Dry mouth with Two Solutions

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Many times, we are faced with difficult conditions when performing under pressure and one of these conditions is dry mouth. A trumpet player with dry mouth is like a fish without water. Both conditions will result in a very bad situation.   Common Causes of Dry mouth Dry mouth is not always related to an underlying condition. It may be caused by: Not drinking adequate water Nervousness Stress Certain medications Aging Cancer therapy (radiation/chemotherapy) Smoking Methamphetamine use Injury or surgery Tobacco Exercising or playing in the heat   Take note of conditions 2 (nervousness) and 3 (stress). These two are…

Brush After Every Practice

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The phrase “be sure to brush after every meal” should be applied to trumpet playing. There are three reasons why this is important to all of us playing brass instruments. Reason #1- It’s healthier. The amount of food, crud and moisture that builds up in our instruments in a short amount of time is impressive. Bacteria begin to develop to a point that germs can be contracted through our many hours of blowing into the instrument. Brushing our teeth after a practice session will help eliminate the possibility of these foreign bodies getting into your system. The exposed brass inside…

Preparing For Your First Gig

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Be sure to visit our sister site…… Trumpet Ensemble Music for all of your solo, ensemble and study material needs. ______________________________________ I distinctly remember my first real paying gig. It was at the Officers Club at the Rock Island Arsenal base and I was in high school. Fortunate for me I was a better player than anyone else on the job. It was a New Year’s Eve dance and the book (music) was easy although hard to read from all the spilled beer and cross outs on the one-hundred year old manuscript. But enough about my first time, let’s see…

You Raise Me Up – Trumpet Ensemble

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  From time to time we have readers send in recordings of our music and this young man was kind enough to take the time to prepare our arrangement of “You Raised Me Up”. We would like to thank Javed for his recording and it looks as if we have a very talented and industrious young trumpet player out there. From Javed; Arranged by Branson Trumpet Ensemble – Chidester Played & Recorded by Javed Hassan This is me messing with my webcam and trying to get 4 vids at once. not good quality, I know, But the music was ok…

Historically (Hysterically) Important Advice for Cornet/Trumpet Players- Part #2

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This is part #2 from the advice given in the duet collection Celebrated Practice Duets by Arthur Amsden. Don’t fail to pour water through your cornet before beginning the day’s work; never mind WHY, just DO IT and note the benefit of this simple advice. allow yourself to acquire a tremolo in your tone; nothing can be more objectionable than a cheap, shivery, trembling tone “a goat-stop” tone is a performers worst asset. hold your instrument too high or too low, and by all means don’t hold it sideways, that’s an unmistakable sign that you’re a novice. beat time with…

Historically (Hysterically) Important Advice for Cornet/Trumpet Players

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On February 1, 1918 a wonderful collection of duets was published by Arthur Amsden which was titled “Celebrated Practice Duets”. We are indebted to the composer for sharing his compositions with us and if you are in need of a very large (70) collection of excellent duets of varying difficulty, I strongly recommend you purchase this collection. A friend introduced me to this book and each week we play through it to keep both our chops up as well as our reading skills (thanks Doyle). This past week I shared my copy with another new trumpet friend (thanks Steve) and…

When I Grow Up I Want To Play Like Bobby Shew

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That is a strange statement coming from a nearly eighty years old trumpet player, but that is how I would have liked to have played. Bobby has had a tremendous impact on the trumpet world, not only because of his beautiful sound, range and very gifted improvisational skills, but his contribution to trumpet education and equipment advances have also been important. Before I continue with his many accolades, let me first tell you of the first time I met this giant of the horn. I first met Mr. Shew when I picked him up at a high school in the…

High Range Methods- Current Approaches

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This posting includes a warning! “What you are about to read and view, can be of help to playing more easily in the upper register. This material includes very reasonable and sensible methods and, if followed carefully, should improve you high notes. Also in this post are examples of extremely high playing and in no way should you try to achieve today what these players have developed through years of practice. Any attempt to duplicate their high notes can and will spit your lip wide open and cause massive bleeding and unmatchable pain and suffering. The author of this blog…

Which is more important in the development of a student- the teacher or the environment? Part 3

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In the previous post we discussed the advantages of private lessons on a student’s development as well as the contributing factors to the development of the self-motivated student. Self motivated students , as I will discuss will begin to have a profound effect on the players around them. This influence will be the factor which will advance his/her fellow students in their improvement in addition to their private instructor’s help. The question will be this- will this influence have more affect on the other students than the one on one influence the private teach has on the same students? Pier…

Could Meditation Help In Playing the Trumpet? Part 2

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Starting to Meditate Now that you have decided on a mantra to use, we will now begin our crash course in general meditation. I am in no way instructing you to use the Transcendental meditation form for I am not a qualified instructor and to do so would be against my better judgment. What I will share with you is a similar exercise which has been published in magazines and newspapers around the world. This is a very general yet effective exercise which can be used by anyone. 1. Sit comfortably in a chair which is for the time isolated…