Theory about trumpet playing?

[Trumpet Dude]

I heard some advice by my band teacher today that made me think....

"If you question whether you can play it or not you will never play it"


What do you guys think about this?

Personally I would have to agree with it. When I am wailling up realy high(above high c for me because my range sucks) i tend to throw all of my doubt in the wind and lock and blow through it. Some times I nail it , some times I do not.

Thanks,
TD
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[ejaime23]

I think that's true to an extent. I believe you have to be very confident in your playing to convince the audience as well as yourself. The more comfortable and confident you are with something, then the more likely you are to nail it, as well sell it musically, it's like my jazz ensemble director always tells us, "Sell it girls!" Now, with that in mind, I think if we become too confident, or have no doubt of our ability, then how will we progress as musicians. I think that it's good to be confident about your playing, but you need to also be self-concious of what you are or aren't capable of, as well as being aware of things you need to work at. If we're not self-concious then we develop that trumpet player ego that we're so infamous for, but if we're not confident, how will we ever be able to Mahler 5? There has to be an even balance of both. Hope this helps!!

[trumpetmike]

We all need the confidence in our ability to succeed in our playing. Something I have noticed when teaching some of my older students is a lack of confidence, especially when it comes to their upper register. They don't think they can do it, therefore they don't play it, therefore it doesn't get practised, therefore it doesn't work as well as it should, therefore they don't get it, therefore they don't think they can do it - and so on.
I have just taken over a fairly advanced student and I asked her how her range was. She looked downwards and said, very quietly, that she could manage a G (top of the stave). I have known this lass for a couple of years and knew that she could do more, with a quality sound. Three weeks later and she is happy up to the Bb and has managed a D. I have done nothing to alter the way she plays, except encourage her to play those notes she wasn't certain she could play.

The trumpet is not one of those instruments upon which it is easy to hide (the student mentioned above also plays violin - I have taken to telling her not to play like a violinist - she has started to understand what I mean ), we need the confidence to play what we have to play.

[oj]

Two good answers!

There is an interesting story about Armando Ghitalla. At some seminars he gave he would have someone go out in the street and find a person that had never played a brass instrument. Then he would work with this person for about ten minutes, showing him how to form an effective embocuhure and how to blow. Then Ghitalla would place the mouthpiece on the lips of this person and a very high clear note would come out.

What was Ghitalla's idea about this demo?
Well, one was to show that if you do the right thing it is easy to play a trumpet.

Very few can pick up a trumpet and "find" this easy way of playing on his own. Those few that do it, are the so called "naturals". All the others (the vaste majority) have to discover how to do it by hard study, dilligent practice and a lot of failures, etc. When they find it, they gain confidence. This is the same for all type of body activity that man has developed into socalled art-form (music, dance, etc, etc.)

Perhaps the bandteacher was thinking about performance and not practice? When walking out to perform you pick the "performers hat", not the "analysts hat" (according to Arnold Jacobs) ...

Ole

[Yoder]

"If you question whether you can play it or not you will never play it"

I think it is bad advice myself. People who like challenges and like to see growth in their playing go for music that in most cases they cannot play. I can look at some music and say "I can't play that." I even question if I ever will be able to play certain peices. Give me a week or a year and I will be playing it. I hope this "teacher" isn't the same one who told a 8th grade student of mine to buy $2500 Sonare flute because she has "bad tone!"

I climb mountains as a hobby. I have questioned many times whether or not I could make it to the top. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. There was one time when we all said we would never make it up and back before nightfall--we did. Moral of study: Just because you question your ability does not mean you cannot do it.

If the guy is talking about you questioning your individual ability, hence your lack of confidence and all of the self-doubt that is polluting your brain, and if you or anyone possess' that much self-doubt then playing the song is the least of your concerns. What you really should be concerned with is not whether or not you can play it or ever will, but rather how will you pay the $$$ to get some good psychological help.
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[Trumpet Dude]

He was not personally talking to me. Our french horns have this lick in our opener that moves around the horn alot and that was the context at which he stated his toughts about the subject.

TD
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[Peter Bond]