Jim Markey and GGS Low Brass
The master class with Per Brevig was held on Thursday November 5th, 2009. This was an interesting master class because Per was coaching us in Toronto from New York through video and microphones. We could see him on a TV and he could see us as well. It would be more ideal to have the coaching face to face for obvious reasons such as the sound he heard us play came through a microphone intermediary so it wasn’t exactly our pure sound that he heard. However, he could hear and coach our intonation, rhythmic accuracy etc. There are many positives to this kind of system the biggest of which being that even though it wasn’t possible for Per to come to Toronto, we could still be coached by him. We each played a solo and three excerpts for him. He stressed the importance of proper breathing and did some exercises with us. Another positive about this system is that the next day, our Trombone teacher Gordon Wolfe gave a master class to Per’s students. Gord uses a lot of easy to understand analogies to get his points across and also plays a great deal to demonstrate. Gord coached Per’s students mostly on excerpts and stressed confidence and musicality as very important keys to success. Between the two master classes, we all learned a great deal.
The master class with James Markey took place on Monday November 9th, 2009. This was a more traditional master class in that James made the trek north to Toronto to coach our studios. James started the master class by playing a solo for the audience. James displayed everything involved with great Trombone playing from soft and delicate to the virtuosic. The most impressive aspect was the musicality James relentlessly demonstrated. The energy in the room was great and what a way to inspire the students about to play for him. In the morning session we each played a solo for him. What made his master class great was that he coached each player very specifically to their weaknesses. James made everyone of the performers sing passages from their music and talked about how important singing is for ear training and the overall product. “If you can’t sing it, you can’t play it”. He stressed musicality, perfect intonation, rhythmic accuracy like many coaches do, but his knowledge of the repertoire is so great that he would work on specific passages and correct them. He was even very familiar with the John Williams Tuba Concerto that was performed for him. This made the learning experience so much easier and the master class flew by.
The afternoon master class was spent working on excerpts. Each of us played two excerpts for him. James stressed everything as in the solo master class from breathing to tuning. He mentioned a tool to the performers called the slow downer. It changes the key of the music that you played and you can hear everything from tuning issues to unwanted glisses in slide movement. While correcting issues, James had a way of making the players feel very comfortable which again helped the process move along at very fast rate.
It is very obvious to us why Per and James are so sought after as clinicians. They strive for nothing less than perfection at all times in all categories of playing. They were both very encouraging and helped us all improve a great deal in the time we had together.
Our next Trombone master class is in the New Year with another New York juggernaut and colleague of James Markey, Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic.
Our next trombone master class is February 14th, 2010, with Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone, New York Philharmonic.
The GGS Low Brass Studios.
Tenor Trombone Studio of Gordon Wolfe:
Nathan Fanning and Nathan O’Neal
Bass Trombone Studio of Jeffrey Hall:
Isabelle Lavoie
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