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SatchmoTrumpet
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Joined: 31 Jan 2020
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:31 pm Post subject: What to do when you don’t know what note you’re hitting |
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This might be a kinda dumb question but it is a legitimate one for me:
When playing in the high register, I’m never entirely sure which note I’m hitting. Even when playing simple high notes like B flat I’m always hitting other notes up there and it usually takes me stopping in the middle of my song and playing up from a C chromatically to find what a B flat is supposed to sound like (and doing this several times as well).
Does anyone have any suggestions? I know “play high notes as often as possible until you know what they’re supposed to sound like” is a good explanation but it hasn’t worked over the past year for me yet and I’d like to give those around me a bit of a break from my constant struggles to play a C.
Because they’re probably wondering what’s wrong with my hearing.
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CJceltics33
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Joined: 24 Aug 2017
Posts: 475
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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Lip slurs will definitely help with memorizing the partials.
Sing what you play in the upper register when you practice it to help cement it in your ears.
Try exercises where you just come in right on a high note with a clear and strong articulation. Limit your mistakes and misses as much as possible.
Work on intonation in the lower register. Play scales with a drone.
Listen to great players!
Hope this helps. Any musician will tell you it’ll happen eventually! |
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kehaulani
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Joined: 23 Mar 2003
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Location: Hawai`i - Texas
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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Take simple songs you know well and play them in the middle register. Do do the same thing an octave up.
Do the same with scale and interval studies.
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Lionel
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Joined: 25 Jul 2016
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| Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:40 am Post subject: |
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| kehaulani wrote: | Take simple songs you know well and play them in the middle register. Do do the same thing an octave up.
Do the same with scale and interval studies. |
Good idea.
I might add that ear training helps. I don't know when it happened but some time about halfway through my career I became nearly 100% accurate at remaining in the right key signature. Even when I'd forgotten to see the key change.
And the reason for this helpful tendency was because due to my years of experience in ear training and transposition I'd become naturally cognizant of what note in the major or minor scale I was on. I'd be hearing that say,
"We're in the key of E major. Hmm a written G is coming up. So it must be a G#".
I think it's important to listen to and remain perpetually cognizant of what the composer wants me to be playing AND hear the next note ahead in my brain first. Music is a series of repetitive sequences. More than half the time a lead trumpet chart is playing a written phrase some other section or voice has already played it first. So I'm just repeating a phrase that's been played before.
Thus accuracy is composed both of the physical (chops) and experience ie musicianship.
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MF Fan
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Joined: 26 Mar 2002
Posts: 397
Location: The Great White North
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| Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:45 am Post subject: |
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You're playing music, not hitting notes. Play the passage down an octave to get your ear in tune, it should be obvious from there. If you're randomly trying to see how high you can play and don't know where you're at....what's the point? If all else fails, use a tuner.
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ComebackPlayer
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Joined: 16 Mar 2019
Posts: 8
Location: Napa, CA
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| Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:18 am Post subject: Re: What to do when you don’t know what note you’re hitt |
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Another way to train your ear is to use a tuner app.
CTuner is free and has a tone option which displays the note you are playing (B4, F6, etc) or tap a note to hear before playing. |
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cheiden
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Joined: 28 Sep 2004
Posts: 8911
Location: Orange County, CA
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| Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:50 am Post subject: |
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My first assumption is that this is player that is spending more time playing in ensemble than in the practice room. This isn't intended as a slight. I've had many years in that mode. A well-constructed practice routine should improve accuracy over the entire usable range. If you're playing at and above your usable range, well, everyone struggles with that.
I do agree that playing music or etudes in that range should also help.
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