Markie

High notes or developing range isn't hard.
1)When you play, the oral cavity adjusts to the note you are playing.
To show what I'm talking about, pick up your trumpet and play a low C. Now play the A that is your highest note.
Notice that the oral cavity adjusts to the different notes? If not then maybe you are not adjusting your oral cavity.
2)Can you whistle? (Even if you do it poorly) I sure hope so!
Whistle a scale. Notice how your tongue adjusts to the different notes?
This is what I mean by adjusting the oral cavity.
3)Now, pick up your trumpet again and when you play, be aware of how your oral cavity adjusts to the notes you play.
I'm guessing that your situation is just a matter of learning how to adjust the oral cavity.
I tell students when they do lip slurs, think of them as tongue slurs since the tongue plays a major roll in this process.
A site I've often referred people to on this topic is a site called "Arch Tongue and Hiss"
Once you get the hang of it you'll say "Wow!! High notes aren't hard!!"

john7401

hmm...well it seems to me like I don't really do this at all. I found after messing with it a bit that my tounge doesn't really change at all when I tounge low or high notes. I might try it some more but even when I change the way my tounge is when I tounge different notes it doesn't seem to effect it at all. I can whistle pretty good and see what you mean with how the tounge changes it but it doesn't seem to really effect it. I'm going to also try some quieter long tones and slurs now. This time I tried some decent size lower notes and b flat concert scale as a warmup nice and slow a few times.

*After 5 minutes of trying to constantly focus on a quiet straight tone of my G, (after warmup and slightly messing with the tounge thing) on the first line of the staff, my lips are still swollen some again like if I was doing that same thing with any other notes starting off... It didn't feel like it was straining my lips at all though. It probably makes it sound like a pressure problem from that but it really isn't.

Playing quieter especially on the long tones seemed to open up my throat a bit more than usual.

*So overall I warmed up with a quiter and longer then usual b flat scale and lower notes and went to hold a G on the bottom of the staff for 5 minutes focussing on tone and playing it as quiet as I could, 5 minute break, same for low C and then another G with the 5 minute breaks after them, and then I worked on some lip slurs for about 10 minutes as quiet as I could. Finally used the same warm up as a warm down.

It was also suprising how little air I could get it to use to make some of the slightly higher notes but it was harder to keep it consistantly quiet and still control it.

By the end my lips looked the same as they did after the practices I was doing before.

Markie

Hi John,
I think you've discovered something important. You can not change the pitch of the whistle sound without changing the oral cavity if you are whistling in the traditional sense. When I was in 10th grade I was playing MF charts and when I was working on "how to develop range" and someone told me to "think whistling" when I play.
By 11th grade I was playing the MF charts with confidence. Stoney End, Fire & Rain, Bridge over troubled waters, and about 20 others that my band director had us playing.
Read about Arch Tongue and Hiss and other articles on oral cavity manipulation and range on the trumpet. As you learn more you will discover that the aperture is the key component but it appears that adjusting the oral cavity also adjusts the aperture.
The idea of the aperture and range comes from Bernoulli's experiments conducted many, many years ago. Good luck and "think whistling" when you play. In time you will know what the note feels like in your mouth.

john7401

I sorta know what you mean. I'll look up and see if I can find more about it. Thanks for the advice. I know what it feels like for my mouth to make certain notes but I'm not sure I'm actually using this or not.

*Another question too...As I keep reading I keep hearing about this Arban instructing book. Should I look into it at my skill level as something to help me with different trumpet techniques? I know it goes into some pretty advanced stuff and even triple tounging.

*After listening and reading more about this stuff I noticed something pretty big with my playing...when I play, after I tounge a note my tounge just falls to the normal resting position in my mouth and I let my lips do all the work. My tounge should in fact stay up by my lips and I use the tip of it different ways to direct the air and change notes instead from what I understand right?

rowuk

John,
we have dealt with this at least a thousand times here. Bottom line? Range is not hard to get, discipline is.

When analysing any problem we need some basic knowledge about what is required to play high. The short list is: good breathing technique, a relaxed body, good control of the face muscles and enough experience so that our brain doesn't block progress.
The function of the tongue is very controversial. That is why I NEVER talk about it. A steady diet of lip slurs trains the tongue to do the right thing without having to conciously think about it. The same thing applies to aperature. I NEVER talk about it
when giving lessons. I just give exercizes to strengthen the chops and the rest follows.

You need a daily routine and to be monitored by someone in the know. For most people there is little hope without qualified, external help.

__________________
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

john7401

Then can you not give me one?
At least for different specific range building stuff to do so often?

ltg_trumpet

well john, usually, Robin (Rowuk) gets PAID to give people lessons, that is why people are suggesting you get a private lesson teacher, in order to give you appropriate exercises, he would need extensive info about your abilites, which would take his time... until you can get a hold of a teacher, i would suggest you get an arban, they have a complete wealth of info in them, arbans notes within are great... it has hundreds of exercises from slurs to long tones to tonguing to scales, not to mention it has several etudes that will challenge you... have fun...

__________________
super collegiate tri-tone (raw brass)

john7401

ok thanks. I was considering that because that name of the book kept popping up with alot of different trumpet stuff I was looking up and everyone said it was good.

rowuk

John,
I can give you all sorts of stuff. How will you know if you are doing it right? By waiting until your range increases? If you do it wrong, the opposite could happen.

To get started, look up my posts on "circle of breath" and "daily routine". More requires personal attention.

__________________
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

john7401

Thanks