View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
SatchmoTrumpet New Member
Joined: 31 Jan 2020 Posts: 3
|
Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:31 pm Post subject: What to do when you don’t know what note you’re hitting |
|
|
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. _________________ How many trumpet players does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: ten–one to screw it on and nine others to accidentally mistake it for a straight mute. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
CJceltics33 Veteran Member
Joined: 24 Aug 2017 Posts: 475
|
Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
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! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
kehaulani Heavyweight Member
Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 9024 Location: Hawai`i - Texas
|
Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
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. _________________ "If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird
Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Lionel Heavyweight Member
Joined: 25 Jul 2016 Posts: 783
|
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
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. _________________ "Check me if I'm wrong Sandy but if I kill all the golfers they're gonna lock me up & throw away the key"!
Carl Spackler (aka Bill Murray, 1980). |
|
Back to top |
|
|
MF Fan Veteran Member
Joined: 26 Mar 2002 Posts: 397 Location: The Great White North
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
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. _________________ MF Fan
__________
L.A. Benge 5x
Holton MF3
Lead Trumpet - My Basement Jazz Orchestra |
|
Back to top |
|
|
ComebackPlayer New Member
Joined: 16 Mar 2019 Posts: 8 Location: Napa, CA
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:18 am Post subject: Re: What to do when you don’t know what note you’re hitt |
|
|
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. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
cheiden Heavyweight Member
Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 8914 Location: Orange County, CA
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
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. _________________ "I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
Charles J Heiden/So Cal
Bach Strad 180ML43*/43 Bb/Yamaha 731 Flugel/Benge 1X C/Kanstul 920 Picc/Conn 80A Cornet
Bach 3C rim on 1.5C underpart |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|