Composer
Group: Members
Joined: 28-June 07
Posts: 71
Member Number: 3082
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Ok, so here are some things to work on to develop range/ trumpet playing in general:
First off, the warm up....
So people have been talking about the warm up but what exactly do we do in the warm up?
to properly warm up you need more than just ten minutes before band to warm up, I'd set aside at least an hour to go through everything. First thing to start off with is some simple mouthpiece buzzing. start off with whatever note comes out when you start buzzing. then do the "siren" effect. basically make the sound a ambulance siren makes, you want the sounds to be continuous, no leaps in the pitch. do this at a piano dynamic, soft playing is good in the beginning. also take breaks often when you feel like you're getting tired stop and take a break, the purpose of the warm up is not to tire, its to warm up. if you're buzzing properly you should get a tingling sensation in your embouchure. After you've done that pick up the trumpet and take out the tuning slide, put the mouthpiece in and buzz on the leadpipe for the same amount of time. This is giving you some back pressure, so the buzzing should sound better. Again keep this at a soft comfortable dynamic. the pitch should be somewhere around a G on the treble staff. while you're working on this think about being able to control the pitches and sound, if you want a higher note think about moving the air faster. If you're a visual person this would be like putting your thumb over a water hose, makes the water move faster, same concept with you're tongue and the air. if you push the air faster through the abs and arc the tongue the air will be even faster. again do the leadpipe buzzing until you feel comfortable, not tired or strained, if you do get to that point, walk away from the horn and take a break, maybe work on a piece you're writing. Come back and put the tuning slide back in the trumpet and start playing some long tones. if you can play a G on the staff then start there if not work where its most comfortable. If it is a g then you play the g at a piano dynamic for at long as you can comfortably. work down the horn Chromatically ex. G, F#, F, E, etc. For all of these exercises by the way you are not tonguing, its what is sometimes called a "pu" articulation. again if you start to feel tired, take a break. ok next exercise is the first exercise in the clarke technical book. basically its a chromatic exercise that works the entire range of the horn. starting on F# on the staff play chromatically up to C (which is your problem note i think) remember when you're doing this to think faster air when you ascend towards the C, you can add a slight crescendo and decrescendo when going up and down the exercise. as always do this at a nice soft comfortable dynamic. after you play starting on F#, do the exercise up a half step starting on G, so you'll play chromatically from G to C#, then go down to F, and play the exercise from F to B, then go up to Ab and play from Ab to D, etc. do this for as high as you can go. remember your thinking faster air when ascending to higher notes. By now you should be feeling pretty tingly and warmed up. Now its time to initiate the tongue. Start on a note somewhere in the middle of your range and tongue using the syllable "tu" tongue the note four times working on a consistent and even attack, there should not be a burst of air when you articulate. when you articulate the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th notes the air should not stop. if they do you're closing off your throat or stopping the sound completely, this is not what you want. After you've gotten the jist of that play a scale doing the same thing, play a Cmaj scale up the octave tonging each pitch four times, working on attack and consistency. this should give you a fair amount to work up (i'm tired and i have class tomorrow) DO THIS EVERYDAY.. and you'll start to feel/hear the results with time, be patient if something doesn't work try not to get frustrated, remember to use the air and you'll be fine. higher notes= faster air and a higher arched tongue. I'll update this hopefully tomorrow.
P.S before you do everything mentioned you have to work on the breathing. The tuba professor at my uni. studied with arnold jacobs.. a god of everything tuba and breathing related. a very easily exercise he gave in a masterclass is the darth vader (sp?) breath. basically you make and L with your thumb and index finger and put your thumb under your chin so that your index finger is over your mouth. take a deep breath and make the darth vader sound, the throat should not close and you should feel the air around your lips when you inhale. work on this stuff and you should start improving. when you breath do not think about using your diaphragm, you have absolutely no control over this muscle, and anyone that says you do has no clue as to what they're talking about, its an involuntary muscle involved in breathing. Hope this helps good luck with trumpet playing, I also recommend getting a couple of legit cds of some players to start to get a particular sound that you can emulate. Phil Smith is a great player to listen to.
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Oct 25 2007, 2:20 PM
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