Blog Post: The Insiders View - A Lesson with Steven Mead

Many of you reading this blog will know that I take private lessons with Euphonium Virtuoso Steven Mead. I have been asked a lot of questions regarding what happens with my lessons with Steven Mead, so I have decided to produce a short blog post on a lesson with Steven Mead.

Monday 29th August 2016, marks my first lesson with Steven Mead in around two months due to my own work constraints. The preparation for the lesson has been ongoing since my previous lesson, progression never stops but I find a lesson helps me to re-clarify my goals and acts almost as a progress check. The only specific preparation that I really make for a lesson is decided which pieces to focus on. I always have a few specific questions to ask usually regarding musical technique, or a certain focus. On the day of the lesson I usually do a short warm-up however on a work day this is not always possible.

Upon arriving at Steve's house, the lesson will start usually with a short warm-up usually some breathing exercises followed by some mouthpiece exercises and finally some exercises on the instrument, these exercises are designed to wake up the muscles but also provide a useful start point for any lesson.

First on the agenda for this lesson is a specific question about developing a practice technique which can be utilized within a 10 minute period which will be useful to my overall daily routine. For the next few moments we explore a few different exercises with and without mute with Steve making a few suggestions what is and isn't useful (for example playing high notes in such a limited space of time without a proper warm-up) mainly these points focus around what is useful when practice is based on a time constraint.

Steve then demonstrated a number of exercises, allowing me to copy them and giving me pointer as to how I could change the exercise.  An example is the follow exercise, long tones moving in thirds, fifth and octaves utilizing the lower range, using the inbuilt mute watching the tuning on the notes which should open a space in the mouth cavity.

I find that developing strategies in lessons gives me a focus and something further to develop outside of the lesson. The lesson then progresses onto some of the music that I have been learning and developing.

This week I have bought along a new solo written for me by Roger Trigg entitled 'El Olam' which is based around the theme of an all knowing, everlasting god. Usually when arriving to lessons I have put preparation deciding breath marks, certain notes which need tuning as well as having a grasp of all the technique within the piece.

Obviously I have a number of questions for the piece which for this lesson included some of the following, Style of the main theme at the beginning (whether a little faster and more relaxed rather than the focus being on the accents in the music) as well as phrasing in the middle movement and finally various bars which require a bit of musical inspiration. It is always difficult preparing a new commission as there is no presidency set before as there is with other well established euphonium solo's.

Steve has a very special musical instinct and knows what to do with a new solo almost as if he has already played it. After playing a short section of the piece Steve straight away picks out different spots for breathing, a slightly different interpretation of the main theme with slightly longer sounding quavers, I replay the section and it sounds like a completely different solo especially after such a short amount of time.

Most of our personal practice time is spent alone often in a less forgiving acoustic and, increasingly for me done with a practice mute. It is easy to become 'hit and miss' in our approach, forgetting some of the basics but being able to do some of the technically harder passages. For me attending lessons with Steve is about the full package.

Moving on to the middle movement of 'El Olam' I have a question about how the theme should be played and how to use the color of sound to give a more detailed musical reading. Steve picks up his Euphonium and proceeds to play the passage, It is always a highlight of each lesson that Steve demonstrates and shows you just what he means in a practical form.

The second piece I took along to the lesson was a well known Euphonium solo 'Neath the Dublin Skies' written by Paul Lovatt-Cooper, I had took this solo along to a previous lesson with Steve and wanted to do a progress check on a few sections of the piece in preparation for an audition and a performance in a few weeks time.

There were a number of sections I wanted to work that were based on technical facility. I wanted to work on developing a fast triple tongue and also getting a rhythmic final movement as well as checking out my multi-phonics along the way. I played the fast triple tongue section and Steve suggested using a metronome to increase speedy slowly relying more on airflow and a longer first sound on each triple tongue movement.

Multi-phonics have always interested Euphonium players and is being incorporated into new solos on a regular basis. I wanted to work on the affect and check that it was a good sound. Steve demonstrated the multi-phonic and we quickly moved on.

Finally with time running short, we played through the last movement of 'Neath the Dublin Skies' with Steve giving bass line notes. Before finishing the lesson I wanted to see how Steve would play this final movement to get an idea of speedy so finishing the lesson with played the final movement again and all I am saying it went at quite a speed.

As with all lessons the hours spent with a tutor is part of an ongoing process. I like to record all my lessons and write a written report which includes all exercises and advice offered. This report I use to restructure my routine. A lesson is the continuation of learning and helps to direct my practice routine. I find all the lessons with Steve Mead act as a positive reinforcement. I find the direct consequences from taking lessons allows me to refocus and reevaluate and improve on a quick basis.

So in a nutshell this was just one of many lessons with Steven Mead.