Thursday, January 11, 2018

Rolf Smedvig Trumpet Exercise Book Now Available

It's been a couple of years since we released the Rolf Smedvig Haydn and Hummel Trumpet Concerto DVDs.  One of the things that was mentioned in the DVDs is that some bonus technical exercises were included with the product.  Many of you have written in to ask about these as you couldn't find them under the DVD bonus features section.

Before Rolf's tragic passing he had given us a stack of hand-written exercises and notes for us to publish an exercise booklet as a companion to the DVDs, along with the beautiful editions of the concertos that are already available for free download on our website.  It took us a little while to compile and edit this booklet, but we are happy to announce that it is now available for download.

If you head to the Haydn or Hummel DVD product pages you will now find a link to download the Technical Exercises Booklet as a PDF.  We hope you enjoy it (as much as one enjoys technical exercises anyway!) and find it useful during your musical journey, and as an organization we are very happy to have been involved in Rolf's continuing educational legacy.

Musically Yours,


Chad Tindel
Founder & CEO

Learning from the Legends

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

High Definition Streaming Now Available!

It’s been a year since we released the Haydn and Hummel Trumpet Concerto DVDs from the legendary Rolf Smedvig, and look at some of the great feedback we’ve been receiving:


"These are excellent pedagogical videos... they are Rolf's parting legacy for young trumpeters and their teachers."
-- Barry Kilpatrick, Reviewer, American Record Guide (January/February 2016 edition)


"Smedvig’s pedagogical advice is excellent… The value of this resource is immense for musicians of all levels.  Gaining a window into both the musical interpretation and approach to the trumpet by a musician of Smedvig’s caliber is fascinating… This disc would be a fine addition to the collections of students and performers of all ability levels."
-- Dr. Jason Crafton
Reviewer, International Trumpet Guild Journal (October 2016)
Assistant Professor of Trumpet, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA


Learning from the Legends is proud to announce today a giant leap
into the future: We now have High Definition online streaming options
for all of our music lessons.  They are available in the Amazon Video
Store for musicians in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom,
Australia, and New Zealand.  Here are some links to get you started:
Each work is structured as a season of a TV show so you can buy only the parts ("episodes") that you need.  Some examples:
  • You're a trumpet student preparing a single movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto for honor band auditions, now you can buy just the "episode" teaching that you movement.
  • You're a high school teacher and would like to purchase only the performance of Lara St. John performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Piano Accompaniment in a recital setting to show your students in class, now you can buy just the Recital Performance "Episode"
  • You want all the material, including the bonus features found on the full DVD, you can purchase the entire "Season" and get the full bundle.

We're excited to have all these great options available and we hope you
enjoy them as well.  We have received a lot of great testimonials from
students, parents, and educators and we'd always like to hear more!  Please
email feedback@learningfromthelegends.com or contact us on Facebook or Twitter
if you have feedback for us.


We expect to continue growing our lesson offerings, but we need your help to do it!
You can assist us in getting the word out to everyone you know. We are currently
developing production plans to produce two Flute lessons featuring another
world-renowned artist.  We would very much like to get into the studio
as soon as possible to start creating, but we can’t do it without the continued
success of our violin and trumpet lessons.  Please help us make this dream a reality!


Musically Yours,


Chad Tindel
Founder & CEO

Learning from the Legends

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Two new trumpet DVDs shipping today

Learning from the Legends made history in 2014 by publishing the first-ever set of classical music education lessons meant for advanced students, and the release was a smashing success!  Just look at some of these testimonials we received for our Mendelssohn and Bruch DVDs from luminaries such as John Corigliano, Aaron Dworkin, and Philippe Quint.  In that initial post we said that our long term goal was to “expand our line to include all the string, brass, and woodwind instruments as well as several vocal ranges.”

Today we take the next step by releasing two fantastic products featuring Rolf Smedvig, Founder and Leader of the Empire Brass Quintet for more than 40 years as well as the former Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  These releases cover the Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat and the Hummel Trumpet Concerto which are widely recognized as two “must-learn” works for all trumpet students. Learning from the Legends has designed these lessons specifically to help you prepare for any performance scenario, including:

  • Auditions for prestigious honor bands and orchestras
  • Audition selections at universities or conservatories
  • Preparing for a private recital

Our products provide you with everything you need to supplement private instruction in order to improve your performance and understanding of these works. In addition to measure-by-measure instruction, we also include:

  • Performance examples from Rolf Smedvig and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
  • Piano Accompaniment Practice Tracks - to hone your performance skills playing along with a piano practice track provided exclusively by Learning from the Legends
  • Special edition Bb and Eb trumpet sheet music with piano accompaniment edited by Rolf Smedvig and Matt Carson
  • Technical exercise book designed to help you prepare for these two works
  • Extensive demonstrations of technical exercises which you can use to fine-tune the skills needed for this concerto

Our sheet music, which we consider to be the finest editions of these works ever published, is freely available for download on our website.  We consider this our way of giving something back to the music world and we hope students and professionals all over the world find use and enjoyment from what we have created.

Initial releases are in DVD format and are available for sale from a number of outlets including learningfromthelegends.com and amazon.com.  We will soon follow up with releases for HD streaming in the Amazon Instant Video store, including our previous violin releases featuring Lara St. John.

We expect to continue growing this product line, but we need your help to do it!  You can assist us in getting the word out to everyone you know. We are currently developing production plans to produce two Flute DVDs featuring the wonderful and world-renowned Andrea Griminelli.  We would very much like to get into the studio as soon as possible to create these DVDs but we can’t do it without the continued success of our violin and trumpet lessons.  Please help us make this dream a reality!

Musically Yours,

Chad Tindel
Founder & CEO

Learning from the Legends

Friday, May 16, 2014

Welcome to Learning from the Legends!


Four years ago we set out on a mission based on a simple idea - to bring high quality music education into the homes of students all around the world. We recognize that music education budgets are being cut all over the world; the majority of instrumental students may not have access to private instruction, and therefore never master the most essential repertoire for their instruments. It is our goal to provide to all music students access to lessons taught by world-renowned performers of the absolute highest caliber.
Today we take the first step towards reaching that goal. We have made generally available for online purchase two DVDs taught by the phenomenal violinist Lara St. John: Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64. These works are part of the core violin repertoire that all violinists must learn, and are often used as audition selections for universities and conservatories, as well as prestigious honor orchestras.
Our products provide you with everything you need to supplement private instruction in order to improve your performance and understanding of these works. In addition to measure-by-measure instruction, we also provide you with:
  • A full performance of each concerto allowing the viewer to see and hear the works performed with piano accompaniment in an audition context
  • Piano Accompaniment Practice Tracks - to hone their performance skills playing along with a piano practice track provided exclusively by Learning from the Legends
  • Special edition downloadable sheet music, edited by Lara St. John and Joey Corpus
  • Extensive demonstrations of technical exercises which students can use to fine-tune the skills needed for this concerto
  • We will quickly follow these releases with two DVDs for trumpet taught by former principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Rolf Smedvig. These productions cover arguably the two most important works in trumpet repertoire: Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major and Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto. These products are nearing release, and are currently finishing up post-production. We expect them to be ready for purchase by Thanksgiving 2014.

Initial releases of everything will be on physical DVD available through a number of online and physical retailers, but should be quickly followed up with digital releases available in iTunes and Amazon Instant Video. If you aren’t able to find a purchasing outlet in your location please contact us and we’ll see what we can do!
Our long-term goal is of course to expand our line to include all the string, brass, and woodwind instruments as well as several vocal ranges. This collection will grow over time, and we look forward to working with the musical community to make this dream a reality!
Musically yours,
Chad Tindel
Founder & CEO
Learning from the Legends