Good thread!

Rich brought up some excellent points...I'd like to add a few more:

Try to expose yourself to as many different styles as possible, both in listening and in performing(include areas like, for example, *Reggae* or *renaissance* music)....

Obtain the book by Hindemith entitled: *Elementary Training for Musicians*...It contains numerous exercises which are beneficial to musicians(and don't neglect to do the exercises <g>)...

Make yourself sightread something new every day...Too often we get bogged down in playing through music with which we are already familiar, searching for the ultimate in perfection, and neglecting the need to diversify...(try reading music originally written for voice and or other instruments than trumpet, too)...

Learn to *woodshed*: that is, practice small sections of music(*leitmotifs* or *licks* if you will) from the music you are studying repeatedly to help you with recognizing patterns when they occur in new music((Much of music is filled with recognizable patterns if you'll only allow yourself to develop the needed skills))

Finally, an anecdote from Mel Broiles about marking fingerings into your music(he calls it *coding*)...

Mel told us about a particular studio session to which he arrived on the early side so that he could check over the music and mark fingerings(code) any passages that appeared particularly challenging... He smilingly told of his colleagues who teased him about being a *baby* who needed fingerings marked in his parts....

Then went on to describe how his colleagues made mistakes that required retakes, while he played the particular sections without error....

*Who d'you think had the last laugh after all?* he finished with a huge twinkle in his eye...then went on to describe the residual schedule of payment for players who played correctly(and the re-recorded tracks, played by someone other than the original player--who, btw, also missed out on the residuals as a result of making those mistakes...) before pulling out some particularly nasty sight-reading piece for that lesson's sightreading section(with Broiles, every lesson included some sightreading as well as the prepared material...)

Happy Sight-Reading!
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Take Care!
Jeannie