Making Trumpet Playing Easier

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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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Understanding Basic Tone Production

If you want to become a more efficient trumpet player, taking the time to learn the basics of tone production is an investment that pays off in spades.

The reason for this is because we’re the ones who are responsible for what comes out the end of the bell. And the problem is that we can get a decent tone with both good playing habits and bad ones.

However, it’s the good habits that ensure continued progress down the line, where the bad ones almost always end in frustrating playing limitations.

But the good news is that proper tone production is easy. In fact, it is – by definition – easier than playing with poor habits. And once you get it, improved sound, range and endurance come effortlessly with continued practice.

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Don’t Blow Before You Know

To help you wrap your mind around efficient tone production, we’ll break down playing into two basic elements: how you use the air and how you train the playing embouchure and aperture.

After that, the fingerings are pretty easy. 😉

So, to begin our discussion on the air, let’s acknowledge that it’s reasonable to assume there’s a certain amount of ‘blowing’ involved with this whole trumpet thing.

It is loud, after all.

But believe it or not, it’s just this blowing that can lead to nasty playing habits and big problems down the line.

The good news is that you already know how to use the air while playing. You probably do it every day!

That’s because we can (although we don’t always) play all over the trumpet using air that feels just like we’re singing.

To see what I mean, take a moment to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ out loud (even some ‘la, la, la’ on different notes is good).

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

OK. Now, I can’t be certain, but you’re probably not aggressively pumping the air for each syllable while you sing, ‘HA!, PEE!, BIRTH!, DAY!, etc.’

And if you are, well, um, try to sing it a little bit more smoothly.

In doing so, it’s more likely that you just take a breath and start singing the lyrics while the air more or less ‘flows out.’

Try it again and pay special attention to how the air is just ‘on’ while you’re singing. Also note that there’s no need to exert any additional force to sing the different pitches.

That’s because the subtle adjustments from one note to the next happen in the vocal cords. And as long as there’s enough air flowing through the vocal cords to keep them vibrating, you’re singing.

This is exactly how trumpet playing works.

Except for us trumpeters, it’s the embouchure and playing aperture that act as the vocal cords of the instrument.

And all you need is enough air flowing through that tiny hole between the lips to keep things going.

Cool, right?

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Up Next: Exercise for Better Air Usage

Thanks for reading. Tomorrow, you’ll learn an exercise for melding this easier and more efficient use of the air with your real-life trumpet playing.

Stay tuned and happy trumpeting.

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