Jeff Purtle is a trumpet player, clinician, and private teacher with international clientele. It is Purtle’s goal to preserve the legacy of Herbert L. Clarke and Claude Gordon and convey what makes their teaching unique and revolutionary to this day.
Purtle studied trumpet ten years with Claude Gordon, who in turn was taught by Herbert L. Clarke for ten years. Purtle was one of a select few to be directly “certified” by Claude Gordon after an intense pedagogy class and tests with other long time students. Purtle worked at the Claude Gordon Brass Conferences as a counselor and taught practical application of Claude Gordon’s methods. Ultimately, this culminated in Purtle becoming a “certified” teacher.
Purtle’s students are in orchestras, ensembles, and brass soloists around the world, in all branches of the US military and even creating newly published method books showing how to apply these concepts and “take it farther” as Clarke encouraged Gordon to do.
The Claude Gordon Archives on Purtle’s website contain 200+ hours of free audio of masterclasses from CG Camps and audio of several years of Susan Slaughter’s crash course private lessons with Claude Gordon after she had already become principal trumpet of the Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra.
The articles and contents of this website lead Purtle to become one of the first to teach online internationally in 2004, personalizing private lessons previously only possible in person. International students and masterclasses soon followed.
Purtle has been published in a four issue series of articles for the late Philip Biggs’ The Brass Herald in 2008-2009. Additional work has been published in the International Trumpet Guild Journal. Purtle has also been cited in several doctoral thesis and other papers as an authority on Claude Gordon and Herbert L. Clarke.
In 2016 Purtle published a multitouch book on Apple Books called Hit It Hard and Wish It Well that preserved 110 minutes of Claude Gordon video as it was interspersed between written chapters and additional demo videos and illustrations not possible with a paper book.
Purtle has given masterclasses at the International Trumpet Guild Conference and regional music conventions and to schools in the USA, England, Scotland and Wales.
The Purtle Brass Conferences were innovative with recognition by Telestream for the use of their Wirecast software as early as 2010. These conferences included live remote interviews and recording sessions in a way never done before or since then.
Purtle’s YouTube channel is filled with videos of conferences, interviews, and 60 second summaries of method books and answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s). Interviews with great players such as Lee Loughnane from the pop group Chicago and Frank Kaderabek of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and David Hickman, noted brass pedagogue. These interviews convey life experiences with a focus on the love of consistent practice and how to do it.
Purtle was Trumpet Professor at Clemson University for five years and Anderson University (South Carolina) for eleven years. While at AU he hosted and self-funded his brass conferences with an annual budget of over $20,000 to bring-in top brass artists such as Susan Slaughter and the Monarch Brass, Harry Kim, Carl Lenthe, Philippe Schartz, Bob O’Donnell and supporting musicians from Atlanta thereby attracting an international audience in person and online. Jeff also hosted the South Carolina ITG Conference with Steve Patrick, Alan Siebert, and Sabine Klaus.
See some YouTube Videos from Jeff…
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How Herbert L. Clarke fixed Claude Gordon’s Trumpet Playing – Part 1 of 4
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Brass Playing Is No Harder Than Deep Breathing Summary
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Getting The Most from Private Lessons
