To my trumpet students at James Madison University: I have sent a message to your school email address regarding the latest information. Please do check your school email regularly. If you have a smart phone, you might find it helpful to set up your JMU email to sync with your phone if you haven't already done so. With the whole university switching to online teaching for the next few weeks, you might find it super helpful to have easy access to email communication. The School of Music faculty are meeting Monday morning at 10:00AM to share ideas and set some parameters for how we will move for ..read more

Hi friends, if you find yourself in a situation that requires or necessitates online and virtual learning in music lessons and ensembles over the next few weeks here are some helpful articles: Great Idea for Asynchronous teaching: Flipgrid - An Alternative to Skype Lessons by Genevieve Clarkson Dr. Clarkson is the tuba professor at Oklahoma City University and wrote this fantastic article on her blog. This is really a great article to check out! The Virtual Tuba Quartet: Facilitating Asynchronous Musical Collaboration in a Chamber Ensemble Setting Check out the references: The references at ..read more

Greetings JMU trumpeters and anyone else who might be interested.  As you head into the practice room today remember that every time you practice you are creating habits. If you are thinking about the habits of excellent musicianship, you will be creating and reinforcing the habits of excellent musicianship. If you are going on autopilot, you are still creating habits, but those habits may not be what you want.   Practicing while not engaging your mind leads to stagnation and I would argue moving backward in your performing skills.  So what can you do to make sure your mind is ..read more

Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Anybody can be great because anybody can serve.” I read this wonderful article by Mark Maxwell, music industry professor at Belmont University in Nashville, last summer and couldn’t help but think about how we could create this agency to effect change in our trumpet studio. The gist of the article is that service can be a wonderful alternative to traditional networking.  An intriguing premise that is one we should all consider. Here's a brief rundown of Prof. Maxwell's thoughts: 1. Serving erases conflict 2. Serving creates purpose 3. Serving creates value f ..read more

My post on "Jury Thoughts at the End of the Semester" has been one of the more popular posts on my blog and I have been using it as both a preparation and "post-jury debrief" for a few semesters now.  I have added some new items to help my students as they prepare for their jury.  Thank you for reading and I hope you find this helpful.   We just finished our brass juries here at James Madison University and I wanted to take this time to reflect on what I heard in a larger sense.  There were many fine juries by students who had clearly spent a great deal of time on their jur ..read more

A special thank you to Anuj Agarwal and Feedspot on my blog site being named to the "Best 20 Trumpet Bloggers".  I'm in some pretty good company on this list and I would encourage everyone to check out the other blogs on this list ..read more

As I warm-up this morning I am reminding myself of something I regularly tell my students, Being a good musician is a matter of having more habits of good musicianship.  The more good habits you have, the better you will be.  The more bad habits you have, the worse you will be.   The habit I’m thinking about this morning is the idea of having excitement in the sound.  As I play through my scales, Concone, Cichowicz flow, Plog, and Stamp studies, I’m thinking about creating excitement in not only the sound, but also in the phrase.  Each phrase must have direction a ..read more

My fantastic colleague and JMU professor of flute, Dr. Beth Chandler, has this phrase posted on the outside of her door for all to see.  I pass by Dr. Chandler’s office multiple times each day and everyday I look at that sign.  How can any student walking our hallway not notice that glorious sign? You know, that’s really all anyone needs to think about when preparing for his or her lesson.  If you’re thinking, “Geez, I just don’t know what Dr. Carrillo wants from me” I would say, consult that sign. Do you feel like you could have prepared better?  (Consult sign) Do you fee ..read more

Many contests, performance jobs, scholarship competitions, summer music festivals, and schools of music allow for video submissions of audition materials.  In fact, many require a video submission of your playing for the first round to be considered for a live audition. Knowing this, it would serve you well to make the best possible and highest quality video recording you can.  Of course, few students and job-seekers have the means to hire a professional videographer to assist with these submissions, but I propose there is a lot we can do (with a relatively small financial investment ..read more

As you perform in rehearsals and work in your personal practice today, I'd like you to take a few risks: Sing through the horn with beauty and clarity Go for the high note Go for the low note Hold the note to the bitter end Decreschendo a niente Sing all the way through the phrase Articulate with absolute clarity Sing out the sound that is in your head What's the worst that could happen? You make a mistake? Mistakes are opportunities to learn and improve. Mistakes are where we find out what our limits are so we can push those limits further out. Please use the attached form and give yourself ..read more