Dr. Jonathan Sayre Allen – Trombonist and Teacher

The third week of school has come and gone. It was a short, four day week due to Labor Day. Significant events from week three:

nothing. Wow. I guess not that excited and not really warranting a blog post… Ok…
Performed Bert Appermont’s Colors for Trombone in Trombone Seminar Class. I received some good feedback, mostly about differentiating between different accent types. This is something that I have been struggling with for a while. I wonder if the dual-bore slide hinders my ability to do this? Especially more delicate, quite accents?
There was only one meeting for theory, so that is a highlight…
Upgraded my MacBook to 10.6.1 and my iPhone to 3.1. I am such an upgrade freak. I love it.
Spent a significant amount of time at the Medical Loop bus stop as I somehow missed the Oakdale bus every day by about five minutes and had to wait fifty minutes for the next bus to come.
I got sick with a cold that has been going around.
I found some pictures that I thought I lost! I will post some of them below.
Updated my blog with a new template, as you can already see.
Kate grandfather passed away, so she will be going to Salt Lake City next week for the funeral. Thanks to Chris Ellsworth, who works for United Airlines, for allowing us to use a “Buddy-Pass” for Kate to get to the service.

The following pictures were taken about ten months ago here in Coralville, Iowa. I went down to one of the areas hit hardest by the flood of last year and there was an upright piano that has obviously received significant damage. The sun was starting to set, so the colors were optimal. Enjoy.

We had a great three day weekend. We grilled on both Saturday and today (Monday). We had a good time with good friends.

I have been doing the Alessi Routine found here for the past week and my chops feel great. I figured it was a good time to do some major changes to my practice situation since I just finished with the three orchestra auditions. I have never incorporated much mouthpiece buzzing into my routine, but this has been pretty effective for me.

We also did some hanging with the Whiteheads, our neighbors across the hall. We always have a good time, especially with the twins! Here they are in super-cute Superman pajamas!

Noah - Up, Up and Away!

Noah and Ethan Whitehead in Superman jammies!

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.

• Triple check all paperwork is signed. There is a good chance that signing the same paperwork twice will not be enough for some reason.
• I never subscribed to the “stay up until midnight to register for classes”. I should have. Most semesters I have had a hard time getting my first choice in classes. This is completely my fault that I never learned from my mistakes.
• Your schedule will likely change about a dozen times in the first two weeks of school, so be flexible.
• Holidays, fall breaks, and spring breaks are meant to be breaks. Get papers and other work done before the break so that you can enjoy it. Telling yourself, “I will write that paper over spring break” is just a lie!
• Play the game. If I have learned one thing in my nine years of school, it’s that it is a very well choreographed dance. If you play by the rules, you can get through smoothly and without too much hassle.

These aren’t exactly “gems”, but just a couple of things that are on my mind as we enter the school year beginning tomorrow.

School starts tomorrow, so I am doing a brief review of Summer 2009.