Dr. Allyson Keyser

Why am I so passionate about brass technique?

I struggled for many years with my own trumpet technique. Anything that could possibly go wrong, has gone wrong in my playing at various points in my life. I didn’t fully start to figure it out until the middle of grad school, and I don’t want others to have to go through so many trials and tribulations just to enjoy playing to the max.

My struggles really started in high school, when I was told by the new band director and the orchestra teacher that my tone was so bad that I deserved to be in beginner band as a 9th grader, despite having been in the top three chairs in all district and all city band since my start in 6th grade. That’s the year I learned how to be resilient. Little did I know that resilience would come in handy time and time again throughout my studies, and eventual career.

I entered my second phase of resilience after I had an awful car accident in college which could have been not only career-ending, but I was truly lucky to be alive. I had damage to my teeth and my bottom lip requiring stitches where my mouthpiece sits, as well as a fractured humerus, a week in the ICU on a respirator, and several months of physical therapy.

In graduate school I was frequently ill, often hunched over in pain and unable to support my upper register very well. I had brain fog, extreme fatigue, a constantly upset tummy that seemed stress-induced. Sadly due to lack of sufficient health insurance, I had to wait until I received a full time job to get a diagnosis of Crohns Disease. I started treatment, which worked for a bit, before it got worse. Eventually I needed to have two feet of intestines removed due to scar tissue and damage from the disease. The recovery from this major abdominal surgery was by far the hardest thing I ever had to endure. I had to take three months off of the trumpet this time, and when I started again, it was a very slow process due to having had all of my core muscles ripped open and sewn back together, resulting in a vertical incision of 11 inches. This taught me yet another lesson in resilience as it took me the better part of a year before I felt marked improvement in my playing and my strength.

A few years later, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy, which did another number on my body, teaching me further the importance that the core plays in the hierarchy of playing brass instruments.

Each time that I had to relearn how to play taught me more about how to do it even quicker and more efficiently. Once I learned how to play with more efficient techniques, it completely transformed my ability to let go of the struggles and embrace the joy that I get out of playing music.