immediately achieve a bigger, and more resonant and focused sound. Combining this improved sound production with greater attention to making "your best sound on every note" and examining the spirit of each phrase, each student's performance was significantly elevated in a very short amount of time.
Marie further admonished the class that if we practice "something that is mediocre, that's what you'll get." "Order a product, let your body respond to that." And, as with Kelly's performance of the Cheatham Concoctions for Trumpet, as she was able to relax, "her individual voice" emerged. Implicit in these instructions is that we are charged to set our sights very high in terms of making our personal musical statement with excellent tone quality in everything we play, and that through the pursuit of these ideals we become successful players.
