Art - Music - Trumpet (Year 5-10)
Table of Contents
1. Overview
This page records years 5-10 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.
2. Year 5 (2012)
2.1. 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 something else for a while.
3. Year 6 (2013)
3.1. Standard Practice
Backed off this year, as I focused on voice and now piano. Typically do just one sesison in a day (2 on weekends).
Each session starts with Bobby-Shew-style mini-warmup. 5 flutters, 5 lip buzzes, MP buzzes up-and-down. Then lip-bends for all fingerings (low C-G-C, B-F#-B, Bb-F-Bb, ... low F#-C#-F#). Then Vizutti-style soft-to-loud quarter,quarter,quarter,quarter,whole for low C...low G.
Then do dailies from Clarke "Technical Studies": 1 (slurred),2 (slurred), 3 (single tongued), 5 (double tongued).
Then Clarke Characteristic Studies. Took a year to go through each at 2 weeks each. Going back through at 2-3 days each. I'm not performance-ready, but I can play them appropriately.
Takes about 30 minutes.
3.2. Playing
Maybe 2-3 times a week I get back to actually playing. I rotate through Arban Characteristics and Fantasies as the mood strikes. Otherwise items from Cornetists Joy, or Best of Bach, or similar. On sunny days I play Latin pieces.
I can play them all recognizably but not performance-ready. Usually spend 2-3 days on each. First session is "What the heck is this piece?" (it may have been a year since I last tried it). Then "Let's work on a couple of sections". Then "Let's play for musicality". Each cycle I get better. And by working on many genres, I gain skills usable elsewhere.
I'm only using the C trumpet for Blues and for Americana/folk songs.
4. References
- alpert
"The Deluxe Herb Alpert and the Tijuanna Brass Souvenir Song Album". MusicMates, various copyrights. 52 songs.
Should be done in conjunction with "Play Latin".
- arban
J. B. Arban. "Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet", edited by E. F. Goldman, W. M. Smith. Carl Fischer, (copyright data unknown, purchased new in 1960).
The central method book for trumpets and cornets. Others improve upon, fill in gaps, or comment upon this one. Arban was a virtuoso performer on the cornet, his exercises are doggedly systematic but productive, and his composed pieces are full of pyrotechnics. The 14 characteristic studies and the 12 major composed pieces are widely used.
- armbruster2010
Kurt Armbruster. "Before Seattle Rocked: A city and its music". University of Washington Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-295-99113-9.
From native chants, to loggers/fishermen barn dances, to gold rush tarverns and brothels, to civic-minded symphony and opera, to jazz. Stops by 1970, thus skips the "grunge" and the Essentially Ellington Jazz contests. One-of-a-kind insights, oral history, and context.
- clarke_characteristic
H. L. Clarke. "Characteristic Studies for the Cornet". Carl Fischer, 1915. ISBN 0-8258-0250-4.
Hard-core single and multi-tonguing, in various scale and chord patterns. Also has some of his major composed pieces which (so far) are either beyond me or do not sound particularly musical.
- clarke_technical
H. L. Clarke. "Technical Studies for the Cornet". Carl Fischer, 1984. ISBN 0-8258-0158-3.
Another well-known method book. Generally sounds more musical than Arban exercises, but can be technically challenging.
- cornetists_joy
"The Cornetist's Joy". Carl Fischer Inc, (copyright date unknown; purchased new c 1960)
A collection of 20 solos. Hard core pyrotechnics like Tong's "The Tower of Jewels", Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee", and Rogers's "The Volunteer".
Until I'd spent a year practicing 1 hr/day, and then another 6 months on VB1 and VB2, I had no business trying these pieces. Now a few are approaching comfortable. On a good day, they are quite musical.
- hirt1965
Al Hirt. "Al Hirt on Bourbon Street for Trumpet". Robbins Music Corp, 1965.
Dixieland-style classics. Most of the pieces are actually copyrighted on the page as 1918 or there abouts, so out of copyright. Some of the flashy pyrotechnics may be Hirt's own variations, thus newer.
It has taken me quite a while to learn a few of these pieces. When they work, they sound casual, just-for-fun, effortless. But it takes a lot of practice to do it.
- HL00240044.
"Classical Fake Book", 2nd ed. Hal Leonard Corp. ISBN 0-79351-329-4.
850 themes and melodies, in original keys (thus should normally be played on "C" instruments). Think of it as a sampler. When you find a tune you like, you probably need to go buy (from Hal Leonard) the full piece in the proper key.
I am playing them as written, so I'm 3 semitones low, but the intervals (and thus the melodies) are ok.
- HL00240082
"The Blues Fake Book". Hal Leonard, various copyrights. ISBN 978-0-7935-5855-1. 400 blues pieces, for C instruments and voice.
I went through them all, and found 35 that sounded right to me. I play them with the C Trumpet.
- HL00240130.
"The Ultimate Christmas Fake Book". Hal Leonard Corp. ISBN 0-7935-9866-4.
200 songs. I recognize and play about 40 of these.
- HL00490431
"The Best of Patsy Cline", revised. Hal Leonard,various copyrights. ISBN 0-7935-0100-8.
Since much of this is low on the staff, I used this as my first C Trumpet piece, and will use it for piccolo trumpet if/when I get one. All the pieces are easy to play and memorable, but I only play the ones that don t require a page turn. Stopping a soulful phrase to turn the page is too jarring.
- HL00842500
"Wedding Trumpet Solos". Hal Leonard, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4234-9921-3.
- morrison2003
T. Morrison, editor. "Solos for Trumpet: 23 Recital Pieces". Carl Fischer, 2003. ISBN 0-8258-4901-1.
Graded pieces (grades 2-5), for contests and recitals. Some are quite musical; others I can't make sense of even if I seem to be playing the right notes at the right time.
- play_latin
"Play Latin: All-time hits from Lain America". Faber Music, 2000. ISBN 0-571-52046-4.
While Herb Alpert sounds very Tijuanna Brass, this collection sounds formally latin. I play these on sunny days. (We live north of Seattle; we sometimes go to Seattle to see the sun; sun here is a nearly religious experience and deserves special music.)
- sosin2009
Donald Sosin, arr. "Best of Bach". Cherry Lane Music Co, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60378-136-7.
Arranged down from stratosphere, but still need Schilke 14A4A if I'm doing several of them back to back.
- vizzutti_b1
A. Vizzutti. "The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method: Book 1 Technical Studies". Alfred, 1990. ISBN 0-7390-1941-4.
As noted above (18 months), VB1 gave me a major breakthrough. First, it gave me "low and slow" warmups. Second, the Technical Studies built my range to the full 2 1/5 octave range. Third, the new multi-tonguing exercises got me rolling.
- vizzutti_b2
A. Vizzutti. "The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method: Book 2 Harmonic Studies". Alfred, 1991. ISBN 0-7390-1942-2.
As noted above (18 months), VB2 gave me a major breakthrough. The intervals, chords, and scales are musically pleasant enough to make you try day after day until they flow smoothly.
Creator: Harry George
Updated/Created: 2013-06-20