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Masterclass
John Aley - Choir Room (Room 124), Booker Hall of Music
Masterclass - John Aley
Jon Burgess, reporter
John Aley is the professor of trumpet at the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Music. He is a former member of the American Brass Quintet. As a freelancer, he performed with many New York City-based ensembles.
The first masterclass participant was Karen Stober, playing a "Minuet" movement from David Cooper's transcription of Bach's Cello Suites. Aley emphasized the importance of proper breathing ha
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John Aley Masterclass |
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bits, returning often to the idea of taking a "meaningful breath" before you start to play. He had the audience do a "how - to" breath exercise, using "how" to breath in and "to" to breath out. He also stressed the importance of breathing in rhythm with whatever piece of music you are performing. Further discussion centered on the importance of dynamics and changing colors of your sound to make the most out of the music. Aley recommended listening to live performances of the Bach Cello Suites to see and hear how a cellist interprets these suites for ideas on dynamics and coloring the sound.
The second performer, Matt Frederick, played the opening of Robert Planel's Concerto. Aley's comments on this performance revolved around the importance of precise articulation. He had Frederick think more about using a "tu" syllable rather than a "ta" syllable, with the result that there was greater clarity in the articulation, and Frederick was able to make greater differences between staccato and legato articulations. Aley talked about using the gum line of your upper teeth and the gum line of your lower teeth as a frame of reference as to how far the tongue should move up and down, the goal being to be as efficient as possible with your articulation. Aley demonstrated the importance of knowing exactly want you want as a performer concerning phrasing, dynamics and articulations, and was able to turn a good performance of the Planel into a great performance.
The remaining part of the masterclass was open to questions from the audience. Aley credits much of his success to a strong background in fundamentals with early teachers, and feels that much of his freelance success was due to this background which allowed him to be prepared for many different playing situations. He spoke briefly on his warm-up routine, which consists of exercises from the Colin Lip Flexibilties, and mentioned that in his daily maintenance practice he frequently uses Clarke's Technical Studies and the many books by Robert Nagel (Speed Studies, Daily Drills etc.). He ended the session by stating that the purpose of practice routines is to enable the performer to "play music not just the notes." |
