Last week my primary focus during the week was fundamentals. I spent very little time working on improvisation. I still think that there is so much that I need to do as a trumpet player before I try to master improv. Range, tone, endurance, articulation — I’m not entirely sure that I will improve in these areas if I don’t get back to basics. This week I will try to do some improv (specifically note limiting) but a majority of my time will be spent with Irons, Schlossberg, Arbans and Clarke. I may do this for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

One very good thing that happened was I found that I can play chromatically from E up to high C when my chops are fresh. I can only do it three or four times before getting fatigued but I did it several times last week and it is a very good feeling. It wasn’t as big and full as I would like it to be but I can remember the same thing about other notes that I struggled with. I consider this progress! I hear stories of young players who are ripping high Cs after 6 months of playing but I realize and accept that I am NOT one of those types of players. I may try to record it for my next journal entry.

At Swing Band rehearsal I got an opportunity to sing “Night and Day.” The only version of this song that I am familiar with is the slow version performed by Frank Sinatra. This version was a swinging/faster version and it took me a few takes to get comfortable with it. I will probably shed on it a few times before our next meeting so I can do a better job. All in all I think I did ok. We did a lot of new music and as usual my sight-reading was awful. I depend entirely too much on my ear to learn tunes and I don’t trust my reading enough to feel confident in attempting new material. I can only hope that I will improve in this aspect of my playing as I have in other areas.