mahaberio

Robin,

Internet forums will never be the ideal medium for effective communication I, for one, am pretty inept at effectively structuring what I hope to communicate effectively on them. Misunderstandings are common.

The Thibaud books have some great exercises in them that go beyond Arban and provide some new and exciting challenges. This is especially true of the Chromatic Exercises and Technical Studies, and these stay within the "normal" range of the trumpet (no pedal tones). Another nice part of this book is that he indicates 14 different articulations to apply to each exercise. Also, the Method has a section of "Reiche scales"; which is Reiche's famous Fanfare put into different keys, modes, and articulations. These do go into the pedal register. I'm pretty sure you can see sample PDF's of these on Balquhidder's site and that will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Arban does get old after a while. Anthony Plog has a nice set of books out that is supposed to make up a complete method for trumpet. I don't use it as that, but he has some nice articulation, multiple-tonguing, and flexibility studies that are nice when you want to switch things up.

-Matthew