Literally screaming double C's through trumpet

[Screamin_rich]

I'm a lead player and discovered a little trick a couple years ago. basically I yell/scream with my throat and put the trumpet up to my lips. It's really loud and sounds like I'm actually playing it. Can go up to E above double C.

It's kind of a cool trick but does anyone know what this is or know anyone that does this for practical uses (lead playing)? I can't seem to find any info on the web about it. I'm calling it double falsetto..

Thanks!

[Larry Smithee]

I think I heard a couple local high school kids doing that the other day so you're in great company.

Larry

[bach_again]

[Pinsel]

My bro can do this without trumpet. The lips vibrate at the frequency of the vocal chords. It really kills my ears when he does this. Though I´m not sure if he can sing so high without imitating the trumpet.

There are lots of videos on you2be where people play mouth trumpet, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fro0gj5ZjAI


Can you sing E above double C then?

[razeontherock]

[Larry Smithee]

Perhaps this link would be helpful.

http://voicecouncil.com/forum/



Larry

[Screamin_rich]

Yea I can sing it without the horn. I just wants know of anyone knows anything about it.

[zackh411]

We did Bugler's Holiday at a friends trumpet recital. One of our trumpet players was also a pretty good singer, and at the end of the tune instead of playing a high C, she took the horn off her face and sang a dubba C. It was kind of a humorous take... we had kazoos, and sonic screwdrivers, and a bass trombone... and explosives... lots of fun stuff. Anyhow, if you're a guy and you can sing higher than that, then you are in the wrong field.
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~Zack

Lead Piece: Custom PickettBrass
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[Pinsel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUuTF6s14tc I think it works after the same principle

[Leonel Leon]

I remember my middle school band director telling me something about this. He had a friend who played trumpet who could do this, he did it a lot as a joke from what my old band director told me.

[flamesimbris]

Hhahaha I'm going to do this in band tomorrow and just said It was a method to developing a higher register

[bike&ed]

When I was in the Army band, I knew a female upper-level enlisted NCO who could do this if she was forced to play lead (she hated it but could do it well).

[Mike Sailors]

I heard someone do this one time. It sounded terrible and totally ruined a great moment of a song. But hey, he nailed the High G he was going for.

Whoopee . . .
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[markp]

The player with the loudest double C I ever heard was the Bari sax player in my college jazz band.

It sounded just like the loudest trumpet you'd ever care to hear!

I believe he is now the head of jazz studies at a university in New Mexico. I bet he can still do it.

[HERMOKIWI]

I know a bass trombone player who can do this. It's quite realistic.
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HERMOKIWI

[markp]

[bike&ed]

I think it's pretty impressive that he can produce those pitches with his voice...

[Craig Swartz]

This story is a bit like the old Farkas ones where he claimed to sing a pitch through his horn because the little guy with the stick thought he was always too loud. I think he also said that to placate same conductor he'd sometimes just fake it and leave the note out completely. That gets done a lot, btw. WTH? You're often paid to accommodate the conductor these days more than to make music.

[John Mohan]

I would be very careful about doing this screaming thing - it can really mess up your ability to develop a real upper register on the trumpet. I know... I write from experience.

When I was in Junior High School (now referred to as "Middle School"), our Band Directors introduced us to the music of Maynard Ferguson. The MF Horn, MF Horn 2, MF Horn 4 and 5 and later the Chameleon albums were all available to be played in the Bandroom Office on a phonograph piped into the speaker system of the Bandroom. Needless to say, just as my band mates did, I loved the Maynard music. Still do.

And at my young age, I found I could easily match and emulate his trumpet sound with my young falsetto voice, easily reaching the highest notes in MacArthur Park among others. And I did this often while listening to the music (at home - I bought my own MF records ASAP).

But: By doing this I subconsciously associated high notes with lots of throat (vocal chord) tension and by continuing to do this, I inadvertently developed a habit of tensing up my vocal chords for high notes that carried over to when I tried to play high notes on my trumpet. I inadvertently caused a situation where anytime I tried to play into the upper register on trumpet, my vocal chords would tense up and I would choke off the airstream, stopping all hopes of developing a register above High C. At one point, this problem got so bad, I had trouble playing even G on top of the staff. Even though I fairly quickly figured out and consciously realized what was occurring, I couldn't control this unwanted tension from happening. It took ages to finally learn not to let this unwanted muscle tension happen when I attempted to play in the upper register.

I hit my first High C by the time I was in 5th grade. It took until the end of my Senior year in High School before I could get anything above that High C (with the help of my new teacher, Claude Gordon). I think a lot of that massive amount of stagnation time was due to my enthusiastically "screaming along with" Maynard Ferguson albums.

Hope this is helpful to somebody.

Best wishes,

John Mohan
Webcam Lessons Available - Click on the e-mail button if interested
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Ex LA Studio Musician
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[PhxHorn]