Listening

An Article by Chris Gekker

To improve as trumpeters, it is necessary to practice with consistency, intensity, and intelligence. Also crucial, and sometimes overlooked, is that to develop our musicianship we all need to listen: to other trumpet players as well as all types of instrumentalists, singers, and types of music.

Practicing builds our skills and conditions us physically to deal with our instrument. Listening develops our overall background and knowledge of music, and more specifically inspires and nurtures an inner ideal of how we want to sound. The great Arnold Jacobs has said that "good" and "great" brass players often possess the same amount of talent—what makes a trumpeter "great" is that internal conception that is continuously strived for.

In a perfect world, we would all be able to regularly attend fine concerts, but this is not likely for most, and pretty much impossible for young players. So recordings are vital for our listening education. I remember, as a young boy in the early 1960s, sitting with my parents, listening to the Jackie Gleason Orchestra on TV, hearing Bobby Hackett's beautiful cornet floating through. In junior high I heard a great professional in person for the first time: Emerson Head. His playing was so expressive, so exciting, and I started practicing hard and listening to every record I could, making full use of the public library in my hometown of Alexandria, Virginia. Some almost got worn out: John Ware's posthorn solo on Mahler's Symphony No. 3, Clark Terry, and Maurice Andre. In high school my parents gave me Miles Davis' Filles de Kilimanjaro, which really turned my world upside down. During my first year at the Eastman School of Music, Gerard Schwarz's Age of Splendour pushed me to practice harder than ever. All this listening, going to whatever concerts I could, and my great teachers added up to all the inspiration I could have ever hoped for.

I was also checking out other musicians: John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Mahalia Jackson, conductors like Furtwangler and Bruno Walter, and as many composers as possible, from all periods. This is the wide range of listening that can benefit us all. When I coach students on the Haydn Concerto or the Hindemith Sonate, I often learn that they are not familiar with any other works by these composers. Every piece of literature exists in a language, and we cannot hope to really be able to understand what we are doing without some knowledge and background of that language. There are times when some creativity is needed: when preparing the Halsey Stevens Sonata or Ropartz's Andante et Allegro, for example, we might not find other works by them. But, with some research, we'll learn that Copland and Bartok strongly influenced Stevens, and that Ropartz studied with Cesar Franck. There are always ways to add to our knowledge and understanding: read, ask questions, and keep trying to learn.

Listening is ultimately as important as practicing—for any of us to reach a high level both must exist together. Practicing, by necessity, is directed inward, centered on ourselves, as we establish and continually refine our abilities. Listening, on the other hand, draws us outward, and can give us the wisdom and perspective to see our musicianship as part of something greater than any one of us as individuals. The balance of these two endeavors has a deep meaning, possibly leading us to the fulfillment and happiness that music making can bring.

Chris Gekker is Professor of Trumpet at the University of Maryland. He can be heard as soloist on more than twenty recordings and on more than one hundred chamber music, orchestral, and jazz recordings, as well as many movie and television soundtracks. His email address is: cgekker@wam.umd.edu