Trumpet Lessons

Free Skype Lesson

2010-07-23T02:10:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post I've started giving Skype (webcam) trumpet lessons. After initial hesitation I actually really like how it works and find that it's very effective. I know that most of you probably have your doubts about a webcam lesson, which is why I will give you a free 30 minute lesson with no obligation to continue. I don't even care if you don't plan on continuing, just take a free lesson and see what you think. You read more about me, listen to sound clips, read my articles and contact me at my main site jasonpellett.com.

Atlanta Brass Alliance Listening Room has moved

2010-07-22T13:17:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the second post on this, but I wanted a post so that people googling my old website would find this. The Listening Room, full of great trumpet clips, is now at my new website, www.jasonpellett.com. You can find it at the bottom of my soundclips page. I even added a bunch of additional out of print Maurice Andre stuff (including the Arutounian).

You can also find out about trumpet and trombone lessons, educational programs, hear sound clips of me, and more.

New website

2010-07-14T11:57:00.000-05:00

Please visit my new website: www.JasonPellett.com

Find out about trumpet and trombone lessons, educational programs, hear soundclips of me, and more.

Skype lessons

2009-12-16T15:52:00.002-05:00

I had resisted giving online lessons because I didn't think it would be an adequate substitute for a teacher in the same room, but I just gave my first Skype lesson and was surprised how effective it was. Email me (jpellett251@gmail.com) if you are interested. A lesson is $45.

Best Of

2007-01-10T01:58:00.000-05:00

As opposed to some other types of blogs, the stuff I write here doesn't really get less relevant with the passage of time, yet my older posts are stuck in the oblivion of the archives. I have some old posts that I didn't want to get lost forever, so I decided to find all of what I consider my most helpful posts and put them here in the order that I wrote them for your ease and reading enjoyment. I want to especially draw atention to the Artless Art series. I know it's been a while since I've really updated, but I'll have some new stuff soon.

Sound Production
The Journey
Random Tip
Random Tip 2
High Attacks
Lyrical Playing, part I
Lyrical Playing, part II
Before the Beginning
Follow-through
Performance
Random Tip 3
Artless Art
Artless Art, part II
Artless Art, part III
Expectations
Singing

On importance

2006-11-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

If you have read much of what I have written you know that I stress the idea that it really doesn't matter what comes out of your trumpet, and in the grand scheme of things the trumpet is really pretty unimportant. I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression though, so I'll give you this Ghandi quote: "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

Singing

2006-08-14T00:35:00.000-05:00

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the single thing that will help your playing more than anything else is singing. Sing everything. When you are practicing sing everything before you play it. Try to sing with the sound that you want to play trumpet with which includes your pitch, articulations, projection, and resonance. When you play trumpet afterwards don't just turn your ears off; focus as much on the sound as when singing.

Some Variety

2006-08-01T01:03:00.000-05:00

Maurice Andre-Brandenburg Concerto #II

Lee Morgan-A night in Tunisia

Expectations

2006-07-29T16:13:00.000-05:00

At the risk of sounding like I'm writing a self help book, I think it is important to say that you are capable of much more than you think. When I teach lessons I always start off by doing a bit of call and response with my student, starting with playing on the leadpipe and moving through various long tone, arpeggio, tonguing exercises, etc.

Especially with younger students it does not take long before they have no idea what notes they are actually playing, and are just listening and watching me and then copying. I usually extend their range up as high as possible without excessive tension or pressure. I will then ask them to read some music, and I quite frequently get the response "I can't play that high" or something similar, even though we just played considerably higher with no problem (though they don't know that). I tell them to play it anyway, and most of the time they do fail in their attempt to hit that high note that they were convinced couldn't be hit. I then show them that they actually just played higher, and we go through part of the warmup again with them knowing this, but still just focused on the sound. Now when they attempt the impossible piece, they can magically play that high note.

Except of course that it's not magic. As my previous posts have been pointing out, thinking about the possibility of failure invariably leads to the kind of tension that causes problems on trumpet (and virtually anything else you do). This is one of the reasons that good practice is so crucial. Practicing in a focused, consistent manner leads to consistency in playing, which leads to less thoughts of failure, which leads to better playing. Like I said in my last post, Clarke studies are great for this (with a metronome), focusing on sound, precision, and airflow (Simply focusing on sound will take care of precision by itself, but you must listen very closely and have a clear idea of what you want to sound like. You get ragged edges in your playing when you don't have this clear idea).

Artless Art, part III

2006-07-28T01:23:00.000-05:00

Make sure you have read Artless Art, parts I and II before continuing.

After reading my previous posts you may be thinking to yourself, "that all sounds great, but how do I actually train my mind to not care?" And the answer (as if it could be anything else) is practice. Yes, you already practice, but what are you training yourself to do with the way that you practice now? Practice that leads us away from our goal is useless. It is difficult for the mind to retrain itself, so we must use the body to train the mind.

I find that the most effective way to achieve this transformation is to treat trumpet playing as a ritual, and this must be done every single time the horn comes up to the lips. During this ritual it is important to not be concerned with playing trumpet, and simply focus on the ritual. We start before the horn comes up (you can actually do this part now). Most people have an unbelievable amount of tension built up in the facial muscles, and we will release that tension.

Start with your lips touching. Now, feel the muscles around your cheek bone just let go, as though they are dropping to the floor, and gradually transfer this feeling down to the bottom of your cheeks. Give it time, and let all of the tension leave. Release the tension in the corners of your lips, and feel that move towards the center of your lips (which are still together). Let the area above the lips let go and drop your lips to the ground.

In this relaxed state, bring the trumpet to the lips without changing the lips. Once the trumpet is on the lips go through the process again. You want to be comfortable with the trumpet just sitting on your lips with no thought of playing. It should feel natural, and you should not be antsy to play. Now that you have the trumpet comfortably on your relaxed lips you start the countoff, for we always breathe in rhythm (preferably with a metronome). 1...2...3...inhale (a huge, deep inhale) which you do not stop, but which is interrupted by the sound that you hear vividly in your head. The external results (the way you sound) may not be pleasant for a while, but it doesn't matter. Just keep practicing and listening harder to get a more detailed sound model in your head.

It is extremely important to not cheat yourself by letting a little tension stay because you feel more secure with it. It may help to do this a few times without going past the point of the inhale, so that you get used to not thinking about playing as you go through the ritual.

Besides this ritual, I find Clarke studies and songs (like those in The Art of Phrasing section of the Arban) to be great for moving past just starting a note to playing whole phrases. Keep your focus on the sound that you have vividly in your head and on keeping your air moving through the trumpet.

Random

2006-07-20T03:21:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to watching the movie Madea's Family Reunion, which I was in. I am on-screen as a member of the wedding band, but more exciting for me is that I wrote and played the fanfare announcing the entrance of the bride. I was a little dissapointed in the take that they ended up using because the other trumpet player and I did not start quite together. For reasons that were not clear to me, they had us standing on opposite sides of the room from each other to do the recording as they videotaped people on-screen pretending to play the fanfare, and they chose the take that we flubbed the beginning (it lined up the best with the actors and they were behind schedule). I won't complain too much though. It's pretty cool hearing yourself play in a major movie, and even better that I wrote it. You can hear it here (I only wrote the fanfare, not the cheesy stuff that comes after). If you see the movie I am the guy sitting to the left of Maya Angelou.

Trumpet Lessons Delivered to You

2006-07-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

I know that my posting can be sporadic, so you can sign up
here to get emails of all of my new posts.

Pines of Rome

2006-07-14T04:18:00.000-05:00

John Head was my teacher in college, and here he is playing the Pines of Rome offstage solo with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. That is the way a trumpet should sound. Rich, resonant, and effortless.

Artless Art, part II

2006-07-14T02:10:00.000-05:00

(If you have not yet read my post Artless Art, do so before continuing with the current post)

I will work backwards from the passages that I excerpted in my previous post and first look at this:

I had to admit to the master that this interpretation made me more confused than ever. "For ultimately," I said, "I draw the bow and loose the shot in order to hit the target. The drawing is thus a means to an end, and I cannot lose sight of this connection. The child knows nothing of this, but for me the two things cannot be disconnected."

"The right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen."

I can't do a better job than the Master at describing the concept (I am no master), but I will try to add a little bit and relate it to trumpet. The preceding passage gets to the heart of the title of my post, Artless Art, which certainly sounds nonsensical at first. Zen has been called the "everyday mind," which basically means that tasks are carried out without unnecessary analysis and concern. The body does many complex things when eating or talking, yet we do not concern ourselves with interfering in the process. When we are hungry we eat, when we need to communicate we talk. The body is capable of great things if we don't get in the way, which is where artless art comes in.

When we think of art we rarely think of it is being a normal, everyday occurrence. It is given an importance above the everyday, and therefore we analyze our actions more, and consciously get involved in the process, which only interferes with what the body is capable of doing (if you tense up before you play a note you are getting involved in the process). Artless art occurs therefore when art ceases to be treated differently than the everyday, when you have no more desire to tense up or worry about the results from playing trumpet than sitting down. I wrote more about this previously, before I started learning about Zen.

And now the first part of the excerpt hopefully makes more sense:

"I understand well enough," I said, "that the hand mustn't be opened with a jerk if the shot is not to be spoiled. But however I set about it, it always goes wrong. If I clench my hand as tightly as possible, I can't stop it shaking when I open my fingers. If, on the other hand, I try to keep it relaxed, the bowstring is torn from my grasp before the full stretch is reached-unexpextedly, it is true, but still too early. I am caught between these two kinds of failure and see no way of escape." "You must hold the drawn bowstring," answered the Master, "like a little child holding the proffered finger. It grips it so firmly that one marvels at the strength of the tiny fist. And when it lets the finger go, there is not the slightest jerk. Do you know why? Because a child doesn't think: I will now let go of the finger in order to grasp this other thing. Completely unself-consciously, without purpose, it turns from one to the other, and we would say that it was playing with the things, if it were not equally true that the things are playing with the child."

"Maybe I understand what you are hinting at with this comparison," I remarked. "But am I not in an entirely different situation? When I have drawn the bow, the moment comes when I feel: unless the shot comes at once I shan't be able to endure the tension. And what happens then? Merely that I get out of breath. So I must loose the shot at once whether I want to or not, because I can't wait for it any longer."

"You have described only too well," replied the Master, "where the difficulty lies. Do you want to know why you cannot wait for the shot and why you get out of breath before it has come? The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fullfillment, but brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way-like the hand of a child. Your hand does not burst open like the skin of a ripe fruit."

When you realize that playing trumpet is just an everyday task you can let go like a child. There is no need to hold your air back after an inhale, no need to build up pressure, no need to tense the face. Breathe in and let go. Let the sound take you by suprise as though you are just an observer and vividly imagine the sound that you want the player to sound like.

Again, I would recommend getting a copy of the book yourself.

(update 9/12) Continue to Artless Art, part III.

Woody Play

2006-07-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

You listen (from Woody Shaw: Setting Standards).

And to make your day complete, how about some Freddie Hubbard (from Art Blakey: Free For All) and Booker Little (from Booker Little: Out Front)

Something Different

2006-07-12T03:57:00.000-05:00

This doesn't have to do with trumpet, but this may be of interest if you are looking for new, exciting methods of music education. I got involved with a program at Georgia State University called Sound Learning. The point of Sound Learning is that musicians have residencies in schools and instead of the standard approach of going in, talking a little bit about the instruments, and playing a lame concert (okay, they're not all lame), the musicians actually collaborate with the teachers to set up a project that is related to the curriculum and gets the students actively involved in making music.

I did residencies in two schools this past year, working with an entire grade level in each school. For the residency with 2nd graders at Fernbank Elementary I was a composer and worked with a woodwind quintet. We explored how composers use music to represent other things (for examples the quintet played my transcriptions of Debussy's The Sea and Saint-Saens's The Elephant). The teachers wanted us to relate to the states of water and the water cycle, so we decided to have the students help me compose a piece with a sections representing the three states of water.

The students were responsible for coming up with the themes and quite a bit of the accompaniment for each state of water, plus the instrumentation of the themes and the form of the piece. I provided transitions, fleshed out the instrumentation, wrote parts for the children to sing, plus translated their notation. Finally, the children performed and recorded the pieces with the wodwind quintet. You can see how all of this worked and listen to all of the pieces here. Here is one class's piece.

The other residency with 3rd graders at Centennial Place Elementary I worked with Adam Neal, and we guided the students to write and record their own songs. Though we guided them, all music was actually written and performed by the students. The students were broken up into groups of about 4-5, and their songs had to be about the body systems. You can read about our process and listen to all of the songs here, but here is one of them to listen to.

Artless Art

2006-07-11T01:44:00.000-05:00

The book Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel, has had a profound effect on my playing. I would highly recommend getting a copy yourself, but I have pulled out one of the passages that I found to be particularly illuminating.

Herrigel, who was a German philosopher, traveled to Japan to gain an understanding of Zen. In the pursuit of this understading he studied archery for six years with a Zen Master. In this passage, Herrigel has been having trouble loosing the shot smoothly (letting go of the arrow).

The Master was evidenty less horrified by my failure than I myself. Did he know from experience that it would come to this? "Don't think of what you have to do, don't consider how to carry it out!" he exclaimed. "The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by suprise. It must be as if the bowstring suddenly cut though the thumb that held it. You mustn't open the right hand on purpose."

After months of fruitless practice, Herrigel has this conversation with the Master:

"I understand well enough," I said, "that the hand mustn't be opened with a jerk if the shot is not to be spoiled. But however I set about it, it always goes wrong. If I clench my hand as tightly as possible, I can't stop it shaking when I open my fingers. If, on the other hand, I try to keep it relaxed, the bowstring is torn from my grasp before the full stretch is reached-unexpextedly, it is true, but still too early. I am caught between these two kinds of failure and see no way of escape." "You must hold the drawn bowstring," answered the Master, "like a little child holding the proffered finger. It grips it so firmly that one marvels at the strength of the tiny fist. And when it lets the finger go, there is not the slightest jerk. Do you know why? Because a child doesn't think: I will now let go of the finger in order to grasp this other thing. Completely unself-consciously, without purpose, it turns from one to the other, and we would say that it was playing with the things, if it were not equally true that the things are playing with the child."

"Maybe I understand what you are hinting at with this comparison," I remarked. "But am I not in an entirely different situation? When I have drawn the bow, the moment comes when I feel: unless the shot comes at once I shan't be able to endure the tension. And what happens then? Merely that I get out of breath. So I must loose the shot at once whether I want to or not, because I can't wait for it any longer."

"You have described only too well," replied the Master, "where the difficulty lies. Do you want to know why you cannot wait for the shot and why you get out of breath before it has come? The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fullfillment, but brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way-like the hand of a child. Your hand does not burst open like the skin of a ripe fruit."

I had to admit to the master that this interpretation made me more confused than ever. "For ultimately," I said, "I draw the bow and loose the shot in order to hit the target. The drawing is thus a means to an end, and I cannot lose sight of this connection. The child knows nothing of this, but for me the two things cannot be disconnected."

"The right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen."

I will leave you with that for now. I don't want to guide your thinking too much right now by saying how I relate that passage to my playing, but I would love it if you would join more for a discussion in the comments. I plan on coming back to this passage and the rest of the book a few more times, so try and read it yourself (it's cheap and only about 80 pages).

(update 7/18) Continue to Artless Art, part II.

Random Tip

2006-07-09T15:36:00.000-05:00

Do not buzz your lips. I know your band director probably tells you to, but it is one of the biggest causes of almost all problems related to trumpet playing. You just blow through relaxed, close lips. They will start to vibrate, but you should not be consciously forcing your lips to vibrate.

It's Been a While

2006-06-29T04:36:00.000-05:00

Those of you who have been coming here for a while no doubt noticed the lack of posting the last 2 months. I have been changing my approach and thought it best to not confuse anybody with concepts that I am still working out. I have been teaching with these concepts with a lot of success, so I will start writing about them soon. For an idea of what I am working on, you can read this post of mine from a few weeks ago at the Trumpet Herald. This intense, sound based approach has opened up a whole new world to me, and I will try to get back to more regular posting about it soon. All I'll say for now is to listen closer. There is a lot more going on in your sound than you have probably experienced, and you should be aware of all the details.

Great Student Horns For Sale

2006-06-28T23:30:00.000-05:00

I have been collecting Olds Ambassador trumpets and cornets because they are by far the greatest student trumpets ever made. If you (or your parents) are throwing money away on a rental trumpet you will end up saving a lot of money and playing a much better trumpet if you get one of these from me. All are under $200, and I give them a thorough cleaning and make sure that the valves and slides are in good working order. I'll eventually get around to putting up a page with all of them, but for now just email me (jpellett251@hotmail.com) and I will let you know what I have available.

Lip Slurs

2006-04-20T02:28:00.000-05:00

There are many sources for lip slur exercises, but here (and here for trombone) is one that I came up with that I especially like (though I would not be suprised if this exercise has been written elsewhere). An important thing to keep in mind is that you play higher by bring the lips towards each other, and not by tightening them. I often see players who in tightening their lips actually pull them apart. At that point all you can do is rely on mouthpiece pressure, which is never what you want. Bring the lips together and have a constant wall of air pushing at the lips. The best way to keep a good airstream is to focus on your sound. Start down low with a good, resonant sound, and maintain that sound as you ascend. When practicing lip slurs it is especially important to use a metrome so that you don't just let the notes come out when they want to. You are in control.

Random Tip #4

2006-03-25T00:58:00.000-05:00

Imagine your tongue pushing air into the horn instead of stopping the air.

Top Lip

2006-03-14T01:16:00.000-05:00

I pay very close attention to the way my students look when they play, and something that I recently started to notice in several of them led to a fairly quick improvement in their playing. I noticed that their top lip tended to actually rise up while ascending so that the apeture (opening in the lips) was at or above their top teeth. Basically, it was just being pushed around by the bottom lip and increasing mouthpiece pressure, so the size of the apeture was not really changing very much as the bottom lip pushed up. It is important to keep the top lip down in the airstream as you ascend. Even if you don't think that you are the extreme case that I described there is a good chance that you could benefit from a more active involvement by the top lip. I think that getting the top lip down into the airstream will be a big help in getting rid of the detrimental smile embouchure.

Play Along

2006-02-27T01:30:00.000-05:00

Jazz players have a long history of playing along with recordings, whether to transcribe a solo and learn to play it exactly how it was played on the record or to just jam along. Since I have split my time pretty evenly between jazz and classical I have done quite a bit of this. I just recently realized that it is at least as helpful for my classical playing as my jazz. I have always worked on phrasing by singing along with recordings, but it is completely different to actually play and try to perfectly match with your horn. I've learned quite a bit of subtle things in my playing in the last week from playing along with guys like Maurice Andre, Reinhold Freidrich, and Matthias Hofs. I think I will sit in with the Chicago Symphony tomorrow and see how well I can blend with Bud (this is where having a huge stack of orchestral parts comes in handy).

Random Tip #3

2006-02-23T02:13:00.000-05:00

You play a wind instrument. Everything you do with your lips and tongue is aimed at manipulating your air stream. If air is not moving freely it does not matter what you do with your lips and tongue. A great brass teacher (probably Arnold Jacob, but I don't remember) said to blow from your lips. Feeling your air moving at the lips is extremely important. You can convince yourself that you are blowing hard by tightening up the muscles in your chest and neck, but what you really need is to feel airflow through the lips. When you have that happening you will find that your lips and tongue don't need to work nearly as hard as you thought.

Performance

2006-02-23T02:01:00.000-05:00

I would like to continue along the same lines as my previous post. Bud Herseth has said that if you get nervous in auditions you don't deserve the job. There are of course many people that would disagree with that, but let's try to figure out why he thinks that. It is pretty safe to assume that you do not get nervous when you are playing a song for yourself with nobody listening. At that point your thoughts are focused on the music. What changes from that to a performance? An audience of course, and it is when you worry about what they are going to think that you can get nervous. Bud recognizes that if music making is your only concern you won't get nervous, and music making should be your only concern when performing. A performance in which the music is the your thought will inevitably be a better performance. You are playing because you love to play, and that should be what is behind your playing every time the horn is on your face. You should approach playing so that not only do you not care how you sound, but you can't care what other people think. Play beautiful music and forget about everything else. With this attitude you will not only get rid of nerves, but you will enjoy yourself every time you play.

Follow-through

2006-02-15T00:47:00.000-05:00

I have gotten an amazing amount of feedback about this post in which I discuss not caring about what you sound like. As that concept seemed to resonate with quite a few of you I am going to expand on it in the next few posts.

One of the most problematic symptoms of overthinking is hesitancy. This tends to show up most frequently in attacks, with a tense pause just before the attack and a pulling back of air immediately after the attack. I have a great exercise to combat this, which can hopefully be applied to the rest of your playing as well. This requires a metronome, so if you don't have one yet you should get one (you should have one anyway and use it often). Figure out the absolute fastest speed that you can single tongue sixteenth notes and have it set there (if you have no idea how fast you can tongue start with the metronome at about 70 and gradually increase the speed until you can't go any faster). To do the exercise start on a low C and play 4 beats of sixteenth notes followed by a long tone. Work your way up the C major scale resting between each note. The important thing to think about is tonguing no matter what happens. Even if nothing but air is coming out, tongue the whole pattern with perfect rhythm. This means not waiting for the first note to speak to tongue the second note. It's all about the follow-through. Work your way up past the point that you can comfortably play, but be sure that you are still articulating in time. I find that it is also helpful to do this exercise on the mouthpiece. When you play any attack imagine how your air moves while doing this exercise.

Recording

2006-02-06T01:22:00.000-05:00

In a previous post I discussed recording yourself and gave a link to my website with a recording program (Audacity) you could download. I had never actually tried to open the file because it was already on my computer, but I recently realized that it was corrupted. This wouldn't have harmed your computer, it just wouldn't work. I was trying to alleviate some traffic from Audacity's website, but apparently it has to be downloaded directly from their website to work (or I just don't know what I'm doing), so you can get it from them here. If you want the beta version of the more powerful new version get it here (a beta version of a program tends to have bugs that haven't been worked out yet and may not be as stable. Save your work even more often than you would otherwise). Sorry for the inconvenience and have fun recording.

As a side note, if you want much better sound out of your computer setup without spending a lot of money, I just got this usb mixer and it sounds great. Also, they can't advertise their price because it is below the manufacturer's minimum advertised price, but that doesn't stop me. Northern Sound is selling it for $131.00 with free shipping. The advantage of using something like this is that you bypass your computer's sound card which is inevitably awful, you get good EQ controls, multiple inputs, and you may need it in live sound situations.

Norma

2006-02-05T00:35:00.000-05:00

I have been working on a few of the cornet solos in the Arban lately and decided to record some. I have actually been working more on The Little Swiss Boy (#7), but recorded Norma (#12). I realized that I haven't really looked at the 3rd variation at all, so I'll record that in a few days. I have spent most of my time on Variation II, the triple tonguing variation.
Introduction
Theme
Variation I
Variation II

On the Intro, I was going for a cornet type sound, but I think it just sounds flat instead. I have not spent much time on the first variation and it shows, especially near the end. A good performance has an aspect of inevitability to it, where you have no doubt that all the right notes will be played cleanly and with conviction, and I was not there. On the second variation my time is bad on the slurs. I guess it helps me to have my tongue articulating to keep my fingers in time. I should practice it tongued and then do it slurred.

[Update 2/5] I have re-recorded the introduction to try to fix the sound problem in my first take. I think it sounds much better, but there are still a few subtle phrasing issues I would like to address.
Introduction take 2

[Update 2/10] I started working on the 3rd variation, so here is a very preliminary version. I am still working out how to conserve my air to get all the way through it with just one breath near the beginning, and my fingers still need a bit of work. I would like to get it about 20 clicks faster (up to around 180).
Variatation III

Before the Beginning

2006-02-03T02:03:00.001-05:00

An often overlooked aspect of playing the trumpet is what to do before the note is started, but I have found that focusing on this part before the beginning can have at least as much of an impact on your playing as anything that you do once you actually attack.

Start by just closing and relaxing your lips. Without changing your lips at all just put your mouthpiece on your lips. Doing this without doing anything to your lips is quite difficult for most people, and I would recommend doing it in a mirror to make sure that you are not moving or tightening. Now just let it sit there. A few seconds of this will probably feel like a very long time, but just let yourself get comfortable having the mouthpiece sit on your relaxed lips. Don't even think about playing at this point. Now you are going to breath, still without thinking of playing. With your lips firmly on the mouthpiece open your mouth and take in a deep breath. You are not thinking of playing, so there should be no urge to tighten the corners, pull the lips back, or anything else that you have a tendency to do when taking a trumpet breath. The lips stay in contact with the mouthpiece the whole time, but when you open your mouth the middle of your lips will come apart. Do this a few times without playing. Now you will actually play a note, and will start off exactly the same as before, so for everything up through the end of the inhale you are not even thinking about playing trumpet. We left off at taking a deep breath with the mouthpiece on the lips, but with the middle of the lips parted. Before you feel like you are done with your inhale spit the air back out. You don't have to think about blowing, forming an embouchure, or tonguing if you just act like you are spitting something off the end of your tongue. In that motion the air will be redirected without the tension causing gap between inhale and exhale, your lips will touch lightly and you will articulate. Focus on the air moving away from you.

This process takes patience at the beginning and trust at the end, but will lead to a much more relaxed approach which will improve all aspects of your playing.

Lyrical Playing, part II

2006-01-27T23:13:00.000-05:00

Forward Motion. Without it your playing is lifeless and dull, but how do you achieve it? Most players tend to give undue emphasis on downbeats. This is understandable given how music is written and even how it is generally talked about. Most of you have heard the old cliche that jazz emphasizes the upbeats and classical emphasizes the downbeats, so who could blame you for emphasizing them? When you look at music you no doubt think of your music in groups of downbeat-upbeat, downbeat-upbeat, or strong beat(1,3)-weak beat(2,4), strong beat-weak beat. Many of you have also probably heard that in music there is tension and release. This is where our problem comes. Tension is created in the upbeats and "weak beats" and is resolved in the downbeats and "strong beats", but if you group your music into groups of downbeat-upbeat, downbeat-upbeat, downbeat-upbeat you are making release-tension groups instead of tension-release groups. So what's the big deal? Well, the forward motion that drives good performances is created by the tension-release groupings, which means that your emphasis needs to change. Music should be grouped upbeat-downbeat and weak beat-strong beat, with the upbeat and the "weak beat" getting the emphasis and the push (which is why I put quotations around "weak beat").

Confused yet? I have written more extensively about this on my website, which I think makes it easier to understand. I have also analyzed how Maurice Andre groups his notes in the Haydn Concerto so that you can see and hear how a master musician groups his notes. I know that the title of this post is "Lyrical Playing," but apply this to everything. Pay attention to this in everything you listen to and it will quickly become second nature because the other way will just seem awkward and wrong. Up truly is down.

Another Exercise

2006-01-27T21:05:00.000-05:00

You know you've been itching for something else to practice, so here it is (here for trombone). Keep your air moving and tongue it more crisply than you are comfortable doing (aim your tongue through your teeth). Have fun.

Sites of Interest

2006-01-20T12:23:00.000-05:00

Trumpet Exercises, a site courtesy of Tony Rapacciuolo lets you hear how some of the standard trumpet exercises should sound. Don't be intimidated by the back of the Arban.
[update-1/27]Tony has informed me that he does not wish to be taken as an example of how to play the trumpet because he's not a pro, but would appreciate some feedback from you if you listen to his recordings. Listen and decide for yourself if you want to use it as an example.

I realized that most of my referals come from I Was Doing All Right, so I checked it out and decided to share. It details the development of a jazz trumpet player.

Also be sure to check out O.J's Trumpet Page.

Lyrical Playing, part I

2006-01-20T12:02:00.000-05:00

You want your airsream in the lyrical pieces to be as energized and steady as if you were playing fast. It is common in lyrical pieces to play with lack of direction and intensity in an effort to play prettily, but avoid this temptation. Think about accelerating your air all the way to the end of a phrase. An exercise that helps is to just play your leadpipe (take out the tuning slide). You should be playing a steady, unwavering long tone while fingering something technical like a Clarke study and imagining the notes you are fingering (it is quite difficult at first to avoid lipping in the direction of what you are fingering). Take the intensity from that long tone and apply it to lyrical pieces. As an added bonus, this exercise is also great for alleviating excess movement between notes (which is a common culprit for tension, pinched sound, lack of flexibility, and poor endurance). Take any piece that you are working on and play it on the leadpipe with all the correct fingering and articulation, but hold the pitch steady. Aim for a big, lively, open sound.

Bud Play, You Listen

2006-01-14T01:39:00.000-05:00

Mahler Symphonie #3, posthorn solo

High Attacks

2006-01-10T02:41:00.000-05:00

Odds are that you are one of the many players who can play higher if you work your way up to a high note than if you just have to hit a high note out of the blue. You have no doubt found this frustrating, but did you ever wonder why this is the case? If you have been coming here for a while you have hopefully experimented with what I wrote about in this post. Now if you think about what happens when you approach high notes from down low (like in this great exercise), if you are playing with good connection between the notes your air will be moving freely at the beginning of the high note and your lips are probably much more relaxed than when you try to hit the note cold. Basically, you want to approach all notes as though you are already playing. That is why it is so important to not stop between your inhale and exhale and why you should not clamp your lips shut before an attack. You want it to feel as much as possible like you are just jumping in on a note that is already being played.

Besides stopping the air before the exhale and clamping the lips, a big culprit in ruining high attacks is the tongue. Many players have a tendency to pull the tongue back and up in the mouth when playing high, and they exagerate the problem in high attacks. Be aware of this and keep your tongue down and forward at all times. Think about attacks going out instead of up. Your high notes articulations should feel exactly the same as your low note articulations.

Random Tip #2

2006-01-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

Instantaneous change is important for success on trumpet. A piano player told many a while ago about a piano technique, which I believed he called bel canto. It is a melodic technique that involves not lifting up your finger in a melody until you have actually started to play the next note. Every note extends into the next note. This is an exageration of vocal bel canto technique which involves singing a syllable all the way to the next syllable (I believe there is more involved in the technique, but we will just concern ourselves with this). Try to approach playing trumpet like the piano player who lets each note go into the next. You will find that if you are like most trumpet players you have a tendency to either back off slightly between notes or make muscular adjustments in anticipation of the next note while you are still sustaining a note (or both). You need to focus on the note that you are playing up through the very end, and do nothing for the next note until it is actually time for it to start. If you listen to your sound and concentrate on keeping it the same through the whole note this should be much easier. A metronome will also be a huge help.

Random Tip

2005-12-16T18:22:00.000-05:00

If you have bad attacks and feel tight when you play a big part of the solution probably lies at the place between the inhale and exhale. If this is not something you've concentrated on, you probably have a gap between your inhale and exhale which you would not have if you were breathing without the trumpet. In this gap, you are tightening your glottis (this is the thing that you can close in your throat), compressing your air behind your tongue, and probably squezing your lips together. To fix this you need to focus on not letting there be any space between your inhale and exhale. This will feel unsettling at first, but you just have to trust that it will work. When doing this think about not allowing any air compression to build up. Your tongue moves with the air like you are speaking. A lot of people have a tendency to pull the tongue back and then articulate. Avoid the pullback, and just articulate. This should be a continuous free flowing system in both directions.

Something to Try

2005-12-14T01:13:00.000-05:00

I am constantly experimenting with my students to find the best ways to teach them. I have been trying something new for the past few weeks that has led to immediate improvement for many of my students, including some huge range jumps and great improvement in accuracy and attacks. All you do is try to keep the tip of your tongue against the bottom of the bottom teeth at all times. Articulations are done on the bottom of the top teeth with the part of the tongue just behind the tip. As you ascend, push your tongue harder against your bottom teeth. Just mess around with it for a few minutes and see what happens.

How a Trumpet Should Sound

2005-12-03T02:58:00.000-05:00

It is tempting to try to describe it and analyze it, but for your own good I will refrain for the most part. I just want to point out two things. First, it is never forced. It is always a piano singing sound (that doesn't mean that it is always piano, just that it keeps that relaxed, resonant quality). Second, hear the clarity of the articulations. Enough of my rambling. Just listen to what a trumpet should sound like.

Record Yourself

2005-11-22T02:49:00.000-05:00

Something you don't realize until the first time you record yourself is how different your sound is in front of the bell than it is to you when you are playing. Though this is true for virtually all aspects of your sound, I find it to be especially true with your clarity of articulation. For your articulation to show up with the clarity and crispness that you would like on the recording
(which is how the audience will hear you) you will probably have to greatly exaggerate how clearly you tongue, and it may border on what you would consider tasteless from behind the bell. Just experiment and see. Try to match the articulations of great players, like those in my Listening Room (especially the Brass Ensemble recordings). Recording can be done for very cheaply. If you are eading this you probably already have a computer. All you need now is Audacity, a free recording progam that you can download here, and a cheap computer microphone (though if you can, it is worth it to get a nice one). If you have any questions just let me know.

Bach "Magnificat"

2005-11-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

I find it helpful to practice piccolo trumpet pieces on my C trumpet, so yesterday I decided to try the Bach Magnificat.
clip 1 clip 2 clip 3

It took until the last half of the last excerpt for me to relax my air enough for it to feel easy.

Helpful Exercises-continued

2005-10-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

Instead of updating this post I am just writing a new post. I didn't give much guidance on how to practice this exercise previously, and I think that it warrants some additional consideration (trombones see here). The way that I always approached this exercise until recently was like this, concentrating on firmly articulated but tenuto (connected) notes. I still think that it is important and useful to practice it this way, but I have found recently that range can be greatly helped by practicing it like this. This staccato approach with very hard fronts forces the tongue to stay forward, and you should feel the corners of your lips draw towards each other as though they are trying to squeeze the tip of your tongue as you ascend. Don't shy away from it if it seems like you are tonguing too hard. Revel in that pop at the beginning of each note and feel your horn vibrate.

The Best Advice I Can Give

2005-10-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

Go practice (then come back).

The Journey

2005-10-18T03:06:00.000-05:00

It is important to learn to appreciate the journey you are on as a trumpet player. Young players (and many older players) find themselves hampered by debilitating stress and frustration about their playing, many without realizing that it is a problem. Many players instinctively tense their tongue and momentarily hold in their air before an attack. Why do this? It's certainly not because it helps. It gets ingrained in most of us from the beginning that playing trumpet is hard and that playing high is very hard. The body's natural response to having to do something physically difficult is to tense up. It is necessary to retrain the mind so that playing is not thought of as difficult, but instead is just done. Watch these videos of Matthias Hofs playing (To hear more of him check out the German Brass in the Brass Ensemble part of my Listening Room). He plays with the same ease that most of us speak with, and it is easy for him simply because he allows it to be. Let yourself just breathe and play as though you are just speaking. To make this change it is important to not care what you sound like. Imagine the sound that you wish to play but don't worry about whether it happens. This is one of the most difficult concepts to completely apply, but yields the greatest reward. Playing trumpet becomes not about wrestling the trumpet, but simply about playing music.

Getting back to the journey, it is important to not be concerned with getting "there". These kinds of thoughts lead to the excess tension explained above. I remember thinking in highschool that that if I could just get my multiple tonguing better and get my range up to a high F then I would be "there". As I continued to play though, and achieved those goals, I realized that in many ways I am no closer to "there" than I was in highschool. The better you get the higher your standards will become. If you are enjoying yourself and have the goal of making music every time the horn is on your face you are where you need to be. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Helpful Exercises

2005-10-11T01:28:00.000-05:00

Looking back on stuff that I've worked on that actually made a big difference there are two exercises that really stick out. The first one, which you can see here (trombone version here), is one that I got from my college professor, John Head. We started almost every lesson doing this in call and response. It was very beneficial in developing relaxation throughout the range of the horn and in keeping my articulation the same through the range of the horn. I still play this almost every day, usually in lessons with me now leading the call and response (it is important to hear how this exercise should be approached. It could be practiced in many ways that would not be very helpful). Because hearing it is such an important part of the excercise, I have recorded myself playing it with space for you to play each part after me (I add some extra partials beyond what is in the written exercise). Download it here. My goal when playing this is not so much having a great sound, but instead is staying as relaxed as possible and keeping my sound even throughout. If I can stay relaxed through the excercise I can then shape my sound how I want.

The other exercise is a tonguing exercise which you can see here (trombone version here). This is a slight variation of an exercise that I got from Gordon Vernick. Start very slowly and try to maintain a consistent articulation through the entire range. That means consistent sound and a consistent motion (It is a common tendency to draw the tongue back and up as one ascends. Try to avoid this).

Have fun.

Sound Production

2005-10-06T01:08:00.000-05:00

To play a note on trumpet I do not think about vibrating my lips. I like to think about blowing into the trumpet, and letting the vibrations that occur in the trumpet to cause my lips to vibrate sympathetically. How this works is that air focused into the trumpet causes what is called a standing wave inside the trumpet. This is what causes the trumpet to play, and our lips simply vibrate sympathetically with the standing wave in the trumpet. Students often look at me incredulously when I tell them this (I usually leave it at just "Let your lips vibrate with the trumpet", and don't go into a long physics explanation). I ran across a great post at by Mark Minasian at Trumpet Herald that explains the concept better than I ever did.

"You cannot blow a note out of the trumpet"... As I remember Mr. Adam's lectures, tests were done blowing smoke through trumpets, trombones and tubas. It took several seconds for the smoke to come out the bell, showing that one isn't blowing the note out of the horn. Also, if one were to take into consideration the speed of sound, 1130 ft/sec, the delay in the time it took for the sound to travel from lips to bell would be noticeable.

I saw John Harbaugh do a fascinating demonstration of trumpet acoustics. He took a clear pyrex cylinder and inserted a propane torch in one end. immediately a tone was produced, the tone having a wavelength equal to the length of the pipe. The flame obviously isn't buzzing or producing the pitch. The temperature differential between the flame and surrounding air creates vortices that provide the energy to excite the air in the tube and cause the production of the standing wave. Another interesting aspect of this experiment was that quickly AFTER the tone is heard, you can see the flame oscillating wildly in response to the standing wave. The sound comes first then the vibration of the flame. On the trumpet, do you buzz a note or do the lips buzz/vibrate in response to the standing wave?

I remember Mr. Adam often stating that the trumpet is static. It is a metal tube and unchanging. It is we who are dynamic and can change. If you try to muscle the horn to do your bidding you are engaged in a losing battle. We, as trumpet players, need to get "in phase" with the horn. This is one of the reasons for buzzing the leadpipe. The fundamental pitch of a mouthpiece by itself is around a high B or C. I can produce that fundamental pitch by blowing across the edge of the mouthpiece's stem, or backbore, in a manner like producing a tone on a coke bottle. Though buzzing the mouthpiece does have some pedagogical value, it can create unneccessary tension in a trumpet player as the player is trying to make each note with the lips rather than simply allow the horn to resonate on the given pitch.

By adding the leadpipe, you create a tube with a lengh long enough for a pitch approximately F in the treble staff. A much more comfortable place to start. than where the mouthpiece resonates. By producing a resonant buzz on the leadpipe, you "get in phase" with the instrument, adjusting to it's resistance, etc. Often, I will start by just blowing air through the mouthpiece then add the leadpipe, hearing the note speak as soon as the mouthpiece is engaged, or buzz the leadpipe then pull it away from the mouthpiece and listen to the non-buzzing but energized stream of air coming out the mouthpiece stem.

The bottom line is that we are using our air as the energizing force to get the horn to resonate freely.

Mark also posted something similar at TPIN where he gives another good example:

In a later clinic, trumpeter Charley Davis stated that he was part of a study where a miniature camera was mounted within a mouthpiece to record lip action. The activity observed with the flame could be seen in Charley's lips. They never touched or buzzed and the vibrating of the lips was a result of the standing wave generated within the horn.

I think that getting rid of the idea that the vibration comes from the lips is an important step towards playing with a rich, resonant sound. As a bonus, without fighting the horn you will find that playing is much easier, because in a fight the metal will always win.

Bizet "Carmen"

2005-10-04T00:36:00.000-05:00

I just started working on the excerpt from Carmen. Listen here. After listening to this I decided that I don't need to play nearly as loud. I didn't have my comuter later when I was practicing so I don't have any recordings of that, but it sounds much better since I backed off a little. I'll try to add a clip of that tomorrow. I need my vibrato to sound more controlled. Vibrato has always been a weak spot for me and is something that I have been working on lately. Other than that I think that it is a good start. I still think about the transposition too much (down a half step, my least favorite transposition), which I think comes through when I play. It just doesn't sound sure enough, but I've only really worked on it for a day, so that should go away soon.

Get to know your horn

2005-09-28T03:16:00.000-05:00

It's late, so here I'll keep it short for now. Your goal as a trumpet player is to eventually become "one" with your trumpet so that you can make any sound that you can imagine actually come out the bell. There are two steps involved. First, you must have a concept of what you want to come out of the bell. This comes from extensive listening to great players. Then you must actually execute what you imagine, which requires have a deep understanding of you horn. The best way to really get to that point is to improvise. Just make stuff up. At first what you want to play and what actually comes out of the horn will probably be fairly different, but it will get better. Besides the obvious benefit of eventually being able to play whatever you want, you will find that almost all other aspects of your playing improve.

Ravel - Piano Concerto in G

2005-09-28T01:46:00.000-05:00

Many people consider this excerpt to be one of the most difficult in the standard repetoire. The excerpt is in two parts. The first part is here. The thing that strikes me immediately is how badly I rush several of the quarter notes at the beginning and especially the half note in the 3rd bar. It will be back to the metronome on this one. The half note is also out of tune. I need to concentrate on making sure that every note is clean, as there were several little clams. In general I am pleased with the style and overall feel, but it needs some real work before it is performance ready.

The second part is here. I have worked on this one much less and it really shows. Besides the sloppy beginning I think that the most noticable problem is the intonation of the high Gs (the note at the end of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th phrases). I also drag a little bit at the ends of the phrases that end on the upbeat of 4 instead of going up to the G. Except for a beat or two that got slightly out of control near the end I think that the last section is fairly good.

The way to fix all of this except for the intonation is by slowing it down and working with a metronome. This is actually how I have been working on it, but obviously I need to continue. I would love to know what you think.