That was incredibly helpful. I'm coming back to trumpet after a long break, and never had formal lessons when learning. I got quite stuck learning double-tongueing, and wondered whether I was doing anything right, but hearing a good teacher like yourself explain what should be going on, position-wise, with various muscles when playing is a real confidence builder. Thank you so much for your informative and very enjoyable content, and I'm sure your book is as packed with goodies as the vids.
Going through the journey with my brass instrument in search of the “perfect” embouchure and watching probably every video possible, with the honorable mention to the original “don’t tighten your lips”, I’ve landed to some basic principles. These principles are nothing new but I will spin them the way they helped me and in order of importance. First, always aim to have a great sound. This is the first rule of trumpet club. This is an instrument of resonance and you have to feel the trumpet and be in tune. Forget about high notes, start with a comfortable note and fool around with volume and pitch till the sound becomes music. Once you are in sync with the trumpet you will feel YOUR personal embouchure loose enough and tight enough to produce perfect notes. Enjoy the music you create and don’t think of it as gymnastics. In higher notes you form a slightly smaller air passage with higher pressure. The way you do that comes with practice and I will mention a few things that worked for me. Second, playing the trumpet is a game of efficiency. If something feels too hard to do or maintain you are doing it wrong. Making a high note once, breathless with ultra-tight lips is meaningless. Making a lower note as close to your upper limit sound good, maintain the pitch and do so repeatedly throughout an étude is an achievement. Improving is practicing to expand your limit to higher notes on a regular basis. It has to feel easier to know you are improving. There is proper technique playing the instrument and as mentioned support from the diaphragm is important. In short, learn to breath from your belly and Not your upper thorax. If you fill your upper chest you will run out of breath (I know I do). Use a mirror to inspect you are not moving your lips and facial expressions going through the scales. Less movement, more endurance and efficiency. Third practice. Practice daily. Embrace that you have chosen the wrong instrument 😃. This isn’t a guitar you can play occasionally. This isn’t just muscle memory that we are building but muscle strength itself. In order to maintain a smaller embouchure in higher pressure we need strength and that comes with time and practice. Those tiny muscle motors need to be precise under air pressure. Technique and endurance are required for the upper register. Louis Armstrong once said: “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it”. Now for a few techniques/ideas that resonate with me. My personal feeling is the tip of the upper lip is the main vibrator and more set-in position in the mouth piece, and the lower lip is freer to shape a larger embouchure for lower notes (the O letter sound), a smaller embouchure as we move upwards (the E letter) and eventually Roll. Above high e, high g you will need to roll your lower lip inside to achieve a higher frequency. Rolling and slightly “kissing” are my techniques in forming a smaller embouchure and not tightening. These are not my ideas in any shape or form, rolling is well described in Walt Johnson’s book and by my teacher, and “tightening” by forming a kiss was from a video of a professional trombone player. Kissing is the opposite of tightening if you think about it for lips and maintains the original set position of embouchure. In principal though this is not a game of tricks but of music feel, efficiency and practice. Above all, never forget the first rule of trumpet club.
@@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic thank you for the always informative and very artistic may I say videos. Your videos are the first to pop up and watch. Appreciated
firstt also your videos help me lots as a freshmen in high school rn my highest note is around a c but In our state etudes we need to hit a c sharp so Im still practicing. Some stuff you said about having a full sound and aperture size was good for me because mine was getting to squeezed and small and the notes sounded very low volume and forced/diminished
I have to ask...I've been watching your videos for about a month now and forgive me if I just missed it but what trumpet are you playing on? It looks like for the most part you are using the same trumpet in most of your videos. Also, I'm a comeback player and thanks to many of your videos I've been able to get back up to speed pretty quickly and I thank you! EDIT: also, what brand hat is that you are wearing? I'm a HUGE fan of those style of hats and was just curious. Thanks man!
Happy to hear it! I don’t talk about equipment that often, but I play a 1945 medium bore Martin Committee and an ACB mouthpiece. My hat is from the Boston Scally Cap company. Maybe I can get them to give me an endorsement!
@@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic Sweet! Thanks for the quick response! Currently my "main" is a 1954 Olds Recording. I really like the classic trumpets. They just have a different, more "cultured" feel to them! I have a few Boston Scallys in my collection so I'll have to hit up their site for this one and I agree, they should endorse you! Please keep doing what you're doing! You are incredibly helpful and I appreciate all you do.
The tongue movements do not directly affect the pitch. The concurrent changes in lip posture is what causes the pitch to change. Your artificial lips demonstration is irrelevant if not played into a resonant instrument. The small variance you are getting is due to a stretching effect. It is a small and continuous variance . You aren't achieving anything close to like a change of partial on the instrument. The tongue movement does not "compress" the air OR increases the air speed through the aperture. Your mention of Bernoulli is not exactly correct. And Bernoulli does not account for loss of pressure due to viscous effect. While overly tightening is not good, every player changes pitch by variance of lip tension. There is no other cause or controller. Then dynamics is controlled from air pressure by the player's exhalation effort.
That was incredibly helpful. I'm coming back to trumpet after a long break, and never had formal lessons when learning. I got quite stuck learning double-tongueing, and wondered whether I was doing anything right, but hearing a good teacher like yourself explain what should be going on, position-wise, with various muscles when playing is a real confidence builder. Thank you so much for your informative and very enjoyable content, and I'm sure your book is as packed with goodies as the vids.
Going through the journey with my brass instrument in search of the “perfect” embouchure and watching probably every video possible, with the honorable mention to the original “don’t tighten your lips”, I’ve landed to some basic principles.
These principles are nothing new but I will spin them the way they helped me and in order of importance.
First, always aim to have a great sound.
This is the first rule of trumpet club.
This is an instrument of resonance and you have to feel the trumpet and be in tune.
Forget about high notes, start with a comfortable note and fool around with volume and pitch till the sound becomes music. Once you are in sync with the trumpet you will feel YOUR personal embouchure loose enough and tight enough to produce perfect notes.
Enjoy the music you create and don’t think of it as gymnastics. In higher notes you form a slightly smaller air passage with higher pressure. The way you do that comes with practice and I will mention a few things that worked for me.
Second, playing the trumpet is a game of efficiency. If something feels too hard to do or maintain you are doing it wrong.
Making a high note once, breathless with ultra-tight lips is meaningless.
Making a lower note as close to your upper limit sound good, maintain the pitch and do so repeatedly throughout an étude is an achievement.
Improving is practicing to expand your limit to higher notes on a regular basis.
It has to feel easier to know you are improving.
There is proper technique playing the instrument and as mentioned support from the diaphragm is important.
In short, learn to breath from your belly and Not your upper thorax. If you fill your upper chest you will run out of breath (I know I do).
Use a mirror to inspect you are not moving your lips and facial expressions going through the scales. Less movement, more endurance and efficiency.
Third practice.
Practice daily. Embrace that you have chosen the wrong instrument 😃. This isn’t a guitar you can play occasionally. This isn’t just muscle memory that we are building but muscle strength itself. In order to maintain a smaller embouchure in higher pressure we need strength and that comes with time and practice.
Those tiny muscle motors need to be precise under air pressure. Technique and endurance are required for the upper register.
Louis Armstrong once said: “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it”.
Now for a few techniques/ideas that resonate with me.
My personal feeling is the tip of the upper lip is the main vibrator and more set-in position in the mouth piece, and the lower lip is freer to shape a larger embouchure for lower notes (the O letter sound), a smaller embouchure as we move upwards (the E letter) and eventually Roll.
Above high e, high g you will need to roll your lower lip inside to achieve a higher frequency. Rolling and slightly “kissing” are my techniques in forming a smaller embouchure and not tightening. These are not my ideas in any shape or form, rolling is well described in Walt Johnson’s book and by my teacher, and “tightening” by forming a kiss was from a video of a professional trombone player. Kissing is the opposite of tightening if you think about it for lips and maintains the original set position of embouchure.
In principal though this is not a game of tricks but of music feel, efficiency and practice.
Above all, never forget the first rule of trumpet club.
Well said! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!
@@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic thank you for the always informative and very artistic may I say videos.
Your videos are the first to pop up and watch. Appreciated
firstt also your videos help me lots as a freshmen in high school rn my highest note is around a c but In our state etudes we need to hit a c sharp so Im still practicing. Some stuff you said about having a full sound and aperture size was good for me because mine was getting to squeezed and small and the notes sounded very low volume and forced/diminished
You’ve got this!!!
Happy to hear it! Keep up the good work!
How do you practice high notes without alienating family members (without mutes)? Please make a video about playing trumpet high notes in piano.
I have to ask...I've been watching your videos for about a month now and forgive me if I just missed it but what trumpet are you playing on? It looks like for the most part you are using the same trumpet in most of your videos. Also, I'm a comeback player and thanks to many of your videos I've been able to get back up to speed pretty quickly and I thank you!
EDIT: also, what brand hat is that you are wearing? I'm a HUGE fan of those style of hats and was just curious. Thanks man!
Happy to hear it! I don’t talk about equipment that often, but I play a 1945 medium bore Martin Committee and an ACB mouthpiece. My hat is from the Boston Scally Cap company. Maybe I can get them to give me an endorsement!
@@RidgewoodSchoolofMusic Sweet! Thanks for the quick response! Currently my "main" is a 1954 Olds Recording. I really like the classic trumpets. They just have a different, more "cultured" feel to them! I have a few Boston Scallys in my collection so I'll have to hit up their site for this one and I agree, they should endorse you! Please keep doing what you're doing! You are incredibly helpful and I appreciate all you do.
The tongue movements do not directly affect the pitch. The concurrent changes in lip posture is what causes the pitch to change.
Your artificial lips demonstration is irrelevant if not played into a resonant instrument. The small variance you are getting is due to a stretching effect. It is a small and continuous variance . You aren't achieving anything close to like a change of partial on the instrument.
The tongue movement does not "compress" the air OR increases the air speed through the aperture.
Your mention of Bernoulli is not exactly correct. And Bernoulli does not account for
loss of pressure due to viscous effect.
While overly tightening is not good, every player changes pitch by variance of lip tension. There is no other cause or controller.
Then dynamics is controlled from air pressure by the player's exhalation effort.
How do you vary the lip tension if you do not tighten them? Do you roll them in as you asend? Or roll out into a kind of pucker? How is it done?
@JVFBryant I tension the roll in and roll out against each other. But gently.
@@darryljones9208 Ok. So "roll in" when you want to asend I'm figuring? Thanks.