Trill execution from Phillip Serna

Prompted by a recent listener question on Contrabass Conversations, double bassist Phillip Serna wrote in with some notes from a technique class he recently gave on trilling. I thought that it would prove to be interesting reading for many string players out there....

Great feedback on ‘Where’s My Trumpet?’

My recent tale of a colleague who mistakenly left his instrument 250 miles south of his gig definitely struck a chord with many readers. Here are some of the great comments relating similar panicky tales: Darlene writes: I just played a concert yesterday that was held...

Where’s my trumpet?

You’d think that it would be virtually impossible to forget your instrument when heading off for a concert, yet many musicians have found themselves halfway to a gig when their eyes suddenly widen and they whirl around in the car, breath catching in their...

New Books on the Horizon

It’s a great feeling to have completed and put out Road Warrior Without an Expense Account, my first book, earlier this year. It’s a considerable amount of work to publish a book; though I think I always knew this, going through the process personally...

Bury the violas!

Here’s a fun little story that one of my more senior colleagues recently passed along to me: Many years ago, the conductor Hans Werner Henze was rehearsing Stauss’ tone poem “Till Eugenspiegel” with the Chicago Symphony. There is a particularly...