On February 2, 2008, Christopher Moore visited the University of Missouri, playing a recital that evening and a giving master class the following morning.  Dr. Moore is the Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Florida State University and holds degrees from Florida State University, the University of New Mexico, and the Eastman School of Music.  Dr. Moore’s recital, which was very well-prepared, included sonatas by Pilss and Hindemith, Anthony Plog’s Postcards for solo trumpet, Vincent Bach’s Hungarian Melodies, and Shchedrin’s In the Style of Albenis.

In his master class on the morning of 3 February 2008, Dr. Moore began with a brief introductory speech in which he also stressed the importance of developing an everyday routine for trumpet playing.  After talking about his own trumpet-related experiences and the importance of an everyday practice ritual, Dr. Moore worked one-on-one with a few trumpet students at the University of Missouri.  Each student had their own individual issues, but it was interesting to see the way Dr. Moore was able to dissect these problems and develop brief exercises based on the music the students were working on.  For instance, one student was having difficulty with pitch consistency.  Dr. Moore, upon realizing this, had the student practice a passage of the music one note at a time, and he had the student bend each pitch down a half step and back up.  This made it easier for the student to find the center of each pitch, and with more work on this the student would be able to play with a better consistency in intonation.  Another student preceded his mini-lesson by stating that he has problems getting low notes to speak, and that was why he wanted to work on fundamentals.  Dr. Moore asked the student to play what he would play immediately after he got his instrument out for the first time that day.  The student proceeded to play an unorganized series of long tones, and it was obvious that he was improvising as he played.  Dr. Moore took this opportunity to again emphasize the importance of the routine.  Everything you do in this warm-up session as a trumpet player has to have a reason behind it, and he reasoning behind what the student played was unclear.  Dr. Moore then had the student play some flow studies, trying to keep an even, steady tone on every note.  Since this particular student claimed to have trouble with the lower notes, after noticing no significant problems with his embouchure, Dr. Moore suggested that in practicing, he work gradually down the chromatic scale, and with enough practice and persistence he would eventually become more comfortable in the lower part of the horn. 

Regardless of the difficulties each student had, Dr. Moore always seemed to come back to fundamentals and the everyday routine.  With the proper time spent on these fundamentals, Moore believed that playing the trumpet would become a much easier task.  He also suggested that trumpet players be moderately flexible with their practice, and incorporate more exercises to work out problems as they arise in their playing.  Dr. Moore’s recital and master class were thoroughly enjoyed by trumpet students at the University of Missouri.