Bear

Manny,
I'm a largehorn, large bore player... What, in your opinion, would be the best way to get some practice on a piccolo in terms of sound? (and anything else)

Manny Laureano

Bear,

The picc is an interesting critter because people with good high registers can play them but it's an instrument that requires you to have a different thought in your head before you play it.

I've heard you play and shoot right down the barrel of your horn. Good. However, the picc requires a somewhat more gentle side. You have to "liftt your eyebrows" a bit. Lighten things up, tea party trumpet playing, you know? If you go full out on it, which you can because you're so bloody strong, you'll overplay it.

You wouldn't drive a 4 cylinder Miata the way you would a Dodge Viper but you can have fun with both, right?

So, treat both horns, small and large, differently. Listen to Maurice Andre as much as you can. The guy was the best in his day, pure and simple. You'll never go wrong trying to sound like that.

ML

timothypierson

Bear,

When I play piccolo trumpet I always make sure I'm relaxed when I play. If you are tense when you play the horn will work against you. Also pics can have intonation problems. Basically the smaller the horn, the harder to tune, at least from my experience. A trick my trumpet teacher would have me do when I would get a new small horn, is go through the range of the horn with a tuner and play each note (don't look at the tuner yet) and play where the note feels in tune and centered then look at the tuner. Over time you will not only learn the tendencies are on the horn but you will hear and remember each note in tune. Just don't look at the tuner until you think it is centered, the key is learning how to hear the pitches.

Some other great Pic players to listen to are Guy Touveron and Eenard Soustrot (both students of Maurice Andre), Hakan Hardenberger and David Hickman among others have some sweet Pic sounds. Now we just need Manny to make a solo album............