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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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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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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