Congratulations

This is great news that I am excited to share! Will Cook, who has been my student since he was in junior high, just auditioned and won a spot in the Texas All-State Bands. In the message he left on my cell he said that he came in third for his area and that this is the first year his region ever sent two trumpet players to All-State.

Congratulations Will! Great job!

Will’s Trumpet Career

It really isn’t surprising that Will made All-State when you look at the accomplishments he has racked up over the past five years, beginning with making first chair in the junior high All-Region band his eighth grade year. Since then, Will Cook has won spots in the high school region band, orchestra and jazz ensemble all four years of his high school career. That makes a total of twelve all-region auditions at the high school level and he never placed lower than third chair in any of those ensembles. (In fact, he was so accustomed to being first chair in his region ensembles that he considered it a defeat to come in second.)

Will has also had an impeccable record at the solo contests each year with first division ratings every year. Last year he took his solo to state UIL contest and got a first division there as well (performing the Arutunian).

He also won awards in music theory at the state UIL contest.

Outside of school, Will has completed one tour with a traveling jazz ensemble (that I can never seem to remember the name of) out of Michigan and is committed to touring with the band again this summer as their jazz trumpet player.

Then, the icing on the cake, Will is also a budding composer. I haven’t worked much with him in that capacity, but what I have seen of his work is consistent with college level writing.

A Privilege and an Honor

I enjoy working with all of my students, but Will Cook has been the kind of student that most teachers only get to dream about. I noticed from the very beginning that he not only understood my instructions, but also exercised the will power to carry them out. Rarely in our five years together has Will ever had to come up with an excuse for not doing what I told him to.

To understand how important that is to me, you must understand my teaching style. Even though I do teach students how the music is supposed to go, that is not the meat and potatoes of my approach. I am more of a practice coach. I teach my students how to practice so that they can accomplish anything they set their minds on.

Those who follow my directions are always going to benefit the most from our lessons. Yes, I can tell you to make this note short and that one long. I can tell you to slow down here and speed up there. But if you follow my directions about how to practice, you will learn something that you can apply to music for the rest of your life. When you learn how to practice, it puts the entire world of music in your grasp.

Unfortunately, not all of my students do what I tell them to. In fact, I would say that only about one fourth of them do. (Praise God for that one fourth by the way!) Will is one of those. Will takes the understanding and makes it his own and moves forward with it. All the while he is doing what needs to be done.

So yes, it has been an honor working with him over these past five years and I am happy for him that he made the All-State bands.

Congratulations Will!