WHY TRUMPET PLAYERS STRUGGLE TO PLAY HIGH (and how to fix It)
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- Опубліковано 25 січ 2024
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(Code: TLBQFANS)
This video is NOT a tutorial in how to play high notes on the trumpet. There are plenty of videos on that subject already. Rather, this video is an analysis of three habits that prevent trumpet students (and all brass players, really) from accessing their upper register. These habits include:
1:33- Tensing the Upper Lip
3:38- Mouthpiece Pressure
6:58- Tensing Up Instead of Blowing Out
Happy Practicing!
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Best intro, EVER EVER, IN EXISTENCE
“Go practice”
Me watching this video at 1:15am 🤷♂️
I was going to say everybody struggles to play high, but then I realized you were talking about notes...It's also a struggle to type high.
What?
@@annimon2814 he means high like off weed. L weed
Excellent advice all the way through. Studied with Jake - he said there are no high notes - only notes further away than others. His approach was to avoid tension, always focusing on playing the note next to the last one you could consistently and comfortably play.
Turns out I was focusing on the wrong cheeks!
😂 me too!
Sounds like good advice for any brass player generally
5:51 Nose breathing for circular breathing and specific exercises that call for it (some people will try to tell you never breathe through your nose without realizing there is a time and place to do so).
Great info! Mouthpiece pressure does help for a few minutes/seconds until the blood flow is reduced enough cause fatigue I find it you create the compression with the tongue the lips are more free and lip tension can be minimized also the jaw can remain open. To work on mouthpiece pressure Costello/Stevens Pen/Pencil and Palm Technique get it done. Another big issue trumpet players have is topping out at high C/D or F/G above high C, usually due to getting compression for the higher notes by closing the teeth/jaw. For this practice dropping/opening the teeth/jaw before each phrase. Another benefit is it opens the throat for more harmonics causing "PRODUCTION" a big boost in efficiency of tone aka Less air is needed for a way louder sound just like an opera singer does. Spit buzzing or tongue controlled embouchure is what I use to train and work the tongue Quiet playing is a similar aperture size to high notes so practice normal range as soft as possible is another great way to work those lips in a relaxed manner, another great use for H.L. Clarke 2nd study or 1st or 3rd etc...
Great Video, I never thought about what my corners do. I tried working a bit with them and somehow hit a Triple F
I feel called howdy. Pointed out everything I did wrong lol😂
Great advices ! Also nice editing 🔥 I find the last advice IS one (if not THE) greatest 👍
Practicing to copy the good feelings when producing notes.
I find your demo of a stuffy and Bad sound really Amazing 👏
Everything you have said rings with what I’ve been taught. A few good tips that I haven’t heard in there tho. Application for me is a reminder to do all the things I do but keep doing them more and more. My problem is in performance it sometimes goes out the window. The practise part is the key
Good, helpful material! Thanks.
Excellent thoughts, brother Freddy!
Nice to see Jakes Method mentioned in a vid. Lots of good stuff in the book. Pops
Very good advice
Thank you
Thanks. Great video!!!
Like it thanks I'll try too practice this.
Hey! My game is pressure, pressure, and more pressure! Until your teeth hurt and your overbite is gone! 😅
Thank You so much
i could've used this 3 years ago when i was in my prime playing, might inspire me to get back to work lmao
I started learning trumpet my freshman year and I am still having this problem in my senior year. My primary instrument is the saxophone so it’s a very different embousure.
As a horn player and teacher, I've learned that people use equipment that's too big. XL inner diameters, cups that are too deep, bores that are too big.
I used to believe the bore of the trumpet had something to do with endurance. Bigger was more taxing to play. I no longer believe that. I think it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Think about it. We’re talking, about THOUSANDTHS of in inch. Just how much extra air volume does that really encompass? We psych ourselves out about a big horn the way we psych ourselves out about “high” notes. I think what DOES make a difference is mouthpiece selection, and the most important part of that is finding a rim diameter/rim contour that is comfortable to play. Then, you need to make sure the cup depth/backbore are compatible with each other and conducive to the type of playing you want to do. I did a lot of experimenting with different throat diameters (I found a #22 ideal for me) until I lost a mouthpiece and discovered it was no longer made. The closest alternative wasn’t quite there, and I went to a different cup (next level shallower), which seemed even better than my original mouthpiece. Before I spent money possibly changing it for the worse, I decided to play on it for awhile before having it drilled out. It turned out that the stock balance between the throat and backbore was excellent “as is,” and I didn’t need to modify it, which was an eye opener for me. I thought you had to have a large throat to keep from being restricted. My advice, now, would be to play on whatever rim diameter/rim contour feels most comfortable, and then play on the most shallow cup that you can still produce a good, full sound on, with a backbore that is appropriate for the cup depth (some combinations are better). I don’t worry about horn bores. One of my trumpets is a .460, another a .462, and one more a .470. As long as my mouthpiece lets me vibrate the air column, I don’t think about the size of the horn’s bore. I can play my full range on all of them. My preferred setup is a large horn with a shallow mouthpiece (but my personal rim diameter is large, a Bach 1-sized rim, and has been for over fifty years). And yes, I no longer only have one copy of my mouthpiece. I have four, and if one gets damaged or lost (it’s happened), I immediately replace it so that I’ll never be without my mouthpiece, again. Always have extras.
IMO, Trumpet/Brass payers that don't create the compression themselves use the horn/lips to do so resulting in less than ideal sound and endurance. Compress with the tongue, lips will vibrate whatever note the air speed tells them as long as they are in the correct corner tension or roll. My horn is .468 bore, doesn't restrict low notes like smaller bore horns and I don't have any issues with range or endurance up to the triple high notes.
will you be attending TMEA
So that tips will finally lead me to quad C (above 7kHz), like the famous recording by Marc van Cleave? Honestly, I'd be very happy to have comfortable double C. I even reached double C about an quarter century ago (only on good days barely), then stopped practicing completely. Now I'd struggle with anything above high C, if I'd try again without practicing.
I have pretty egregious scar tissue throughout my upper lip, can't comfortably reach above the staff anymore. I feel that as I pull at my corners, the tissue is pulled thin and my lip has trouble vibrating. Do you have any idea if it's even possible to recover my range from before? Been looking for answers for a while now but it doesn't seem like many have had similar problems. I will try these tips to help but any info would be great.
Think about moving the corners of your embouchure inward as you go higher, forming a "V" shape that you're balancing the mouthpiece at the apex of the V. Make sure to play only one-handed, not having your right hand pinky in the hook on the leadpipe. Start your scales on low F#, one octave, and then a half step higher, and higher, till you go up to high C, easily. Lastly, ALWAYS PRACTICE AT A SOFT VOLUME. This is a ten minute routine that should fix your issues in about 1 years time. Do it daily.
Experiment with different mouthpiece shapes to see what suits your lip anatomy now. Focus mostly on cup depth and rim size for something like scar tissue in your lips. Good luck and I hope you find something that works for you
I'm late, so sorry. Have you tried Chopsaver? Sounds silly but it's a useful lip balm. A bit of massage will help to break down scar tissue and make it more pliable. You might also invest in a mouthpiece visualizer. An exceedingly useful tool, it can help determine if your placement of the mouthpiece is contributing to the described thinness. Given that you said the scar is "egregious", though, you might find lip flexibilities (ex. Bai Linn) to be particularly helpful. Another exercise I found to be useful in working out upper register muscles was to do basic scales going a third further (ex. C scale going up 8 notes then three more to E). This helps to solidify the lower register embouchure as you ascend, especially because most players have a couple of preferred placements for different registers.
Hope these help.
What purpose do tight corners serve if the lips in the mouthpiece are relaxed regardless?
Ends will be tight, leaving the lips to be in a set position to vibrate. If corners are loose the lips will vibrate freely without guide.
play trombone, but very helpful
What’s the intro song
why trumpet players struggle to play low?
honestly it sounds better then playing ultra high notes
I play peddle toned down to a double peddle C every single day. Then I play a double peddle C up to my highest note without taking my face off my instrument. You want to know why we do high notes instead of low notes? One: It’s harder so it’s more fun. Two: It’s part of getting better at your instrument. You every heard of a professional sax player not able to hit altísimo range? You ever heard of a pro flute player unable to play high? Horn? Trombone? Tuba? Euphonium? Clarinet? Name an instrument and they all know how to play high when they are good
It Germany we say it depends on your „Naturfresse“
Thanks, maybe I will get higher. I'm stuck at g''' for a year now.
It's really interesting to see how the trumpet/brass world seems to be so incredibly different when it comes to teaching technique than any other instrument. For the most part, pianists who know what they are doing know the same techniques and if you follow them you will be fine. And then you switch over to trumpet and not two people will have the same way of doing things. I have heard everything mentioned in this video and also taken a step further, and I have also heard the exact opposite of everything said here. All coming from respectable players and teachers.
After many many years of struggling as a professional and looking into pretty much anything related to trumpet playing, I have come up with a few main conclusions.
1. Air is overrated (both going in and out). Watch out for air teachers, these are the ones whose answers to everything is "just blow more air". If air was the most important thing for trumpet playing then tuba players would be the best trumpet players.
2. Corners and embosure strength in general is also overrated. People often confuse playing with way too much tension for embosure/corner strength.
3. Avoid extreme eeee shape with your tongue (which is what happens naturally every time anyone tells you to say aaah eeeh while sluring). Also, it's impossible to slur without your tongue moving, so if you can slur any two notes, your tongue is already moving.
4. Become obsessed with checking your teeth. Top and bottom teeth must be aligned. Use the pencil excersise (correctly, meaning you don't wrap your lips around the pencil tightly but instead focus on your jaw and teeth alignment).
5, Finally and probably most controversial, stop buzzing your mouthpice. Mouthpiece buzz encourages tightness in the lips and a closed jaw position that you will then have to undo, so why do it in the first place?
The trumpet sound is absolutely not an extension of a mouthpiece buzz, and when it is, it creates that "student sound" we all know. Players eventually get rid of that student sound when they learn to relax and open up more, but they learn how to switch from buzzing to playing, but why do it in the first place?
I hope this wasn't too much but this is something that I am passionate about after struggling for so many years and listening to the same b.s, practicing the same b.s and only getting worse.
The only one I disagree about is point 5. It's possible to overbuzz, but since the trumpet is physically just an amplifier with alternate lengths, it stands to reason that almost anything you can do on a mouthpiece can be done on the trumpet. Usually, the trumpet will add an extra couple of notes of range due to the resistance offered by the pipes.
Additional tip: practice with other instruments such as baritone and French horn. Just exercise, practice, and remember that if you practice poorly then you'll perform just like you practiced.
I feel called out. He pointed out everything I did wrong lol😅
If you don't feel bad then your doing trumpet wrong😂.
I play the sax I dunno even why I am here 😂
The top lip shouldn't be relaxed, there needs to be the right amount of tension in the right places all around the embouchure as well as all the other elements that need to be in place - air, teeth opening & angle (same as horn angle), the lips need to be in the right position relative to each other, tongue level, mouthpiece pressure and pressure distribution. The size of the aperture per say isn't what creates high notes, the change in tension of the vibrating tissue is what's important - the aperture size on any given pitch changes depending on how loud or soft it's played. Everything changes depending on the pitch and volume. All the parts of the whole need to be doing the right things.
OK but how do you crank the face filter up that high?
I have to smile at some of your claims. The non-stretching -- Haven't watched videos of Maynard or Jon Faddis set up their chops, have you? Lots of stretching there. The Darth Vader breath -- check out the video by James Pandolfi. Completely different approach that works well for some of us. Nose Breathing -- While I don't find it useful myself, there are a lot of Carmine Caruso advocates that use it not only while rehearsing but also in performance. Which makes my point: completely contradictory methods from various presenters and players online. No wonder we trumpet players are such a confused lot.
Great statement Steven, exactly what I preach-we're all different. I NEVER tell a student you HAVE to do it "this way" or play THIS equipment, etc. or forget it. It's all an individual journey and ultimately, we each have to be our own teacher and find what works for us as individual's.
Speaking of Maynard...the ONLY thing I tell people is that Maynard played extremely relaxed in the face-the rest was showbiz.
"You can practice like that for a thousand years and never improve."--Jerry Callet
Tight corners are death to an embouchure. Jerry advocated tonguing through the teeth (no eee-aaa-ooo nonsense), relax the corners, use the minimum amount of (compressed) air to play (no deep yoga/wedge breath).
If you "struggle" for high C, you're simply playing wrong. Believe me, I know the euphoria of finding "The Key" to trumpet playing only to realize it was just more snake oil. Claude Gordon Book. Irons Book. Colin Flexibility book. Caruso. Adam. Deeper mouthpiece. Wider mouthpiece. Maybe a heavy receiver? Heavy dust caps! Gap? Stamp? Maggio? Pedal tones? Long tones. Flow. All promised progress, but ended unhappily.
Nobody can keep tiny facial muscles "firm" for a two hour gig; but you can stay relaxed that long. Also, two hours of AHH-EEE-OOO tongue-arching will result in a sore throat and an ever-increasing number of missed notes. Over breathing gets you dizzy.
If the tongue stays between the teeth at all times, in contact with the lower lip, and the corners are relaxed, range, power and endurance will skyrocket. As far as breathing goes, Raphael Mendez had it right--Breathe as if for normal conversation. (Can you picture Maurice Andre strengthening his core with sit-ups?)
I say all this not to troll or 'hate on" you, but because you're headed down yet another blind alley. You think your sound is open, ringing, and characteristic of the true trumpet sound (as I used to think mine was!) but I assure you it is not. Your g above the staff was slightly flat, like most players, and I'm sure things gets flatter the higher you go! And practice, practice, practice, just cements all the wrong habits in place. Most of the greats never practiced! Not for chop maintenance, anyway. Sure, to get a new piece under their fingers, but not to stay great players. Warmups, also, are a waste of time.
Again, you seem earnest in your journey and I may come off as a know-it-all, but I feel your pain, brother!
Check out Ralf Salamone on the True Power Trumpet UA-cam channel. He's Jerry's protege. Jerry's gone, but Ralf keeps his teaching alive.
BTW, the trumpet can be played with ZERO air "going through the horn." As Vern Reynolds told Roger Ingram when Roger said his teacher was teaching him to "Fill the horn with air," What do you suppose they're filled with now? It's not your job to put air in or through a horn, it's already there! it's your job to EXCITE it! Check it out:
ua-cam.com/video/WZvDvuxjHvU/v-deo.html
So what is your recommendation?
Nearly ten minutes of video and I cant buy a magic pill at the end for high notes? Ridiculous. Just another lame video about how proper practice and hard work are somehow supposed to pay off. Thanks for nothing.
😂😂😂
How high can you go?
Right? Where's the trumpet high note fairy when you need em
You are making the same silly mistake that most professional and semi professional trumpet gurus make all the time.
Playing high has very much to do with techniqe, but technique is nothing if you do not have the years of training
that builds all the neccessary muscle in and around your lips, to make you able to control the very high air pressure
from your lungs and chest and abdomen to produce the small, but strong airflow neccessary to give the high frequency sound
you are after. You already have all the neccessary muscle. You never did after only the first year. You did not.
You, obviously have the years and lip musculature that is neccessary. No beginner does.
That is why many beginners struggle to top the first octave, and need time and practice to reach the D and E.
After one and a half year of practice (more or less an hour - an hour and a half a day) i can comfortably play
two octaves, from the low #F up to the G above the line, that is what the brass band requires. I am working
to get higher, and my lip muscles are strengthening by te week. I can press up to a B above the line, but it is not
yet possible for me to use that in playing. I will get there. When my lip muscles get strong enough.
The techniqe takes care of itself. Without the muscles, you are nowhere.
Takes years. Not just "good advice".
Practicing scales up and down, playing what you can, and the high notes will come, one half-note at a time.
Work at it. The Only Way.
I just don't like to hear the trumpet played high. (Piccolo trumpet excluded.) It's just too screechy. Yes, it's difficult, and a feat for those who can. But beyond that, I don't find it an instrument that's pleasant to hear in its extremeties.