Productive Alternatives to Arban's & Other Learning Meth

[HornnOOb]

Over the years, I have found that playing/practicing strictly from Arbans, Irons etc. although very beneficial, grows quite boring. So, my practice time has made a gradual transition away from the methods, to various pieces of music that I enjoy playing first and foremost, and also provide superb exercise in various aspects of playing technique such as phrasing, jumps to upper register from lower register, a wide range of dynamics and playing styles and most of all, fun and personal gratification.

There seems to be no end of tunes one can practice again and again, to give yourself a quality lesson and workout - while at the same time, perfecting your performance of well known tunes and great audition material.

Instead of plying the exercises in Chapter 23, or from page 19 out of one of my method books, I'll practice tunes such as: "A Trumpeter's Lullaby" by Leroy Anderson, "Gabriel's Oboe" by Ennio Morricone, "Nessun Dorma" by Giacomo Puccini, Opening Trumpet Solo 1st Movement Trauermarsch from "Mahler's Symphony No. 5 on C# Minor" or perhaps the iconic trumpet solo from Chicago's "Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?" as originally recorded.

Believe me, playing these selections and others, over and over, improving each time and concentrating of the more difficult parts until you get it right, is a very productive and enjoyable means to becoming a much more proficient trumpet player. I can hear the improvement every time I play the same pieces. Making reaching the upper notes clearly and precisely your daily goals as well as carefully monitoring your over-all articulation accuracy, does wonders. And again, you're actually learning pieces that you can use during auditions to to impress your friends and family
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[Nonsense Eliminator]

I think there are places for repertoire, etudes, and exercises. It makes sense to isolate the skills we need to work on, and work on those things with exercises and etudes. That way, when we encounter those issues in music, we can address them more quickly and without getting hung up on them. For instance, I have Scheherazade coming up. So I will make sure my double tonguing is in great shape before I ever look at the part. The fewer times I sound bad on something -- even in the practice room -- the better.
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Richard Sandals
NBO

[Brad361]

Maybe in part it depends on where you are as a trumpet player. If you are in the still developing stage of a student, I'm not sure you can do better than working things like Arbans, Charlier, etc. As a break from that, sure, play some stuff you like that still challenges you. But generally, if I was working hard on improving technique, I'd mostly stick with the "standards", which can and should include more contemporary methods.

Brad
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When asked if he always sounds great:
"I always try, but not always, because the horn is merciless, unpredictable and traitorous." - Arturo Sandoval

[cheiden]

FWIW, I think that having a carefully constructed practice routine that draws from many sources should never be boring. When I was taking lessons I would play essentially the same routine daily with a few of the exercises morphing daily. Every 2 weeks the routine was changed.

My daily routine usually had exercises from the following:
Stamp
Schlossberg
Clarke
Harris
St Jacomes
Irons
Bai Lin
Charlier

When I shift my practice to too much playing tune I invariably lose some of my ability.
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[Craig Swartz]

While Arban's is a huge source of material, it's a bit dated in the 20th Century (IMO) if one want to develop skills needed today. If nothing else, just plain old range is more demanding. I'd look into some of the Vizzutti material, Jphn Daniels Special Studies: Pat Harbison's Technical Studies for tonality, Hickman's Embouchure Studies, and if you want to hang out with Arban's; Pops has added tons to the material of the book and works all of the scales, as well as upping the ante on range. Rich Wiley also has tons of things geared for those wanting to expand their playing abilities. These are but a few of the things I use and use with my studio. IOW- to what Arban's has to offer, I'd look to encompass jazz and commercial playing as well. There aren't a hell of a lot of jobs out there these days and if you can only cover one genre, it becomes difficult to find and keep work. I'd also spend some real time learning transposition as well. Good luck.

[dstdenis]

I like to alternate among different methods. Mostly Arban and Franquin for exercises, and a long list of melodic etude books. I've also picked up a few method and etude books from qpress.ca (I'm not affiliated with them), and that keeps things fresh and interesting too.
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