How to Play in Tune

written by Bruce Chidester on April 29, 2024

Before we get to the “How Do I’s”, I need to address a few questions which are seldom asked but are equally important: Why is it important to play in tune? Playing “out of tune hurts”. It doesn’t hurt the player but it certainly hurts the listener. If you watch television programs such as “American Idol” or “So You Think You’ve Got Talent” or some equally popular show, you have experienced the horror of amateur singers trying to make it big. When they land on an out of tune note for any length of time, we all seem to have…

Sleep apnea – What they don’t tell you! (Part 7)

written by Bruce Chidester

Short but helpful suggestions: Handling the hose- To keep from being strangled to death with your hose, run it from your machine over the back of the headboard and down to your pillow. In this way it is controlled and you will not fight it all night as you move…

Sleep apnea – What they don’t tell you! (Part 6)

written by Bruce Chidester

Do you have to use your machine every night? NO! Knowing that involuntary habits can actually be retrained made me wonder if the Bipap/Cpap therapy is something that needs to be continued indefinitely. My answer to that question (in my case) is an emphatic No! I began my test to…

Sleep apnea – What they don’t tell you! (Part 5)

written by Bruce Chidester

#1 Complaint- Dry mouth After visiting with other sufferers of Sleep Apnea, the most consistent complaint seemed to be dry mouth. The dryness in my mouth each morning was so severe that I eventually developed a lesion in the back of my throat which progressed into a serious problem. After…

Tracks Or No Tracks? That Is A Question

written by Bruce Chidester

Have you ever been to a live show and wondered if the music was actually live or were you listening to a recording and the musicians were only pretending to play? I am constantly asked this question and it brings up a very heated discussion each time. Lip sinking and…

Arban Trumpet Method – What is it?

written by Bruce Chidester

Joseph Jean Baptist Laurent Arban (28 February 1825 – 9 April 1889) was a cornetist, conductor, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini’s virtuosic technique on the violin and in an (arguably successful) attempt to “prove” the…

Ragtime- “Swing or Straight”?

written by Bruce Chidester

To most people, the question of how one should play the rhythms in Ragtime music seldom comes to mind. In my case, I know how it should be played but have doubts that it truly needs to be played correctly. To address this dilemma, I will explain the differences and…

Have You Tuned Your Mutes Lately?

written by Bruce Chidester

Seldom does this question come up in trumpet circles. But it should. Most players buy a mute, play with it (when ever required) and the rest of the time the mute lays either in your case, mute bag or on a shelf in the closet. Little attention is given to…

Are Spitballs in Your Future?

written by Bruce Chidester

This product has been around for decades and unfortunately, most players do not know much about them. Spitballs are cheap, easy to use and effective in cleaning brass instruments. When these little projectiles first hit the store shelves, the members of our brass quintet (the University of Northern Iowa Faculty…

How to Bridge the Gap Between Single Tonguing and Double Tonguing

written by Bruce Chidester

We have all run into this situation- The notes are too fast to single tongue and too slow to double tongue. This situation is usually referred to as “the gap”. Normally players find that it is very difficult to effectively speed up their single tonguing when in fact they should…

Please Welcome “Christian Grässlin”

written by Bruce Chidester

And then there is the rest of us………

Shakes

written by Bruce Chidester

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…

Lip (tongue) Trill

written by Bruce Chidester

Download exercise sheet- Lip-tongue trill Download audio instructions- Lip Trill Because of the nature of this topic, it required recorded examples in order for the reader to better understand the exercises. I have listed the most important instructions for each of the eight lines on your exercise page but most…

Vibrato

written by Bruce Chidester

Download exercise sheet Trumpet Vibrato Basics I mentioned in my previous post that I feel the best vibrato for trumpet playing is the hand vibrato. Some of the reasons I feel strongly about this form of vibrato over other techniques are- 1. It does not interfere with the basic sound…