Retro BTB contains the articles I wrote when first creating this site. They were written – somewhat poorly, I might add – before I knew about embouchure mechanics and the physics of trumpet playing. Think of them as more generalized food for thought and question everything.
Let’s face it, trumpet playing can be complicated.
You’ve been practicing regularly for months and you can’t seem to break through the plateau to a higher level of existence.
What can you do?
For starters, you can …
These are your Chops on Music
If you have little confidence improvising – or doing so negatively affects your playing from a physical standpoint – you will benefit greatly by implementing an aural approach to your daily routine. A strategy called ideo-kinetics (which Bobby Shew talks about) combined with a structured labeling of sound yields fabulous results in execution and will get you rolling toward success with improvised music.
Ideo-kinetics is a practice procedure where you first …
Internalizing Melodic Vocabulary (Your Chops on Music)Read More »
Jaw Swelling & Trumpet Playing
Have you found that after a lot of physically demanding playing, you experience fatigue or swelling in your jaw?
Unless your teeth perfectly align when you close your mouth, your jaw needs to position itself to find a relatively flat alignment of your lower and upper teeth for the mouthpiece to rest on. This leads to a jaw position which may be …
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
-Niels Bohr (Creator of the Bohr model of the atom)
Pragmatism in Skill Acquisition
Pragmatism is the philosophical approach to problem solving where the truth of a practice or belief is determined by its successful application in practice. In other words, if it works it works. Adopting this “proof is in the pudding” approach to learning is great for getting the results you desire while learning new skills.
As intelligent human beings we sometimes get in our own way with idealist attitudes. We imagine how our end result will look in its “ideal” state and we contemplate the best course of action to get there. These idealist thoughts are not only often times unrealistic; they can lead to over analysis which tends to …
Recognize and Expand your Sweet Spot
Think of your sweet spot as the parameters within which you’re feeling good, sounding great, and trumpet playing feels pretty easy. Often referred to as your comfort zone, expanding this area is the key to …
Build Strong Chops (Trumpet Embouchure) with Lip Trills
Here are some basic exercises you can use to become more efficient in the upper register while building embouchure stability. Lip trills above the staff are a great way to gain access to the upper register and lots of players with great range attribute them to the beginning of their high-range development. …
The importance of air in relation to trumpet playing is this: without it you cannot play the trumpet.
So, how can we get our air really working for us? Well, it is important to keep in mind that what we ultimately want to achieve is a steady air stream. When the air stream has a constant flow rate the coordination of our body becomes substantially easier. It is the feeling of easy brass playing.
Getting to it
To achieve a wide column of air, which promotes a full sound, imagine …
“Let me warn you, Icarus, to take the middle way, in case the moisture weighs down your wings, if you fly too low, or if you go too high, the sun scorches them. Travel between the extremes.”
Muscular Training
By viewing your practice sessions as physical conditioning you will be able to become less concerned by daily results and better understand your long-term growth.
Muscular training is a seemingly conflicting topic – particularly in relation to fatigue – and by understanding your options you may maximize your return. …
When learning from an external source, it is useful to remember something – the ideas presented are an expression of the teacher’s experience. They are not “truth.” Their ideas usually represent an understanding upon reflection of their own journey. There are many ways to do and think about activities which ultimately lead to mastery.
Strategies for Learning from Others
One example of a learning strategy is …
*2018 Update*
The following article is cool. Check it out. Also, BTB has a new, free video course covering the basics of lip slurs, how to practice them, and FAQ’s that you can check out by clicking this photo:
And now, the original article: …