What is the best method for increasing one's range?

[jdostie]

I've wanted to weigh in here, but kept "checking" myself. Jeff and the othe lead players - it's clear who they are, and yes they generally play the lead parts, also regularly fill the gap where it needs help. That's leading from the front.

Heck, I was playing mellophone and was the lone Mellon one night, and one of the leads sips came down and played beside me - we were sight reading a new piece, and sight reading is still a problem for me, so he helped me be more confident that I was playing the right thing. Not instruction mind you, but when you aren't sure about what you are reading it really helps to hear someone else playing beside you to check yourself against.

I think that's the kind of leadership he's referring to. Doing what is needed to make the group successful. That's just MY take on it. That's not perhaps the traditional role of a lead player, but these guys do play lead, AND are willing to show leadership by following, and taking other parts when necessary.

[FRobertson]

For me range is all (up to a point) a mental game. As long as you think about the note being high, you won't be able to get it. When you stop thinking about crawling up to that high note and just think of it as another G, A, B, C, ect. in the staff, you'll tag it (or get close). So really it is about relaxing and not freaking out about it.

And if you don't quite get it and are "going down", go down in flames! That is where the fun is!
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[garrett901]

[Briansback]

who hoo!!!! I squeaked out a double F! That was hard to do back in the day when I was playing the horn regularly! This system is working!!!

[TRUMPETSIZZLE]

Based on my experience and teaching more than 1000 students, there is not one method that works for everyone all the time.

I have found that a combination of many techniques blended in just the right way and given to the student ( by student, I a not just talking about pimply faced 6th graders, but also semi pro and pro players too ) subjectively by the teacher, have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time.

I do have to admit that I developed a good portion of high range, tone, and power from going through the Claude Gordon book, but if I had a collection of techniques that I used now....back years ago, I would have progessed much, much faster.

Lastly, people that only do one routine tend to have weak areas, whereby people practicing from many routines and techniques tend to me more well-rounded.
When I did nothing but the Gordon, I did have some flexibility issues and my playing became brittle.
I stopped doing Gordon and did hella Colin Advanced lip flexibilities along with soft scales and squeaks, but noticed I did not have the power and endurance on a gig....like when I was doing just the Gordon.

By blending a very diverse mix of techniques and routines in just the right way, you end up with a potent and effective program that will take you to your maximum potential in the quickest amount of time.

Lastly, people on here obviously got very good results with just one main routine they worked:

I happened to listen to Drew's myspace and really liked what I heard!
The guy happens to have good chops and lead style......
I wish more people on here posting could back up what they say because it allows others to know the poster practices what he preaches!
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[deleted_user_fdb91a0]

Thank you for the kind words!

I agree 100%.

The best system is one that combines the best elements from several systems. We all have slightly different needs, and we all learn in different ways. We carve our own path, and we do it by considering every possible approach...and not being afraid to experiment!

I can safely say that my approach combines elements from Callet, Gordon, Stevens, and Maggio.

-Stevens jaw position
-Maggio lip position (rolled out)
-Gordon tongue position (up to high C)
-Callet tongue position (above high C)

I can't stress enough how important it is to constantly experiment with new concepts. Keep the ones that work, chuck the ones that don't. As a result, you build a sturdy foundation of efficiency. Furthermore, if your playing starts going south, it's easy to figure out why and how to quickly fix it.

Know your body, know your chops, and know how everything works together. Eliminate the guess work from your playing, and cool stuff begins to happen.

[Briansback]

I totally agree with you guys. I'd like to define and formulate how I'm progressing, into a system, and just as you mentioned, it's not merely a routine you duplicate over and over again. When I first picked the horn back up, I was playing a different set of exercises all together compared to what I'm doing now, and it's based upon what I had to build upon.

Where we should advance this stuff is being able to pinpoint and detail how we are forming our lips, combining with the proper empasis upon the muscles, and actually breaking it into increments that can be conveyed over that someone else can pick up.

The first month I was ever playing, it was a bugle, and I was playing taps and revile, well, quite well in fact, with good tone also, and this is at an extremely young age with no outside influences. Part of it, which has been touched upon with this thread, it's about mindset. If you think you cannot play it, well, you won't be able to. Tossing it down for 25 years though, no matter of mental preparation or attitude is going to get me playing a high G, from the get to. Even though in my mind, I knew I could hit it, and much higher, my body still needed to get to the basics and catch up again.

Knowing what I know though, the tone and endurance was the focus for that first month, the second, getting back into playing music that was within my limited range and I picked a few songs that I enjoyed, which pushed me into practicing more, both of those months, the bulk of the exercises outside of that were dealing with soft tones mainly.

Third month was about pushing the endurance, and more into arpeggios, and playing sheet music that was at the very edge of my playable range.

The forth month, was more about harvesting the fruits of my labor's, and getting back into sight reading music, so have spent a great deal of time scrounging what I can from the web, seeing what I'm able to play, and finding my current limits, my body still won't let me do what it could, but the selection of music I'm able to handle is far broader then before.

This is the fifth month, and it's all about pushing my range, and range alone for one day, taking almost a full day of rest, and then it's combining that with endurance, and doing so far more aggressively then the other months, since now my chops can handle it. I'm trying to duplicate the weight training system more clearly, as in, when I used to lift weights, I would push myself to my limits, and progress was extremely quick. Now, I'm not able to get the burn that I experienced with that, but I'll figure out how to get close.

The sessions on the first month were short, around 20 minutes per day, sitting down once, each month I'm adding an additional 20 minutes and adding an additional practice session per day. This month it's less about length of practice as much as practicing 10 times at least, and each time, pushing myself into a burn, where my body can't muster up anything more. All of this is given, not putting excessive pressure on my lips, the moment that is required, one must put their horn down and rest up.

Anybody that can extrapolate a tidbit from this, great. I was told when I got back into this, that it would be several years before I could do what I could before. They also told me you must practice daily, and I knew better, and am proving these guys wrong.

I did my first live performance at a local church last Sunday, and it was brutal, lol. but I managed to get through it. I was given no notice, they just called me in, told me they were going to play some hymms I'm not familiar with, and I explained to them, I'm not ready to play live like that, that I had a piece I've been practicing in two different keys, and they agreed to just have us play together with just it. I then showed up a few minutes early, only to find they wanted me to play yet another version of that piece, different key signature, different notational structure, lol. and the music print out was just put together in an odd way.

I got around 4 minutes of practice with the composition, just me, a flute playing second seat, and a piano. We went live with it 20 minutes later, lol.

I'm being more aggressive about the horn now because I plan upon turning my playing, or teaching, or both into a side business, for my main operation has taken the dive as most have in this economy. Another aspect of this though, I was already headed to pro level when I set it down, and I'm kicking myself for letting that dream die., So, now it's resurrecting.

[spyke]

Rather than start yet another thread, I thought I'd reply to this one to which I had last posted an update over seven years ago.

In the last few weeks, my range has been improving significantly, and I'm looking for direction in terms of solidifying and developing notes that I'm now "reaching" much more easily. I have neither "commercial" "lead" etc gigs going on nor repertoire actually requiring this - I am simply trying to improve my playing way up high with the short-term goal of using the G-through-double-C range publically in an improvisation or new composition.

I can now sound or "reach" up to double C and on through to the F and sometimes the G above it. There is some plateau or something I'm experiencing in terms of improving my tone quality up there, however. I can play about as high on all the different trumpets (C, D/Eb, A pic, rotors/pistons etc) but Bb is by far the most challenging.

A more "lead" like tone would be welcome, anything more closely matched to how the rest of the range sounds would be ideal, and more power and flexibility up there is necessary.

I'm eyeing the new Charlier release from Qpress, and couldn't help but let my eyes wander to some of these books. I'm apparently still experiencing some all-around improvement in my playing through practicing tried and true stuff like Stamp, Maggio, Thibaud, and the typical chromatically progressing flexibility and articulation stuff (Clarke, Scheubrik, Gekker, Bai Lin, et al) the way that I was taught, now continuing and transposing the stuff further. The previews of these books didn't really blow my mind, but were on the other hand just the opening pages. Does anyone recommend adding material or ideas form one of these specialized books to someone in my situation?

DOUBLE HIGH C IN 10 MINUTES by Johnson, Walt
SPECIAL STUDIES IN HIGH REGISTER by Brooks, Randy
THE STRATOSPHERE OF CORNET OR TRUMPET PLAYING by Schaefer, August H.
TOTAL RANGE by Peters, Charles S.
CAT ANDERSON TRUMPET METHOD