Elmer Churampi
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A spectacular 2016 performance by a 17 or 18 year old trumpet player, Elmer Churampi originally from Lima, Peru.
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Hi SSmith1226,
Great post! I'm familiar with Elmer and what a fine young player. For me, one of Elmer's outstanding qualities (and there's more than one) is his sound. Not bright, not dull but rich and creamy. I hate to admit it but I've used Elmer as an example of things like; how it should sound to start and end a note, sound, phrasing, etc. on my daughter.
It's easy for a kid to think they are good if they are good in a small town. Elmer is just a little older (2-3 years older) and with his trumpet, shows my daughter that there is competition out there and if she wishes to Pass Go and Collect the $200.00, she needs to take practice seriously. They call it playing but it isn't a game. -
@Dr-Mark
Elmar Churampi is considered to be among the best in his age group at what he does. For a moment let us assume that he is in the 99.9 percentile of his age group and level of experience as a classical trumpet player. That means for every 1000 trumpet players at his age and experience level there are 999 who are inferior than him as a classical trumpet player. In a group of 10,000 he will be in the top 10, in a group of 100,000 he will be in the top 100, and in a group of 1,000,000 he will be in the top 1,000. Each sub group can also be stratified into its own bell shaped curve where percentiles can be ranked 0 - 99.9 percentiles. The point of all this being, no matter how hard we try, there will always be someone, somewhere, that is better, even if we are the best within our circle of influence. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to be the best that we can be, but on any given day, even if we are in the 99.9 percentile, there may be many others out there who can do what we strive to do better.
A prime example of this would be olympic sporting competition. An athlete may be the best at a sport in his country which has a population of 300,000,000, but only one competitor in the world wins the gold medal, or for that matter the silver or bronze. The competitor from the country above may come in last in the competition, but still be in the 99.99999 percentile of the world talent pool. So, other then getting depressed over this situation, what can we do to become the next “Elmer Churampi”? Do what it is likely he and many other outliers in the far right of the bell shaped curve have done: As Dr. Mark said, “Take Practice Seriously”. -
Regarding one's competition, it's a way of philosophically looking at who you are.
I realized long ago that I could only do what I can do. Be happy with what you can accomplish. I called myself a "slow burner", LOL; that it might take longer than some of my peers to arrive at a certain point, but that if I persevered, I would eventually get there, too. That's not being complacent and not striving to do your best. Still do your best just see he results realistically.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
For some reason, I had more perseverance, more opportunist and, to be blunt, outlived some of my competition.
BTW. Could posters please break their posts down into shorter paragraphs to help those of us who have eyesight problems read more easily. It would much appreciated. Thanks.
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Hi SSmith1226,
You stated;
" no matter how hard we try, there will always be someone, somewhere, that is better, even if we are the best within our circle of influence."That has been my experience throughout my life. However, there will be times if we work hard toward a goal, there will be brief but delicious moments when we're as good as it gets. We own the moment and that's (for me) how it works. We get glimpses of greatness only when it's surrounded by buckets of tedious dedicated work. Damned that reminds me. Instead of Internetting, I need to be working on a Bach piece (my current dragon) that's been giving me fits.
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@Kehaulani said in Elmer Churampi:
Regarding one's competition, it's a way of philosophically looking at who you are.
Hi Kehaulani,
From my perspective about music performance, there's no such thing as competition. Its psychology. A person can only better themselves and thinking in competitive mindset can be detrimental. It's the same with golf, darts, and bowling. Only you can make you better. I use Elmer on my daughter to show her that she isn't the only good under 18 trumpet player out there. It also serves to inspire her too. She has said more than once how she likes Elmer's sound. -
@Dr-Mark said in Elmer Churampi:
Hi SSmith1226,
You stated;
" no matter how hard we try, there will always be someone, somewhere, that is better, even if we are the best within our circle of influence."That has been my experience throughout my life. However, there will be times if we work hard toward a goal, there will be brief but delicious moments when we're as good as it gets. We own the moment and that's (for me) how it works. We get glimpses of greatness only when it's surrounded by buckets of tedious dedicated work. Damned that reminds me. Instead of Internetting, I need to be working on a Bach piece (my current dragon) that's been giving me fits.
Which brings me back to where I ended that post:
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I am against competition in the Arts and always have been. However, the reality is that there are some that are. To be honest, I think I have a competitive streak in me but that's not where my focus is.
Are there others, highly competitive in nature, who are simply better than me? They would be unhappy being bettered. I am not. As a matter of fact, I look forward to be challenged by my "betters" and to learn from them.
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@Kehaulani said in Elmer Churampi:
"I look forward to be challenged by my "betters" and to learn from them."
We need more people who think like that. In my experience, egos run high and the skin is often thin when it comes to the arts. I've said to my wife and daughter, "If I had my druthers in putting a band together, I'd prefer everyone to be better than me." -
@SSmith1226 said in Elmer Churampi:
@Dr-Mark
Elmar Churampi is considered to be among the best in his age group at what he does. For a moment let us assume that he is in the 99.9 percentile of his age group and level of experience as a classical trumpet player. That means for every 1000 trumpet players at his age and experience level there are 999 who are inferior than him as a classical trumpet player. In a group of 10,000 he will be in the top 10, in a group of 100,000 he will be in the top 100, and in a group of 1,000,000 he will be in the top 1,000. Each sub group can also be stratified into its own bell shaped curve where percentiles can be ranked 0 - 99.9 percentiles. The point of all this being, no matter how hard we try, there will always be someone, somewhere, that is better, even if we are the best within our circle of influence. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to be the best that we can be, but on any given day, even if we are in the 99.9 percentile, there may be many others out there who can do what we strive to do better.
A prime example of this would be olympic sporting competition. An athlete may be the best at a sport in his country which has a population of 300,000,000, but only one competitor in the world wins the gold medal, or for that matter the silver or bronze. The competitor from the country above may come in last in the competition, but still be in the 99.99999 percentile of the world talent pool. So, other then getting depressed over this situation, what can we do to become the next “Elmer Churampi”? Do what it is likely he and many other outliers in the far right of the bell shaped curve have done: As Dr. Mark said, “Take Practice Seriously”.An interesting video on how much practice makes you an “expert”.
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Before this post, I had never heard of Elmer Churampi; but now, I consider him the legitimate heir of Maurice André. Don't misunderstand me - there are many excellent players out there, each and every one with their own personal style and area of excellence. I admire every single one of them, be it Tine Thing Helseth, Alison Balsom, Hakan Hardenberger, Guy Touvron, or Sergey Nakariakov, or... whoever. But no one after the sad demise of MA quite got that mixture of silky smoothness with technical brilliance and - from what I gather - a likeable personality. Elmer Churampi nails that. His performance of the Hummel is remarkabl near MA's style, yet is no mere copy. I raise my hat and a few celebratory glasses to the young guy!
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@SSmith1226 said in Elmer Churampi:
An interesting video on how much practice makes you an “expert”.
I am a firm believer in the 10,000 hour rule, at least for we mortals. As for Elmer Churampi, that rule need not be followed as some truly amazing individuals such as he has extraordinary synapses that do not require those 10,000 hours to organize.
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@Dr-GO said in Elmer Churampi:
@SSmith1226 said in Elmer Churampi:
I am a firm believer in the 10,000 hour rule, at least for we mortals. As for Elmer Churampi, that rule need not be followed as some truly amazing individuals such as he has extraordinary synapses that do not require those 10,000 hours to organize.
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I was just talking to my beginners this morning about 10,000 hours. One of my favorite quotes (paraphrased) is most people don't lack the desire to be good, rather they lack the desire to do what it takes to be good.
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FWIW I think adherence to The 10,000 Hour Rule is ridiculous. How does one quantify something like craft development?
But to represent a goal to move towards, it is a strong motivator. It's not the strict adherence to the Rule that's important, it's what lies behind that principle; that it takes an enormous amount of hard, concentrated work.
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Hi Kehaulani,
The 10,000 hour rule just doesn't wash (It's been debunked so many times, I can't count all of them. Just Google it.). It took me at best 30 hours of concentrated effort to train my dog to understand and do commands ( however, for those who own a dog, training never stops). What I think is slipping under the radar, is that people with skills like Elmer are often driven to play, almost like a compulsion. People like that do not see the trumpet and what it takes to be good as an enormous amount of hard, concentrated work. They are like a child compelled to play with a new toy and if they aren't playing the trumpet, they're thinking about trumpet. They just can't leave the trumpet alone. There are people on this site that know exactly what I mean and for those that don't, that's okay. Trumpet, for a few, is a drug. Most people do not want to face the dragon of practicing and only practice when they have to. However, for some people, practicing the horn is a drug and their dragon is figuring out how some piece or piece of a song goes. -
This post is deleted! -
Update two years later:
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Ahhh... from what you posted, he has definitely fulfilled 10.000 hours... So the 10,000 hour rule does apply. (1,500 hours in dog years)
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@A Former User said in Elmer Churampi:
...However, for some people, practicing the horn is a drug and their dragon is figuring out how some piece or piece of a song goes.After 10,000 hours of practicing, I am dragon!