#thatdrumcorpsguy

Hi guys! I haven’t really posted about myself or drum corps or really anything in a while, but auditions are coming up (sooner than we might think!) and I want to take some time to recommend @thatdrumcorpsguy to any and all brass players. I just finished my fourth season with Pacific Crest and I can honestly say that going into it was the most comfortable and confident I had ever felt as a brass player - largely in part because of the lessons I took with DJ. He helped build my brass technique which in turn helped with my confidence, and I really feel like I can say I gained a friend from it. He is an extremely kind, helpful, patient, and insightful mentor. So please, even if you don’t think you need lessons, message DJ and give it a try. They’re affordable, he’s really good about time (we worked it out even with busy school/work/life schedules and pacific time vs whatever time Tennessee is in lmao), and he’s an all around cool dude. Plus, what’s the worst that can happen? You’ll get better. 

 Honestly, last year while preparing for auditions, I was feeling particularly nervous, insecure, and was all around kinda dreading auditions. I shot DJ a message expressing my interest in the brass lesson offer he had posted about here on tumblr. He replied almost immediately, but I didn’t follow up right away because I wasn’t on tumblr a bunch and it was my first year of college.. I sorta made up excuses for myself like “oh I don’t have the time or the money for this.. I’ve made it through three years of drum corps so far, I can’t be doing toooo bad right?” blah blah blah, etc.  Luckily, DJ messaged me again and then I had my first lesson with him - which was actually my first individual actual brass lesson I had ever had (I had taken years and years of private piano and flute lessons as a kid, but pretty much just jumped onto the low brass boat in middle school with a three minute explanation of how to buzz and a fingering chart... so I just kinda figured it out as i went). I’m so so so glad I took lessons from DJ. For someone like me, his instruction was invaluable because he found and fixed some bad habits that I didn’t even know I had. In my previous three years of drum corps, I was good enough to just kinda fly under the radar - not bad enough to really get called out, but on the flipside of that coin, i never really got any huge specific individual corrections. And I got that from DJ. He helped me a lot with my flexibility and really got me to open up my sound and play louder. He guided me through more difficult excerpts and exercises and got me to think about them in different ways that allowed me to understand what i was/wasnt/needed to do in order to play them. I feel like he really explains things well and uses some super helpful analogies (not just the tried and true stock things that band directors and like everyone ever tells you). 

Boo

I love that topic