MahlerBrass

Hello all, I'm mostly a legit player, but I'd like to think I'm pretty flexible as I play second book in my school's top jazz band and do some lead work on some high society stuff with a local big band. My question comes from hearing my trumpet teacher play the other day, and we were playing a trumpet quintet arrangement of Blue Rondo A La Turk, and when we got to the solo blues section he just switched his sound completely (he's a VERY good orchestral player), it totally astounded me. Not only was his sound different, but I found out that he's an awesome imrpoviser as well. But back to topic, he could change his sound like flippin a switch from that of Bud Herseth to that of Chet Baker. I would really like to learn to get that small kind of fuzzy sound in my playing but I just can't seem to do while still controlling the notes and what I'm doing on my horn, any advice on how to achieve this? Thanks a lot!

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Bear

loose the chops a lil is all I do when I need the "hard reed" sound....

trumpetpimp

I can do it but I'm not sure how I do it.

I consider myself as a jazz player but play in several legit groups and studied for two years in a university classical performance program. I'm now in a full time jazz program. I think I'm pretty good at adapting my sound from big band to combo to solo at church to brass quintet to brass band to orchestra to concert band.

Let me put it this way. You approach a light, fluffy, classical symphony in a different way than you approach a big, gutsy, 20th century symphony. Mozart has a different sound than Mahler and it's not just a volume issue. The tone colour that is called for is different. Of course it's not just that they're over 100 years apart. Haydn's concerto in Eb is different form Hummel's concert in Eb and Hindemith's sonata is different from Stevens' sonata.

That jazz sound is different too and it just comes from listening and playing. I don't think too many people do any serious manipulation to their chops to play jazz any more than you would change your setup to play different legit works. Well, Guido Basso does, but only on flugel, and that's a whole other story anyway.

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st. paulitan

Listen, sing along with a solo you like, sing the solo alone thinking of the sound you want, then play along with the solo (also try in a mute to vary the tone color), then play the solo alone. Stop the solo after four bars (hit pause on your CD player) and imitate the sound. Go through an entire solo in this way. Listen and imitate.

BPinard

That "fuzzy" sound comes from practicing a whole lot. REMEMBER: Practice does not make perfect, PERFECT PRACTICE makes perfect!

brian moon

I believe that any or a combo of these will work.

1) Puff your cheeks or just a little around the chops.
2) Change to an uncomfortable mouthpiece such as one with a bad bite or too small, etc...) and blow easy.
3) Use a horn with that type of sound (a la Wynton).
4) Put a hole in your horn at the right spot.
5) Push out your upper lip (the thought of that makes me cringe).
6) Take a swig of tobasco sauce or eat some jalapenos.
7) Play with an open amado water key.
8) Use a really dirty mouthpiece or leadpipe.
9) Keep your embouchere real loose. Related to #1

The don't miss method is play too much without resting and fry your chops. It's a bit difficult to switch back from.

bas

Mahler,

Work on completely controlling the air flow and resonance of the horn. Once you have perfected that allow your ear to go to that sound, your body (and sound) will follow. Don't mess with your chops at all....could get you into BIG trouble...