Bad habits..

[Jafuentes3]

Hello everyone!
Again, I can't thank y'all enough for all the wonderful information you have given me so far. It's been almost 1 month of daily trumpet practice since I first picked up my horn. (Happy monthiversary?)

Anyways, I would like for you guys to share what are the most common bad habits/technical flaws/mistakes you see in beginners (and how to avoid them/fix them) please.

I am a pianist and I was talking with my professor in pedagogy class; we came down to the conclusion of how much easier things would have been if we knew about small things that would have such big repercussions in the future..
I think a thread like this would be helpful to me and all beginners lurking in the forums.

For Thanksgiving week I am thankful for a wonderful trumpet community!!

All best,
J.

[TKSop]

I suppose the #1 bad habit with learners is trying to go it alone too much - whether that's by not having lessons (please, please take lessons) or by not paying the teacher enough respect and trust to guide their path properly.

#2 would be not practicing as regularly as instructed and/or practicing the wrong things/ways

[trumpet56]

I have found the number one bad habit I see with my students is trying to learn new exercises and pieces at too fast a tempo. This leads to mistakes first needing to be unlearned before learning to play the pieces correctly.

[zaferis]

[Billy B]

Mouthpiece buzzing.

This is an advanced technique and should never be done by beginners.
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[Brad361]

[Craig Swartz]

Lack of adequate breath support. And not only in beginners... This, IMO, is where most "chop problems" start. Good luck.

[jhahntpt]

I've recently started private teaching several 4-6th grade students...

The biggest thing is not knowing to adjust your oral cavity for intonation. Playing everything like a low C is one of the worst sounds and they wonder way they can't "play high"

Not having a pulse and insisting that the metronome "messes them up." Of course it does, play in time!

Not using their tongues, hoo attacks, poo attacks.

Using hand positions that cause valves to stick

only "bopping" or playing the very beginning of the note and not playing though it .

Breathing after every note.
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[jazzhorn04]

All of the above...

To add a few that I've noticed:

Taking the initial breath too quickly/not relaxed enough. We'll be playing an exercise that's 80bpm and they still feel the need to wait until the last possible instant before they inhale. Making them stop and do it again correctly only works once, then they go right back to it.

Thinking that there is a "magic pill" to getting better. I can't tell you how many students I've had that were so excited when they signed up, only to quit 3 weeks later because it isn't "easy" to get better. I also have a lot of students who will get frustrated and have melt downs almost every lesson because they can't nail something new on the first try.

[kehaulani]

I could have missed this, but it's so obvious . . trying to play too high too fast.

Not keeping your teeth apart to let wind inobstructively go out.
Screwing embouchure to get high notes out, the end justifying the means.
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[Lionel]

If you've truly got it in your heart to play trumpet learn to,

1. Play aggressively. Play a tad louder than your peers. No time for shyness. Put some ego into your ax. Say to yourself, "I am da Man" and play like you mean it. Caution: truly conceited people or egomaniacs neednt take this advice. Unfortunately they wont take advice anyway so my words are moot lol (:.

2. Take control of your horn or it will control you. Timidity is always perceived as weakness by an audience. Conversely a confident player can get away with utter clams at times. No one is going to throw tomatoes at you.

3. Practice is great but you'll learn more practical technique in rehearsal and concerts. Once you learn to blow half decently? Schedule yourself in at least two rehearsal bands per week. If you look at the success of the Caruso system much of it is due to it duplicating the rehearsal studio in your practice room.

4. Concentrate on intonation and tone.

5. Learn some solid high notes. Develop a good solid F above high C soon as possible. Too many trumpets spend their whole life stuck at high C. Do not become one of them. Let me rephrase that. High notes played well and in tune are important.

Other notes. A teacher who can take you through the Clarke Technical Studies for Cornet is valuable. As this develops breath control, fingers and range. While long tones are pushed by others Clarke considered them kind of a waste. Why not do something with your fingers while sustaining a series of notes?

Learn to improvise. Jerry Coker's ancient book "Improvising Jazz" is helpful if perhaps kinda confusing. The piece of advice I found helpful was to collect an inventory of hot jazz licks. Memorize them and learn to play in most of the common keys. Now you'll always have something to play when the changes say Gm-7 to D-7.

After you learn most of the Clarke Etudes? Transpose them into all 12 keys.

It would only take you about 2 years to cover the abive material pretty well. Maybe not perfect but pretty good. One more thing,

Avoid deep, large mouthpieces with sharp rims. When you find a piece which you control well? (As opposed to one which is controlling you!) consider buying another one in the same rim but a hair shallower. Use one for legit, the shallower one for jazz/lead. Plenty of people will disagree with me but Ive always had better luck with mouthieces which do more of the work for me. Let the other kids struggle blowing Bach 1C pieces.

Me? I want to control my horn and be in control always. Someine else can tire out and hit clams. Me? I want the reputation as the guy who never tires.
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[JVL]

[JVL]

i agree with Lionel

[TrpPro]

[TrpPro]

I don't believe mouthpiece buzzing is an advanced technique at all. I also don't believe you should practice for a month on the mouthpiece before putting it in the receiver. Wasted time, but not necessarily harmful.
Anything played on the mouthpiece should be practiced immediately on the horn. Try it. At any level, it will make your horn playing better.

[sergeybondarev]

Thanks Lionel! Best wishes
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[Steve A]

[JVL]

[TrpPro]

Nothing to worry about

[kalijah]

Bad habits:

1. Not establishing a clean, crisp and accurate and musical attack; for ANY notes, loud, soft, low, high.

2. Doing excessive lip slur exercises and flexibility studies. (While still with #1 above.)

3. Obsessing over range. Especially at the expense of tone quality and quality of attack. (No. 1)

4. Using excessive embouchure effort for low notes.

5. Waiting too long to inhale before a note and trying to inhale too much air in a short inhale.

6. Not inhaling through the nose at every opportunity.

and last but not least; BAD time.