Category: Trumpet Pedagogy
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New, authentic horizons
I recently rolled off being president of the Historic Brass Society. This was a wonderful, demanding position that I essentially did for three years. Two years officially as president and one year before that as vice president. This was also a time when I was finalizing my portfolio for promotion and tenure as an applied…
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Practice big for piccolo: the 2-for-1 strategy
In 1991, I was a member of the National Repertory Orchestra. My roommate was a dear friend––the late Ryan Anthony, of Canadian Brass and Dallas Symphony Orchestra fame. He was perhaps 22 at the time, and was very youthful in his whole outlook on life and the trumpet. He had already played Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto…
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Make a trifold mirror for your studio!
Most teachers have a mirror on their wall, so that their students can look at themselves when playing. But would you like to offer up a side view to your students? If so, you would need a trifold mirror. If you shop for one on the Internet, already made, you are looking at about $800-900.…
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Axes of tone: singer’s face
Two days ago, I blogged about forward resonance, borrowing from vocal pedagogy. We saw that it was possible to have more resonance in your trumpet sound by getting the resonance more forward in the head. Today, I want to explore how to raise the soft palate consistently so that you can take advantage of the…
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Axes of tone: pucker
Another range-of-motion change that will shape your tone is the amount of pucker in your embouchure. First let’s think about the typical trumpet embouchure muscles for a moment: the muscles that anchor our corners are the buccinators. Our chins are flat because of the depressors labii inferioris. And there are many other muscles which give…
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Axes of tone: forward resonance
Today, I’d like to dip my toes in the mysterious world of singing. Have you ever sung in a choir? In the warm up, did the director ever try to get you to resonate your voice forward? Toward your nose? This is one of the things vocalists do to maximize their resonance and tone. Trumpeters…