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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Homework for Dec 2nd
Abi:
Try to include the lip bends and slurred intervals into your practice routine. As a reminder, slurred intervals you would start on G and expand on both sides, always returning to the middle note. Use your air & activate your core when slurring up to the higher pitches. Try to always make it a very clean movement from note to note.
Ab and C# (Db) sounded good today! Practice tonguing each note twice as we did. That will help your tongue response and note accuracy. For next week, have B and F# major ready.
Nice job on All Through the Night. All thats missing is the small details now. Keep a close eye on dynamics and articulation when playing through in the future. Try even over emphasizing all of those details just to see how extreme you can get…. You might realize you like it better that way.
Nice job on Parasail song.
Matthew:
Thank you for the attentiveness today. I felt that we had a great lesson!
Keep on practicing the major scales. Today we looked at G, D, and A major. When learning new scales, go fingering by fingering without playing the notes just to boost your confidence before playing it for real. That worked great when we did that on D major. Review those three as well as the few we did the other weeks. C, F, Bb, and Eb.
All through the Night & German Dance are both coming together nicely. You’ve got the notes and rhythms down with confidence, so all thats missing is the smaller details. Focus on making a big difference with dynamics in both pieces. In German Dance, the dynamics are marked nicely, but All Through the Night isn’t, so you’ll have to make your own musical judgement with that. I mentioned what I think is appropriate.. I hope you remember! On German Dance in particular, you did a great job with articulation. Keep up the good work!
Homework for oct 11
For next lesson:
Continue to work on the exercises to improve your comfortability on the horn: lead pipe buzzing, lip slurs, & long tones. Refer to previous homework posts/ your notes if you have any questions with those. Try for 15/20 mins of these a day.
Major Scales: Great job learning those new scales. Continue to refine the ones you know.. try them in thirds for fun and always be aware of the note you are playing :) Next week, play the chromatic scale from C-> C, and from F#->F#
Duets: These are coming along nicely. I think as soon as you understand one really well, the others will come very quickly after. Try to be able to play along with one song for next lesson.
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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COMING SOON
