Update on teaching and weekend gigs

Saturday, 11th May, 2013

I’ve been teaching for Doncaster music authority since the beginning of the year. It’s unusual to pick up such a high number of students in one go and raised lots of challenges – one very major challenge was to work on certain areas of technique, particularly with student’s embouchures. One major problem was severe cheek puffing in almost all of the players, this was worst in the higher brass players. 5 months on, and old habits are making way for new, improved ones, so I’m pleased to see this improvement and this is meaning they are playing music better than before, a very pleasing result.

This weekend, Alligator Gumbo, the New Orleans jazz band I play for are playing in Ripon. It’s always a great gig and a very receptive audience. Tomorrow, I’m playing a duo gig with Chris Lloyd, so another very busy weekend. It’s great having all this solid work coming in and with plenty of work in the pipeline, it’s going to be a very busy year!