Trumpet And Music

It has been two days of posting and I have yet to discuss and real exercise for the trumpet. I want to make one more point before we even begin. Besides my two golden rules, there is one other thing to always keep in mind during your trumpet studies: remember that your goal is to make music. Trumpet pedagogy, maybe more than any other instrument, tends to revolve more on the physical aspects than musical aspects. Compare the number of trumpet method books in existence with the number of major trumpet works.

Matthias Hoefs of the German Brass explained to me that his teaching approach is based mostly on music (90% of practice) and very little on exercises (10%). He also stresses that a similar ratio should be used regarding tough practice (10%) and effortless practice(90%). It is good to push yourself at times, but more often than not, pushing to hard leads to tension, frustration, forced playing, poor tone and lack of musicality. Considering many of these traits are common amongst trumpeters, I would say many of us should back off. Trumpet playing is not weightlifting, nor is it running a marathon (unless you get called for a Latin gig). Gradual progress over years will lead to effortless playing as demonstrated by Mr. Hoefs himself and others like Wynton Marsalis, Hakan Hardenberger, and Maurice Andre.

Spend time on scales, lip slurs, tonguing exercises and finger studies, but spend more time on melodic etudes and actual songs. Even better - look for melodic etudes and songs that incorporate the skills you wish to work on. During the course of this blog, I will try to highlight pieces that achieve this.