Notes from Lee University Trumpet Lab September 27, 2021

• Teachers: it’s about who they are not what they teach
• Value relationships with fellow students.  They will not necessarily remember how you played, but will remember how you treated others.
• Be a role model for others now.
• Learn from others around you, just like members of a good orchestra listen and learn from one another.
• Bad teachers help us to become extra good students.
• Customize your time as a music student.  Invent your own pathway for success.
• We can become a good teacher by becoming a good student.
• Georges Mager’s insightful (over)statement: “There is no such thing as good teachers, just good students.” 
• Teach students to become good students.
• Be stubborn.  Don’t give up.
• “$800 Kleenex” – anything is available if you’re willing to pay for it.  Is it worth it?
• It’s not innate ability that’s important.  Instead, it is your ability to invest in your learning.
• Ask yourself, how do you awaken the feeling for what you want to do?  Figure out what motivates you.
• Most people don’t try very hard.  Imagine yourself at 26 years old still working hard towards your goals.
• Envision being invested long after others.
• Prepare by adding up the hours over time.  It’s not about the practice right before the recital.  Rather, who is practicing 6 Tuesday nights before the recital?
• Listen with undivided attention – active listening.  Stay with the story. 
• Build literacy.  Be like the baby listening and trying to figure it out even if they don’t yet understand.
• When you were a child, you had no attention or desire to watch a sitcom made for adults.  You were satisfied by cartoons.
• Go to a professional orchestra concert!
• Stick with listening to long pieces of music. 
• Whether you like it or not, learn from it!
• Studying music requires a presumption of expertise.  Expect transformation.  There is greater art out there beyond what I currently know. 
• Learn how to learn.
• Come wanting to learn.
• Be prepared.  What if you showed up to rehearsal and were ready to perform?  That’s what professionals do.
• Play “Stop and Drop” (studio class activity where, if you stop, you are done until next time)  – keep going no matter what, raising the standard for professional music making.
• Vulnerability – willingness to work and share with others.
• Section playing – how to give when you aren’t being recognized for it.
• Sousa’s bass drum player:

from John Philip Sousa: American Phenomenon by Paul E. Bierley, 1973