A Beginner’s Guide To Transposition

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Does your hair stand on end when you are faced with a part which requires transposition? Until you become familiar with playing notes that are not there, you will be uncomfortable. I will try to give you some helpful tips on how to reading transpositions at sight. Learning to transpose…

Shakes

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Download exercise sheet- Shake exercise sheet Download audio instructions- Shakes The similarity between the lip (tongue) trill and the shake are remarkable. Everything that we had practiced to produce a tongue trill will now be applied to the technique of playing shakes. The only difference between the two is that in…

How can I play higher? Part 2

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Know your enemy- 1. Excessive mouthpiece pressure One element which can limit your playing in the upper register is excessive mouthpiece pressure. The lip needs to continuously vibrate when playing and an excess of mouthpiece pressure can limit and even stop the lips vibration when playing high notes. One trick…

How can I play higher? Part 1

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This is the most often question trumpet teachers are asked. Why is this such a problem? Seldom are students concerned on how fast they can play or how they can improve their tone. It always comes back to high-range playing. To answer this question, we must first step back and…