Why you need faster fingers

In my years teaching the trumpet I’ve had many students who pick up the instrument with many beliefs, one of them being that it will be easier than instruments with 17 or more keys. We only have 3 valves, what could possibly go wrong?!

Well, we get only 3 valves to play at least 31 notes. This means that we must not only learn how to change notes that use the same fingering combination, but also to be as fluid as possible when switching valves. This skill is separate from others, because it depends solely on your finger speed and strength. It has nothing to do with air, tone or tonguing. You can have a beautiful tone, but slow fingering will quickly stop you in your tracks.

Trumpet players need quick fingers to advance. Period. The demand for it begins rather early with the first set of sixteenth notes and never stops. Progress is highly dependent on this technique.

Learn how to improve your dexterity on the trumpet with the following tips, which I encourage you to implement slowly into your daily practice.

LIFT!

Too often beginner and intermediate trumpet players have lazy fingers, which results in valves not making it all the way up. When this happens, the transition between notes becomes smudgy and undesirable.

You can train yourself to not do this by purposely lifting your fingers higher than necessary. This acts as a double whammy exercise, because the extra muscle effort needed to do this strengthens your fingers, which in turn makes them faster.

Train the 3rd finger

That ring finger sure loves dragging itself and causing trouble!

This is due to the interconnection between the branches of radial and ulnar nerves hampering the complete independent movement of the ring finger. So, since anatomy is working against us, we must work that finger a bit harder than the others.

I recommend to focus on dexterity exercises that use the 123, 13 and 23 combinations. Going from 13 to 2 is especially difficult and therefore more important to spend time on. You can easily come up with exercises on your own. For example:

1) Set the metronome to 60.

2) Play D (13) to F# (2) in quarter notes for 1 measure.

3) Repeat the notes in eight notes for 1 measure.

4) Repeat again in sixteenth notes.

Chromatic exercises

These types of exercises, such as those found in Clarke Technical Studies 1, are incredibly helpful for improving your dexterity. However, they can be intimidating and simply too advanced for some. Instead, you can focus on two other exercises to work your way up to Clarke.

Use major scales in incremental speeds. First in quarters notes, then in eight notes etc. The goal is to achieve cleanliness and fluid fingers.

You can also use chromatic scales in the same manner. The key is to keep track of your tempo and go up when you are ready. Without tracking speed, you cannot see the progress or tempos in which you should spend more time.

SLAM

If you want to take your lifts to the next level, you can not only lift high, but also slam down! You may be thinking I’ve gone off the rails, but this technique really works and is taught in the well-known Claude Gordon Systematic Approach to Trumpet Playing.

The idea is, again, that the added muscle use strengthens the fingers. And trust me, you want those fingers strong and quick!

The right hand grip is everything

The way you hold the trumpet with your right hand will make or break your ability to move your fingers freely, especially in the first 3 years of playing.

Make sure you do not:

1) Hook the pink into the hook.

2) Hook the thumb behind the first valve and under the lead pipe.

3) Press the valves with the middle of the fingers.

4) Keep your palm close to the valve casing.

Make sure you DO:

1) Free the pinky and allow it to float.

2) Rest the thumb under the lead pipe and between the 1st and 2nd valve OR under the lead pipe and in front of the 1st valve.

3) Press the valves with the balls of your fingers.

4) Leave space between your palm and the valve casing, as if holding a baseball.

Last thoughts

Good things come to trumpet players who work on dexterity! So get to work and avoid overwhelm by applying these tips incrementally into your daily practice routine. You absolutely shouldn’t throw them all in at once.

When in doubt, consult a professional instructor. I cover this and many more topics extensively in my trumpet lessons online course right here at THQ.

Please leave questions and comments below.

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High note mania!

Range on the trumpet is widely known to be a hot topic and a difficult, for most, skill to master. But why is it so elusive? Why do some new players “just know how to how to do it”? More often than not, new players simply get “lucky” with an embouchure formation that works well for the upper register. However, this skill is usually at the expense of a clean low range. It is always a give and take!

For the rest of us mortals it is a skill we master over time. Those who take lessons will find it much easier to navigate higher notes, and those who jump in solo will likely take longer and experience more frustration.

The trumpet, as others in the brass family, is not a tact instrument. It is not like the piano, or guitar, or violin, where as long as the player places the finger on the correct spot and strums, bows or strikes, the pitch will inevitably happen. Oh no, no, no. The trumpet is somewhat of a wild animal. You can press the correct valves, you can blow air through it and know the pitch you want…yet, the notes simply won’t happen.

If this resonates with you, stick with me through these tips and hopefully you will find a way to tame the beast. Should you want more guidance, I cover this and many more topics in my trumpet lessons online course.

1. Stop comparing yourself

This is true for everything in life. The more time you spend comparing yourself to others, the less time you will have to improve yourself. So my friends, focus on your range and your skills, and don’t worry about the player who has an octave on you. No, that player hasn’t found the elixir of high notes, they likely figured it out by working on themselves and being patient.

Your “high notes” are not everyone’s else’s either. Maybe you just started and C in the third space seems miles away, and that’s okay! Or maybe you’ve been playing a while and you’re trying to unlock that high C.

Whatever your “high notes” are, just remember to focus on yourself.

2. Don’t try to run before you can walk

Trying to run a marathon while being out of shape would be a sure way to end up on the sidelines, jelly-legged and seeing a halo of birds above your head.

Trumpet works exactly the same way! You have to be in shape to work on your range. There is not way around it, no magical potion, no shortcuts. Work hard on your fundamentals for two weeks to build a strong foundation for your range development.

3. Stop blowing your face off and let the air flow

You know all those YouTube videos of red-faced trumpet players leaning back into a Matrix-style bullet dodge position?

Don’t do that.

High notes don’t require tanks and tanks of air, or strenuous effort. But they do require pressurized air like the air that comes out of a car tire. It’s fast, it flows freely and uninterrupted. That’s the type of air you want for those stubborn high notes.

The problem is that the air flow often gets blocked by several different things that may be going on in your embouchure. Let’s keep going to talk about some of these issues, but just remember to let the air flow smoothly…always.

4. Use your tongue arch

If you had no tongue, you wouldn’t be able to play the trumpet. Well…you’d have a few notes, but not a whole lot. The tongue plays an important role in trumpet playing, as has been observed and taught by some of the world’s best teachers.

When expanding your upper range raise your tongue to an “eeee” position to propel the air forward. Be careful though that you don’t overdo it, which will result in partial or complete obstruction of the air.

Why does it work? Because when you raise your tongue it decreases the amount of space in your oral cavity and as long as you keep up the volume of air, the air will become more pressurized and move faster. Think of a hose with a flowing stream of water that comes out for a few inches, curves downward, and falls to the ground. Now put your thumb over the hole and watch as the water flows for many inches or feet before it falls. You don’t have to turn up the water, you just have to decrease the area of flow.

This sounds simple, but it took me four months to figure out how exactly to place my tongue and I had already been playing for 13 years at the time. So be patient and if possible, take some private lessons.

5. Keep the corners where they are

Make sure that as you play higher you do not stretch your lips making the corners go outward. This is the classic “smile” method, and although you may find immediate results, you will inevitably run out of luck when the lips can’t stretch anymore and you still have many more notes to go.

Instead, keep your corners where they are, but flex them.

As you flex those muscles you will feel them pressing against your teeth, but without stretching outward. Remember, always do things gently with the trumpet…you are not trying to channel your inner bodybuilder!

6. All that pressure is not good

ding ding! The fight begins between the heavyweight bicep and the lightweight lip!

Oh! The fight is over. ding ding!

This is a very big issue with trumpet layers shoving that metal into their lips. I know that it feels like it helps in a way, but it really doesn’t. When we use excessive pressure the lip will be smushed down and it will no longer vibrate.

No vibration, no notes.

If you’ve ever tried to play high and gotten just air, you’re probably using too much pressure. Instead, try to pull the horn away from your lips a bit and see how that helps.

7. Pinched high notes come from pinched lips

I know you’ve heard some squeaky high notes that sound like the notes are trying to escape the grip of a boa constrictor.

That sound is the tell tale sign of pinched lips. When you pinch your lips you tighten the tissue through which the air flows and causes vibration, and so yes, the note may come out but it’s highly dampened. It doesn’t have resonance or projection.

Players usually resort to pinching their lips because they haven’t found another way to play higher. To avoid this try to use other methods such as tongue arch and proper air flow.

Remember, the corners are flexed, but the center of the lips is relaxed.

Last thoughts

I hope these tips on how to improve your upper range on the trumpet helped you realize where you may be going wrong. As always, I recommend the guidance of a teacher with such a physical instrument as the trumpet.

If you are looking for affordable, self-paced lessons, try my trumpet lessons online course right here at THQ.

Please leave comments and questions below.

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What’s that ticking noise?

This might be the question your non-musical friends and family members ask when they hear the incessant clicking from your practice space. Knowing how to use a metronome is important, simple and very useful.

This device, nowadays purchasable as a phone app, is a musician’s most trusted tool for inner rhythm development, technique practice and more. It provides us with a consistent and never wrong (unlike foot tapping) “click” which represents the beat in any tempo or rhythm you may need.

It helps us physically hear something we would otherwise only feel; the beat.

How does it work?

The metronome works by providing a beat anywhere from 30bpm to about 252bpm, where the lower the number the slower the click. BPM stands for “beats per minute” and it has to do with time signatures.

For example in 4/4 time, there are 4 beats per measure and each beat is a quarter note. If you need to brush up on basic music theory check out this awesome little website. So, if I was playing Mary Had a Little Lamb in 4/4 time I could set my metronome at a comfortable 86bpm and play a quarter note on each click. If I wanted to play it faster, I would turn it up to say 120bpm and follow the same method.

The metronome’s job is to keep you steady in whatever you play to avoid speeding up or dragging the tempo.

But I don’t know what tempo to pick!

While some sheet music clearly states a metronome marking at the top, most fundamental exercises simply say “Slowly” or “Steady.” This is to promote self-reflection and mindful practice as opposed to playing through fundamentals for the sake of getting them out of the way. If you see the word “slowly,” play the exercise as slowly as you need to to focus your tone, notice the flow and feel the feedback from the instrument.

However, sometimes it’s good to play fundamentals with a metronome, especially if you are having a hard time playing slowly, steadily and if you feel like your inner rhythm is out of wack. Here are some go-to tempo markings, but keep in mind they’re just suggestions.

Long tones: 60bpm

Flexibilities: 60-86bpm

Tonguing/Articulation: 60-94bpm

Can I use it to play something other than fundamentals?

Yes, and please do. Use your metronome to practice anything and everything! It’s great for mastering pesky passages with quick moving notes and complicated fingering patterns. My favorite practice technique is “chaining”.

Have you ever played a piece of music that has this one part with a bunch of notes going really fast and you just can’t get it right? Yeah me too, and I’m going to tell you how I fixed it. Chaining comes from the idea of an actual metal chain, which is made of single links put together. Once the links are welded in place it is impossible to pull the chain apart. In practice, we can do the same thing. Take the measure that is causing you trouble, turn on your metronome to something slow like 60, and play the first two notes. Play those two notes three times. If, and only if, you got it right all three times, add another note. See how it works? Once you complete the measure or section you can speed it up slowly.

Another way to chain is to do the same thing but with the metronome at full tempo, an approach I recommend for intermediate and advanced players.

Get more tips on this page: “Practice Techniques”

Get started

There is a lot more you can do with metronome apps nowadays, but that is a topic for another time. I will leave you with some suggestions on my favorite metronomes.

First, the simple, free and easily accessible Google metronome. Just do a google search for “metronome” and boom…it’s right there!

The second is the awesome app “Tonal Energy”, available on android and apple devices. It is a metronome, tuner, recorder, tone generator and coffee maker. The last one is a lie…but it’s basically that great.

And finally, I would love to recommend a metronome that never failed to be loud enough, the Korg KDM-2, but it’s hard to come by these days. Instead, look for any hefty Korg metronome with a visible speaker and you should have enough volume to annoy the neighbors.

For more recommendations check out this dedicated page: “Tuners and Metronomes.”

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Playing by accident

I’m sure that at some point you have experienced an accidental success in trumpet playing. Such as suddenly hitting a high note without meaning to, or playing a perfect rhythm without even noticing.

This is what I call playing by accident. When students routinely play by accident, they move through the motions and enjoy the occasional success. They don’t go back to examine why the success happened, what they did differently, and how it can be replicated. Needless to say, these students take longer to learn new techniques.

My advice to all wishing to reach the next level is to never accept accidental success in the practice room. Always go back for more, examine, break it down and be mindful of everything that goes on when you pick up the trumpet.

Now sometimes, accidents cannot be replicated for a number of reasons:

1. The student does not have private instruction. Without a person to guide you through your development you will hit a wall that only a professional can help you break. Much like anything else you might want to learn, proper teaching is a fundamental factor. 
2. The student is in the beginning stages of learning. Notice that a beginning learner is not the same as a beginner trumpet player. I have seen many players with years under their belts, who are self-taught and have not been taught the techniques to dissect their mistakes.
3. The student is in a state of change. This would include players who are doing an embouchure change or have experienced an accident that compromises their familiarity with their own playing.

Assuming you do not fit any of these categories, lets look at two ways you can learn to leave the accidents behind.

Experimentation without fear

In all my years playing and teaching, I do not think I have ever met a player who enjoyed making mistakes. I mean, that would be crazy right? Who actually wants to make mistakes?

Just because you don’t want to make mistakes in public, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment with them in the practice room. Next time you play, dedicate some time to mistake making. Allow yourself to feel very comfortable with making mistakes, to the point where you can laugh at yourself. Only then, can you move to the next step.

Making mistakes on purpose. You read that right! 

Try missing the high note, cracking the D, flopping the trill, missing the sharp and sound awful. Now you might be asking yourself why would I want to do this?

The answer is simple. When you make the mistake, you can experience the requirements for it. I often find myself trying my best to replicate my student’s mistakes, because that is the only way that I can figure out the correction plan. 

Try doing the same thing for yourself. For example, if you are working on tone production, try pinching your lips together and notice the tight, buzzy sound you will produce. Then open up the aperture very big and try to play a scale. You will notice a very fat tone, that is difficult to control and quiet down. Reflect on what these feel and sounds like, and then find the happy middle. Now as you attempt to sound beautiful and balanced, you might notice some of your mistakes come into light. Maybe you were pinching a little all this time!

Get comfortable with mistakes and remember that we are human, not robots!

Quiet Song

Have you ever heard of the Quiet Eye?

This is a term coined by Professor Joan Vickers of Calgary University which refers to the gaze an athlete makes right before they execute a movement, like when a tennis player’s eyes lock on the ball immediately before they hit with the racket. 

I like to think of this in terms of Border Collies, you know, the highly intelligent shepherd dog. They have something Collie trainers call the “eye” or “gaze.” This is the look the dog has when their eyes are focused solely on the sheep so that they can react in less than a second when the sheep moves. 

Now for musicians, we need to focus on the sound or pitch we want to achieve, but since music cannot be touched or seen, we must create it in our mind’s ear as a “quiet song.” This is a song only you can hear in your mind; it is the model for what you wish to achieve. 

If you always have this clear in your mind, your mistakes will greatly decrease. By keeping the song alive your brain will prepare itself to execute it, refining all the small motor functions of the embouchure, tongue placement and air flow, to help you hit the bull’s eye.

Imagine your success as vividly as possible and even mimic all the movements needed, then play. Repeat many times to refine this technique.

Daily exposure is key

Now that you have a couple of tools to help you learn from your mistakes, apply them daily to maximize the results. If you need private lessons, check out the THQ Trumpet Lessons Online program. Get to work, and good luck!

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Impatience is your enemy

For me, finding ways to dissect difficult passages in music has become a habit and I will share three ways to practice a difficult lick with you. But first, let’s talk about patience.

If there is any one area I could say almost all of my students over the years have had to improve on, is dissecting sheet music. It’s not a particularly difficult task per se, but it does require a lot of patience. The world we live in today leaves little room for patience as wifi connections get faster, videos load in a couple seconds and information is literally at the palm of our hands.

I used to actually have to go to the library to find information. I would have to wait until the library was open, until I could get a ride, until I found the book and only then did I find what I was looking for. Assuming of course I already had a library card.

I grew up waiting 5 minutes for the internet to connect.

Most of my students grew up waiting less than 10 seconds.

It’s not surprise then that patience is their biggest obstacle. Is it your biggest obstacle? Do you find yourself repeating the same phrase over and over, only to continue making the same mistakes the next day? Do you ever sit and practice just those 2 difficult measures? Do you become frustrated often? Do you use a metronome most of the time?

Tell yourself that enough is enough and make a change with these three ways to practice a difficult lick:

Don’t rush!

I’m sure you know what Kung Fu is, but what about Tai Chi? Tai Chi is the practice of slowly moving through the same and similar forms used in the fast paced Kung Fu. By moving the body without hurry the martial artist gains control, smoothness and balance.

In the same way musicians can learn a lot about their playing by playing at turtle’s pace. When you play slowly your will hear the areas that need attention much more clearly.

Issues in intonation, rhythmic accuracy, articulation, tone cleanliness and dexterity will become very noticeable, which brings me to my next tip…

One click at a time

Now that the tempo is much slower we can use the metronome to break it up and work on the music. I recommend that you set your metronome at half the full tempo to start.

Play only the first beat of the passage. If the first beat has just one note, then play just that, but if it has four, then play all four. Repeat the first beat 2-3 times without making a mistake. Only then can you add the next beat and continue doing this until you have completed the passage. Once the entire passage can be played mistake-free, add 1-5 clicks to the metronome speed.

How much speed you add will depend upon the overall difficulty and your needs. Remember to be patient.

Make sure that you only play 2-3 measure at a time. This will help you to deeply examine smaller sections, as opposed to attempting too much and becoming overwhelmed.

When you finally arrive at your final tempo, or close to it, you will notice how much better everything sounds.

Take out the ties

More often than not, ties make technique more difficult for learning trumpet players. Since a tie adds the values of two or more notes, it has the potential to wreak havoc on your rhythm.

Sure, a tie connecting two quarter notes is simple. The two quarter notes become a half note. Easy peasy.

But what about when the tie connects an eight note at the top of a beat to a sixteenth note, which is followed by three 16th notes? Such is the case in the example below. 

A quick and reliable way to perfect this rhythm is to take the tie out completely. Play it a few times as if the tie wasn’t there at all. Really allow this broken-down rhythm to sink in; it’s the skeleton of the tied rhythm.

Now you add the tie, but be sure to maintain the skeleton of the rhythm in your mind’s ear.

This method is very effective and it can be used in any situation.

Applying these tips

Now that you have read about these three tips, put them to work immediately. Don’t wait until tomorrow, or else your drive and excitement to try something new will diminish or completely disappear.

Get to work as soon as possible and try at least one of the aforementioned practice techniques. If you want to learn about a few more check out this page with ten practice tips.

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Get better at sight-reading with these tips

Last week we talked about why sight-reading is an important skill to have. This week I will let you in on the simplest, yet most effective techniques to up your sight-reading game.

Sight-read a little daily

Although sight-reading should be fairly easy at the beginner/intermediate levels, the majority of young players have a hard time due to lack of exposure. If your private teacher hasn’t been doing this with you ask them to incorporate it in your lessons.

Remember, if you don’t do it, you will not get good at it. 

To start reading every day you can use my 10 simple melodies, use your music books or a friends, dig through your band’s library and ask you teacher to borrow books. 

Stuff is out there, so go get it!

Rhythm is king

When practicing sight-reading focus on the rhythm first, notes later. This will seem weird at first but in the long run this is how you become a proficient reader. You know the notes, it’s the rhythms that get you. So, if you focus on the rhythms 100% of the time they will eventually become second nature, just like notes.

When you focus on rhythms you might find yourself missing more notes. That’s okay! Miss notes for now and focus on keeping the rhythm intact. If you practice this daily you can see results in as little as one sitting. You read that right. I have seen it time and again with my students. They struggle to sight-read, but once they shift their focus to rhythmic accuracy everything falls into place. 

Use a metronome

Although you won’t normally have access to a metronome in a sight-reading situation such as an audition, it is good to use for practicing.

The metronome acts as a constant reminder to keep your rhythm steady. Turn it on to an easy going tempo like 86bpm and make sure you wait for…

The 4-click count off

I can’t tell you how often I see students turn on a metronome to sight-read, only to completely ignore it from the get go. If this is you, get in the habit of listening to the click for a full 8 beats, then do a 4-click count off in your mind before you begin, as if someone was counting you off.

All together it should look like this:

*click* *click* *click* *click*

*click* *click* *click* *click* (put your trumpet up)

One, two, three, four (breath on 4)

Play on the downbeat of 1

Waiting in this manner lets the tempo “sink in” and sets you up for success.

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That wraps it up for the best sight-reading tips. If you missed last week’s post on why sight-reading is a great skill to have check it out to complete this post’s teachings. Get to work and let me know if these tips helped you!

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Let’s Face It, Developing Sight-Reading Skills Is Tough

This is how most people feel and consequently, they ignore working on the skill. Most beginner and intermediate players see it as an “extra” skill that can be cast aside since they don’t really need it right at this moment. Since they don’t need it for the performance, it is forgotten, like sight-reading is not important. They have the sheet music that they need to work on, so why bother?

If this sounds like you, I’m about to tell you why you should bother. Maybe it sounds like your students. Or maybe you’re an advanced player and you sight-read fairly well, but you want to be better. That’s good, we never stop learning!

You’re training to learn faster

Isn’t it just exhausting to get a new solo for, say, an audition and spend hours upon hours just trying to figure out notes and rhythms? What if notes and rhythms could be done in under an hour?

An excellent sight-reader will learn new solos much faster. They will be able to have notes, rhythms, dynamics and articulation down in less than a an hour.

If you can read it through and catch all the notes and rhythms quickly, then you can spend the rest of your time working on what really matters, musicality.

You NEED to develop this skill

A lot of young players dislike sight-reading, some are scared of it and others even hate it. But you have to start doing it daily, not just at concert band assessments.

You see, sight-reading is like knowing how to read words. Actually, it’s exactly the same. People who can’t read can still speak by listening to others and mimicking the sounds. This is what you as a musician might do in band. You get new music and overtime you learn how to play it simply by osmosis. This is NOT good. It’s like saying you’re a fluent Chinese speaker because you can say words. While you can absolutely get around by just speaking, what happens when you get lost and can’t read the street signs or your traffic ticket?

You will get a confidence boost

Feeling ready to read anything gives you that extra edge against your competition. You will be able to arrive at auditions, gigs or simply the first day of concert band at school or college, feeling good, relaxed and prepared.

Also, confidence is something that not only shows in your demeanor but also comes through your tone. It’s an all-in-one music vitamin.

You will have more fun

Naturally, practicing can sometimes get boring due its monotonous nature. We play the same or similar warm-ups and routine drills on a daily basis, and this repetitive pattern can wear our musicianship down over time.

The warm-up and routine are inevitable and must be done daily, but after that’s finished we have choices. However, these choices can be severely limited by your sight-reading skills. If you are not doing so great at sight-reading, then you will probably go to the same etude or solo you’ve been working on and play it again…

Kill that habit by instead pulling out a new book, opening it to any page and just reading. You can also try my simple melodies as your sight-reading exercises.

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Now that you know why developing this skill is so important, look out for the next blog to see how you can get better at sight-reading. Keep playing and have fun!

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Bad habits are hard to break, but it’s not impossible!

Here is a scary statistic: 99% of new students that come to me not only have no idea how to practice, but they’re actually making themselves worse on a daily basis by doing the things listed below.

That’s a fairly accurate percentage, seeing as maybe one student every couple of years actually knows how to approach the trumpet. Beginners simply don’t know how to avoid bad habits. Why? Because they don’t know what the incorrect habits are. Like the game “telephone”, incorrect trumpet playing habits spread and get worse from person to person until it finally lands on you…and you end up ¨smiling to play higher.¨

Sometimes you’ve been doing something for so long and you’ve dug a hole so big, that you have to work 20 times harder to get out and never fall back in. But like an old teacher once told me, do something everyday for 3 weeks and you will be on the right track. Here we go:

 

Your first note of the day is always a C below the staff

This is one of those things I burn into the skulls of my students. You are making your life so much harder by letting your first note be that low.

Let me put it this way: pick the easiest way to climb to the top of a mountain. 1) You start at the very bottom and hike OR 2) You get dropped off in the middle and hike.

The answer is obviously #2!

Trumpet playing works in a similar way. Starting below the staff everyday prepares your mind and chops to be “low,” and the journey to the top will seem much higher.

Instead, start in the middle, on middle C, and you will soon find yourself realizing that C above the staff is not so far after all. If you’re still working your way to middle C, try starting on a G on the second line of the staff. Just stay away from low C as your first note of the day.

 

You don’t warm-up before playing other things

If I had a penny for every time I say this every week…

Not warming up before playing anything else is the best way to destroy your chops. This is like not stretching before doing hard exercise, and then pulling a muscle. What you have to realize is that the embouchure is made up of tiny muscles that need exercise to become stronger. When you don’t warm-up, you shock these muscles and don’t give them time to “wake up.”

This is bad…very very bad. I have seen so many players ruin themselves by picking up the horn first thing in the morning, blowing a few high Cs and playing some marching band music. If you truly want to get better, begin your day with some long tones/Cichowicz studies and slurring drills. Try to fit at least in 10-15 minutes of warming up. It’s a wonderful thing and your future self with thank you.

 

When practicing a solo, you always start at the beginning

This may seem like a good idea but in reality, it’s a great way to waste time. If you already know the beginning, skip it! Start in the middle or the end and work on the stuff you don’t know. It may be frustrating to not sound as good for a bit, but by the time that solo & ensemble/honor band try out/church gig rolls around you will start strong and end with confidence!

 

You never practice performing

This is a big one. If you practice your solos but never play a run-through like it’s the real thing, you’re not practicing performing.

Performance is a learned skill and you have to practice it too. If you don’t, you will find yourself performing your solo and stopping when you make a mistake because this is what you do when you practice. Or suddenly realizing mid-performance that you’ve actually never run the piece top to bottom. That is not a good feeling!

A really great way to practice performing is to prop your phone on your night stand, press record video and go! Don’t stop no matter how many mistakes happen. After watching the video you will be able to hear the trouble spot you may have already forgotten about. Now you can work that spot and record again.

So record yourself, perform for your family and you will soon feel more comfortable come performance time. Also, I wrote a post on how to transform your mistakes during performance, check it out if that’s sounds up your alley.

 

One good habit at a time

If you’re finding yourself guilty of a few bad habits, its alright. Tackle one at a time and above all, try to get guidance from a qualified teacher. Going solo on learning the trumpet can be a real roadblock, as can studying from an unqualified instructor. A student of mine tells me his former teacher told him to puff his cheeks…because that’s what Dizzy Gillespie did. Oh boy.

Although the internet is a great place to learn, it’s also chalkfull of ill advice by players who are also just learning. Stay on the right path and follow the THQ facebook, instagram, or twitter and ask questions there. I’m also on youtube with some videos.

Of course, the absolute best way to learn is with a teacher. However, if traditional weekly trumpet lessons are not possible, check out the online lessons offered here. They’re extremely effective and I’m always one message away for guidance.

I truly hope this helps you and your students.

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Playing high notes on the trumpet is one of those things that is consistently at the highest demand from beginners and intermediate players, mostly because they see others do it and they want to join in. Probably the same reason why I always buy a cupcake after watching someone else enjoy one.

First off, by high notes I mean notes around C above the staff, known by many as “high C”. This could include A, Bb and B above the staff for you, or maybe you’ve got the high C/D and are struggling to hit those E/Fs. Also, this post is not about learning how to play high and it’s also not about dismissing the high range as something unimportant. This is for those trumpet players out there stressing about high notes and making it their practice priority. If that’s you, please please read this:

ONE – Focusing on high range practice without a balance of fundamentals is just another way to achieve hurting your chops. Be sure to  play flexibilities, long tones and low notes before your high range practice. This is why marching band can be so damaging to players that do not warm-up properly and then go on the field and blast high Ds until their lips bleed…literally.

TWO – If you’re planing on auditioning for all-state, college or a competition, the judge listening to you will rather accept someone who can’t yet play above high C but CAN play rhythmically and musically, than someone who can play double high Cs but can’t for their life keep the beat or play dynamics. That’s reality. Believe it!

THREE – If you have a hard time playing with good rhythm, jumping around intervals, playing in tune and understanding musicality, there are a lot of other things you should be worrying about other than high notes. The best part is that when you really start nailing all those other things, your high range will start expanding bit by bit. Now that doesn’t mean that the high range develops on its own. It doesn’t. You actually have to play up there to be able to play up there. However, focusing on fundamentals now will help you focus your tone and air flow, consequently aiding your high range development in the future.

FOUR – The kids that can play super high in middle and high school are usually not the ones making it big. Why? Because all they care about is playing high and that doesn’t really work in the professional world. So don’t stress about what they’re doing. You do you, and focus on fundamentals. Very soon, you’ll be breezing past the competition!

So there you have it! Focus on fundamentals, tone production and technique and you will fly past your peers…even the one kid that shows off playing super high after band practice. The phrase “slow and steady wins the race” is actually true in trumpet world.

Trivia question: This famous lead trumpet player says “I never worked on high notes, I never did and I never will.” Know it? Leave your answer in the comments or come back next week for the blog post with the answer!

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