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Making Trumpet Playing Easier

September 1, 2021 / 5 Comments / Uncategorized / By

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Hello my trumpet-playing friends. 

What you are about to feast your eyes on is part of an email series recently sent out to BTB subscribers. It deals with the fundamentals of easy tone production so that you can get the most out of your practice time and enjoy greater ease in playing. 

These few concepts and their corresponding exercises have been extremely helpful to me as of late. And, I know that once you get the feeling for them they’ll be awesome for you too. 🙂

Enjoy! …

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Exercise for A Clean, Clear & Accurate Attack

April 28, 2021 / Leave a Comment / Playing Tips / Videos / By

As you know, getting the right note to come out the bell of your trumpet can be quite the challenge! And even once you’re pretty good at hitting the right note, there’s still the issue of playing that note musically.  So, since the initial attack is kind of a ‘do or die’ moment for trumpet players, we are wise to practice this skill for a few minutes each day.

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How Ear-Training Improves Your Sight Reading (Part III: Initial Entrances)

March 30, 2021 / Leave a Comment / Ear-Training / By

Ready, set, go – no test notes!

This is Part III of a three-part article on how ear-training improves your sight-reading. If you haven’t check out parts one and two, start with Part I.

Hearing Your Opening Entrance

The first two articles in this three-part series explain how learning the fundamentals of relative pitch automatically and permanently improves your sight-reading. Essentially, by learning and engraining each of the musical intervals you develop a capacity for reading music ‘note to note’ – just as you learned to read your written language ‘word to word.’ However, we still need to address the issue of hearing your initial entrance. Therefore, this final installment outlines how learning the ‘clues’ of relative pitch will speed up the development of this performance instinct.

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How Ear-Training Improves Your Sight Reading (Part II: The Solution)

March 30, 2021 / Leave a Comment / Ear-Training / By

This is Part II of an article which explains how ear-training improves your sight reading by default. If you haven’t read Part I, read that first. 

Just Enough Music Theory to Help

To be able to look at a piece of music and hear the sound of it in our minds, we need to know a bit of music theory. By internalizing this information, you’ll find yourself a more intelligent, fluent and well-versed musician. And with a bit of practice, you’ll soon find yourself a musical sponge who’s sight reading like a ‘natural.’

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How Ear-Training Improves Your Sight Reading (Part I: The Method Book Trap)

March 30, 2021 / Leave a Comment / Ear-Training / By

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E, A and C# all played first and second valve – but, which is which?

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One of the most commonly asked questions about ear-training is whether or not it ‘actually works.’ And while the positive impact of ear-training must be experienced to fully appreciate, this article intends to outline just one such benefit; how learning the intervals improves your sight-reading practically and by default. …

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Tried Ear-Training Before With Disappointing Results?

March 30, 2021 / Leave a Comment / Ear-Training / By

Fear-training.

I mean, ear-straining.

Uh, ear-training.

For those of you who have tried ear-training in the past – with disappointing results – this article is meant to help you understand why it may not have ‘worked.’ Then, we’ll explore how you can ensure that your time spent ear-training actually makes a practical difference to your trumpet playing. …

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Rehabilitating A Severely Overused Brass Embouchure

April 7, 2021 / 6 Comments / BTB Practice Journals, Random Nonsense / By

2020: What a year.

Global pandemic.

Lock-down.

Masks.

And oh yeah, I completely trashed – and then rehabilitated – a severely overused playing embouchure. So, if you feel like things aren’t quite right – or are dealing with long-time damaged chops – this one’s for you. …

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Need Help Keeping Your Lead Chops Up Between Gigs? *NEW* Lead Trumpet Transcription Book!

November 6, 2021 / Leave a Comment / Lead Trumpet / By

All lead trumpet parts from the Terry Gibbs Dream Band vol. I – VI

Need to keep your lead chops up?

Additional sight-reading practice?

Want to learn from one of the fathers of modern lead trumpet playing?

Look no further than BTB’s release of all the lead trumpet parts from the six live albums recorded by the Terry Gibbs Dream Band during the late 1950’s to early 1960’s in Hollywood, CA.

These albums are awesome, fun and swinging. You’ll love ’em.

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How Timbre Can Affect Pitch (Layman’s Physics for Trumpeters)

June 24, 2020 / Leave a Comment / Physics Lab / By

I recently picked up a copy of Arthur H. Benade’s, ‘Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics,’ and am enjoying the read. There’s some seriously trippy shit in there! Figuring some of you might enjoy this kind of thing, I plan to do little write-ups on the topics that pop out as fun and interesting. This article shows a neat example of how the timbre of an impulsive sound can affect the pitch you hear. …

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