It Has Been a Life-Changing Experience

— Veronica, England

Hello, my name is Veronica, and I live in England. I had not played the trumpet really before. In high school it wasn't very good. I didn't really practice, and I didn't pay attention, and I wasn't doing concertos.

And so I picked it up after 50 years and decided to play it, trying out my father-in-law's instrument, and it was really difficult. I couldn't breathe very well. I couldn't make a good sound. And so I started searching around for teachers, and it took me a long time. Took me about a good year to find Chris.

What did I try before we met? I tried YouTube. That was my resource. I also tried looking around for local teachers, and I had a lot of trouble finding anyone interested in taking on an adult, an elderly adult, or an older adult I should say.

It quickly became apparent from watching the YouTube videos and all the different methods and techniques out there that it was a minefield, and I was starting to experience the minefield in how I was playing. And I was worried that I was developing poor technique.

And having played the piano in my previous life, I didn't wanna be burdened with a bunch of bad technique. Yes, I had doubts about taking trumpet lessons online. There's quite a bit of negative thinking out there regarding online lessons. The big thing, it's difficult to hear each other, it's difficult for the teacher to read your body. It's difficult in all sorts of ways to see what you're actually doing and how to work it.

But what I found was that Chris was very good at listening, and the Zoom video was really helpful for him to see what was going on with me.

What made me decide to get trumpet coaching was that there was just so many different ways of doing it. I was sure that I was doing it incorrectly. I was playing in a local band, but the progress seemed very slow because I was having to work it out myself, and there was so much varying data on YouTube and the internet that I just thought I'd find someone.

Fortunately, I found Chris. There were some pieces that we were doing in the band that I just couldn't do, and they were the upper range. I just couldn't reach up, and when I'm talking upper range, I'm saying anything above a D. The D on the staff. Anything above that was the upper range. An E was very high, and I was unable to do it. I was struggling a lot with my playing. And my breathing, I always felt like I was out of breath. I didn't know how to get the wind through the instrument.

What surprised me most about the process, or getting the coaching from Chris, Chris was so good at everything. He's simply the best teacher I ever had. He's a gifted performer and composer, and what all of that meant was that I could trust the advice that I was being given. And so because I could trust that, because I heard it in his playing, and everything he said was consistent, there was a lot of integrity built into what he was teaching. And he was a great listener.

I learned how to practice, I learned the fundamentals, breathing, and with practice came the results. And it all just flowed. It worked.

I think I had a couple of breakthrough moments. Quite a few. There were a lot of breakthrough moments. The first breakthrough moments I think was in recognizing that my diaphragm had a part in this project. And that came through the breathing exercises that I was given. I learned all about how to hold myself when I play the instrument and that my body is the key part of this.

And I've had other exciting moments. The second moment was sight reading. I learned how to sight read with Chris. He was very patient. And the third moment, I suppose, was in the lip flexibility studies. I finally feel like I'm starting to understand those, to get them smoother.

It's all a journey, and that was the final thing that I learned, that I realized that this is a long journey. It's a process, and you go around, and it's reflective. And you start with an experience, and you move ahead towards trying to explore that and trying to work a fix for it, and then you get to the point where you're doing it through practice and trying to repeat it, and then you're realizing it isn't working, and so you gotta think about why isn't it working, and then you go around again.

And so my getting of lip flexibility studies is just a beginning. I'm just starting to understand it, and so I think I have made one little complete rotation, and I'm gonna start the next one and continually circle this thing.

What I can do now that I couldn't do before is I can play a complete sight reading piece without stopping, and I can perform and make a lot of mistakes and still end with my poise intact. And none of that was possible previously, so it has been a life-changing experience.

So how this has changed things outside of trumpet playing is that I'm playing with a band. I'm playing with several bands. I can play in the band with some confidence. I feel as if I'm starting to get it, and I'm playing with a group of people that I really enjoy being with. It's a good community, and it's a good experience. And it does follow through into everything.

How long did it take for me to see progress? I think progress occurred immediately. Any message I wanna give is it isn't an easy journey. It's not going to be immediate and quick in terms of, oh, I think I'll play this great jazz piece tomorrow because now I've got a teacher. It's a practicing, a lot of learning, a lot of studying, and it's a gradual thing. But I saw progress in little ways all along the way and all the time. And then of course I did have some plateaus where it was a bit tough in practicing, but I had some major steps, and breathing. Breathing was the first thing that really immediately started to change.

Who would I say this process is for? This process is for anyone who wants to grow musically and personally. The growth happens in all sorts of ways, so just talking about developing some poise or recognizing that I'm capable of poise is a big deal.

What would I say to someone who's on the fence about reaching out to you? Don't wait. The longer you wait, the less progress you'll make. Listen to Chris's CD. Listen to Eventide. You can find it on Apple Music, and it's amazing. And then you know who you're dealing with from a music point of view. Listen to that. Check out some of the YouTube videos, and then decide whether you want to improve. And if you do, then get in touch with Chris.