Andrew McCandless, Trumpet

A masterclass with Gail Williams, horn professor from Northwestern University was held at Glenn Gould School in Toronto on October 16, 2009. The class started off with Gail discussing and demonstrating warm ups and routines, and a group warm up session. During the warm up, Gail discussed the importance of buzzing in warm up and practice, and the usefulness of mouthpiece buzzing on developing efficient articulation and air usage. She gave us several useful exercises to increase flexibility, improve smoothness, and help clarify articulations. On the topic of breathing and air, Gail demonstrated the need to simply inhale and exhale as much air as possible, and gave several useful analogies, such as that of a bellows! She also explained the need to strengthen the core of the horn range instead of focusing only on the extremities.

For the rest of the class, we worked on excerpts and solo pieces. Gail helped students with technical issues such as lip trills, and gave new approaches to tackling and mastering these common difficulties. She had many interesting and useful approaches to problems, like asking a student to play standing on one foot, or bend over while playing to decrease tension. Her approach was always extremely positive and constructive, and she emphasized that anyone can be successful if the only have (and use) the right tools.

One other topic that Gail talked about was a new book, called “The Talent Code”, which explains the neurological basis for learning – essentially that everything that we do reinforces neural circuits in our brains, whether right or wrong. This makes clear the need for “deep practice” – stopping and solving mistakes right away so that we are not reinforcing the wrong patterns in our brains.

Gail Williams is a superb horn player and a master pedagogue. We all learned so much from her visit, and we look forward to having her back at the Glenn Gould School.

Our next horn masterclass is on January 8th, 2010, with Eric Ruske, Boston hornist, soloist and teacher.

The GGS horn studio.
Julie Rochus, Jonathan Fisher, Jean Poynter and Mikhailo Babiak.
Studio of Christopher Gongos