Where should I be?

[monkeymark]

Ok, this may be something that can't really be answered, but any comments are welcome.

I know there are some teachers out there. If you had a student starting from new. What would you expect them to be achieving at, say, 3 month, 6 month and a year?

I know its a broad question, and maybe unanswerable. But i'm just trying to see if i'm on track.

I'm learning in a community scheme and get 30 to 45 minutes lesson each week.
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[Troy Sargent]

it 100% depends on how much you work. I only started playing two years ago but I now am majoring in trumpet performance on a scholarship at a great music school. I have another friend who started 5 years ago that is no where near where I am. It all depends on how much you practice and what you practice
_________________
French Besson Bb
"Classic" French Besson C (Najoom Leadpipe)
Vincent Bach Strad. Model 182 Flugelhorn (1972)

[juju831]

Agreed. How much you put into it is exactly how much you get out. Do what your teacher tells you but take it a step further. Do your own research and figure out your weaknesses and work on those. The fastest way to improve is to work on what you're not strong at.

[percivalthehappyboy]

It's highly variable. Practice is an important part of it, but only a part.

[Matt Parkinson]

[royjohn]

While I don't disagree that practice is necessary for progress and innate talent and genetics have a role, I don't think that's all there is to it. I know from personal experience that not everyone has a natural embouchure. I played completely wrongly when I started on trumpet at 12, using my top lip and tongue instead of my top and bottom lips to make a buzz. When I started a comeback after 41 years off, I corrected that problem, but still didn't have an embouchure that worked well. Eight years on, after a lot of reading and a few lessons here and there, some good and some bad, I've taken a couple of embouchure consults with a very good, Reinhardt-inspired chop doc and my playing has improved markedly in the last eight months.

The improvement isn't about practice alone . . . I practice a little more than I did before because it's now so much fun and I sound so much better, but I'm still probably under an hour a day, maybe a little more than 30 minutes a day . . . the difference is that my setup is improved and improving and my practice is intelligent and focused now.

So I think it's necessary to factor in whether your setup is working right. If you are not progressing consistently, something in your setup may need to be changed. I hesitate to call it an embouchure change because those words are so loaded for a lot of people. It might be where you place the mpc, how you use compression or tongue arch or horn angle or an embouchure motion [aka "pivot"] or some other factor. Minor changes for some folks, major ones for others.

It shouldn't be impossible for a reasonably intelligent person to figure out how musically talented they are, possibly with some help from others. It ought to also be possible to figure out what to practice with some consultation with mentors and teachers. Then one needs to see what happens. When/if you get stuck, there is probably a technique issue operating. I think it's far better to address such directly than to tell someone they aren't practicing enough, but there are relatively few people who understand the embouchure and trumpet technique in general and far more folks who will take refuge in nostrums and convenient sayings. You've heard the saying, "Doin' the same thing, expectin' different results . . . . "? You might eventually stumble on an answer by practicing hours a day, but . . . . then again, you might not . . .
_________________
royjohn
Trumpets: 1928 Holton Llewellyn Model, 1957 Holton 51LB, 2010 Custom C by Bill Jones, 2011 Custom D/Eb by Bill Jones
Flugels: 1975 Olds Superstar, 1970's Elkhardt, 1970's Getzen 4 valve
Cornet: 1970's Yamaha YCR-233S . . . and others . . .

[monkeymark]

Thanks for the input guys.

I've only been playing/learning about 6 ish weeks, so yep, still very new.

Due to work and family I dont get as much time as I would like to practice but I do so whenever I can, even if its only a quick 10 minutes in between tasks. I guess it all adds up.

As it's a community place where I learn, I get to see and hear other students too. (As far as I can tell, once you have reached a certain proficiency they move you onto ensemble work as well as the 1 to 1 work)

Two others who have been going for about 6 or 7 months I hear each week. At week 1 I was completely new, never made a sound before. Now I would guess i'm only a couple of weeks behind the two who have been at it 6 or so month. This keeps me motivated as I do like a challenge and to push myself. My main worry is i'll try to do too much too soon.
My teacher has said he is going through things faster than usual as I seem to be coping well so far. I'm happy with that.

I'll just have to see how things progress, maybe i'll keep this thread treated as I go along.
_________________
My first reply was witty and
intellectual but I lost it so you
got this one instead.

B&H 400
Besson 600

[swthiel]

1) I agree that "improvement" is the best thing to look for, especially as you just get started.

2) My intuition is that you might be better off grabbing 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there throughout the day. I've come to understand that it's important to develop you playing habits on fresh chops, when you're not compensating for fatigue.

3) My experience is that progress comes in waves. My playing will improve for a while, then I'll hit a plateau for a while, then improvement continues.
_________________
Steve Thiel
Matthew 25:31-46

[oliver king]

[lgt0412]

[mbenson5]

Read the book Outliers. It talks about how natural talent does exist but it does not blossom without hard work and opportunity. One chapter talks about how it takes 10,000 hours to be a pro at anything not just music. I'm not sure if this is true or not but it sounds about right to me.

[chuck in ny]

the best fights are always long and quite gory and playing the trumpet is in that vein.
the most reasonable approach is to understand that you are going to be at the process for an extended period. you will need buckets of patience. there is a great value to simply staying at it and progressing as fast as circumstances allow.
as mentioned progress is not linear, you will have some fast easy progress and some sticking points.
if you don't have a good embouchure set up, you're doomed. hopefully you have a good teacher to help you with this. ..chuck

[percivalthehappyboy]

Learning trumpet seems to be different from learning, say, guitar or piano. On a guitar, if you put in the work and the time you can pretty much expect slow and steady improvement. You'll be hitting the right strings more often, and faster, your fingers will remember how to plop down on a chord, etc.

Trumpet sort of seems to go in revelations, or "waves" like that other guy said. You can be practicing for a long time and not seem to be improving, and then you figure something out, and suddenly you can do something that you couldn't before. It still takes work to solidify it, improve it, make it repeatable. You might hit your first high C, and then the next day, if your life depended on it, you couldn't hit it again. That's totally not what it's like to play a piano. The keyboard is open and obvious; the embouchure is a mystery even for a master.

How you improve can depend on a teacher quickly noticing and correcting a bad habit. It could depend on how well a student/teacher combination can communicate and work with each other. More practice can be harmful if you're playing on tired chops, and developing bad habits to compensate for it. (It's a horrible irony that the most passionate are probably the most prone to that.) Or if you push your range too fast, and for the same reason.