Skip to main content

How to Have Fun With a Trumpet

Once you know how to play the trumpet properly, you can begin to have fun playing advanced technical pieces and showing off your skill to your friends or by performing in concerts. Playing an instrument should be enjoyable, but to reach that level, you must first master some basic skills. The feeling you get when playing with others and having the audience applaud your efforts can be addictive.

Stand up straight by keeping your shoulders back and your feet flat on the floor shoulder-length apart. When sitting, maintain a straight upper body and place your feet squarely in front of you.

Breathe from the diaphragm and pull air into your lungs. Without proper breath support you will struggle to produce enough air, barring any attempts at enjoying your playing experience. When breathing fill your lungs and feel your sides and stomach expand with air.

Tongue properly by using the tip of the tongue to hit the point where the roof of your mouth and your upper teeth meet. Doing this will provide you with better articulations and more accurate and audible note changes.

Extend your high register by playing long tones. Start on a F concert above the staff, hold the pitch for four beats, and then ascend to an F-sharp concert. Hold the F-sharp concert for four beats and return to F to hold for another four beats. Continue adding one half step at a time until you can't play any higher. For instance, your next sequence will be F to G to F, then F to G-sharp to F and so on up the chromatic scale.

Make goofy noises on the trumpet by learning to neigh like a horse. To do this, hold the trumpet in front of you and play an open pitch by not depressing the valves. Then wiggle the valves as you descend in pitch to imitate the sound of a horse.

Create multiphonics and impress your friends with your ability to play more than one pitch simultaneously. Play a multiphonic by singing one pitch through the instrument while holding another pitch. One way to do this is to hold out an E by pressing down the first two valves of the trumpet and then singing another pitch above the E.

Take requests from people to play familiar songs and see if you can improvise on the spot and play on demand.

References


"Trumpet Technique"; Frank Gabriel Campos; 2005
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Claude Debussy Never Cared About Music Theory

  Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862. So, I felt writing a blog post to celebrate would be appropriate. Debussy was a revolutionary composer who challenged the conventions of Western music. He was influenced by the impressionist painters, the exotic sounds of gamelan music, and the symbolist poets. He created a musical language that was expressive, colorful, and atmospheric. One of the most remarkable aspects of Debussy's music is his use of harmony. He did not follow the rules of tonality and functional harmony that dominated the music of his time. Instead, he used modes, scales, chords, and parallel movements that created a sense of ambiguity and fluidity. He also experimented with timbre, texture, rhythm, and form to create musical images that evoked moods and emotions. Debussy's music can inspire us to think outside the box and explore new possibilities in our own compositions. We can learn from his innovative techniques and his artistic vision. We can also apprecia...
Post a Comment
Read more

List of Musical Techniques and Their Meanings

Musical techniques are the building blocks of any basic music training. These techniques allow performers to improve their coordination and develop accuracy through repetitive daily exercises. Musical techniques progressively build upon previously learned techniques. Scales Scales form the basis for other musical techniques. Student may study major and minor scales as well as modern scales, such as the whole-tone and octatonic scales. A scale consists of patterns of half steps and whole steps. These whole steps and half-step arrangements will be different for each scale. Scales are musical techniques that can help a performer to play faster and more accurately, and make learning new pieces easier. Chords Chords require knowledge of major and minor scales. Chords come in several different forms that affect the sound. Triads consist of three notes spaced a third apart and classified as major, minor, augmented and diminished chords. Seventh chords build on triads and have an additional no...
Post a Comment
Read more

Similarities of Classical and Baroque Music

Music has evolved through the centuries and undergone drastic changes. One of the most significant transitions was from the Baroque to the Classical period of music. In this paragraph, I will compare and contrast some of the main features of these two styles, such as ensembles, instrumentation, and counterpoint study. The Baroque and Classical periods of music have many similarities. While the style of music changed drastically, certain key elements remained the same between the two styles. Composers in the Classical period sought to simplify music and create clearly audible musical lines. In contrast, composers from the Baroque period were interested in creating complex and highly ornamented musical lines. The Baroque period occurs from approximately 1600 to 1750, and the Classical period extends from 1750 to 1820. Ensembles Ensembles are groups of musicians that perform together. Both the Baroque and the Classical period had similar types of ensembles, such as operas, orchestras, str...
Post a Comment
Read more