Who was your first trumpet teacher and what did they teach you?
If you took trumpet lessons as a child, surely you remember the experience. Perhaps you went to the neighborhood music store, or had a generous music teacher who stayed with you after class to show you some things. What were the lessons like? How did this person carry themselves? Were you elated to go home and practice? – or did you avoid it like the plague? What did your first music teacher show you about the trumpet, music, and life? I’m excited to hear your stories!
7 replies
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I'll kick this one off... my first trumpet teacher was a man named Joe Onzo. He was in his late 60s, had long silver hair, and when I met him I was 11. I had 16 lessons with him over about half a year. He worked at the local music store in Merced, California. He had a really wide and warm smile – it made me feel comfortable despite being nervous. We worked out of the Rubank Intermediate Book. Gosh it was fun! He'd try to explain music theory concepts to me and I wouldn't always get it... but playing duets with him was priceless. He passed away a couple of years ago. I got to play with him in a few big bands around town - was always such a pleasure! He definitely inspired me to take the trumpet more seriously.
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My cornet teacher was Faye Hanson in Ogden, Utah. She was quite famous in this neck of the woods. I studied with her from 5th grade through the first year of college at Weber State, where she was on the faculty. She published a very good book about the art of brass playing. She did a lot of investigation using X-ray videos of the throat and tongue while playing the cornet. This may have contributed to her passing in the early 1970’s.
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I have the Fay Hanson book. Will have to dig it out!
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I started in 5th grade in Vineland, NJ and as I recall the band director was a clarient player so he just gave me the basic beginner trumpet books to work on including Rubank. At that time I wasn't too excited about playing trumpet but my mom played violin and she wanted me to play a musical intrument. I didn't practice much and just played in the school band. In middle school I was approached by a student clarient player who wanted to start a dixieland jazz band. He told me that in a jazz band you don't have to just read music and play your part, you could also solo and make up stuff! His dad played jazz piano and I would go to his house and learn to play basic dixieland tunes. Now I thought this was really fun and it got me really interested in jazz trumpet. I started listening to every dixieland jazz record I could find and tried to copy what the trumpet player was doing. Before too long my school buddy had recruited a full dixie band - piano, drums, tuba, banjo, trumpet, clarinet, sax and trombone. As a teenage dixie band we had some local success including gigs in Atlantic City, NJ. In high school I decided to go on to study music in college and decided I needed a better trumpet teacher so I took lessons with John Thyhsen the trumpet professor at nearby Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and he really helped me alot exposing me to the Clarke, Schlossbert and other methods. I went on to attend University of Miami where I played in the jazz bands and also under Frederick Fennell in the Wind Ensemble. After school I went into a business career but I've always played the horn.
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My first teacher was... not great. I started in 6th in a school overseas, where every subject was over-funded except seemingly the music department. Though I remember some pretty cool high school concerts there, so maybe it was just the lower grades that were ignored. Or maybe just the ADHD kids - I was a handful. I was pretty bad when I moved back stateside and showed up to school in 7th and was way way way behind. I tried to give up and switch to baritone.... but for some reason my new teacher (who was to be my middle school band teacher, then high school marching band director, and also was my private teacher through high school) refused my request and told me to suck it up and practice (probably not using those exact words). Glad I listened. With him at the helm I went from trying to give up, to playing the Eastman Theater with the all-county band, nearly making all-state on the Hindemith (if I had only practiced just a little harder), and making finals at the BOA Marching Grand Nationals. I haven't heard from him in years since I left the state to go to engineering school (not sure if he's still sore about that, but I try to make up for it by volunteer teaching the trumpets at the local middle school), but last I heard second hand he's retired and meets up with the other marching band staff regularly for a beer at the brew pub one of them has since opened.