MrLT

Good practice. I started lessons with a monster pro 20 months ago - the first thing he got me to do was to rest my pinkie on top of the hook - it removes another source of bring pressure to bear onto the chops and also makes the instrument pivot down a little giving the top lip more space to vibrate. Go try.

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"I was minding my own business when something says to me, "you ought to blow trumpet." I have just been trying ever since." - Miles Davis

Eclipse LR/Warburton 3MD
Olds Custom/Warburton 3M
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Billy B

The left hand is for holding the trumpet. The right hand is for pushing buttons down.

rjzeller

I've never thought of the left hand as a big deal. Personally, I use the "Spock" grip as one poster quipped. My fingers are too big to sit comfortably in the little space between the valve block and the 3rd slide tubing.

I've found that it takes two to tango, and typically if you keep at least one arm relaxed, it's hard to turn your other arm into an "octave key". I keep my right hand with the pinky OUT of the pinky hook, which makes it impossible to squeeze with the right hand, and thus I can articulate more freely/faster. Especialy that third finger -- since it's physically connected to the same tendons and muscle group sas the pinky, keeping the pinky free seems to ease up the motion in the other fingers.

It works for me. I have my kids think about "holding" the horn with the left and "articulate" with the right. Took one kid from literally almost going blue in the face every time he played to getting a reasonably relaxed sound.

But I see merit in the comments of some, however, who suggest that you still want to avoid too much pressure with the left hand. "Squeezing" the horn with any hand in any way can lead to undue tension in your playing.

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