Eric Baker Trumpet Interview

Welcome to the show notes for Episode #134 of The Other Side of the Bell – A Trumpet Podcast. This episode features trumpeter Eric Baker. Listen to or download the episode below:

About Eric Baker

Eric Baker episode links

Website: West Texas Symphony

Trumpets Mic’d Up on Instagram (@ebtrumpet)

Trumpets Mic’d Up on TikTok (@eb_trumpet)

William Adam Trumpet Festival, June 19-22, Clarksville, Tennessee.

• williamadamtrumpet.com 
• Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/williamadam

Podcast Credits

• “A Room with a View“ – composed and performed by Howie Shear
• Audio Engineer – Ted Cragg
• Photos – Courtesy of Eric Baker
• Podcast Host – John Snell

Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. It may contain spelling and other errors. If you would like to assist us in editing or translating this transcript, please let us know at info@bobreeves.com.

[00:00:00]

JOHN SNELL: Hello, and welcome to The Other Side of the Bell, a podcast dedicated to everything trumpet, brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. We’ll help you take your trumpet plane to the next level. I’m John Snell, trumpet specialist here at Bob Reeves Brass, and I’ll be your host for this episode. Joining me today is trumpeter Eric Baker. We’ll get to Eric’s interview here in a moment after our word from our sponsor and some trumpet news.

[00:01:00]

JOHN SNELL: I hope everyone is doing well, whichever, part of the world you live in. And you’re listening to this podcast I’ve had a lot of you check in the last few weeks. We have a lot coming up now. We’re getting to a busy [00:02:00] season. We’re gonna be at Austin p University. For the William Adam Trumpet Festival and I got some great news. We just recorded a panel discussion, uh, with some of the presenters, and performers, at, uh, the William Adam Trumpet Festival. Uh, and they’ve been previous guests before, Nice panel discussion, talking about all things. Bill, Adam and the routine, what it is, what it isn’t, and of course, the kinds of things you would expect at their festival, which is a lot. It’s a, it’s an amazing event. I’ve been to almost all of them.

Uh, speaking of which that event is, like I said, Austin P State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, June 19th to 22nd. All the details are at williamadamtrumpet.com. If you want to attend and if you want a valve alignment, you go to bob reeves.com/williamadam. Shortly after that, I am going to Europe. definitely gonna go to the uk.

Uh, so hopefully schedule an event there. Uh, looks like we’re going to [00:03:00] Denmark, Copenhagen, and then Sweden. So stay tuned for our Europe tour this summer.

That is all the news that’s fit to print. Let’s get right to my interview with Eric Baker.

​

JOHN SNELL: Well, I’m honored to have Eric Baker on the podcast today. Eric grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and began playing the trumpet at age 11. He received his BM in music education from the University of Texas at Arlington and earned his master’s degree in trumpet performance from Arizona State University.

Eric moved to Odessa, Texas in 2006 to begin his tenure as co-principal trumpet with the West Texas Symphony. He has also performed with the Big Spring Symphony, San Angelo Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, the Legend Brass Quintet, the West Texas Trumpet Workshop and the Salt River Brass Band. He also performs regularly with the Lone Star Brass Quintet, current nine, the Pinstripes Jazz Quartet, and Emily in the Roomba [00:04:00] Kings.

He performed with the touring production of the Hit Broadway musical, Chicago, and has performed on stage with The Temptations, the Four Tops, Manheim Steamroll, and Marie Osmond, He freelances all over West Texas and is a highly sought after performer and private teacher. He is a founding member of the Lone Star State Chapter of the International Trumpet Guild, and he is the Director of Community Engagement for Music and Visual Arts at the University of Texas Permian Basin. He also serves as president of the West Texas Jazz Society.

And now here’s my interview with Eric Baker.​

JOHN SNELL: Ok, I’d like to welcome Eric Baker to the other side of the bell. Eric, how’s it going?

ERIC BAKER: It’s going really well. Thanks for having me.

JOHN SNELL: great today. And let’s, uh, let’s talk about the trumpet and maybe some Instagram too. I, I heard you’re famous there too.

ERIC BAKER: Oh, I don’t even know if famous is the right word. Um,

JOHN SNELL: You know, you know when my teenager tells me, Hey John, you need to check out this trumpet player. Uh,

ERIC BAKER: [00:05:00] okay. I like that. I like that.

JOHN SNELL: Uh, so we’ll get to that, we’ll get to trumpets micd up, uh, in a while here. But I wanna start, I wanna start right in the beginning, uh, with how you found the trumpet.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. Well, you know, my parents were both, uh, accomplished, but, you know, amateur musicians, they never did it. professionally, grew up in church. So mom was playing the organ and dad was singing in the choir, leading the choir. As a kid when he was in college, he did take some voice lessons and was quite accomplished as a, you know, classical tenor.

So I grew up, you know, as a four or 5-year-old listening to Luciano Pavarotti and some of the great arias and, and things like that. Not understanding any of what I was listening to, but just being soaked in it, you know?

And, uh, so then get to move to Texas. And Texas is really big on band. And so in the sixth grade I decided I wanted to do band.

And they said, well, what instrument do you wanna play? And I said, percussion because. That’s the coolest one, you know, and love it or hate it. Those percussionists are the coolest. And my parents said, uh, absolutely not. You know, we went [00:06:00] to a church then that was pretty conservative in its sound and style of music, and the drums were not something I would be probably using in that capacity.

And so they said, how about something, you know, melodic, something that can play a melody. And I thought, well, trumpet’s kind of fun that, you know, only has three, three buttons. I could probably handle that. So trumpet it was, and I was blessed to have really great teachers throughout junior high, uh, high school.

Um, as it happened, several of the teachers that I had in the, you know, as the band directors had been former trumpet players so they could give really good pedagogy. In high school, I was given like a a four CD set of just the trumpet greatest hits. Everything from Al Hurt, um, you know, Maurice, Andre, doc Severson, all kinds of these just, uh, greatest hits of all the different kinds of the trumpet.

Performers who had come before and I just kind of fell in love with all these different styles. And so

combination of supportive parents and supportive teachers.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Yeah. Saying, you said, so [00:07:00] would, your band directors give you kind of like lessons kind of thing? Or were you taking studying privately outside of school?

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. Um, my first first trumpet teacher was, uh, Alan Uighur, and he was just fantastic. And, uh, junior high taught me all kinds of good things. And then I had, um, a couple different teachers in high school as well who uh, yeah. Modeled that. So I was fortunate to get private lessons and then yeah, the directors would still play and, you know, jump in the jazz man and rip a Hi g or something every once in a while just to inspire the kids and get ’em excited about what you could maybe do someday.

And, and, uh, we just had a lot of fun and it was a very encouraging spot. I was also given opportunities because I had shown that I was really interested in music education. And I remember in high school the director asked me one time to guest conduct a piece on one of our concerts. And he had selected a few students from the band that he thought might want to get their feet wet with that before they even went off to college.

And he gave several of us opportunities to conduct and to lead. And you know, if I was up there, [00:08:00] he would just swap places with me. He’d go sit in the trumpet section and I’d get up on the podium and slice away at the air and, you know, make all kinds of terrible decisions about how to conduct the band.

And he’d just gently coached from the back and, well, maybe you could try this. And, you know, can you hear how out of tune this person is? And, you know, let’s work on this section. And, uh, all done with a, a lot of love and a lot of, um, encouragement.

JOHN SNELL: Wow. So it sounds like you owe a lot to, uh, your teachers.

ERIC BAKER: I do Randy Tears, my high school director and, uh, a couple others. Jerry Hull in junior high. And just, you know, people who did years and decades of good work teaching and inspiring and pumping out tons of great students.

JOHN SNELL: But also, yeah, fostering that, uh, different interests, not just, Hey, is our band gonna make state or what, you know, whatever,

ERIC BAKER: Boy, that’s a big part of it, isn’t it? Yeah,

Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: of lose the, what’s, what’s the idiom for force, for the trees? Something like that. I, English is a terrible language for me, but you get what I’m saying?

ERIC BAKER: Yes, I do. Yeah. We all struggle and it, it, that is definitely a, [00:09:00] it’s a bit of a trap sometimes, you know, um, Texas is well known for its music education and I’m a blessed, I’m blessed to have been a student of that and a product of that. Um, but you know, you also get, constant grading and evaluation and you have to go to contest.

And if you get ones, and maybe you’re gonna have a job next year, and if you don’t get ones, you might not have a job. And there’s a lot of pressure. So you can see the, the immense, um. Difficulty sometimes of just being able to teach music. And I know that all of my music educator friends in Texas and across the country really just love to teach the music, you know, and get kids inspired.

So, and I think they’re doing great work despite a lot of the, uh, evaluations and contests and things like that.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I, I mean, uh, the, the, uh, kind of the proof there is we just were at, uh, T-M-E-A-A few weeks ago, and we have a lot of international listeners and, uh, you know, people would say, oh, music education is dying, or, you know, classical music is dying, things like that. Or band, wind, band, music, choir, you name it. Uh, this, that at that con conference was 20 something thousand people

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.[00:10:00]

JOHN SNELL: and masterclasses and the state bands and choirs and things like that. It’s, it’s huge. You know, the joke is there’s nothing small about Texas, but they, they’re doing something right. Because to see that many young students interested and, um, capable on their instruments is, uh, really inspiring.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah, and I’ve, you know, again, gone to so many t meas and it is a great place to be inspired. you know, and just to talk about various evaluations and contests. I think when it’s done right, it can actually really help push and drive the best kinds of teaching. Um, you know, something to, to strive for, a target to give a student that those are good things.

And so I’m not necessarily, uh, I don’t wanna say anything negative about the various. In, in Texas we have things called UIL, or as you mentioned, TMEA. And these are, you know, sort of cousin entities that deal with a lot of music and sports competitions. And when it’s done right, it can be done very well.

And TMEA is the proof of that. Students are performing at incredibly high levels. I made the Allstate [00:11:00] Band once in high school as a senior. Uh, my wife, was in the Allstate Choir for two years. She made it as a junior and a senior, and our daughter this year made the Allstate Choir for the first time as a sophomore.

So she has a potential to be a three-time allstater.

JOHN SNELL: Congratulations.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. You can tell which parent won out on that. Uh, no. None of my girls play the trumpet. They’re all singers.

JOHN SNELL: I love it. I love it. Mom. Mom won.

ERIC BAKER: She always does.

She always does.

JOHN SNELL: um, so, so you were in event in that system, you said you played in the Allstate,

ERIC BAKER: Mm-hmm.

JOHN SNELL: groups. So what, uh, I mean, did you know this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life? I mean, was that level of passion there at that young age?

ERIC BAKER: In some form. Yeah, in some form. I knew it was gonna be music. Um, I told you, you know, you start band in sixth grade, but in seventh grade you can be on the football team. And so I tried out for the football team and in seventh grade they take everyone and so I made the football team. [00:12:00] But uh, at my junior high school we had an A team and a B team and the year that I started playing football, they added a C team.

And I’ll tell you which one I was on. And so I had zero ability to play football. Well, I was out there at every practice. I was suited up early. My dad would drive me out there at 5:00 AM to get to school early and practice. And I gave it my heart and I was just awful. Meanwhile, I’m getting kind of good at this trumpet thing, you know, I’m like sitting first second chair in the band.

I’m getting solos. Things are going well. And so, um. It comes to the end of the season, they’re like, well, you gonna sign up for next year? And I look at my dad, I said, um, I, I think I just want to do music. Maybe he says, yeah, son, I think that’s a pretty good idea. So the athletics thing was not an option. So that severely reduced my abilities as a career.

And, uh, growing up, again, like I said, very much inspired my music. So I knew I was gonna do music and, uh, got outta high school [00:13:00] and was pretty convinced I was gonna be a Texas band director. So I enrolled at, uh, the University of Texas Arlington, go Mavs, and uh, became a music education major there, and studied with the fantastic Dr.

Rick Bogar, who’s been there for a long time, plays in the Dallas Opera. Just a tremendous man and, uh, wonderful teacher. And so graduated with a music education degree. And of course, as part of that, you have to do. Student teaching. So I did a semester at, uh, a school there in Mansfield with a few other mentor teachers of mine.

Shout out to Todd Dixon and Brad Bone Break. Wonderful, wonderful men and great teachers. They gave me a fantastic experience as a student teacher, but I was mentioning to them about, Hey, you know, how often do you go out and gig? How often do you still perform? And they said, man, as a, you know, six, a band director in Texas.

Almost never.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

ERIC BAKER: This is your life. You’re going to teach. You’re gonna be up early and you’re gonna stay late and this is what you’re gonna do. And if you’re passionate, it’s very [00:14:00] rewarding. But no, we don’t really play any mu, you know, much anymore. And that, that kind of stuck with me, I thought, hmm, I’ve dedicated a lot of days and hours to blowing down this metal tube and it’s kind of fun when it works.

I don’t know if I’m ready to just give it up. So I thought, let me see if I can get into a Master’s program. As a performer. ‘ cause I, I had no real gauge. I’d been to some ITGs, I’d seen some of these world class players. I knew I was never gonna be that,

but I thought, you know what, what is available to me?

So I auditioned at Arizona State University with Dave Hickman and I got in, uh, as a master student with a full ride and um, as a performing, as a performance major. And I thought, well, that’s kind of a good sign. So my wife and I had just gotten married in June and we moved out to Phoenix in July and I started school and, uh, loved it and was very well coached and taught and surrounded by players who were just absolutely phenomenal and really dove into the performance thing.

After two years of [00:15:00] that, um, an audition came open here where I live now. This was all the way back in 2006, so coming up on 20 years. And, uh, the West Texas symphony had an audition for co-principal trumpet, and it’s a co-principal position because the, there’s also a resident brass quintet. So all of the principle brass players create the brass quintet we share with principal duties across the two trumpet players.

So we both are co-principal trumpets and I, I got that, uh, that job back in 2006. And, uh, very quickly thought, well, I’ll probably be here for a few years and, uh, you know, take a bunch of auditions and, and maybe move on and out in Midland, Odessa, Texas. I dunno if you’re familiar with the area, but, um, there’s a show called Landman, you know, and uh, you may have seen Friday Night Lights, the movie, or you may have seen any Old Western where there’s dust and tumbleweed and big pump jacks pumping oil outta the ground.

That’s where I live. That’s Midland, Odessa. And, um. It is actually tumbleweed season. So, [00:16:00] um, I can look out my window and see them now. So if you have your tumbleweed license, you can go hunt tumbleweeds right now. And they, it looks just like that. And so I came out here and as you would expect, in a desert, there’s one symphony, there is a ballet, but you know, this is not a New York, this is not a Houston, a Dallas, a Paris, a London.

This is not a place where you can find arts on every street corner. But what I did find out really early is that the people are hungry for the arts and they love it and they appreciate it. So very quickly I was able to, I. Find fertile ground for music out here and start putting things together. Uh, in addition to the symphony and the brass quintet, you know, my wife and I have a little vocal duo that we’ll go out and do a little coffee shop kind of stuff, acoustic music at, you know, a wine bar or something.

I can put together a jazz trio or a quartet. Uh, we have a nine piece rock band, you know, like Chicago, you know, rock band with horns and we’ll play weddings or corporate events. And then we’ve got a 17 piece big [00:17:00] band that we book out a couple times a year to do larger corporate events. And I get to do all of that in addition to the teaching and the playing that I do related to the symphony and to try to go anywhere else and build that kind of a life.

I don’t know if that’s possible just in a bigger city, especially because you’re gonna be fighting with all the other 10,000 fantastic players. But coming to a town, investing here for 20 years and falling in love with the people and the opportunities here has been just a joy. For my life. So that’s kind of like where I started music all the way up till today.

JOHN SNELL: That’s it. That’s, uh, that’s incredible. And, uh, I, I mean, such great advice there because we get, you know, we’re out here in LA and so many young players come out here trying to make it and not to step on anyone’s dreams, because if you want to be the, you know, the next Wayne Bergeron or the next Malcolm McNabb or John Lewis, or, you have to do that in New York or la uh, but you have to understand you’ll be in line with a thousand other [00:18:00] people that want to do that.

ERIC BAKER: That’s right.

Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: uh, with new ones coming in every year.

ERIC BAKER: Yep.

JOHN SNELL: but that kind of, that mid-level market, like you’re in, where there is a symphony, there is university and there’s enough people that want art, um, that you can be the big fish in a little pond and get all of that enjoyment and things like that.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: great advice. Um, I wanna do, I wanna back up a little bit. Um, ’cause you were an an education major, I know at least some of the places I went to school, um, they were kind of, what’s the word, second rate to the performance majors. Not in terms of ability, but in terms of how they were treated by the school, they performance op opportunities, things like that. did you experience that and also how were you able to keep your playing up at a, at a high level such that you would get into a school like Arizona State?

ERIC BAKER: Yeah, thanks. Great question. Um, so in that area of Texas, you do have several really fantastic music programs all within an [00:19:00] hour of each other. So you’ve got University of North Texas in, you know, north, north of town in Denton, S-M-U-T-C-U, UT Arlington, probably a few others that I’m just blanking on right now for the sake of brevity.

But all of those places are putting out incredible musicians and music programs and, uh, the way that I saw the perspective I had at UT Arlington was they really did focus on the music education part. So we did have a few performance majors across the various instruments, um, and, uh, disciplines.

Most of us were pursuing music education in some degree, into, to some way. And, uh, that that meant that all of us felt like we were kind of on equal footing. And, you know, we had teachers and conductors and, uh, ensemble directors who didn’t hold us to any kind of a second rate standard. Um, they did not care what your major was.

They wanted the ensembles to perform well. They wanted you to sound good on a studio recital. Uh, you know, Dr. Bogar [00:20:00] really wanted his trumpet ensemble to perform at the highest level. And so there may be, um, you know, allowances made for, uh, repertoire choice, right? As a music educator, um, do you need to play the tomasi, you know, from memory, uh, as a junior in your recital?

Maybe not. Um, but do you need to know a lot of the grade one and two solo repertoire so that you can go into a band and teach that to kids? Yes, that’s a more applicable skill. And so. I was given a lot of freedom to pick rep. Um, and I would always try to challenge myself to some degree. Um, I did not do the tomasi in my undergrad.

I did do it after I graduated, but, uh, not as an undergrad. And uh, so I was definitely in that, that zone of I need to learn repertoire and perform at a level that helps me teach someone else how to do it. Uh, and so that’s kind of how we were treated as music education majors, uh, which was great. You know, it meant that we had a lot of autonomy and a lot of agency in what we chose to do.

My, uh, [00:21:00] she’s now my wife, we were dating at the time. We just decided, hey, let’s do a sophomore recital together. And so we just split the recital and ended with a little, let the bright seraphim and it, you know, we all,

we

we, that’s exactly right. And, uh, and so what, you know, we just did the thing and uh, and that was great.

And so those are good, good memories. ’cause the, both of our applied teachers said, yeah, sure, you don’t have to do this, but yeah, do it.

JOHN SNELL: what fun. And then, uh, so then that obviously prepared you for Arizona State and I’d like to, you know, David Hickman’s, one of the, you know, he’s an institution, uh, in and

ERIC BAKER: Yeah,

JOHN SNELL: kind of players he cranked out. So can you talk a little bit about that experience with, uh, with Arizona State?

ERIC BAKER: Dave is such an, an amazing teacher because not only, you know, does he play the trumpet better than 98.6592 people in the world? Like, he’s just incredible. but he teaches well in that he does not subscribe to any one particular method. what he will do is start every [00:22:00] lesson with, here’s what works for me.

Let’s dig into that. If that’s not working for you, let’s find something else that does. And I love that about him because he, he did have such a wide variety of successful students. He had to learn a million different ways to teach the same concept. So, uh, his big book, his big pedagogy book. Is, you know, literally called like a compendium of trumpet pedagogy.

And it talks about all kinds of ways to make an asure and, and what’s better and what works for this person. And is it a, you know, Maggio style or is it a this or a Bill Adams style? I mean, just all these various things that he would, that he would give us access to. And, uh, he was, uh, very serious in lessons and sometimes you didn’t really know if you were doing well or not, but he’s just kind of a serious guy.

He takes his craft very seriously and it was, it was always great fun to make him break character and laugh or chuckle or whatever. Uh, we’d have trumpet history and trumpet pedagogy board classes. We would all take as a group undergrads all the way up through doctoral students. [00:23:00] And, uh, we actually had the great honor of being his editorial board when he was writing his big book because he was writing it while I was there.

And he would bring each new chapter to us and we’d kind of critique and ask questions and ask for clarification, and he’d go and revise and then send it off. Uh, so it was always great fun in those two. Uh, just kinda work with another team of great trumpet players who have all gone on and had great careers and whatnot.

Uh, and then the last thing about him that I really respect is he works very hard to get his students to be successful. outside the trumpet. So he will, he will hire you, he will, uh, ask you to do all kinds of crazy projects. After my first year, with him, he’ll always take you out to lunch or dinner after a recital, just kind of debrief, talk about what went well, what needs to improve, how you can move on.

And I was asking him about, you know, summer work. I was there in Phoenix. I didn’t have any family there, aside from my wife. The school year was over. What opportunities might there be for working? And he said, you know, I’ve always had this crazy idea to build a [00:24:00] specific kind of trumpet, straight mute. I wonder if you might help me do some r and d on this.

And I thought, um, sure. Like, what do you have in mind? And so we kind of talked it over and he hired me to just go mess around for, you know, about a month or two and come back with prototypes and we would narrow them down and I’d go back and work more and bring back. And we came up with this Soto VCE trumpet mute that sadly is not in production anymore.

but if you find one, they’re rare. And I made it, my hands were on it at some point. And, uh, we made this beautiful, um, very interesting trumpet mute. Where the outside of it is a green, felt like a velvet touch to it, which really severely cuts down on volume, um, without making the mute sound tinny.

So something about that, that outside texture really changes the color of the mute. And so we, uh, sold ’em for many years and I just make ’em on the kitchen table and, and do that and. It was kind of a fun thing, and he’s always looking for ways to innovate and get his students to do [00:25:00] unique things, and I really appreciate that about him.

JOHN SNELL: That’s amazing. So you turned into a mute maker for a

ERIC BAKER: I,

JOHN SNELL: and then on for a while.

ERIC BAKER: yeah, I probably did it for, uh, 10 years or so before it, it just became a little bit too much.

JOHN SNELL: yeah. Yeah. And I, I, I have to ask ’cause I see some, uh, the, the photos on the wall behind you. There’s some

ERIC BAKER: Oh yeah,

JOHN SNELL: Did you, was that you in there?

ERIC BAKER: I’m in there. Um, I There you go. So I marched with the Cavaliers, uh, for three years. I’ve got my, uh, I got my greens there, and then behind me are the, yeah, the pictures. that was during college, so I marched the seasons 2000.

And then I skipped 2001 to go on a trip to Germany and Switzerland with the UTA jazz band, which was pretty fun. And then I marched again in 2002 and 2003. So we were world champions in 2000 and 2002, and then we came in second in 2003. Uh, fantastic time. Um, again, mostly because of the people. These are dear friends that I’ll have, you know, forever.

and fantastic staff and teachers and mentors that I [00:26:00] still get to see. In fact, I ran into a couple of ’em at TMEA, uh, a couple weeks ago and we shared a big hug and um, it’s been really fun to kind of see a few of those guys go on and have playing careers and teaching careers. Uh, so that was a whirlwind of a time, but just a tremendous experience for me.

JOHN SNELL: Uh, what, like what advice would you give especially to young folks, uh, high school or first year in college to make the most outta their DCI experience?

ERIC BAKER: Oh man, how to make the most of it. Uh, start saving now. Like it’s an expensive activity. You know, thankfully many of the cores have ways to fundraise and whatnot. Um, it is expensive. This is an investment. And, you know, I made the choice early on to go the DCI route again, thinking that my career was gonna be music education and thinking, man, marching band is such a big part of that.

And, and meeting people. And I think at the time that was the right choice. But what it meant was I gave up going to an Aspen, a Brevard, a Tanglewood, you know, auditioning for some of these [00:27:00] things. A blue lake, a whatever. Um, some of the more classically oriented or chamber oriented summer opportunities.

And I don’t think that was a mistake. I think that was the right choice at the time, but that’s something for people to consider as well. If you’re going to be a performer in a particular style, just surround yourself with the people that are gonna help you get better at that thing. So for music education, yeah.

DCI was great. Um, you know, the activity has changed so much. I mean, you know, I’m more than 20 years removed. I think cell phones were like maybe barely invented when I marched and, and they said no cell phones on tour. And so we didn’t have cell phones on tour and we were removed from the outside world.

And in some ways I think that was really good because you didn’t have the distraction. Like you had to talk to people and you had to meet everybody in the core. You couldn’t just sit on the bus and doom scroll, you know, on your way to the next, on the way to the next town,

you had to actually engage. So I am glad that that was my [00:28:00] experience.

I think nowadays it’s not quite so, um. Um, iron clad. I don’t think they’re locking up your phones on the bus. I think you can have it and have connections with the outside world. Um, so I don’t really know how the activity is different. I think probably a few fundamental things of go to work every day.

You know, get up and work hard. Um, make the best product that you can individually, uh, because that’s where the real, that’s where the real success lies, not necessarily in your overall score. That’s easy for me to say. We came in first a couple times, like, oh yeah, what do you know? You know, you’ve never sat seventh or eighth, you know, in the finals.

But whether or not you do, I can say this, the year that we came in second was not a disappointment. That was one of the more rewarding years personally, artistically, physically, um. Corporately, like with, with all that particular group of guys, the 2003 Cavaliers, um, seemed to be a really great group of human beings.

And I, [00:29:00] I value that year, probably more than the others where we happened to come in first place. but these are the things that make you successful in anything. Whether you’re an athlete, um, or an entrepreneur or a physician or a lawyer or a police officer, like whatever your career is, get up every day to be your personal best, um, and have integrity and have honesty, and do the work that it takes.

Um, often the right path is the one that is not the most convenient, and that’s, you know, or expedient or easy. And that’s kind of the, the trick to it. So you don’t feel like practicing. That’s when you have to practice the most.

JOHN SNELL: Exactly. The easy days are easy.

ERIC BAKER: That’s right. It is not hard then.

JOHN SNELL: was uh uh uh, correct me. Was that after the switch to B Flats or were you still on G Bugles?

ERIC BAKER: So fun fact, 2000 was the switch that DCI made the rule, but the cavaliers did not make that switch until 2001. So I marched soprano bugle one year, you know, G soprano, uh, in 2000. [00:30:00] And then by the time I had come back in 2002, everybody was on B flats.

I

JOHN SNELL: well, so that, so then you can kind of, you know, tow both lines. You can

ERIC BAKER: can

JOHN SNELL: the, the old school guys.

ERIC BAKER: exactly,

JOHN SNELL: legit. ’cause you did it. Although you probably had three valves, you know, you,

ERIC BAKER: I did, I did have all three valves. But yes, depending on which alumni forum I pop into, I can either be a troll or I can be a hero, you know?

JOHN SNELL: yeah. Um, ’cause that’s, that’s something I’ve, I remember when, because I was in college in the nineties, and guys would come back from core playing on g bugle all the time, and then they would take a month or two to readjust. And of course in that first month was auditions for groups and things like that.

And, um, you know, I, I suppose those are much less consideration. Um, you know, but did you, did you have any issues even when you were on B Flats transitioning back from non DCI plane?

ERIC BAKER: Um, I don’t think so. Um, I think I, again, the pedagogy is so important, right? If your brass staff is teaching you how to develop your asure, take care of your asure, not [00:31:00] just, you know, to make beautiful sounds, then you can make a beautiful sound at any dynamic level and be effective on the field, indoors or outdoors.

So I was blessed with really good staff. So no, when I came back, um, you know, playing, it’s definitely easier to stay on a B flat.

Um, at that time I think I. I think we were marching Yamaha trumpets in core, and I was playing a box drag in college, and there wasn’t any major changes there. You know, a few little things here and there, but you know, you, you can sort it out.

Your ears are attuned to where those pitches are. You don’t have to go a a third away anymore. So it’s, it’s a lot easier.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Um, I wanna talk about, uh, your, uh, winning your position. Um, was that the first audition you took was the West Texas Symphony?

ERIC BAKER: It was, it was,

it was.

I am one for, and I’m, I’m retiring undefeated boys. Um, I,

JOHN SNELL: It’s the way to do it.

ERIC BAKER: uh, well actually I can’t retire on video. I have taken other auditions that did not go well, and it [00:32:00] did a couple marine band auditions, things like that, obviously. Um, but yeah, it was, it was a different time. So, uh, I know that, uh, I know that I am the recipient of something that, uh, was an old school way of doing things, and I’m grateful, uh, to have the position.

I also know that the way that in the organization does things now is much more, appropriate in my opinion. So when I auditioned, uh, because the position requires such an investment in the brass quintet element, um, the brass quintet was kind of charged with being the hiring committee. I. The symphony at the time did not have a dedicated artistic director.

Um, the previous conductor had just retired and they were in the process of doing a few guest people coming in and hiring that person. So there was not an artistic director. And, uh, I think even it’s possible that the executive director was also in a time of transition. So things [00:33:00] were a little weird and they needed to fill the position quickly.

So the brass quintet was the committee. So, um, I applied and they reached out and said, here is the list. And it was, again, 50% excerpts, 50% brass quintet repertoire. Uh, and the repertoire for the brass quintet was all the standard hits. Some Bank of Singulators, some Kenzo, Bergam asca, some Malcolm Arnold.

But then it had a lot of pops stuff on it as well. They, you know, can you improvise? Can you blow over some changes? So it did some like Ellington uh, arrangements and things like that. And then all the standard, uh, orchestra rep. And I got hired. I went out and I, I just did a little mini session with the brass quintet as the audition.

Uh, I don’t know how many other people auditioned. I don’t know how many other people applied. All I know is I was there, it was almost like a personal catered situation. I played with them. They asked me to step out for a few minutes, and they came back and said, we’d like to offer you the position. And I said, great, I’ll take it.

You know, [00:34:00] and then four of those people moved on the next season to, to other things. So it was just me and the other trumpet player that were the only people left, and we had to hire three more people in by that time, which was much later in the summer and a little bit last minute. Um, the orchestra had lined up a lot better policies.

So we had auditions, blind rounds, that kind of stuff. We had a, we had people come in and act as, the artistic director and whatnot. So those people were hired properly. Uh, I snuck in on a technicality, um, and I work every day to earn. Maintain my spot in this orchestra because I understand that that’s not always the way that it goes.

Uh, so.

JOHN SNELL: But I mean, it sounds like a dream job because I know with some of the big orchestras, you get to play fun literature, but a lot of times you’re counting rests. And so the fact that you get to mix that up with bras, quintet, where you know you’re the star, what, what’s the mix? Is it, uh, between quintet and orchestra performances?[00:35:00]

ERIC BAKER: Um, that’s a great question. It varies. So the, the quintet does two, uh, recitals each season. So two solo recitals, one in the fall, one in the spring, as do the other chamber groups for the West Texas Symphony. We have a string quartet, the Permian Basin String Quartet. The Permian Basin is the geographical region that we live in.

And then we have the West Texas winds, the resident wind quintet, and then the lone star brass bras, quintet. We’re all very Texas themed here. Um, we, we all have big belt buckles, you know, and, and boots that are monogrammed and cowboy hats.

Um,

JOHN SNELL: you don’t have six people in a quintet in Texas. ’cause you get

ERIC BAKER: we should, it’s a little better, you know,

we do the baam sextet every year just to have a little bit bigger, a quintet. Um. We, uh, yeah. So they’re all very, you know, Texas themed and they’re all tremendously wonderful groups. And each of the groups does, uh, a recital each semester for the, uh, for the community.

And what we’ve done for the last [00:36:00] few years is expand our, uh, the, brass always used to get the Christmas show. There’s just something very special about brass and Christmas music. So for the last two or three years, we have actually invited members of other local symphonies. So we have people who come in from Abilene, San Angelo, Lubbock, and even about four hours away as far up as Amarillo and, uh, Eastern New Mexico, who join us for about a 18 to 20 person brass and percussion ensemble that we have been doing these larger style concerts.

And they have been a huge hit with our West Texas audience. Great repertoire, really good friends. So we will do a, a show. I. Uh, we’ll rehearse on a Sunday, and then Monday night we’ll do a show in San Angelo. And then, uh, Tuesday night we’ll come up to Midland, which is about two hours north and do a show there.

And so we have collaboration from different symphonies and different donors in each town that say, Hey, let’s, let’s pool our resources and bring the big Christmas brass bonanza, um, to, [00:37:00] to West Texas. And that’s been really fun. And then our spring show is just back to the quintet and that’s, you know, we choose the rep.

Uh, we’re kind of talking about what we wanna do this season, we’re looking at doing street song. Um, we know that, um, Michael Tilson Thomas has just, um, kind of announced that he’s winding down his career. And, uh, that’s a huge loss for a lot of us trumpet players and, you know, the, the artistic community.

So we wanna do street song, uh, to kind of honor him and, and talk about his legacy. Uh, there’s a really fun John Mackey piece. Um, that we have for quintet that we may try to draw out. Last year we did something that I thought was really fun and I would, I would highly recommend it for anybody if you have this ability.

We did an audience choice recital last spring, and I got this idea from a chamber group that came, uh, to West Texas out of New York, and they’re called Shuffle Concert. And, uh, it’s a mixed, it’s a mixed group. There’s a violin, cello, oboe, piano, vocal, I think five or six of [00:38:00] ’em. And they do, what they will do is when you walk into the concert, you’ll get your program, but it looks like a menu and every program is hand numbered.

So your number one, number two, number three, number four. And they will just have a random number generator on their phone and they’ll say, okay, um, number three, you know, you get to choose the next song that we play. And so each, they’ll, maybe they’ll have 50 songs and they’ll have like. Let’s say five songs in 10 categories.

So they’ll have early music, they’ll have Broadway, they’ll have, um, romantic, they’ll have Renaissance, you know, that kind of stuff. Uh, as categories. And once a category has been chosen, the rest of that category is off limits. And so, you know, you might get chosen to call the next tune. And it’s not too, I, it’s not too difficult to pull off, you know, the brass quintet.

It took us about three minutes to pull 20 songs that we gig with and play with regularly, all the standard hits of the repertoire and put ’em in 10 categories. And the second half of the [00:39:00] concert, we just let the audience choose what they’d like to hear next. And so we had prepared 20, we knew we only had to play 10, so we weren’t gonna be there all night.

And, uh, it worked out really well. The audience really. Um, enjoyed being a part of what we were playing. And so, you know, if you do that regularly, you never will get the same concert exactly twice. So it adds a little bit of variety, but in kind of some controlled parameters. So that’s, that was a big hit and I would, I would like to do that again sometime in the next few years.

JOHN SNELL: That’s a great idea. Yeah. What was the name of that band? The Shuffle.

ERIC BAKER: Shuffle Concert. Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: them outta New York.

ERIC BAKER: Uhhuh,

I, I hope they’re still going. It’s been several years. We hosted them out, um, at, uh, at the college that I was teaching at for a long time, and, uh, haven’t seen ’em in a while, but they were just a fantastic group of musicians and their arrangements were fresh and unique and different.

I think the piano player was also the composer, arranger, so they had great, great charts, great repertoire, and they made it really fun for the audience to get involved.

[00:40:00] And, you know, that’s so important nowadays because they, the days of the orchestra’s gonna sit down and we’re not gonna look at the audience, and the audience is gonna sit down and they’ll look at us.

But, you know. We’re not gonna acknowledge each other’s presence until after the, the concert. I don’t know. I think we need to get away from that a little bit.

JOHN SNELL: Well, yeah, we were talking earlier about, uh, making classical music relevant, and I remember, again, not to, um, say negative things about one of my favorite brass quintets, but I remember I was in high school and saw the Empire Brass, and they did an hour and a half of Bach. And you know, and technically and musically it was astounding, but I mean, I, as a dumb high school kid was bored to tears.

20 minutes in and you looked around at the audience and they were bored to tears, you

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: And, uh, again, the plane was first rate,

ERIC BAKER: Oh, superb.

JOHN SNELL: halls, you need to do other things,

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: is my point.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. Listen, [00:41:00] I would love to hear Empire play an hour and a half a B right now, but

that’s an acquired thing and that’s kind of a niche thing because I love them and I love that music, but. If you’re gonna reach a broad audience and share with them that classical music can move you and you don’t have to be some elite person to love it, give a, give a variety because humans are so different.

JOHN SNELL: Give a taste. Yeah. Um, so I want, wanna talk a little bit about the nuts and bolts of your plane. Um, do you have a regular routine? You were mentioning, I mean, you’re doing quintet, you’re doing the orchestra, but you’re also doing cover bands and big bands and stuff. Uh, does your, do you have a regular routine that you stick by or does it vary depending on your

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. 98% of the time I’ve got kind of the same routine. I’m a creature of habit. It helps me kind of organize and stay on it. Uh, so in high school I was given, and I think it was either by one of my teachers, it was either Brad Bone Break, I think it was him. He gave me a copy of the, Peter’s total range.

[00:42:00] Book. Um, I think it might’ve been even been like out of print back then, so I’m not sure if you can find it, but it is a, you know, it’s probably got 20 different progressively difficult warmup routines. And so it’ll say, if you’re a beginner, do this for week one, then go to week two, week three, week four.

If you’re an intermediate, you can go week 1, 2, 3, 4, advanced week 1, 2, 3, 4, that’s 12. And then there’s like a professional level or something, um, that you can do forever, you know, that kind of a thing. so he gave me that and we started working on it. And what I like about it is you put the metronome on and you just play what it tells you to play.

And it will give you, at the top of the page how long it takes to play that day’s routine and of that time, how much of that is on the face,

right? ’cause it’s very important to play. And then physically remove the amsu or the mouthpiece from the face and rest, then put it back on and play the next part and rest.

And I found that to be incredibly helpful as a young trumpet player. It’s just all the standard stuff. It’s some long [00:43:00] tones. Um, he has some very cleverly disguised Clark ones in there that he doesn’t have to pay homage, uh, to Herbert for. And he’s got a few other, you know, some strength buildings, some lip slurs, some flexibility, a lot of pedal tones.

I’m a huge pedal tone guy. And, um, so those specific things really helped me as a kid. And they’ve just stuck with me when in doubt. I go there. Now I’ve added in. Uh, I love the for, for flexibility. I, there’s nothing better than the Scott Belk, uh, flexibility Studies, lips Slur world headquarters. Uh, it should be a national site, like a treasure site or something, you know what I mean?

JOHN SNELL: We’re working on it. We,

ERIC BAKER: UNESCO heritage or something, you know.

JOHN SNELL: we’re starting to sign in a petition.

ERIC BAKER: We need to, I’ll sign it. Send it to me, send me the link.

Uh, that guy is amazing. He’s found a way to crack the code of making lips SLS fun and melodic and interesting and infuriating. And they are, [00:44:00] uh, they’re wonderful. So I’ve, I’ve, that’s kind of what I do now for flexibility.

I’m adding in a lot of those. Um, yeah. And then, you know, because I teach, I’m giving kids the standard Arban, the Clark, uh, Vadis got great stuff. Um, Matt Funke is an LA guy. He’s got a couple of really cool books. Um, the Beast

Collection of Books. Uh, Dave Hickman, of course, has a treasure trove of great pedagogical resources that I’ll use.

And so I incorporate little bits and stuff, but I kind of just go back to my same routine.

JOHN SNELL: So you’ll add, add those in as some flavors, but, uh,

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: yeah, creature of habit.

ERIC BAKER: Yep.

JOHN SNELL: and I have to, I have to shout out that you remembered Scott Belk’s name ’cause infamously, uh, I’ve had Chris Bode on twice and when I’ve asked him what he does, he’s like, yeah, I do. Who’s the guy who does those great flexibilities?

ERIC BAKER: Oh no.

JOHN SNELL: milk. So Scott’s actually shared it a few times on his,

ERIC BAKER: Brilliant.

He would,

JOHN SNELL: yeah,

ERIC BAKER: there’s gonna be, there’s gonna be a reference to that in his third book. You know, there’s gonna be some kind of a, you know, what’s that name again? [00:45:00] It’s gonna be the name of, you know, one of his,

JOHN SNELL: them. But he plays ’em. That’s the thing.

ERIC BAKER: mm-hmm.

JOHN SNELL: yeah. Well, so thanks for sharing that advice. I, I can, I want to ask you about, ’cause you said you’re heavy into, um, into pedal tones.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah,

JOHN SNELL: ’cause that, I mean, that can be treacherous territory.

ERIC BAKER: yeah,

JOHN SNELL: and screw up your plane if, what’s for you, what’s the proper way to do pedal tones?

How do you use them?

ERIC BAKER: yeah. Dave Hickman, uh, has some really great stuff. Um, he’s got some Asure development books and, uh, he’s got this book, it’s like a, a, sorry, it’s a collection of five volumes, d trumpet lessons with David Hickman, And he talks about it. And so, um, there is kind of a pedagogical approach to pedal tones that I think work really well.

And for me, the, the emphasis is on the bottom lip. And not to get too boring, but this is kind of how it works for me, um, when I am engaging in some of those pedals, and I’ll do the, what you call like the, the false pedals. So on the trumpet from f natural down to dfl, you know, in kind of the no man’s range.

[00:46:00] I’ll, I’ll, I’ll go ahead and play those with the correct fingerings. And, uh, what I’m doing there is I’m, I’m trying to bring the jaw slightly forward, making sure my front, my top and bottom teeth are aligned. And the pressure is not so much the mouthpiece coming to me. It’s a little bit more the feeling that my bottom lip.

Is bulldogging forward into the bottom of the, the mouthpiece. So, you know, I’m driving that bottom lip forward. And so it’s really building up strength in the bottom while trying to maintain little to no pressure on the top lip. Um, so it can vibrate freely. And these, these are fake notes, like they, they, they’re not gonna sound great, but they serve a, like a calisthenic purpose.

Um, and, and building and developing musculature and thought processes. And then the real secret for me is to do exercises like stamp that will take you down into the pedal range and back out going down to the pedal range. You [00:47:00] may fall prey to all kinds of weird distortions of the omnisure just to get the sound out, but, um, it’s not really the way you would play the trumpet.

And so going down into the pedal range and coming back out is, I think, a real secret to developing a proper sound because then if you can get back into the middle or high range and you have a good sound. That’s, that’s a good, it’s a good sign that you’re doing it in such a way that you’re not, um, completely distorting your normal setup.

Uh, so those are things I do. And then I was chasing the holy grail of open pedal sea on the B flat trumpet for years and years and got all the way through my graduate program thinking I will never be one of those guys. Dave Hickman can roar on an open pedal sea, and he would do it regularly and I would just feel so, you know, ashamed I couldn’t do it.

And I just sat down one summer and I was like, my, my summer project is gonna be to figure this out. And I did. And it took a long time. It took several weeks of really focused pedal tone practice. Um, I kind of started by just [00:48:00] letting that the pedal be where it was. And it’s usually sounds about a b flat, you know, it sounds about a whole step low,

um, most of the time.

And through, again that musculature building up the bottom lip to be able to drive the pitch up while keeping the air really slow to keep the pitch down into the pedal range, you’re able to kind of dial it in. And now, I think so much of this is mental, as soon as I could do it once I have been able to do it forever.

Like you just know that you can. And there’s something weird about that, that has just revolutionized the way that I approach it now. It’s like, nah, you know, and if it doesn’t come out great one day, it’s like, nah, I’m probably tired, you know, and it’ll be there tomorrow, you know? And it is. And so once you get it, you know, you can.

And so much of this trumpet thing is just mental.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. That’s, that’s all in, in one sentence, right?

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: uh, you can take that both ways. Either we’re mental or the whole game is mental or both. but I, I, I think the [00:49:00] inverse is true, not just about the pedals, but the upper register too. Like, I think once you get that feeling, one, you get the confidence knowing that you did it.

And then two, you know what that feeling is like picking up a cup of coffee. We all know what that feeling is.

ERIC BAKER: Yes.

Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: amazing. Great, great advice for the, for the pedals and, and, uh, yeah, you, you dedicated a summer. Did you notice, um, benefits to your plane that summer of Pedal sea?

ERIC BAKER: I mean, yeah, I think so. That’s the summer of Pedal Sea. That’s good. Um, I think so, you know, um, again, if you, if you’re doing it right and you take your pedal sea up into, you know, middle, high, uh, above high sea, things like that, um, yeah. What I’m noticing is the same feeling. So when I’m trying to play in the upper register.

Look, it is different. It’s not exactly the same, but I’m trying to bring the similar concepts up with me of putting the strength in the lower lip and leaving the upper lip free to vibrate and cause pitch and tone and resonance. So that’s how it works for me. And so what happens if, [00:50:00] if I’m trying to play in the upper register and things are really tight and the air’s not flowing most of the time I’m, you know, choking off with the neck because I’m like bearing down and trying too hard rather than just letting the air flow.

And I’m probably just pinning my top lip to my top teeth out of, you know, fear or fatigue or something. And, uh, reminding myself of the feeling of the pedal range where it’s relaxed, it’s, there’s not a lot of pressure on the face and that bottom lip is doing a ton of work. Um, that does assist with maintaining a proper tone in the upper register.

Um, but you know, again, that’s me. I’m also a big mouthpiece buzzing guy and I know some fantastic players who like. I say no, never buzz a mouthpiece. It does damage. I don’t know. I’m a mouthpiece. Buzzer and it works for me, and I notice when I go a long time without making that part of my daily routine.

yeah, things don’t work as well.

So usually just like long tones and stuff on the mouthpiece before I get into the, the routine.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, great advice, uh, and all [00:51:00] that trumpet stuff is great, but let’s talk about what’s really important in this world getting millions and millions and millions of views on social media.

ERIC BAKER: Yes. Social media, uh, one of the great institutions that humanity has created, right?

JOHN SNELL: when, when, when you started at 11 years old and picked up the trumpet the first time, did you know that millions of people, did you even know what going viral was

ERIC BAKER: No, absolutely not. No. Facebook came out when I was in grad school, you know, like my fa my first Facebook account, you had to have a college email address, you know, so no, none of this was, was a thing.

JOHN SNELL: So what, what, uh, I mean, what, what got you started doing, um, your trumpets micd up and recording your rehearsals and things like that, just

ERIC BAKER: Well, I, I have always been attracted to the musical comedians. I have always loved PD Qba. I have found that to be so clever that you don’t have to sacrifice great musicianship to make people laugh and have a good time. And it gets back to that idea we talked about. Like, you know, let’s, let’s all come to a concert [00:52:00] and not acknowledge one another and you just have to appreciate what I’m doing because I said it’s really good.

Like, let’s not do that. Let’s bring people in in a way that’s authentic and fun. and you don’t have to sacrifice your art to do that. So I’ve been attracted to, you know, PDQ Buck, uh, Victor Borga. I would watch that stuff all the time and he would just make me laugh. There’s people like that, and I’ve always wanted to do that.

I’ve always wanted to figure out a way, how can I combine music and humor together? So, uh, a couple summers ago I was watching a baseball game and, uh, or maybe I was again, probably scrolling, uh, social media and I. Often you’ll see baseball, baseball players, or hockey players or football players micd up and you get a little taste of what’s happening out on the field or on the sideline.

And I just kind of had the thought like, could you do that in an orchestra? Could, could I make a funny video that mics up the trumpet section? And so I took it to um, my co-principal, uh, Dr. Ben Fairfield, and I said, Hey, you wanna do this? And he’s like, I mean, yeah, sure, no one’s gonna watch it, you know, fine, [00:53:00] whatever, who cares?

And I said, yeah, but probably, but let’s see, let’s see what happens. And so I just put mics on us and just captured the, the stuff we do, you know, whether the mics are on or off. We’re doing that stuff in the trumpet section. I mean, it’s just kind of who we are. and it started to kind of pick up, so I would just kind of do it and release it and little shorts, you know, nothing too long.

And people started to really kinda like it. And then every once in a while, one of them would get, you know, a few hundred thousand views and people really started to say. This is really fun. What I noticed and what kept me going was the comments overwhelmingly were, oh, this is so funny. Or trumpet players never change.

Or, um, this reminds me of high school. And what I really started to get a lot of was, this makes me miss playing.

Or I, I remember how much fun it was to be in band, and if I ever saw a comment like that, I would do my best to reach out to that person and just reply and say, Hey, like, do you still have a, do you still have an instrument?

Like, pick it up, go play in a [00:54:00] community band. Like go, go do it. Or, or just play for your friends or play in your house by yourself. But like, you don’t, it doesn’t have to go away forever. You know, remember how fun it was to make music, keep doing it. And I would really try to encourage people who commented about how much they missed their time in an orchestra or their time in band, or their time with their friends.

Uh, and because you were seeing that kind of positive, uh, feedback, it was like, oh, there’s something here. So yeah, we just kept doing it. And, uh, people seem to like it. Uh, one question I get a lot and I’ll clear it up is, does the conductor know what you’re doing back there?

JOHN SNELL: gonna, I was, I had that one fired up.

ERIC BAKER: I’ll bet you did. It’s, it’s a quick one.

Or, or does the, or does the orchestra know and approve? And the answer is yes. So, um, to put everybody’s minds at ease, uh, I work with our executive director and our conductor and, uh, and we kind of set out a few parameters and a few ground rules, and we want to do that. We want to make sure that, um, it, it, you know, any, any kind of a pot shot is at my own expense.

And so what [00:55:00] you’ll see if you watch those is a lot of me, you know, miscounting arrest or, or missing a note or forgetting what transposition I’m in, just stuff that does happen from time to time. And, uh, it’s always in a rehearsal. Uh, very rarely do I ever do a performance. The horse head video is a performance.

I, I took a risk on that, but I also let my executive director know ahead of time that I was planning on doing that. And we are, we are all trying to navigate. Social media, we’re all trying to navigate together. How can we bring an orchestra experience to people who may not know what it is, or they hear an orchestra and they get turned off immediately because they’ve had a bad experience.

How can I bring this to them in a way that they will understand, um, and break down the barrier of, oh, orchestra people are really stuffy and they’re really serious and they don’t have fun, and you’re not supposed to have fun when you go there. And I just want to tear all of that down. I want to do what I can to make social media a positive place.

So I don’t do [00:56:00] anything political or religious. It’s just fun.

I’m, I’m gonna do what I can for my tiny slice of the internet to hopefully just be a fun, family friendly place. So I post a little bit of my family. I post some of the trumpets miked up stuff, and, uh, that’s intentional. And I’m very intentional with what I post.

And some of it, you know, kind of toes a line. But I think that’s fun. That’s what makes it a little bit engaging. Um, but yeah, we all know, we all agree on, on what the parameters are and as long as I’m kind of abiding by that, then I’m hoping to bring good exposure to the orchestra as an institution and then also to my orchestra as a specific organization to say, come see the West Texas Symphony.

You know, come see us, come visit with us. Uh, we’ll shake your hand. We’re just people. Uh, it is fun. Uh, TMEA was was a blast because my, my demographic is like young kids, like they love the stuff that I do. They think it’s funny, right? So I’m on TikTok and Instagram and stuff, and so I can’t go more than 10 steps at any [00:57:00] TMEA without somebody saying, are you the trumpet miked up guy?

Can, can we get a picture together? Yeah, of course. Yeah, anytime. So that’s really fun ’cause people like it, they see me and they get excited and that, that’s a good feeling, you know.

JOHN SNELL: yeah. And the, and the way you’re doing it, the in, uh, how you’re intentional with it. And, uh, I, I love the ones where you pick your daughter up from school and you play something that, I mean, you have to have the, the, the coolest daughters in the world to let, let you get away with stuff like that

ERIC BAKER: You’ve,

JOHN SNELL: back in the house.

ERIC BAKER: oh yeah. No, you’ve nailed it. The, I am so blessed. We talked earlier about how all my daughters have chosen vocal rather than trumpet playing or brass playing. Uh, and that’s because my wife is an amazing woman who has influenced them very well. Uh, and we have a lot of fun in the house and we joke with one another and, and they feel loved and safe, so.

It’s really hard to like embarrass them

because they’re kind of just well adjusted. They just know that anything silly that dad’s doing is because he loves you and wants you to laugh. So yeah, that was a, that was a truly viral moment because I didn’t even like really [00:58:00] plan that. Um, I was out that afternoon and my wife said, Hey, can you go pick up, you know, our daughter from school?

And I had the trumpet in the backseat and I thought, you know, what is a way that I could be a little bit silly here? And so I just decided to pull up in the car line and, you know, rather than either text her or call her, just open the sunroof and blast that old 60 song tequila as loud as I could through the sunroof to get her attention and what I was hoping would be a, a mildly embarrassing moment for her.

Uh, really. Backfired because there are kids on there all get their phones out and they’re cheering and singing along, and then she gets in the car and she says, that was hilarious. You know, so she just thinks it’s so fun and, uh, and it’s, it’s, she’s a very well adjusted young woman and I’m super happy for that.

JOHN SNELL: that’s amazing. That’s amazing. And well then, now you’ve set up ex expectations. So now you’re, you’re under the gun to have to do something each time.

ERIC BAKER: I know now the other two are wondering how I’m gonna pick them up from school from now on.

JOHN SNELL: I love it. I love it. Um, yeah, we, we’ve [00:59:00] almost got an hour already. It’s great talking with you Eric. Um, what do you have coming up in the future?

Any projects you wanna chat about or anything on the, on the horizon?

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. I’m super excited that, uh, our symphony, the West Texas Symphony, features one of the artists in the symphony every year as a guest artist. And we call it our Spotlight concert. And so each year, one of the principles, uh, will be chosen to perform, uh, in, you know, as a guest artist with the symphony and.

That gets to be me next season.

And so, uh, on Saturday, November 8th, I will perform, uh, a piece called American Nomad, uh, for trumpet. And I saw it premiered by, uh, Chuck Lazarus in Minnesota, uh, a couple years ago. And what’s great about it is it’s a beautiful piece. Um, some sweeping sort of American soundscapes, uh, and a lot of great, um, colors and it incorporates elements of jazz.

So, uh, in each movement there are extended moments [01:00:00] of improvisation, and I love playing jazz. I love bringing that kind of an idea to a symphony concert. You know, a couple years ago, uh, my buddy Ben, did the hide in Trump concerto and did a phenomenal, flawless, beautiful job on it. And everyone loved it.

And I thought, well, that was only two years ago. What. What should I bring to the symphony that’s different? And so kind of gave a list to our, uh, artistic director and said, what do you think would work well for our orchestra and with our players? Uh, I said, this is my top choice. And he said, yeah, that’s great.

So we’re gonna do the Steve Sig American Nomads, uh, in concert live with the West Texas, the symphony on November 8th.

People should go get their tickets now, wt xs.org, and you can get tickets to November 8th.

JOHN SNELL: What fun and, uh, are we gonna see some Instagram clips of your, uh, rehearsals

ERIC BAKER: Yeah,

yeah. You know, again, whatever I can, whatever I can get approved and whatnot. Um, and, uh, we’ll, we’ll do, we’ll do little bits here and there, but, uh, yeah, hopefully they’ll let me, uh, show a little [01:01:00] bit of that. Uh, I can tell you now and, um. The symphony has the rite of spring coming up next month, and there’s no chance I’m gonna be recording or fid fiddling with any of that stuff during that rehearsal because I’m on the piccolo trumpet part.

And I’m gonna need every brain cell that I can muster to do that. So,

um, probably will not be doing any trumpet miked up during the rite of spring, but I also, it takes five trumpets and, uh, I only have four mics, so, you know,

JOHN SNELL: Uh, okay. I, I mean, I think it’s time to expand. I think you

ERIC BAKER: uh, I need,

there you go. Oh, that’s a good idea. I didn’t think about that. I needed to outsource some of this.

JOHN SNELL: Have your film, film crew show up to rehearsal.

ERIC BAKER: Oh, could you imagine?

JOHN SNELL: once you make it on social media, you’re a big, you know, big person. You know, you got.

ERIC BAKER: I’m already getting eye rolls from the oboe section. You know, I don’t need them fighting with, you know, some guy with a boom mic, you know, and big old lights.

JOHN SNELL: It’s like a drive to survive f uh, for the F1 fans out there following around the [01:02:00] F1 drivers. Um, well man, absolute honor having you on, Eric. Oh, you know, we didn’t talk, talk about equipment. If you could real quick, I know you’re a Bach artist, right? Uh, con somewhere, artist, uh, talk about the equipment you’re using, mouthpieces, all that stuff.

ERIC BAKER: great. So, uh, I’m pretty boring. Um, I, I’ve got about five mouthpieces in my pouch that I’ll, I’ll rotate through

and, uh, one gets about 95% of the time. So, um, right now My lead mouthpiece is the Curry three Z.

It’s magical. I, I, huh, I hate to say this. Everybody’s looking for that one mouthpiece that’s gonna make you a better lead player and everybody says it doesn’t. You gotta practice. Well, for me, the three Z immediately helps and I don’t know what it is about it. I don’t ask questions, I just put it in and it gets the job done.

So that’s Mike, my lead piece that I’ll use from time to time. Uh, my orchestral one is the picket picket brass, uh, one and a quarter C with a number 10 dash two back boar. Uh, that really locks in very well. That’s a good, [01:03:00] all around. I can get everything I need done on that. Um, I have a couple of niche pieces.

I’ve got the Chaga Roll Opera, Dodo, the SG two. It’s a really big, dark open kind of a thing, and it gives me a big, warm, fluffy sound. If I’m in a jazz combo or something, I’ll use that. And then my piccolo is a gr uh, 65 MI think. Uh, and it’s a cort shank with a trumpet adapter so that I can use it in any piccolo I might need to, you know, have around.

So

like those are the ones that I’m using 99% of the time.

Um,

that’s the arsenal.

JOHN SNELL: Mark Curry just announced his retirement. And, uh,

ERIC BAKER: Oh wow.

JOHN SNELL: lot, you know, I mean, he’s been around, uh, the mouthpiece business for a long time and makes great sounding stuff. Um, not surprised about that three z. Um, and he’s also, and many folks don’t know that Mark is a phenomenal player,

ERIC BAKER: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: as well out of, you know, he was in Vegas in Reno for years, while he was also running a mouthpiece company.

So congratulations to Mark on his retirement. And, uh, [01:04:00] hopefully those, his pieces still stick around in some form or another. So. Um, and how about the horns? What do you, what’s your,

ERIC BAKER: Right now I am rocking the Philadelphia Model C Trumpet has always resonated very well with me, and, uh, I just picked up a new one 90, uh, 43 for my B flat. I’ve always just been attracted to the sound of the 43. Just love that sort of dark centered, warm sound. Um, and so that performs really well for me.

So I am, I’m on a brand new 1 90 43 for my B lap. And the Philly seat. And, uh, actually, uh, fond memories of, I think it was early college and there was an ITG, I think it maybe it was housed in Fort Worth at TCU. And I went in and I had my, my former, uh, trumpet, I got a valve alignment from Bob Reeves and it played beautifully and it was wonderful.

And so that was probably my first interaction with Bob Reeves

as a company.

JOHN SNELL: that’s strange. The one at TCU was, uh, my first [01:05:00] ITG, so

ERIC BAKER: Oh wow.

JOHN SNELL: as a little punk

ERIC BAKER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a while. It was

JOHN SNELL: the heck am I getting into? And now I own the business. What’s that? full circle.

ERIC BAKER: fantastic. I think that’s the one, I think that’s the one. It’s, you know, I’ve been too many ITGs. It’s hard to remember, but I know I was younger and it had to have been closer to my house, so I, I’m gonna say it was that one, but it could have been one of the other ones I went to.

JOHN SNELL: was around what, 2001 or

ERIC BAKER: It was early two thousands.

Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: that’s probably it.

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: Absolute honor. Having you on Eric. Uh, where can folks find you, uh, if they don’t already follow you?

ERIC BAKER: Yeah. Uh, everything is eeb trumpet, so you can look up, uh, EEB trumpet. Everybody asks, is that E-flat trumpet or is that your initials? And it’s like both, you know, they, they both work. They both work

JOHN SNELL: it’s, it’s like Maynard Ferguson and mf.

ERIC BAKER: mf, right? It’s exactly right. So, uh, trumpet

Facebook, Instagram, well, Facebook is my name. Um, and uh, then Instagram and TikTok are ev trumpet.

JOHN SNELL: you do the whole thing.

ERIC BAKER: I do

It’s, it’s too much. It’s too much. I gotta get that intern you were talking about.[01:06:00]

JOHN SNELL: Uh, so, and we’ll have the links to all of those, uh, in the, the show notes and on the description to this so folks can get, find you easily and, uh, laugh away at all your great content. Um, and you know how this goes. I can’t let you go without the last final question. Uh, if you could leave our listeners with your best piece of advice, what would that be?

ERIC BAKER: The best piece of advice, um, I’ll just say for living is to figure out your why. Like why do you get up in the morning? For me, it is to empower others to do the things that inspire them, so it makes sense that my job is to be a teacher, right? That my vocation follows my purpose. I like to help other people.

Get excited and do things that make them well. And I am living my best life when I’m living in that. So whatever your particular why or purpose is, take some time to discover it, [01:07:00] figure that out. Um, and then it will help your musicianship and your trumpet playing, and your relationships and your careers.

But figure that out. Do some, do some homework and figure that out. And um, I think that’s a really good piece of advice.

JOHN SNELL: Wonderful. Eric. I said, honor having you on here. Uh, can’t wait to see your next Instagram post and, uh, maybe November 8th, I can, uh, get out and see you,

ERIC BAKER: Come on. It’ll be great.

JOHN SNELL: piece. Yeah. Uh, absolutely love it. Thank you so much, Eric.

ERIC BAKER: My pleasure. Thank you so much.

JOHN SNELL: I.

​

JOHN SNELL: Well, what an honor it was to have Eric on the podcast. And the funny thing is, just a few weeks before our interview, we were both at, uh, the TMEA, the Texas Music Educators Association event and didn’t cross paths, uh, which also shows how big that event is. I think there’s 27,000 people or something crazy that goes to that.

Uh, so he, he ended up a few booths away from Bob Reeves Brass. Uh. But, uh, long story short, we didn’t get to meet each other until, uh, we were on screen [01:08:00] together. but I I, I love this interview for a number of things. first of all, I mean, a lot of you, if you’re on social media, already know of Eric and his, uh, shenanigans in the trumpet section, uh, and.

Picking his daughter up from school and things like that, thanks to his Instagram reels and TikTok. but if some of you that aren’t on social media, you know, may not have any idea who Eric is I’m glad to have him on, cause uh, he’s one of those players that, uh, well it was really interesting to talk about how he was working his way up the ladder, so to speak, and auditions and up the chain of, symphonies, uh, and.

Fell in love with West Texas. You know, as he said, he plays in a great symphony. They’ve got a brass quintet that performs regularly. He can play jazz, he can play lead, he can play Latin, he can do all kinds, all the kinds of things that, uh, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do if you’re playing in a bigger market like Chicago or LA or in Europe somewhere.

plus he teaches and has family time and. The, you know, the domestic side [01:09:00] of things that a lot of times we either don’t get talked about on this podcast or in your trumpet lessons, things like that. Uh, so I’m really glad we had that discussion because, um, you know, there’s nothing wrong with, uh, dreaming about playing principle with, uh, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, something like that.

but on the same token, there’s a lot of other fulfilling career choices out there, for you. So glad Eric was, uh, open and honest about his career choices and the paths he took and, uh. Awesome. Nonetheless, a fabulous, fabulous player. so follow Eric on all of the places. We’ll have the links below in the description, eb trumpet for E-Flat or Eric Baker trumpet, and please follow him.

It’s, uh, great content. He’s hysterical and, uh, really, really makes playing the trumpet joyful, uh, because it shows. Almost on a daily or weekly basis. So the, you know, we’re all the same. All of our experiences and rehearsals and in sections are pretty much all the same. Uh, so things that tie us together.[01:10:00]

Huge thank you to Eric. Thank you for listening. Uh, who do we have up next? We have Liesl Whitaker, Great lead player, Broadway player, from Army Blues Ja in the Army Jazz Ambassadors is up next, Hit that subscribe button, hit that five star notification button, send me your lists. I just got another email this morning. with another trumpet suggestion, so I’ve added that to the list and seems like the more I crank out these episodes, the longer the list of, future guests is. So I love it though. I guess that’s, uh, uh, job security. That’s it for today. See you next episode.

Thank you for listening. Until next time, let’s go out and make some music.