Love of the Trumpet! & Come back player at 42???

[jcrowe77]

Hello everyone! I am 42 years old. I am not sure how to go about this, but will give this a try. I wanted to let others know that I love the trumpet!
To give a bit of background... I started trumpet when I was in 7th grade and continued until my 11th grade year in high school. I stopped because my family life was tough and I had to get a job early on to help out my parents with bills and other things, that being said, I could not get in the practice time it took to play with my peers at school. Flash forward 30+/- years and here I am. I have started playing trumpet again, I actually started about 3 years ago, in this time I have developed such a love for this instrument and the sound that one can make through it. I have to say that I didn't get very far with it in school when I was younger, but I would like to give it a go, obviously not professionally, but merely to produce what I hear in my head. I am okay, but have to admit there is a lot I need to learn. I find myself eating, drinking, and sleeping trumpet. I want so badly to be a good player, but I feel that God did not give me to tools to do it. I guess, I wanted everyone to know that I love the trumpet and have such a deep passion for it. I wonder why God would give me such a passion for it this late in life but without the tools in the shed? Anyhow, I will continue to play and try to get better because I cannot put it down. I wanted thank everyone here with their great tips and comments. I have read many of them and will continue to do so in the future. If anyone has anymore tips on the following, please post.
1. Getting better with meter/time
2. Learn how to double and triple tongue
3. Learning to get the sound in my head to come out of the trumpet
There are many more, but I will not go on.
Thank you again for everyone here.

[WxJeff]

Welcome to the party

Thanks for the detailed introduction and best wishes in your pursuit. Your passion for playing should take you far!
_________________
Kanstul F Besson International 800 Bb
Jupiter SCR-520

[cgaiii]

First of all, I would say, don't assume that you don't have the tools. Trumpet is a fairly difficult instrument, but as you feel it rewards the work. As one who also enjoys the trumpet, I have an idea of how you feel. A few ideas: Go slow. Enjoy what you play. Play music you enjoy. Play what you can play the best you can. Play with sound and individual notes.
Getting a teacher will make trumpet even more enjoyable. I highly recommend it.
42 is not old. Great time to come back.

Good luck.
_________________
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Flugel: Taylor Standard
Bass Trumpet: BAC Custom
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[Dayton]

[GeorgeB]

jcrowe77:

I will be 84 in a couple of months and started playing again in 2016 after a 50+ year hiatus. Like you, I have a deep love for the trumpet and music in general.
It's a tough instrument but if you put hard work into mastering it the rewards will come over time. After 7 months in my first year I was good enough to join the local Horizons band at the first level. Today I am playing with the area's top community band, and sitting beside semi-pro players is a great learning experience.
Don't be too hard on yourself. I was until other experienced players said I was damn good. Just keep at it. Record yourself if you can. Hearing your self helps, believe me.
Best wishes,
George
_________________
GeorgeB
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic
2016 Manchester Brass Custom
1938-39 Olds Recording
1942 Buescher 400 Bb trumpet
1952 Selmer Paris 21 B
1999 Conn Vintage One B flat trumpet
2020 Getzen 490 Bb
1962 Conn Victor 5A cornet

[MrOlds]

Welcome back to the trumpet!

There are so many resources available to you in terms of recorded examples, instruction, texts, opinions...

Sorting through all that could be daunting. A thing to keep in mind is that most of the language we use to describe how we make the trumpet work are at best approximations or visualizations that work for us. And my visualization of how I do it might not resonate for you. So as you come across new ideas give them a try but feel free to move on if they don’t help you get the results you’re looking for.

A good teacher will help you avoid spending too much time on dead ends.

My best recommendation is to learn to listen in detail. Find recordings of trumpet playing that sounds the way you want to sound then really listen to every detail of those sounds. How notes start. How they change from one note to another. What can you hear in the sound of a sustained note? What can you hear as a note ends. Can you hear any differences in sound quality from one register to another? Can you hear that player’s attention to intonation? Time? Phrasing?

Try listening to a short phrase of your favorite player in intense detail and then see how long you can keep that detailed sound in your head. This will help you develop a strong internal model.

Then apply that detailed listening to your playing. How is it different from the ideal you’ve internalized?

Then identify one thing you want to do better. Try it. Did you get closer to the ideal? If you did then great! Do that again. Try to get closer to the ideal each time.

Next find another thing you want to improve and concentrate on that.

It’s hard to keep a bunch of goals in mind at the same time so working on one thing for a few minutes then another and then another frees up your brain to concentrate on the thing your trying to improve.

Spend some time before your practice session thinking about the 3-5 things you want to improve today and just work on those. Don’t worry about the rest of the things you don’t do as well as you want. You’ll get to those eventually.

Recording yourself is a good idea. But we have up and down days all the time and progress is usually slow so work on getting closer to the ideal every day but maybe listen to a recording of yourself every month or every quarter. That will give you a better idea of your progress.

Most of all have fun. They call it playing music for a reason.

[kehaulani]

jcrowe77 - just a mechanical comment. Could you please break any further text into logical paragraphs? It would be easier on the eyes for some of us as well as making your points more effective. Thanks.

And welcome to the club young man. I hope you get a lot of pleasure out of the trumpet. And be patient. It ain't easy.
_________________
"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

[Bill_Bumps]

[Wannabe808]

You have come to the right place. There are tons of super supportive and knowledgable people here that have helped me. Great advice above, a teacher will get you off on the right foot. Follow your dreams.