Trumpeters_Lullaby

Well my ninth grade school year is out and now it's summer time, perfect for spending hours on end with my trumpet. After this summer i'll be entering tenth grade. (For those of you in other countries, I don't know the schooling system so I will be 15 years turning 16 at the end of the year.) I feel now's a good time to start setting some goals for my tenth grade year. Song's I want to learn, technique to study, etc. My question is, for my age, what do you think would be some strong and good goals to set. I'm very serious about my trumpet playing and do want to enter college as a music major. I'll appreciate any answers and thank you all!

tpter1

Trumpeters...it's kind of hard not really knowing how you play. Could you give a bit more background? What are your strengths/weaknesses?

TopGun

See if you can find a good teacher my friend.

trumpet blower88

Look into some of the major colleges/universities in your area. Many of them will have a summer music program for kids looking to go into music later in life. It's a great way to learn from some very educated and profesional players, but also learn about the differant colleges around and get connections with the profesors at the college level. (College profesors write great letters of recomendations.)

Trumpeters_Lullaby

I understand your point. I think my biggest weakness musically is actual sight reading. I don't seem to struggle in playing the pieces but reading them without a bit of study is hard. Any tips to improve my sightreading abilities?

Thank you for the other replies, my band teacher reccomended a teacher to get lessons from and I think i'll call him today. Another great point is to look into some unniversities, I hadn't actually thought of that . Thanks!

Derek Reaban

[quote="Trumpeters_Lullaby"]There was a good topic on this. Click Here

tpter1

Play jazz, get friends together and play duets, play things you've never played before, sing in your church choir. The more you play, the better you get at it. Learn scales and arpeggios...all scales, and arpeggios including 7th chords of every type you can concieve. Learn your minors, too. All 3 forms, each key. Be able to play them in many different patterns...3rds, 4ths, many different ways. The more scales and arpeggios you know off th top of your head, the better your reading ability becasue so much music is scale or arpeggio based. Crack that Arban book and get busy! What are you waiting for? Rhythmically, work on reading groups of notes. This is most difficult to teach vis-a-vis internet fora; that's where a good teacher is a big payoff.

Bon voyage! Let us know how things progress!

Vulgano Brother

Maybe an idea only worth 1.8 cents, but learning basic transposition techniques, liking reading bass clef (try the Rochut etudes for trombone) or in concert key (everything, including the key signature a tone higher) will get us thinking in terms of patterns and tonal center rather than individual notes, thereby making sight reading easier. At any rate it is valuable for both jazz and classical playing and builds brain cells. Do it long enough and you'll start transposing the time when you look at your watch! Have fun!

mattdalton

Glenn and Vulgano Brother are pretty smart guys because they already covered two of my top three suggestions: scales and transposition.

The other I'd add is to develop a basic understanding of music theory. If you need a resource for this, you might take a look at Basic Music Theory by Jon Harnum. Developing your theory chops will help not only help you with college prep, but will improve your understanding of composition or how your part fits into the whole of the ensemble. It will also help make jazz improv easier too, if that becomes a goal for you.

It's great to read of your ambition. Best of luck with this.

ptynan

Lots of great info in this post, but don't forget to listen to trumpet players and trumpet music. Listen everything you can go hear live or get your hands on.

PT