Spitballs and Trumpets: pg. 2, Encouragement and Challenge “In doing a master class, I try to offer encouragement to the kids and also challenge them,” Mr. Smith explained after the class. “The goal is to find something you can say to encourage and to help in a short period of time. Not to fix everything that there is to fix, but just to say, ‘Hey, see you changed something for the better. Keep going.’ Some people see master classes differently and want to tear everything apart. I don’t like that. I like encouraging kids.” He offered a lot of encouraging words for the three high school trumpeters who bravely played excerpts for him in front of an audience of about 100 people, many of whom were young trumpet students or trumpet teachers. Each of the three teens, who are students of Jim Hamlin in the Juilliard Pre-College Division, played excerpts from trumpet solos. Mr. Smith interrupted each teen after a few measures to compliment the boy’s playing, making comments like “Good stuff!” or “Good tone!” or “Bravo!” That helped t hem feel more at ease. Then he zoomed in on a few aspects of the piece to work on with each student, explaining what he was doing to the audience. More-->	Inside the Philharmonic Philharmonic Journal Spitballs and Trumpets: pg. 2, Encouragement and Challenge