TrumpetsAreFun

Hey Manny,
What kind of excercises do you use to work your way up to higher notes? I just play from the C in the staff and go up to the notes... but I don't think that's a good way.. can you help me?

Thanks alot Manny,
TAF

Manny Laureano

TAF,

The extreme registers are built upon the success if the middle register. A thick airstream that expands in a natural way is the best overall answer to extend your range in both directions. If you can produce a single, solid sound in the middle register the rest will come. That is dependent on how much you ask the instrument to do. Remember that the trumpet is an amplifier of the mouthpiece. The sound you produce on the mouthpiece is an excellent way of telling you how even your sound is before you play a note on the horn.

If you buzz a melody or a musical, vibrant scale and create even- sounding notes on the mouthpiece the trumpet will amplify those sounds. If the sounds are uneven and the timbre continues to change as you ascend, well, something's not right. If you listen to great playing and have a talent for imitation, your upper register will improve gradually. If you don't have a sense of what to command of your sound, you'll flounder.

You must develop the ability to discriminate between a good sound and a great sound. Your ear will take care of the rest aided by full breaths.

Obviously there are subtleties that come into play and a guy writing to you via the internet can't really do much for you other than plant little ideas and seeds for you to consider and culltivate. Don't look for overnight cures. They don't work except with very advanced players and you're not there yet. I don't practice anythin special to obtain a high register because I've already got it. When I was younger I just listened to great players playing up there and tried to sound like them. Maynard Ferguson, Bill Chase, and Rafael Mendez were the ones I listened to most and I tried to sound like them in the correct contexts.

Developing a good, thick airstream will serve as a supply to a beautiful sound but you need to breathe very full and get rid of the air in a relaxed way. Have a great sound in your head and believe you can imitate it.

Happy pondering,

ML

TrumpetsAreFun

Thanks Manny.. one of my teachers(he's a good trumpet player in my opinion) told me to have my upper lip and lower in the "middle" of the mouthpiece, but when i do this i "scrunch" up my lips for it to fit in the mouthpiece.(I'm not born with small lips ) When i have both of my lips in the "middle" my buzzing on the mouthpiece alone is limited. But when my upper lip is a little higher I can buzz on the mouthpiece alone easily. (I shouldn't scrunch up my lips huh?)

Manny Laureano

Don't concern yourself with what you're doing. Concern yourself with the best, richest sound you can make all throughout the range, high and low.

It sounds like you figured it out, though. Good... one step at a time.

If you added a solid half step to your upper range every other month for the duration of the school year, how high would you be able to play by the end of the year?

ML

TrumpetsAreFun

Wait... lemme think... this is math....

TrumpetsAreFun

O ya.. I forgot to tell you... my teacher told me to vibrate my lips faster...

huh?

Manny Laureano

You can't consciously vibrate your lips faster. No human has that kind of muscle control. You go for the product not the process.

The product is the high note. The process is based somewhere in the cerebral cortex and is delivered to the lips via the 7th cranial nerve.

That sounds a bit difficult to do on a conscious level, don't you think? Go for the brilliant sound and listen to it over and over until you become the world's greatest tape recorder.

ML