One of the finest trumpet players alive today, Jon Faddis, talks about how your stance is extremely important when approaching the upper register. He states, that you should stand as tall as possible, as if someone had a string pulling your head up. I couldn’t agree more, if I try to play in any other stance, my range and endurance suffer. My thought on why this is so has to do with how our breathing apparatus functions. My approach also involves pulling the chest up high and the feet placed a bit further than shoulder width apart, with a slightly squatty stance as well. Jon also stresses the importance of being able to hear in your head what it is you want to play in the upper register. Moreover, he emphasizes listening to other masters of the stratosphere, such as Maynard Ferguson and Dizzy Gillespie. Of course, the TrumpetDude strongly suggests you listen to Jon Faddis!

The great teacher, Arnold Jacobs added to this aspect of playing by focusing on the size of the air column too. He said in almost every instance when players came to him wanting help with their embouchure, he would end up pointing out that they simply were not supporting the embouchure with enough air, that the air column was too thin. This brings me to my other aspect of playing well. Our throats must be open WIDE!! An open throat is imperative to achieving the large air column necessary to play well in any register, to have endurance, and of course, to be able to play high notes. Much of this, of course, is MENTAL. Trumpet playing is a physical sport but one that is done with more mental energy than say weight lifting. If the mind is not right, the body will NOT follow. Sometimes we are just too tired to concentrate properly, other times we are just too UPTIGHT. When we are uptight, because of performance anxiety or just because we are stressed about whatever, our throats close up, it’s just a natural bodily reaction to the stress. So, one approach that Arnold Jacobs taught was to think and ingrain in your head OH for inhalation and TOH for exhalation without any hesitation in between. OK, what do the chops do? They vibrate and the mouthpiece captures the vibrations. Nothing more. Nothing less.

In sum, to play trumpet well, you must have your MIND right, your AIR full and unrestricted and your CHOPS vibrating! Sounds easy enough, but of course some days you just want to throw the horn out the window because you just can’t get it right. Well, perhaps it’s good that I delayed the writing of this article. Because, what I came across may help all of us with achieving the sweet spot in our playing everyday!

A trumpet player named Glenn Bengry wrote a brief piece on TPIN putting forth his distillation of what his friend Emil Gowatch gleaned from the infamous Raphael Mendez. Mr. Bengry says, ‘the chops come to the mouthpiece, not the mouthpiece coming to the chops.’ I think that is so very true, although, invariably, as impatient people we confuse this.

I believe the warm up approach that Mr. Bengry describes has a great deal of merit and should be tried in anticipation of implementing the other notions of playing issues I have presented above.

Glen says, “Blow gently through the mouthpiece, lips in a general mmmmmmm position but very loose, mouthpiece very lightly touching the lips (barely) NO SOUND YET, all you impatient trumpeters, WAIT. You don’t want to get a sound until you’ve blown in this fashion probably between 10-20 times give or take a little. (Mendez says to blow 2-3 minutes just air) You want the air to FLOW THROUGH the mouthpiece as easily as any exhalation Repeat this step with a VERY SMALL increase in air speed. Hold the lips together a LITTLE more firmly. Each time, you will be a little faster and firmer. the lips will gradually begin to gently “grip” the mouthpiece with somewhat equal contact around the whole circle of the mouthpiece. The mouthpiece does NOT hold the lips in place (our biggest hurdle perhaps). The mouthpiece “catches” the vibrations. So the chops come TO the mouthpiece, not the mouthpiece TO the chops (and usually too much against the chops). The trumpet beast makes us press too hard. The horn is only a resonator and amplifier essentially. It amplifies what it catches from the lips. At some point as you make these tiny adjustments the speed and firmness will be at the point where a vibration will spontaneously happen. It may only be a short vibration, which will disappear right away. You are now extremely close to a balance/efficient point. Now speed up your air a little more and you will likely get a longer buzz (it’s tempting to abandon your perfect spot and immediately go back to the “old way”. Resist if you can. Once you get here, you are real close to YOUR magic spot. You should now be real close to being able to maintain this easy, flowing, light pressure sound as a long tone. See if you can maintain the balance between air speed, embouchure firmness and mouthpiece contact/pressure. This is the basis for your own tone production balance (you have to find that spot every day).”

Keep jamming fellow Trumpeters!!

Trumpetdude

Just like the lungs and lips, the mind needs to be warmed up and focused too. You might want to begin thinking about your playing throughout the day, without your horn in hand, and practice visualizing various scales and other musical idioms. This approach will get the mind thinking about your musical desires and also help you to practice planning out your musical efforts in advance of a session. It will also make the physical aspect of your playing come easier when the actual time comes to either practice or execute.

Back to my thought about Louis’ eyes, I also recommend getting in the habit of thinking about a passage before you play it. You will be surprised as to how much this will improve your execution. In addition to the mental visualization thing, I recommend singing whenever possible. This also will greatly assist with the physical side of playing.

Scat singing might be a way for you to simply practice your singing ability, regardless of any particular passage. Scatting will aid you in opening up your throat and of course relaxing!

Now, I’ve termed this column, ‘creativity,’ but it’s not going to be limited to the literal sense of that word. The process of being creative involves numerous subjects. Although from time to time I will be discussing various aspects of ‘creativity’ in the “Playing/Improvisation’ section of this site and also within the ‘Player Well Being’ section, I think that it is a broad enough and important enough topic that the dividends of its pursuit are worthy of a separate section.

Simply stated, creativity can be viewed as a mental process that produces new ideas, concepts, or alterations of existing ideas and concepts. Aligned with this, either as a complimentary component or as subsequent process, is the concept of innovation. Innovation is something that can occur in degrees or by great bounds. In the development and creation of music, I encourage both.

One might view creativity as a simple concept and superficially that may be so. However, psychologists, scientists, philosophers, historians, economists, design professionals, business people and engineers have all studied aspects of creativity in an attempt to master what it really is. During the age of enlightenment in the eighteenth century, the concept of creativity was linked to the concept of imagination. This was especially true as it concerned art.

When reflecting on my own life, my biggest obstacle and hurdle was lack of self- confidence and negativity. While I could write a book on this whole phenomenon and probably should, for now I will attempt to present some of my knowledge and beliefs.

As it applies to trumpet players, the most important aspect of having a successful life and playing well is developing the proper attitude. When I say attitude, I mean having faith in oneself and always looking at your playing with a positive attitude.

Although I never met or studied with Bill Adam, from what I can tell he really was a true master of trumpet playing. On the subject of the mental side of trumpet playing, Bill basically said this:

If you pick up your horn and play something and say, “Holy mackerel! That stinks!” Well the first thing you are doing is programming your sensory mind in a negative way. And so, when you allow that to happen you only build upon that negative perception. “Now, if that tone doesn’t sound the way you want it to sound, what you do is, you say……..NOTHING about it. You don’t even think anything about it. And you re-program a beautiful sound in your mind, and the first thing you know, that starts to take over. But that’s what you have to watch when you’re playing the trumpet. If articulation isn’t there, or this or that or the other thing, you’ve got to watch your programming. Feeling sorry for yourself causes all these programming things to go to your head. So we’re going to program ourselves for all those good things that are necessary to have when you play.”

Now before we get to deep into any of this creative stuff, let’s be clear that in order to be successful we have to have a plan of some sort. While its easier to start off each day in neutral and simply react to what comes our way, that will simply lead to inertia and that will not make you good trumpet players. Live life like you mean it! Play like you mean it! A great place to start is with a positive mental attitude.

The master motivator, Earl Nightingale said this, “Success or failure as a human being is not a matter of luck, or circumstance, or fate, or the breaks, or who you know or any of the other tiresome, old myths and clichés by which the ignorant tend to excuse themselves. It’s a matter of following a commonsense paradigm of rules — guidelines anyone can follow.”

Now go play something pretty for me!!

For now, let’s focus on pranayama. The first part of this word prana means breath. When the late great Maynard Ferguson was asked about his ability to play so well in the upper register, he attributed his ability to his mastery of prana. “I tell everyone, young and old alike to go out and get a couple of books on Hatha Yoga, and read the parts about breath, or prana. The Indians call prana ‘the life force,’ and sometimes we forget that if we weren’t breathing, we’d be dead.” He asserted that there was nothing special about his lip, rather it was use and control of air.

The phenomenon of breath control constitutes an entire branch of Yoga called Pranayama. Pranayama was developed to study patterns of breathing and their effects on the mind and the body. Ancient Yogis discovered that with breath control you can increase ‘Pranic Energy’ or life force, and control states of consciousness. Yogis of Pranayama assert that by bringing in and holding pranic energy through the breath one can control all the forces of the universe, the electric, bio-electric, magnetic and the atomic.

There are three stages to the breathing process. Inhalation, which is called puraka, fills the lungs with air and stimulates the whole body. Retention is called kumbhaka. During retention, the body’s temperature is raised and the oxygen is absorbed. Exhalation is called rechak. In rechak the diaphragm is returned to its original position. The intercostal muscles are contracted and the toxic air is released into the atmosphere. With pranayama practices, vital energy is distributed throughout the body, ensuring the proper functioning of all the organs and greater levels of physical energy.

It has been said that the lungs are like bellows stoking the fires of life within you. The richer the supply of oxygen, the more vigorous and beautiful is the fire. By breathing deeply you are delivering more oxygen into your system thereby giving your body the vital fuel it needs to nourish all your organs and keep your body strong and healthy.

Since the benefits of studying and practicing this branch of yoga are so strong, I encourage you to begin this journey today. There are several fine books and dvd’s on the subject. A few of those are:

In order to properly play the trumpet a certain amount of tension is required in the facial and abdomen areas, however, all other physical components of the body must be focused yet relaxed, especially the mind. This is a very difficult thing for most of us to do.

In his book, ‘The Art of Brass Playing,’ Phillip Farkas wrote, “in order to produce a sound on a brass instrument we must vibrate the lips into the mouthpiece by means of the air-stream. In order to create this vibration, certain muscles must be tensed.” Farkas goes on to describe this as a combination of tension in both the cheek and chin muscles simultaneously. These two must compliment each other – as Farkas says, “smile and pucker balance each other, resulting in puckered smile.”

In the process of producing the forced respiration necessary to sound our trumpets and directing it to a tensed embouchure, we may actually impede the air-flow because of tensed torsos, shoulders, necks and throats.

As I mentioned earlier, it is a natural tendency to tighten the throat. This phenomenon is known as the Valsalva maneuver and is defined by the medical community as a natural bodily function in which “…the throat closes simultaneously with respiratory muscle contraction” (Breathing for Musicians, Scott A. Nelson, DMA). While this may be a natural part of respiratory muscle function, as Dr. Nelson points out, “it is devastatingly disastrous to speaking, singing, and wind instrument play.”

So, if you want to become a top-notch player, you have to learn to control this issue. Remember, more air can get through if you keep your throat OPEN and blow easily through your lips. Practice scales, and anything else for that matter, without the horn on your face. Rather, finger the notes on the horn and blow the notes with your lips in a whistle, singing type manner. Afterwards, play the scale or passages with your trumpet. Alternate back and forth in this manner being cognizant of an OPEN throat. These alternate blowing sessions are referred to as “wind patterns” and are extremely helpful in reducing throat tension. Do a lot of wind patterns!

It is also possible that the throat pressure is caused by tension in the hands, arms, shoulders and neck, which translates into a tight throat. Hold the horn loosely as possible. You may also want to adopt one of the recommendations of Claude Gordon and, “lift the fingers high and strike the valves hard.” This may relieve some of the tension in your hands and arms.

Of course, this is the sort of thing that won’t cure itself overnight. You will have to be diligent and become conscious of how you control and direct your air energy.

There are several books available on the balance of tension , air-flow and relaxation. Some of my favorites include: