B.Mus (Humber College)
A recent graduate of Humber College, Matt has quickly established himself as a respected performer in the city’s music scene. While at Humber, Matt had the opportunity to study with some of Canada’s finest jazz and commercial musicians; Brian O’Kane, Alistar Kay, Shelly Berger and Andy Ballantyne, to name a few.
As an active member in the freelance community, Matt’s playing has taken him to such venues as Roy Thompson Hall, The Rex Hotel and the Jazz Bistro. You can find him leading his own trio in intimate venues around the city, or playing with many different jazz, funk or brass bands around the GTA and other Southern Ontario areas.
Get to know Matt…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Cooking, golf, & coffee making
Musical influences: Clifford Brown, Leroy Jones, Clark Terry, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Chicago
Favourite food: Fish burrito
Least favourite food: My mom’s rice – although, everything else she makes is excellent.
Favourite music: Jazz
Favourite song: It’s Always You
Favourite movie: Spirited Away
Favourite movie music: Indiana Jones Theme
Favourite musical theatre/opera: West Side Story
Best quote from your teacher: “BLOW!” – Alistar Kay
Favourite quote: “They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.” – Charlie Parker
Favourite book: Last Wish – Andrzej Sapkowski
Best thing about teaching at ABC: Sharing my passion for music with youth
Latest Homework from Matt
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Winter Break Homework check in
Hello! My apologies for not posting this earlier. Holiday busyness and a hint of forgetfulness are to blame there. My bad. Although, I trust both of you having been playing trumpet and working everything we’ve talked about!
Abi:
This year we worked a lot on major scales, range and reading music. You’ve done a great job improving on all of those facets of trumpet playing. Although, I think we should spend a lot more time reading music. You sounded great on all of those duets & All Through The Night, which makes me think more reading would hugely benefit your playing. I’ll come into the next lesson with some sheet music for you to read and we can go from there. Please take sometime to think about potential questions you might have about sight reading, or any trumpet related questions that might have come up over the break.
We will also do a quick review of the major scales. If you feel comfortable with those we will do some more patterns, or start to learn minor scales.
Hope you had a good break!
Matt:
Nice job learning a majority of the rep for your RCM exam! You should be excited. Your trumpet playing has improved quite a bit and I think that will make learning the rest of the repertoire even easier. I apologize for not sending links to me playing the new material sooner. It would have been great to have that as a reference over the break, I hope that didn’t hold you back from starting to learn the new songs.
This coming lesson – and the following ones – we will review what else needs to be done for the exam. These new songs will be a good challenge but you’ll pick up on them quickly. We need to check out some more scales and a couple other small things. Overall I think you’re in good shape for the exam!
Here is a link to the google drive with me playing Etude in D Minor, and Etude in G Major.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DZdYvu1GP-lQXJqVq22ABrjqgY_g53oe?usp=sharing
Hope you had a good break!
Homework for Oct 25
Nice job getting all those major scales this lesson!!! You’re more than halfway to knowing them all :)
Try to get in 15/20 mins a day of your favourite exercises…. lead pipe buzzing & lip slurs! On the lead pipe try experimenting with moving the pitch more. Use your air and core to shoot up to the higher notes, and open the jaw a bit to get the lower notes. Remember this exercise demands a lot of air so make sure you fill up. Lip slurs are sounding great too!! The notes sound much more slotted and relaxed. Your goal for this week is to slur up to the C with ease. Try isolating the movement between G->C. If the is too tricky, do Ab->C with the alt fingering (2,3). Use air speed to get the note that is further away… not higher… further.
Major & chromatic scales: Chromatic scale was sounding a lot more confident but it could still use some work. Every note needs to have more certainty… know what the next note is before you’re even there. You can work on this by doing it slowly with a metronome, and even when you’re away from the horn you can work on this. Try to play your full range of the chromatic scale in one breath, low F# -> D. Major scales are the same. Mostly very good but with a week of practice they’ll have that confidence factor. We worked on C,F,Bb,Eb,Ab, and G. Continue on this upward trend and learn some more if you’d like. We will review the ones you learned in lesson again. Remember when learning a new one, JUST play the fingerings and then put ur face to the horn. You can split them in half if the range is too high, as we did with F&Eb, go up 5 notes then drop an octave.
See you next week!
Preferred Books for Matt’s Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
Technical Studies
This work has been especially written to enable the cornet student to conquer any technical difficulties he or she might encounter in the literature for the instrument. By carefully following the instructions in this book, the student will build up strength and endurance without strain or injury to his embouchure. If this lips remain flexible and the tone is not forced, it will be possible to play easily any note, regardless of the register.
Arban Complete Conservatory Method
The New Authentic Edition of Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method contains the same tried and true comprehensive system of study that Arban developed over a century ago, and this completely re-engraved edition has been painstakingly edited by prominent trumpet performers and teachers Thomas Hooten and Jennifer Marotta, adding some of their own insights with respect to how trumpet is taught today. The Arban Complete Conservatory Method is the definitive must-have for all trumpet players.
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COMING SOON
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