1. Overview

This page records year 5 of learning the trumpet. See also Years 1-3 and Year 4. The point is not to demonstrate how wonderfully I play but to say "Hey if I can do it, anyone can.". Perhaps this can serve as a resource for others.

At this point I have:

Worked through Vizzutti's Intermediate Methods
Worked through Clarke's "Technical Studies", 1-5, now on 6. Fairly smooth, but just can't do the whole "in one breath" for etudes 3,4,5. I get to about 150bpm on 5's Etude and can't push all the way to 176. Actually, I lose track of the metronome about there. On the positive side I find I can hit upper register D and E and sometimes F.
Worked through all but about 30 exercises in Arban. I do Characteristic Studies hit-or-miss -- any one phrase works on any one day, but not as a unified whole. I do the Fantasies reasonably musically, though not as fast as real trumpet players. I can't make the triple tongue purr.
Dabbled in Sandoval's "Playing Techniques", vol 3, Advanced. Mainly the pedal notes. I took a look at the others, but decided to complete Clarke first -- it seems to cover the same ground.
Tried Gordon's "Systematic Approach to Daily Practice." I really benefited from the 2 hr cycle (0.5 hr play, 1.5 hr off). But the actual exercises were hurting me with high notes too soon in the day. Maybe I'll come back to it later.
Played pieces for ABRSM grades 1-8. Have not however learned any scales. Used these for grade 8:
- Haydn "Trumpet Concerto in Eb"
- Copland "Fanfare for the Common Man"
- Arban "Characteristic Study 2"

So it is time to go several directions:

Continue with Clark exercises.
Do better job on the pieces I sort-of know. Need to do recordings and listen for (and adjust) tone and phrasing.
Learn scales and arppegios by ear.
Tackle impossible hard pieces.

2. Equipment

Music stand, metronome, tuner. See Music
Bb Trumpet. Yamaha YTR8335RGS (Xeno, reverse-slide, gold bell, silver). Bach 3C mp.
C Trumpet. Yamaha YTR8445G (Xeno, gold bell, silver). Yamaha 1604-GP mp..
Books. See References

3. Standard Practice

Each day has a warmup session and then as many practice sessions as fit. Each session is about 30 min followed by 90 min rest. Thus a session every 2 hrs. Typically getting 2-5 sessions per day.

Each session starts with Bobby-Shew-style mini-warmup. 5 flutters, 5 lip buzzes, MP buzzes up-and-down, and then a full-range scale (G, ... C'''). Based on that, decide how hard the session should be (e.g., can we hit high notes?). Might decide to do technique, studies, or "easy playing". Of course the first session after warmup gets the freshest lip, so I generally rotate the batting order.

The warmup start with Ken Saul's Long Tones. Then do Clarke "dailies". I've numbered each exercise in Studies 1-6 with days of the week, rotating (M, Tu, W, Th F, Sa, Su). On a given day I play that day's exercises. Thus a few from Study 1, a few from Study 2, etc. Thus repeatedly going low range to high range. Do one of the Studies single-tongued to keep up s.t. speed. For the Study currently in work (e.g., 6), I also do dailies but then work on the Etude.

The practice sessions include:

Scales from University of South Carolina "Trumpet Study Rqmts Packet".
Arban Characteristic Studies or Fantasies, on C or Bb. One piece, played maybe 2 times (counting restarts and focus) in the session, and repeated 2-3 days (hopefully improving).
Something musically pleasant. Jazz, Broadway, Country, Blues, seasonal. Something I can play and sounds good to family and to me.
A really hard piece (well, hard for me). Work on this 2 weeks at a stretch (one session per day). I burn out after that and need to go do somethiong else for a while.

4. By Month

4.1. January 2012 (49 months)

Warmup : Clarke dailies for 1,2,3,5,6. Work on 6's Etude.

Scales : Major scales.

Studies : On C trumpet, working through Arban's Characteristic Studies. 2 days each. Currently on no. 5. May revisit Arban's Fantasies next (did them already but it was a struggle).

Hard : Vizzutti "Cascades". Tong "The Tower of Jewels". Bellstedt "Napoli". Rimsky-Korsakov "The Flight of the Bumble Bee".

Music : Whatever feels right at the time.

"Broadway Showstoppers"
"Definitive Jazz"
Al Hirt "On Bourbon Street"
Aaron Copland "Copland for Trumpet"
"Leonard Bernstein for Trumpet"
"The Cornetists Joy". All the pieces are pleasant if played correctly. So they start in "Hard", and go here if/when I can do them.
"The Best of Bach" (Arr. David Sosin) Arranged down into Bb's range.
"Wedding Trumpet Solos" (pub Hal Leonard) Arranged down even further.

4.2. April 2012 (52 months)

In February and March, did Clarke Technical 7 and 8, and worked through Arban Fantasies again with Bb and C trumpets. Finally, they sound like music. Not performance-ready, but at least I can focus on musicality instead of just hitting the notes.

Warmup : Now that I'm finishing Clarke Technical (working on 10), I'm exploring other warmup routines. Maybe Caruso or Gordon or Sandoval will make sense now. Or make my own synthesis.

Scales : Dropped out of these for a while. Ready to go back

Studies : Going through Arban's Characteristic Studies again. A day of Bb, then a day of C. Repeat as needed. Thus 2-4 days for each Study. Not perfect, but finally sounds like music instead of disjoint-and-strained notes.

Hard : Revisiting "Best of Bach". Shifted to Schilke 14A4A mp, not so much for range as for endurance above the staff, so I can play long enough to actually practice.

Music : Whatever feels right at the time. See references.