Trumpet Lessons in Shelter Island Heights, NY

Instruments: Piano Voice Trumpet Trombone Clarinet Euphonium Tuba

For beginning students, I always start by learning the notes on the staff that corresponds with their specific instrument. Knowledge and confidence of this is crucial to the learning process. Next, I pick a method book to work through to learn the fundamentals. For trombone, I use Rubank's "Elementary Method." It is a great progressive studies that has great explanations, exercises, etudes, duets, mini-solos, scales studies, and more for young students. Read More

Instruments: Trumpet Music

For beginning students as well as intermediates, the book I use and recommend is Accent on Achievement, Book One for Trumpet by John O’Reilly and Mark Williams. First, the beginning of the book shows a picture of a Trumpet showing all of its parts, valves and slides giving the student a good idea of the instrument. It also shows a picture of a student with the correct posture when playing which is extremely important. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Trumpet Drums Recorder Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Conga Latin Percussion

I love seeing and hearing my students get something and play it well.  It is more rewarding than any amount of money.  I encourage my students to play and perform as much as possible even if it is just in their own home.  I keep the lessons well paces but I am not afraid to go off in a different direction if it suits the student.  Music should be inspiring and should leave the student always wanting to learn more. Read More

Instruments: Piano Trumpet French Horn

I love sharing my love of music, and the power it has, to my students. I love that music can open whole new worlds to them; I love to share the history of the music they are learning. The influences behind a piece of music, what it sounds like - these are keys to learning history, science, and more about human nature. I feel that knowledge of music leads to knowledge of the world. Read More

Instruments: Trumpet Trombone Euphonium French Horn Tuba

I usually start with Hal Leonard's Essential Elements for beginners. Once you progress with the basics, we move on to trumpet repertoire, whether trumpet solos or duets. For older students, we will begin with trumpet repertoire while combining it with songs that you like to listen to. We might also work on some transcribing whether it is a jazz tune or your favorite French horn solo - ear training is key to a great brass player. Read More

Instruments: Trumpet

My first objective when meeting any new student is to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what their overall goal in music is; whether it’s learning a new piece, playing jazz, playing for fun, getting first chair or making it into an ensemble. Being a classically trained trumpet player, I have come across nearly every issue and technical exercise imaginable. For all my students, I want to make sure that they are playing the trumpet correctly physically and not forming any bad habits. Read More

Instruments: Piano Trumpet Trombone Music

For all beginning students, I like to start out with buzzing exercises and embouchure technique. This is the most fundamental part of brass playing. Having a strong foundation in creating a sound consistently and efficiently makes learning everything else about brass playing infinitely easier. For this, I use the Arban method book and the "Buzzing Book" by James Thompson. Once these fundamentals start to become comfortable, I like to introduce some simple songs to apply the new techniques to. Read More