Feedback Requested

[jhatpro]

I wrote the following for the 10-year old daughter of a friend of mine as a way of getting her a head start on playing the trumpet. I'd appreciate any feedback you might have. I realize I've left out a lot. What I'm hoping to avoid is any glaring errors. Here it is:

20 Tips for Learning to Play the Trumpet

By Jim Hatfield

The best way to learn is to find a teacher who also plays the trumpet and who can demonstrate technique and, occasionally, play duets with you. Until you find an instructor, here are some tips that will help you as you experiment on your own:

1. All the muscles and tissue around your mouth that enable you to play are called your “embouchure,” pronounced AHM-bah-shure. Your embouchure is what allows you to form your lips to vibrate a narrow stream of air. This vibrating air column resonates through the horn and results in musical notes. The faster the vibrations, the higher the note. (Don’t become obsessed with playing high. Remember, 90 percent of all trumpet music is below high C!)

2. To form your embouchure, squeeze your lips together from all sides: top, bottom, corners. When you’ve done this, imagine you are trying to spit a grain of rice as far as you can, using your tongue, your lips and, of course, your lungs. This process will result in the formation of a slit or aperture in the center of your lips. This is where the air leaves your body and enters the horn via the mouthpiece. The more control you can develop over this aperture the better player you will be.

3. Your embouchure will take time to develop so, until then, go easy. Don’t overblow. Rest as much as you play. This doesn’t mean play 30 minutes and rest 30 minutes. It means play for a minute, and then rest a minute.

4. While you are resting, use the time to figure out what key you are in and, eventually, what chords and scales go with the notes. Another way to use the time is to mentally rehearse the next few bars. This will help you develop the habit of looking ahead which will help you a lot in band and orchestra playing

5. Remember not to jam the horn into your embouchure because this will squeeze the blood out of your lips and you will tire quickly. Instead, hold the horn as lightly as you can.

6. It’s important to realize that notes start not in the horn or even in your lungs or mouth but in your head. You need to hear the sound you want to make before you make it. This will take time so be patient. You can develop this ability if you have a piano by playing a note on the keyboard and then trying to match the sound on your horn.

7. There are a lot of good beginning and intermediate instruction books. The Getchell series is very good. The series by Allen Vizutti is also excellent. The classic is the Arban book.

8. Be sure you warm up well. Start with just one note – what’s called the second line G, which is found on the second line of the staff. Play this note softly and practice holding it as long as you can. This will develop both your embouchure and your lungs. Gradually, expand your playing to other notes higher and lower.

9. Find a trumpet fingering chart (there are some online) and figure out what combinations create which notes. For example, you can play second line G with no valves depressed. To go up to G#, you’ll need to depress the second and third valve. To play the next note up, which is A, you’ll press down the first and second valves. As you move higher, you’ll discover that you can increase the speed of your air by raising your tongue. This is what will enable you eventually to play a G above the staff as well as the G an octave lower.

10. Notes in a trumpet are made when you use your lips to cause air in the horn to vibrate. To make good sounding notes you need a lot of air so remember to breathe deeply using your diaphragm, which is the network of muscles below your lungs.

11. Don’t hold your breath before you play. Instead, take a good breath a split second before your play. Take quick breaths as you need them between notes. However, try to avoid taking breaths in the middle of musical phrases. Often, written music will have breath marks to show you where to breathe.

12. From the beginning, concentrate on making music. This means not only playing etudes and songs in instruction books but also playing music you already know by heart. This includes nursery rhymes, hymns, pop tunes, classical themes, TV jingles. Practice playing the songs you hear in your head on your horn. In the beginning, this will involve a lot of trial and error but you will get better at it.

13. It’s also a good idea to play along with records. An excellent classical trumpet player to listen to and play along with is Phil Smith, the principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. He has a good “play-along” book with a CD of him playing the songs so you can join him.

14. Good jazz players to listen to include Wynton Marsalis, Brian Lynch, Ingrid Jensen, Nicholas Payton, and many others. A very good jazz play-along is called “Jazz Conception,” by Jim Snidero. It’s a book of songs with a CD on which Joe Magnarelli plays so you can join in. A good local place to buy music books is Sam Ash in the Lombard Pines Shopping Center at Roosevelt Road and Main Street in Lombard.

15. When you’ve learned a song in one key, try to play it in other keys. The simplest way is to move the notes up a half step or a whole step. How do you know what key you’re in? One way is to listen to the note the song ends on. If it ends on C, you’re probably in the Key of C.

16. It’s a good idea to try to play songs with other musicians. If you play with a piano player, you’ll discover their notes are a full step lower than the notes on a Bb trumpet. That’s because a piano is a concert key instrument and a trumpet is what’s called a transposing instrument. For example, when you tune to a piano, and the pianist plays a Bb, you will have to transpose the note up a full step to C.

17. When you are practicing, keep an old newspaper on the floor near your music stand so you can drain the horn of the condensation that forms as your breath cools. Incidentally, the keys used for this are sometimes incorrectly called “spit keys.” The correct name is “water key.”

18. Be sure to take good care of your teeth because you’ll need them to play well. Also remember to brush them before you play to avoid getting food particles in your horn. Don’t drink regular soft drinks because the sugar will gum up your valves.

19. Your horn will play easier if it’s clean so you should literally give it a bath in the tub every few weeks. Use warm water and dish soap. You can buy a horn cleaning kit at most music stores. The brushes it contains will help you clean out the leadpipe and other tubes. Be careful when you take out the valves to make sure you don’t drop or scratch them. Rinse all parts well and dry them carefully with a soft towel. Re-oil the valves and put what’s called “slide grease” on the tuning slides to make sure they pull in and out easily.

20. Play in a band as soon as possible. You’ll learn a lot and have a lot of fun as well.

Good luck, and good playing!
_________________
Jim Hatfield

"The notes are there - find them.� Mingus

2021 Martinus Geelan Custom
2005 Bach 180-72R
1965 Getzen Eterna Severinsen
1946 Conn Victor
1998 Scodwell flugel
1986 Bach 181 cornet
1954 Conn 80A cornet
2002 Getzen bugle

[Don Herman rev2]

First impression: lots of very good info and a useful read for me. Maybe too much and too detailed for a 10-year-old? Best delivered in small chunks, with repeated emphasis on the main points/goals (sound, natch)?

I'll see what others have to say.
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

[dbacon]

Just play little melodies with her....all the time.....short, pretty tunes...make good music with her..drop the rest....

[pair of kings]

I'm gonna agree with Don.

Not to insult anyone's intelligence. I teach a lot of smart 10 year olds

but it's WAY TOO MUCH INFO> particularlly the notes on embouchure and air column. There are some other good pointers in there for her to consider and think about .

leave out the DON'T sections.

a few simple principles i might suggest.

Before starting with the instrument each day. Get the buzz going in the mouthpiece, blow a long siren from the highest note you can start on to the lowest one . Dont worry how high or low, just get it revved up. Roll the lips in mmm to start on the higher pitch. . You can feel how they will sort of roll out when you siren down. Go back up the way you came down. after 10 - 30 seconds with the mouthpiece, add the trumpet.

When You actually start to play you just need the buzz to Start the note. You won't need to buzz once you get the sound started. Let the air take over from there. The AIR is what makes the Lips Work.
Say tew for high notes and tah for low notes. That helps the lips find their way.

Start with good Posture, breathe completely, air always moving in or out.
lips moist & together, and blow with energy. Get the air right in the mouthpiece, and the sound will come right out the bell.

Sing the music with the fingerings before playing to get the sound in your brain's ear. You can't play music if you don't know what it sounds like.
Trumpet players can't be button pushers.

The rest keeps the lips fresh and you can figure out fingering and rhythms without 'wasting' your chops . Always play Music , not just notes.
Always play in rhythm . Timing is everything!

Memorize the flats and sharps in order, and learn scales in all the keys.
Songs are built from scales.
Be creative in your practice. Try to play music that's not written out anywhere. make up rhythms.


that's some stuff that you have there. maybe in a simpler straighter way.
If you know your customer better, no offense intended.

Jim, I note that you caution not to overblow.. most 10 year old girls dont' .
Also I see you say squeeze the lips together.. my experience is when they think about doing that, they squeeze . get tight and shut off the air.
You might phrase it to say squeeze the airstream for higher notes or something like that.

well that's my random thoughts. for late night - hope it makes a little sense

[jhatpro]

Thanks, everyone. I realize there's way too much info for a 10-year old. I'm hoping she'll leave it in her case and, perhaps, as she gets older find some nuggets that will help her. Hopefully, it won't take her as long to figure this stuff out as it did me.
_________________
Jim Hatfield

"The notes are there - find them.� Mingus

2021 Martinus Geelan Custom
2005 Bach 180-72R
1965 Getzen Eterna Severinsen
1946 Conn Victor
1998 Scodwell flugel
1986 Bach 181 cornet
1954 Conn 80A cornet
2002 Getzen bugle

[Craig Swartz]

Break it down into 3 tips at first: Pitch, breath, release (attack). Once the foundation is built, add on as the needs change.

For pitch we sing the pitches to hear things first, then play the tone on the horn.

For breath we practice blowing at a piece of paper held about 4 inches in front of their face and the goal is to blow it out and hold it steady for 6-8 beats.

For release (attack) we do the same being sure to articulate with a "twhoooo", emphasis on the "hoooooo" feeling in the throat area.

I go so far as have them start the foundation material by lip buzzing into a mirror before we play the horn to get that part of the equation set before they screw the mouthpiece onto their embouchure, such as it may be. I also have them make their first tones by looking into the mirror to insure they're making the same "face" with the horn as they are with the mouthpiece, or lips alone.

[Psalm98:6]

Good reminders for all of us. Thanks
Rick
_________________
Rick
Bach Strad B-flat
Blessing Artist B-flat
Unknown brand C trumpet

[PacoTheTrumpeter]

I would recommend not giving any part of this list to the student. A ten year old learning to play the trumpet should deal with issues as they come along under the guidance of a teacher who can use means other than language to help her learn. These words can be as true as they want, but they won't help someone play. In any even, I would put self expression at the top of any list, and not scare a child away from the seemingly insurmountable task of learning to play trumpet. She doesn't need to see a list which implies playing is hard or easy or whatever. She just needs to experiment with an expert to help her out. As for glaring errors, the embouchure is functionally a relationship that includes the mouthpiece, so technically you can't jam the instrument into the embouchure, but rather into the mouth. Also, by telling a child to avoid excess pressure, you might inadvertently be saying that pressure should be avoided, with the result that she will add body tension in an effort to resist pressing the instrument against her face too hard. Efficient playing will come eventually, but scare tactics won't help build a better musician. In any event, talking about an embouchure before addressing breathing (if it needs to be addressed) seems a little counterintuitive. As for the playing high issue, by stressing its relative unimportance, you are communicating to the child that there is something special (read "HARD") about it and probably planting the early seeds for struggling with the upper register. Children don't need lists until they have experience. But, of course, that is just my opinion.

[hotorangetrumpet]

Yeah, I agree with you all.... this is a great "list" if you will, detailing and outlining the basics of trumpeting but prolly a tad bit much for a 10yr old.
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http://www.colbycooman.com
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[PacoTheTrumpeter]

And whatever you do, please don't make a big deal out of the mechanics of multiple tonguing. Or the importance of sharp-weighted keys. Trumpet playing is so much easier when you accept that it's not that complicated. We just make sounds by blowing into a multi-chambered pipe at the end of the day. The only reason we obsess over these issues and try to take preventative measures for students is because of all the trouble our teachers got us into trying to do the same thing.