Practicing In Front of a Computer Screen

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More trumpet players are beginning to read their music off computer screens and this new trend has advantages as well as disadvantages as we will address. More players are beginning to take advantage of on line lessons through Skype as well as other programs and many times their material is sent to them as PDF files. Some may choose to download and print this material so that they are able to practice in the conventional manner, using their music stand to display their material. Some, on the other hand have begun to read their material off the computer screen, thereby…

The Need to Play in an Ensemble

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For most of us, the need to play in an ensemble is obvious. During our musical development, we all participated in ensembles, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes because of departmental requirements. Whether in a marching band, a jazz ensemble or a brass quintet, we all had experiences in this area. To most of us, the requirements to participate in a marching band had more to do with entertaining the wealthy alumni than it had to do with a beneficial musical experience. I have to admit, I never cared care for my marching band experience. Playing in chamber ensembles, jazz bands and…

Trumpet Falls and Doits Made Easy

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Recently, we have been seeing more and more questions about falls and doits. More specifically, how are they played? Playing doits (ascending effect) and falls (descending effect) are very easy and I will demonstrate an easy way to get the most out of your fall and doit. The secret to an effective fall or doit is in the correct position of your valve and here is an easy way to find that position. 1. Establish the starting pitch and the final pitch for your fall or doit. 2. Place the first finger of your left hand directly in the path…

Revisiting VALVE SLIDE CONVERSION RINGS- THE SOLUTION TO LOW D & C# INTONATION ADJUSTMENTS

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I have continued to test and evaluate the merits of this approach to better intonation and have some additional information for my readers. I have been playing every day with the ring inserts and have become convinced that the rings help intonation problems and I’m still fine tuning the lengths of each ring to improve my horn even more. Each day I make notes when recognizing undesirable pitch discrepancies and evaluate the value of making length adjustments to each ring insert. If one note is the slightest flat or sharp, I evaluate the benefits of slight adjustments to that note…

“One way” to Clean Your Trumpet

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In the preceding post, I featured what I considered to be one of the worst instructional videos I had viewed. This can be very risky but, as one of advanced age, I felt my duty to expose this atrocity. Some times such actions can turn around and bite you on the butt…. and it did. Shortly after posting this video, one of  my current and very kind students suggested that I make a video showing the proper way to clean a trumpet. Thanks Jen€. In an effort to prove my manhood as well as show my limitations, I spent yesterday…

The Worst Instructional Video On The Internet

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Continuing in my limited series of disturbing videos I have selected this gem. YouTube has an ever increasing library of self help videos which strive to inform our world on various subjects. Many of these are very helpful and in some cases, they can be very destructive as in the case of this video- Please read this post completely before trying the above instructions. This could possible be the worst instructional video on the internet! If these instructions are followed as described in the video, I can guarantee that you will have ruined your instrument and for that reason, I…

How I Practice- Playing Etudes

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I try to allot time each day for playing new material and because of the unlimited amount of etudes available today, we will never need to be without material. The internet is one source of quality etude material and no one can use the excuse that they can’t afford to purchase study material. An example of this great resource is this- visit 200 fabulous etudes€- AND THEY ARE FREE. One of my favorite etude books was written by Vincent Cichowicz and is called Trumpet Flow Studies. “The material is not as important as the habit of reading new material every…

How I Practice- Finger Flexibility and Coordination Exercises

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Clean breaks between notes require fast and coordinated valve action and for that reason you should practice finger or valve exercises daily. I have included a few exercises which will help increase this area of your performance. Playing fast material will hide many fingering faults where slow material will quickly expose weaknesses. For that reason I have included two slow song I Wonder As I Wander€ and the lesser known Humoreske€. A musician may have the best tone in the world and still be rated poorly for sloppy valve work and for that reason it is a good idea to…

How I practice- Lip Slurs for Improved Tone And Flexibility

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In our previous post we directed our attention to the chromatic warm-up and this post explains the benefit of lip slurs to improve flexibility as well as improving your tone. The more strength you developed in your embouchure, the more lip slurs will be needed to keep your flexibility in line with your increased strength. In order to accomplish this, time must be spent doing lip slurs. The amount of slurs you do will depend on the amount of time you are spending strengthening your embouchure. A very good way to evaluating your flexibility needs is to answer this question…

How I practice- The Warm-up

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The importance of warming up before hard playing cannot be over stated. Just as an athlete stretches, a ball player throws easy at first; the trumpet player is very similar in that a sudden blast of a high note may work for some but the more intelligent of the masses begin their playing with an easy routine of warming up gradually. I have incorporated my chromatic exercise into my warm-up and find it very beneficial. No matter how high we are able to play, improving our range is always a good idea. The chromatic warm-up I have included both as…