ABSTRACT
I developed my ear on the New York subways. The train ride between my high school, Brooklyn Tech, and Washington Heights took about forty minutes. I would choose a song that was popular, tune out the roar and clitter-clatter, and try to write out the notes and rhythms on a piece of music paper. When I got home I would test it on my trumpet. At some point I tried to write the names of the chords by ear and was able to test these when my folks got a piano for my brother. I taught my brother, Herbert, who was nine or ten at the time, to play chords from a “fake book,” to hit the bass note with his left hand and then the three- or four-part chord with his right so he could accompany me, um-pa-um-pa, as I played my trumpet. Our big tunes were “Margie” and the “Sunny Side of the Street.” This gave me the courage to start a band.
