Adapting to C trumpet from Bb

[jcopella]

Get the Cichowiz Long Tone Flow Studies book with the CD and do the whole series with pauses, call-and-response style. Tom Rolfs plays each one on B-flat, then you play (a step down on C trumpet) matching his pitch and sound/intonation, as much as possible.

Edit to add: yes, you'll have to play down into the pedal register for the last two sets of each series (concert F and concert E). That's ok. Try to make 'em sound like the B-flat sounds on the "real" notes. They won't, but try anyway.

Be patient and do the whole set, without stressing over the range -- go up to concert F or whatever if you're not there yet with the upper register on the C. This routine takes a good little while (30-35 minutes?) but it's very effective at adapting your ears and the rest of your playing mechanics (air flow, compression, tongue position, etc.) to the C trumpet. If I've been away from the C trumpet for a while and have to come back to it, I find about a weeks worth of this is very good at getting everything put together again.

And yes, lots of Arban's, but front of the book, not back of the book.

[thecoast]

[thesplitmeister]

I’d use a two pronged approach, using an active and a passive form of practice. For active practice I’d use scales (Gabor Tarkovi’s book is exceptional for this!!) with a drone. Slow and intense focus of consistency of sound and tuning. Learning which notes need back fingering, which can be guided into place by player manipulation etc. This is tiring physically and mentally so I wouldn’t do that for long periods at the start. That’s where the passive approach comes in.
I read years ago a discussion with Wynton Marsalis about his practice and he devoted time each day to playing Clarke studies at a “conversational dynamic” (I LOVE this phrase). He likened the benefits to that of letting a car engine just tick over before going for a long drive to let it warm up and align properly. I find I can do 20-30 minutes of calm, quiet, conversational Clarke studies and it has very little detrimental impact on chops and it lines me up really well with whatever horn I want to be lined up with. If you start playing C more often then you won’t need this long to align of course!!
The benefits of these two approaches are because when we play there are times we need to be active and lead the musical line and tuning/timing etc. but there are also times when we want our body just to do what we want it to do and we don’t want to think about the mechanics, just the music and so having trained our auto-pilot we’re more able to do that.
Some practical things to add as a side note. Getting a similar mouthpiece but one with a larger throat will massively help your tuning on a C. Practice half bend steps, it’s like magic for linking with the horn. You’re well on your way I hope some of this info helps make it even easier!

[Shark01]

Wow, if I was in a relationship with a C trumpet, my Facebook profile would read “it’s complicated”.

I bought a nice used one (Schilke S22HD) and I just didn’t get it. One key difference but damn it was difficult. At one point I put it in a corner on “time out” for a year.

Then I bought a Music Minus One CD of light classical music accompanied by an organ. It so happened that all the music was in Bb and C. So I tried again to just have fun. And the way the C trumpet sound meshed with the organ was what opened up what I felt like it was good at.

So I don’t play etudes or Clarke technical studies with it, I just use it with other instruments (usually in a play along mode).

[cbtj51]

[tomba51]