I first met Mick
Hesse in 1977. It was at a seminar with Bud Herseth on
Hedemarkstoppen in Hamar, Norway. 70 brass players attended. The
organizer was trumpeter and professor Harry Kvebæk. Mick was part
of the arranging group and did also take part as a player in the
different sessions. (Here are some
photos with Mick, Bud Herseth and some other players.)
30 years later in 2007, I learned that Mick had published a book for
trumpet and cornet. I contacted Mick and asked if he would let med do
an interview about his book project. The next day, I got a reply - in
Norwegian (Mick had lived for many years over here). "I'm in Peru on vacation", he said,
"but when I get back we can do the
interview".
During the last days of January 2008, we had a "cyber talk":
Before we start talking about
the book, could you tell us a bit about your background as a trumpeter
and teacher? I started
playing trumpet when I was in the 4th grade in New York State, I think
I was perhaps 9 or 10 years old. When they asked me what instrument I
wanted to play I said, "bugle". They gave me a cornet. Shortly after
that my parents bought me a brand new Olds Ambassador cornet and I can
still smell the case and valve oil smell in my memory. In fact when I
open my case today I still have that memory in my mind for some reason
and the smell still lingers:)
I played all through public school and was fortunate to have trumpet
players as teachers every year. Our public school provided weekly
lessons for all the students in the music department. We would take a
30 or 45 minute lesson every week! I don't know of any other school
that does that now. I attribute whatever success I've had to that early
start and the fact that I had trumpet players, and really good ones,
who were my first teachers. My mother insisted that I practice every
day and she even pulled me out of a baseball game once because I had a
lesson. She said at the time that since I had committed myself to that
lesson before I agreed to play the baseball game, I had to go.
After high school I attended Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY. I
felt very much out of my league there, everyone seemed to be much
better than me. My teacher, Sid Mear, was VERY patient with me and must
have heard something in my sound that encouraged him to keep me. Our
class started out with 8 trumpet players and when we graduated there
were only 4 of us left. Sid was a wonderful teacher and there is a very
in depth interview about him in an earlier ITG magazine. The article
was published in the January
2004 journal.
In my senior year at Eastman Sid asked me what I wanted to do after
graduation and suggested I enlist in the army and join the West Point
Band. Many of his students had done that and it was during the war in
Viet Nam. Seemed like a good thing to do, so I auditioned there and was
accepted. My time in the band was almost 3 years and I got to meet and
hear some great players as they passed through the military that way. I
ended up playing bugle there, so my dream when I was in 4th grade came
true!
After West Point my wife and I moved to Norway, which turned out to be
the best thing we every did. It was in Norway that I met Harry and my
life as a trumpet player became a reality. My real trumpet study began
with Harry and I'll come back to that later in this interview. I began
teaching at Norges Musikkhøgskole
after several years of lessons with
Harry and after I got a job in the opera orchestra in Oslo. Several
study sabaticals happened at this time in my life and I had the chance
to study with James Stamp and
some other really great trumpet
players/teachers while a member of the opera orchestra. At that time
Norway encouraged professional players to continue their studies and I
took advantage of that as often as I could. It was a fantastic time in
my life.
How
did this book project start? The book
took
many years to write, I like to say it took me 40 years, and in some
respects that is true. But over the years I wrote many of my own
exercises by hand for myself and for students that I thought worked
pretty well. I got tired of looking at the hand written music and all
the photo copying, so I thought I should put it in book form. As I
studied over the years what struck me was how little written
instructions were to be found in most method books, especially ones
written with more advanced players in mind. I thought perhaps more
written detail about each exercise and some additional information
about what I learned over the years as a player and student might be of
interest to others who were on the same journey and quest that I was.
I also didn't want to write another book about scales and breathing and
weird techniques. I wanted the book to very practical and useful. I
have taken enough auditions over the last 40 years and was unprepared
for most of them, and nervous when I did the auditions. I wanted to
help players in the same situation with ideas and hopefully solutions
to very real problems.
You have dedicated the book to Harry
Kvebæk . Could you say
something about that? As I said
earlier Harry was the teacher who turned
me around and helped me win
the audition in the Norwegian Opera
Orchestra. When I first moved to
Norway after the West Point Band job, I had given up on the trumpet. I
didn't think I was good enough to win more auditions and I was
depressed about the war in Viet Nam and the world situation. I found
peace in Norway at the time and was very happy. I started playing
trumpet again in the Rommerike Symphony orchestra and Harry was the
conductor. Talk about luck! He was also solo trumpet in the Oslo
Filharmoniske Orkester at the time. He invited me to a concert one
night
at Aulaen. The orchestra was playing Mahler's Third Symphony. I knew
about Mahler already but had never heard a live performance of any of
his music. When I heard Harry play the posthorn solo that night I
cried. I had never heard anything so beautiful or so beautifully played!
I called Harry the next day and said I wanted to talk with him and we
agreed to meet for coffee somewhere in Oslo. I told him in my broken
Norwegian, (my wife and I were teaching music in Lillestrøm at
that
time) that I wanted to give myself one last chance to learn to play the
trumpet. I told him, as best I could, that I had made a decision that I
would present myself to him on a silver platter, and that I would do
whatever he suggested if he would take me on as a student. It was sort
of a revelation to me, a meeting of a student with a guru. I had come
to a point in my trumpet life that I needed to give myself completely
to a teacher and Harry was the one I chose. Not long after that he
asked me to play 1st trumpet in the off stage part of Mahler's 2nd
Symphony with the Oslo Filharmonisk and my life turned around as far as
trumpet was concerned. I remember going to the first orchestra
rehearsal only to find that my first valve slide was missing! This was
5 minutes before the conductor wanted to hear the off stage trumpets.
Harry quickly gave me his horn to make it through that session.
My life as a professional player and teacher would not have happened
without Harry. The next 10 or 12 years I was fortunate to work with him
and hear him play. I had the opportunity to party with him and get to
know him personally as well, but to hear him play was the defining
moment(s) of my life. His playing of Faebodpsalm and works written for
him like the Sommerfeldt Sonata and Elegi were so inspiring that I've
never forgotten them. I remember him playing the Elegi in Elverum the
summer Adolph Herseth
was there. Herseth had tears in his eyes and said
he would never be able to play the piece again after hearing Harry play
it. In fact he told me later that he was asked to play for a funeral
here in the states and decided he could not play Elegi for it after
hearing Harry! And then I heard Harry play Petr Eben's Four Windows for
trumpet and organ, live at Trefoldighets Kirke in Oslo. He played all
four movements non stop!
His sound lives in my head whenever I play my trumpet, and this
prompted me to write in my book how very important it is to have an
aural memory bank and to fill it up with the best trumpet sounds the
world has to offer. Harry filled my bank for years and I will be
forever indebted to him for those aural memories.
There are also dedications to Lars
Næss and Brassworks 4? Lars
Næss
taught me how to be a professional player. Under his kind guidance and
beautiful sound, he encouraged me to join him in the search for
perfection in playing. Lars seldom missed a note all the years I played
with him. He made me realize the importance of that wise saying from
Rafael Mendez, "make every note a solo." Lars's attacks and intonation
were a model for me to follow and I did my best to match his beautiful
sound and phrasing. I was very fortunate to sit next to Lars for many
years, and the fact that we played together was a huge influence on my
playing. I learned to love opera and tried to sing though my horn.
One very important thing Lars said to me happened after he sat up in
the audience where he had a chance to see me play. Someone in the
orchestra played a wrong note during a performance and I made a bad
facer or gesture when that happened. Sort of my way of saying to the
audience, "that was really bad and I want you all to know that I know
it was bad." Lars said to me the next day that that was not my job, my
job was to play my part and to give the audience the best experience
they could have. He was absolutely right. To be a professional is
sometimes more than playing all the right notes!
After moving back to the states I formed a brass quartet called
Brassworks 4. Two cornets,
trombone and euphonium. I had never done
much quintet playing while in the orchestra so this was new venture for
me. I wanted the group to be as good and successful as the best
quintets that were on the circuit. We had no French horn player in our
town and I loved the cornet sound, so I decided it had to be quartet
using cornets. I called the one trumpet player I knew in town, Scott
Ramsey, and asked him who else would be good. He said Paul Bara on
trombone and Connie Schulz on euphonium. My only experience with
euphonium players were at Eastman and I wasn't too crazy about the
instrument at that time. But after hearing Connie play I knew this was
the way to go! She had a sound and musicality that made me realize my
mistake about the instrument. There is very little good concert music
written for brass quartet. Both Scott and Paul happened to be very good
composers and arrangers and we were finally able to put together 3 full
length, 90 minutes, concerts. Taking a cue from groups like Canadian
Brass and Dallas Brass, we agreed to the very difficult task of
memorizing our concerts. We had discovered over the years that
memorized concerts were much better received by the audience and really
a lot more fun to play. It helped that most of the music was written or
arranged by members of the quartet. I also discovered that I could
actually play a 90 minute concert, something that while playing the
opera I never dreamed possible! Brassworks 4 was my inspiration for
playing for the last 10 years. It was a dream come true to actually go
on tour. We were lucky to make trips across the US with these wonderful
friends.
How is the book organised? My book is
divided into 6 chapters and each chapter has an exercise that I present
in some detail. Along the way the text includes things I've learned
over the years about being a professional. My original exercise,
"Ascending Bending," comes back in three of the chapters. I introduce
the concept in chapter one and then continue to present it in other
exercises throughout the book. I write in some detail how each exercise
is to be played, and more importantly, why. There is a chapter on
developing your breathing capacity and a chapter on how to practice.
One chapter is also about developing your high register with the use of
trills.
"Ascending
Bending" - what is that? "Ascending
Bending" is perhaps the most important part of the book. I studied with
Jimmy Stamp in 1979. I had heard of his work and book about bending
notes and wanted to study personally with him so made the trip to Los
Angeles to do just that. In many ways I counted my trumpet life as
before and after Stamp. He was a real inspiration and a huge help to me
in my development and the idea of bending notes seemed to be central to
his method of playing. I did these exercises every day for about 25
years and found them to be very helpful. One bends notes down a half
step in his exercises, using the lip to change the pitch, not the
valves.
After all
these
years I started thinking about what bending actually does and I think I
figured it out. Roy
Poper wrote a great book of instructions for
Stamp's book and this helps understand those principles as well. I
decided to turn things upside down and bend upwards. In other words by
just using the lips, play a note with normal fingering and then
maintain that same pitch by using fingerings a half step higher. I
found that this forces me to move my lips forwards and arch my tongue
to accomplish it. Exactly what teachers have been telling me for years!
Don't smile while playing, but keep the corners of my mouth firm while
ascending and doing upward lip slurs. It works!! In fact I remember
lessons with Harry where he said, don't smile when I take a breath. I
had a terrible habit of doing that. These "Ascending Bending" exercises
force me to NOT do that.
In
some of the exercises you give no dynamic marking. For instance the
first exercise, should it be played f,
mf or? To answer
about bending dynamic I prefer pp
or p. I feel like Clarke and
Harry that pp is more
effective than ff and by far
less damaging to the lips.
The exercise about long breaths is different, playing pp is pretty easy or p, but once you get to mf or f it becomes VERY difficult, but I
mention that in the instructions.
You have an exercise called "Early
Warm Up Study". Should you start with that, or with
the first exercise in the book ("Ascending Bending")?
My exercise, "Ascending Bending" is the main idea of my book. The other
pages in the book are intended as practical, day to day, helpful
information that I've gathered over the years. But "Ascending Bending"
is the basis of learning to train yourself to play with a forward, more
cushioned embouchure. The exercise, if played as explained in the
instructions, counteracts the tendency among many players to smile as
they ascend while playing, especially when playing lip slurs.
Once this simple idea is learned and practiced the concept is easily
transferred to all playing situations. The idea is not new or weird.
Many players and teachers advocate a forward motion during ascending
passages, I've just tried to explain the principle in a very clear and
easily understood exercise. Once the idea is firmly rooted in your
playing and understood, I present two other, more advanced, exercises-
"Ascending Bending with Half Scales" and "Ascending Bending with
Arpeggios." These three chapters are the backbone of the book.
The "Early Warm Up Study" is all about air flow and ease of playing. We
all need to establish a positive sound early in our working session. In
fact it's all about sound, and the sooner we establish our best sound
the sooner we can get on with other concerns each working practice
session. I've often said. "if it doesn't SOUND good, why are we doing
it?" It doesn't matter if we can play faster or higher or louder than
anyone else if it doesn't sound good. I believe that the sooner we
produce a good sound each day the sooner we can move on to other issues
and concerns. This study does it for me. It gets the air moving
smoothly and helps set the stage in my mind and body for great
flexibility and tonguing. I stress in this exercise that slurring and
tonguing are the same with regard to air flow and I present several
ways to incorporate single and multiple tonguing with slurring.
What is the idea with the exercise
called "Scales with Trills"?
"Scales with Trills" is a perfect way to practice "ascending bending"
in real world playing. By establishing a middle embouchure setting on
notes in the staff between G and C, the exercise goes down one octave
and then up two octaves and ends with a very long trill on the top of
the scale, either half step or full step trill.
Playing the trill this way allows you to concentrate on what you are
doing with your lips and tongue. All this is explained in detail in the
book. The exercise is very demanding and tiring so I advocate lots of
rests in between playing. I also recommend playing piano or pianissimo
most of the time. That's nothing new either, H.L. Clarke says the same
in most of his method books. Harry Kvebæk suggested the same most
of the time. And Harry could play as loudly as anyone I've ever heard!
Playing softly allows us to play longer and with more finesse and
musicality. The control needed for soft playing is worth all the
effort, most conductors appreciate good soft playing. It adds a
wonderful tool to our playing and creativity as a performer.
Who
would benefit from this book, and how should they use it? I think the book
is best for older students who already have a good concept of sound and
the desire to become the very best they can be. I wrote it so that you
can become your own teacher, a very important concept. This is not a
technique book about fingering or scales or high chops. Lots of good
books are already available for that. This is a book for the thinking
player, on how to do it and some exercises that will help you achieve
your goal of mastering this hunk of brass tubing. I wish I had learned
about bending notes much earlier in my career, but as we say in
English, "better late than never."
I think the book can be used by teachers as well. There is a very
helpful practice chart in the book that helps you get organized in your
daily work. And the concepts of correct breathing and bending technique
should be passed on to younger students as early as possible in their
study years.
Finally,
where can people get the book?
A signed copy of the book is available directly from me through my
website at :
The cost to ship the book to Norway is $8 if you order directly from
me, for total of $20. I don't use credit cards, but have PayPal. It is
also possible to pay for the book with a bank transfer which I'll
provide to your readers if they email me at: mickhesse@me.com
If you want to order through the web with credit card you can go to:
