Dean O  

5

  5.0 (13)

Instruments: Trumpet, Euphonium, French Horn
Styles: Classical, Rock, Musical Theater, Opera, Showtunes, Avant-garde

I first began teaching in the summer of 2011 as a volunteer for a music camp and instantly fell in love with teaching. My first lesson teacher engrained in me the importance of sharing knowledge with colleagues and the younger generations. In addition to various private students over the years, I have taught at the Summer Brass Bash, Eastman Community School of Music, Discovering Brass, and North End Music and Performing Arts Center. I have found success teaching when I can relate what we are doing on the trumpet to other elements of students lives. When I was teaching in Boston, the only thing my kids seemed to care about was Angry Birds. Instead of fighting for the kids attention, I transcribed the Angry Birds theme and had them learn it by ear. After learning the song by ear, we would talk about the basic music theory behind the song and put names to the notes we just learned. When a student can have something they both understand and care about tied into their music lessons, they are suddenly more engaged and will unintentionally set goals for themselves. I firmly believe this is a great step one to a wholistic music education.

For all students, I will do a fair amount of playing be ear and call and response in hopes to avoid an unhealthy association with printed high notes, which is a very common occurrence for trumpet players. I will prescribe various books or exercises from books such as Arbans, H. L. Clarke Technical Studies, Chris Gekker's Slow Practice, Getchell Book of Etudes, Concone Compete Solfeggi, I Reccomend, Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method Book, Vincent Cichowicz Long Tones and Flow Studies, Bai Lin Lip Flexibilities, James Thompson's Buzzing Basics, Saint Jacome, Bousquet, Charlier, and others as I see fit for the student. I ultimately hope after being exposed to a wide variety of methods and ideas, students will begin to create their own exercises to solve their own musical and technical challenges. I like to assign listenings of various musicians and gage what musical interests a student has. For example, if I notice a student has a particular affinity for cornet solos, I will begin to assign solos in that vein. Alternatively, if I notice a student struggling with an articulation necessary for French solo repertoire, I may encourage a student to listen and learn solos in that style. When starting out, I am more interested in a student learning a piece they are excited about than forcing them to learn a solo they may not ever have any emotional attachment to.