Josef S
Instruments: Trumpet
Styles: Classical, Jazz
Josef S
Instruments: Trumpet
Styles:
Classical, Jazz
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 10-80
- BA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Trumpet Performance
- High School Diploma from Alan B.Shepard High School
UIC Music Scholarship 2013-2017
Second Trumpet in the Jazz III Big Band for IMEA in 2012
Louis Armstrong Award from Alan B.Shepard High School 2013
About me? Well I'm a driven man who works hard and will work harder to see my students succeed. I started playing the trumpet in middle school and fell in love with the instrument. Since then I've advanced my studies through high school and college by playing in all sorts of bands and genres. During my time in some of these bands I've been deemed lead trumpet player of jazz big bands and principle trumpet player in orchestras and wind ensembles. I've created my own brass quartet as well consisting of fantastic musicians that I've meet during my studies so far.
I started giving private lessons out my freshman year of college 5 years ago. During that time I had students from my previous high school and junior high. Both age groups gave me the chance to find ways to help different levels of playing and what to focus on with different levels of playing and understanding of the horn. For the younger, beginning junior high students I would work on exercises their band teacher had given to them and their playing posture and breathing. As for the more advanced high schoolers we would work on sections of pieces they were having trouble in and some solos they may be working on for a contest.
For beginning students I would focus on their posture and breathing. It's easy to start with bad posture and breathing when you are just starting out and if kept, it will be incredibly hard to get into having good posture and breathing techniques. Then we would focus on exercises that their band teacher or I gave out, and we would work on scales. For more advanced players I would start to use excerpts from the Arbons book. Then we would work on music they were working on and then maybe play some excerpts out of the bosque book, and go over the music theory behind the music so the student gets a bigger grasp on the music they're playing.
My teaching style is very laid back and organized. I look at where the student is, go back to the basics with them if needed, and go on from there. I encourage all my students to practice whenever they can but to also live life. I tell them that if they're just sitting around watching TV (or YouTube these days) to just play a few scales or a excerpt from a piece they are working on during commercial break. I also tell my students that they HAVE to listen to other trumpet players, whether on records or YouTube videos. I want my students to hear someone like Freddie Hubbard or Wynton Marsalis and be engulfed in their music. I love seeing my passion for music in the students I teach and I hope I can help spread that passion to you as well.
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