Dr. Jonathan Sayre Allen – Trombonist and Teacher

Week two of school is wrapping up. After today I will have seen all of my students for this year at least once. There are certainly some promising students! It makes me reflect on my first semester of my freshman year at the University of Northern Colorado. I was really fortunate that Buddy Baker opted to take me on instead of putting me with the TA at the time. I am sure that I would have learned a lot from the TA, but to be able to study with that master of teaching in his final year prior to retirement was invaluable. I didn’t study with him long enough to memorize all of the “Buddy-isms”, but he was able to help me get a good, solid foundation that has served me well. I have been teaching for a while, but this seems to be the first that that it is “for keeps”, or so it seems. I hope that I can share things with these students that will help inspire and motivate as well as give a solid foundation for musical expression and the fundamentals of trombone playing.