Malvern Reflection

As a young trumpeter in middle and high school I was oblivious to the proper techniques to effectively play the trumpet, however I was foruntate enough to begin taking lesson for my final two years in high school. As a result I began studying with Dr. Gary Malvern who serves as professor of trumpet and music history at Furman Unversity as well as co-principal trumpet of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Malvern was critical figure in my development as trumpet player as well as a musican. Consequently, he taught me how to practice and what a daily practice should look like. We spent a great deal on playing fundamentals and learning which method books should be used and how to properly used them a my daily practice. Dr. Malvern designed
a daily practice scdedule for me to follow everyday that detail when, what, and how long I should practice each item.
Ultimately, this daily structure that Dr.
Malvern prescribed was cricital to my development me as student who knew very little about proper practice techniques. Consequetly, this strucute elimanated many questions and distraction that come from a young student practice time that mostly includes wondering what to practice and self-doubt. Each lesson Dr. Malvern had a formula that we follow most lessons. After playing a duet he would have me play through my fundamentals in the same order in which he prescribed me to practice. This help reinforced the importance of daily fundamentals. At times he would model the exersies so that I could the sound concept he wanted in my head and begin working on matching sound and pitch. Although I was a young student with very little experience, Dr. Malvern did not used that as an excuse to be easy on me in terms of being cricitcal in lessons. At times he was demanding in terms of making sure I knew my fundmental and assigned etudes. Even though he was hard on at times, he was also nuturing in a sense. For every improvement and accomplishment I made as his student he showed great pride. He seemed heavily invested in my success both in terms of playing etudes well within lessons as well as competitions I
entered. In addition to be an awarding winning professor (Furman’s Meritorous Teaching Award), Dr. Malvern has gone on to have a distingusing performance career. He has served as principal trumpet with the Colorado Philharmonic, the Natioanl Repertory Orchesta, and the American Wind Symphony. Dr. Malvern has also served as artist in residence at the Conservatorium in Perth, Australia as well as serval other conservatory in Northern Italy. He has been a featured performer at the Feste Fantini and he as recorded serval works for Nuovo Musiche.
When examining my teaching practices I often refer back to lessons with Dr. Malvern, particularly with my younger students. I try to provide my students with the same sturutue as Dr. Malvern gave me, I have come to realize how important it is for young students to have stururte in their practice time as well as lessons. In many ways I try to copy Dr. Malvern by giving my students a daily practice schuedule that lays out what time of the day they should practice and what they should practice in the coorespoding tim. In addition to provide a schedule, making sure fundamentals are a criticial compontant of every lesson to assure that the student is making it a point in there own daily practice cover them.