Tone improvement

[pandawee]

So I want a solo for my marching band's halftime performance, but I need to compete with other trumpet players and one especially has extremely good tone. How can I develop a great tone on the trumpet? I would consider my tone already pretty good, but I want it to be amazing, especially for this solo. Any tips? (We're playing Hey Jude from the Beatles, btw). I would love the echoing, pure sound that can come on a trumpet

[dstdenis]

There isn't one agreed-upon ideal tone for trumpet. Ask different people, they'll give different examples of the tone they prefer. One might suggest you should have a huge, enormous, in-your-face sound, while another might urge you to play with poise, elegance and sophistication. Eventually you will have to decide the direction you want to go. But as you head off to find your ideal sound, there are a few things that you will want to do no matter which way you go:

1. You must play in tune. Out-of-tune playing would sound sour and just kill your presentation of the solo. Playing along with a drone would help you improve pitch awareness and intonation.

2. You must play with good time. You don't want to sound like you're falling off the back of the beat, unable to keep up. (Okay, some jazz and pop singers do this successfully, but I wouldn't plan on this strategy in your situation.) But you don't want to be lurching ahead so people aren't sure where you're going either. Work with a metronome at different tempi to develop good control as a base to work from.

3. You want to sound like you're under control, like this is easy for you. "Don't worry--I've got this." So you should concentrate on playing with a smooth, even sound across the phrases. Think in phrases, rather than note-to-note. Make each phrase sound like it's going somewhere. Try to have a focused, centered sound that resonates, but don't blast away like an air raid siren.

4. Record yourself playing. Be your own worst critic. If your recordings don't sound good to you, they probably won't sound good to the Band Director either. Look for problems that need to be fixed and keep moving forward, making progress. Be prepared to play the solo several times through in rehearsal without running out of gas. But don't over-practice so much that you're too pooped to play.

Good luck! That's a nice tune, and you should enjoy playing it.
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[Turkle]

Howdy! A beautiful tone takes a lot of practice and study. Fortunately, if you get a beautiful tone, the rest of the horn more or less takes care of itself. So work on that tone!

I am of the opinion that for tone, you can't beat:

1) Schlossberg, and plenty of it

2) Lyrical etudes (Those Arban excerpts, Charlier, etc.)

3) Jazz ballads (Can you play "Stardust" with extraordinary beauty? Can you play high notes romantically?)

Of course, everyone will have their own idea of a beautiful tone. So the best strategy will be to pick your trumpet hero - Maynard? Doc? Wynton? Miles? Morgan? Herseth? Vizzutti? Balsom? Gansch? Mendez? Nakariakov? Whomever - and do your darndest to sound like them, all the time, with no exceptions.

When I was a young lad, Miles was my hero. He's all I wanted to sound like. And when I went to college, people in the jazz ensemble used to tease me about my solos - because I sounded like a little Miles clone!

These days, Miles isn't really part of my sound concept anymore - but the point is that you need to get a beautiful sound in your head and ears first. Then work like heck to make that come out of your horn!

Good luck!
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[JoseLindE4]

1. Listen to players you admire. Recordings are good; live is better. Listen to great singers as well. Hear them in your imagination while you play.

2. Develop the habit of free and relaxed use of your wind. Allow the movement of air in and out to dictate the expansion of your body. Don't be concerned so much with what parts move when you breath; rather concern yourself with the easy movement of air in and out.

3. Play every note in the resonant part of the horn - practice bending the notes down and back up, listening for the sound to jump out of the bell. The point the sound jumps out is the most efficient and resonant sounding. Within reason, play every note in it's most resonant point.

4. Sing everything you play. Everything. Sing it in tune. The trumpet amplifies the chaos in your head. It's a lie detector. Be honest.

5. Record yourself regularly to calibrate your imagination to reality.

6. Use good posture - play comfortably upright.

7. ALWAYS tell a story when you play. Good music plays better.

[YoungMW]

It seems that everyone and their dog says that you need to know what you want to sound like first. In order to do this, you must listen to everything you can. For classical, this is one of my favorite sounds- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu39WtDJ-CQ
It is just so crisp and clear.

For Hey Jude, you might like a sound like that above, or something like Miles. You have to decide that and then discuss with your director.

Here is a link of Canadian Brass playing it (7:46)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2gWhX7WDzk
That can give you an idea of what some pros have done with the song
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[Trumpetingbynurture]

record yourself playing it over and over, stopping to listen each time and then fixing every blemish.

If you're playing anything shallower than a C cup on your mouthpiece, and you're a normal person, then in some way you're trading sound for something else.

Practice softly and relaxed in a very dead room, facing a wall and strive for a sound that is pure. Then move to a very large, resonant room like a large tiled room or a concert hall, and strive for a full, effortless sound. Then move back and forward. The swap goals. Big room, soft pure sound, small room large, effortless sound.

When they all feel the same, you're on the right track

[Bflatman]

I am sorry but I cannot accept that tips can exist for what you want.

I hear trumpet players with poor tone or bad tone good tone takes years. The greats have wonderful tone, just a few in the world have amazing tone.

It takes 10 years to get pretty good tone and another 10 years to get amazing tone.

There can be no tips to progress from pretty good to amazing. 10 years of hard work is what it will take. From your post it seems you want that by next weekend.

Aint happening.

[Trumpetingbynurture]

[zaferis]

No one has touched on equipment either.. tone and projection of that tone can be impacted in varying degrees by equipment..
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[Bflatman]

Lets get real here.

The OP says he already has a very good tone, you get very good tone if you are diligent and practice hard and listen to what you sound like and have well functioning equipment.

We are not talking to a beginner here but a seasoned solid player with very good tone. I have very good tone and I know I wont get an amazing tone in a week, or possibly ever.

Now the stated requirement is to develop from someone with very good tone into someone with an amazing tone who then will beat the pants of all the other players with great tone. And this must all happen within a couple of weeks.

There is a marching band halftime performance coming up and he must become the best player in the world for it in just a few days, its a deadline that cannot be missed.

Who are we kidding here.

It takes 20 years not 20 hours. I dont care how much he listens to himself or other players or have his gear refurbished, he wont have a cat in hells chance of becoming Harry James in 10 days. Period. He wont even have time to have his gear looked at.

This is the same "how do I become Arturo Sandoval in 1 week" question.

Are you guys gonna start the OP on a year long quest for the holy grail when he wants to become the best player in the world in a week or tell him the truth.

Practice hard and do all the other things said in here and wait a year or two or ten.

Be the best you can be, dont expect it in 5 minutes.

The OP also said he wants to beat the other players. Since when is music about beating people. I recommend fixing their drinks so they get the runs and spend all the time in the toilet then you will beat them, or just ambush them in the car park with a baseball bat and cripple them.

Are we thugs or bullys or infants needing to win at trumpet, or are we grown up people with maturity.

On the other hand maybe you guys are right, I shall diligently practice what you guys have said and turn pro next week. I will obviously be an amazing player by then. I see my first engagement at Ronny Scotts club and then its Hollywood the week after. The Hollywood Bowl tempts me.

Maybe I should release a first CD in a few days, and sign up with Sony or someone. I think that after a month when I am bored with being at the top of my new profession I will become a top artist and make millions there.

I will retire by November and become President of the United States and ride my unicorn to public events.

[snichols]

[Don Herman rev2]

The suggestions in this thread can help the OP improve his tone. Winning the solo, who knows? Ditto how long it may take to get whatever tone it is he wants -- we do not know what his tone is like now nor what he really wants to sound like. And perhaps neither does he. I don't see a lot of coddling in this thread, nor a five-minute fix, but OTOH saying it is going take twenty years seems a bit harsh... Once reaching a reasonably modest level of proficiency, which the OP probably has or wouldn't even be thinking of soloing, I think most if not all players can readily alter (vary) their tone. It just remains to listen mentally and physically to produce the tone they want, and practice so it is there all the time. A dash of cold water reality can be helpful, but a firehose is overkill... Sometimes you have to nurture the fire.

IMO - Don
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

[HERMOKIWI]

Developing great tone on the trumpet is a process which generally evolves over an extended period of time (years) through diligent and correct practice. Having a personal concept of what you want your tone to be is an important part of this process.

All that being said, what constitutes "great tone" is a subjective determination. There can be many different versions of "great tone" depending on your personal tastes and objectives. Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson and Harry James are three players who are instantly recognizable by virtue of their distinctive sound. Which of the three had the "best" tone? The answer depends on your personal tastes.

Miles Davis said, "Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself." "Tone" is really a personal thing, sort of like your voice. Great tone isn't something that fits neatly inside a box. Great tone is a dynamic concept. Two players can sound much different yet both have "great tone" for the purpose of achieving their objectives.
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HERMOKIWI

[Bflatman]

Great post HERMOWIKI

Yeah sure I was heavy handed and threw in a boatload of sarcasm, but the problem is young players want everything and expect everything in 5 minutes. And if we dont tell them the unpalatable truth then we doom them to failure.

They also see things as a competition and if they cant win the competition they become despondent and throw the toys about and may even develop a phobia that prevents normal development.

It is great to encourage youngsters and I do this, but there is a limit and there comes a point when expectations are so unreasonable that they cannot possibly be attained.

This is the time to stop raising false hopes and if they falsely believe that they could have succeeded when they had little chance of doing so then they blame themselves. The truth is their expectations were too high.

My opinion is that a player cannot become an amazing player in a couple of weeks. If you believe they can then by all means tell the OP how to do it, but you had better deliver. And I would like to know this myself so tell me as well.

If you cannot guarantee that the OP will become amazing within 2 weeks then rethink your advice, because he is depending on it and as far as I can tell he needs to be amazing on his next performance.

Or maybe I am just confused. I should say that I have in the space of 12 months become a local celebrity, with great tone, national recognition, an international fanbase stretching from canada to russia, I have appeared in a small movie and I know exactly how to develop fabulous tone swiftly and I would never make the kind of promises the OP appears to be looking for.

I have done exactly what the OP wants and I know exactly how hard it is and how long it takes.

[Trumpetingbynurture]

No one here said their advice was a quick fix.

Also, the original poster didn't give a specific time frame. For all we know, he could have months.

You're also assuming that they have some fundamental awareness about their sound and have already mastered the essential first step of purity of sound. I don't think that's a given. We have a high schooler who sounds like they've never even really thought about their sound much before. Some basic things like a good sound model, long tones, listening to your sound in different contexts and recording your sound so that you actually know what you REALLY sound like are all excellent ways to jump start the process of producing a good timbre.

Also, he's not saying he wants to be bloody Arturo. He's saying he wants to improve enough to match his own peer group, and to hopefully have some additional musical opportunities he wouldn't without improvement.
All totally reasonable. In a week? No, but no one ever said that? Where did you even get that from?
In a few months of hard work? Possibly. Could he catch up with his peers by this time next year? I think that is totally feasible.

Will he sound like Maurice Andre by then? Well who could know without hearing him play right now. But, probably not. But that was never what was asked for

[Dan O'Donnell]

After over (40) years of playing the Trumpet; I now believe the following regarding tone quality...

Different players and equipment have different sounds however, when you find "your" sound and want to improve the quality of your sound (tone); here are a couple pieces of advice that helped me...

1.) Find the proper balance air volume to effectively create the note with the tone quality you desire. Don't over blow. Too much air is as bad as not enough air to support the note. Check out Bill Adam's "Blow the Leadpipe" exercise. This will help you feel and hear this concept. Listen to Chet Baker and you can hear that he used minimal air to create "his" sound".

2.) Relax. Any tension in your body robs it from having a relaxed and flowing air stream. This causes a stressed sound in the tone which is similar to a beginning Trumpet player over tightening their chops and getting that tense sound. Try to avoid using the pinckie ring with your right hand. This might help you hold the Trumpet with less pressure and then try to find other ways to reduce tension.

3.) Gain weight. I mean with your equipment. After playing for many years; I found that adding weight to my horn and mouthpiece helped make it easier to avoid chipping notes, provide better clarity of my tone as well as centering the pitch of each note. You might want to start experimenting with the same size of your current mouthpiece in say like a Bach "Megatone" configuration or add a Tone Donut or Weight Ring to your existing mouthpiece. You might also want to try Jason Harrelson's weighted bottom caps as well.

4.) If you can afford it...Get the inside of your horn thoroughly ultra-sonic cleaned by a professional and keep it clean especially by using a Leadpipe Swab. A horn that is dirty inside can create issues not only with your tone quality but also intonation. As you play and hear a note out of tune; people tend to get nervous and attempt to make adjustments getting the note back into tune without realizing it which creates stress. (See #2 above). Also consider getting your valves aligned on your Trumpet. You would be very surprised how this might help to improve your sound.

We at TH are here to help you.

If you let us know who's sound you sound similar to and want to achieve a better tone; we could possibly give you some more detailed advice.

As for me; Chris Botti told me several things that really helped MY tone quality. I use his advice every time I am in need of that "velvet" sound.

I hope this helps...Please keep us updated on your progress.
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God Bless,
Dan O'Donnell

"Praise Him with the sound of the Trumpet:..."
Psalms 150:3

[JoseLindE4]

No quick fixes, but an "ok" high school level player can be taught to make a professional quality sound on a second line g in a single lesson. Maybe a few other notes as well. The long work is in making it happen every time and on other notes.

[cheiden]

Quickest way to sounding better is to sit down with a pro. I played for years and listened to piles of recordings. Until I sat down with a top pro I was clueless about sound concept.
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[kalijah]

Dan O'Donnell wrote:

[Ed Kennedy]