Trumpet Journey

Category: Trumpet Pedagogy

  • Can the metronome be bad?

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    by

    Stanley
    in ,

    Early on in our trumpet studies, we learn how important a sense of time is, and we learn to use the metronome. This powerful tool helps us to learn how to be good ensemble players and how to mark our progress, but it can have some negative outcomes if used poorly. If you are using…

  • My philosophy in 10 words

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    by

    Stanley
    in ,

    There are some words or phrases that keep coming back in my teaching, so I thought I would share them with you. My top 10 trumpet words: Quality control. Basically this is preparation, but the emphasis is on the product, not the trumpeter. Another way to think of Quality control is “how many times can…

  • Master lesson on single tongue from Tom Hooten

    Master lesson on single tongue from Tom Hooten

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    by

    Stanley
    in

    This blog is returning to some recent posts that I wrote about articulation. I wanted to reach out to a video made by Los Angeles Philharmonic principal trumpeter, Tom Hooten for this post, however. Earlier this year he posted this on his YouTube channel, and it is a great method for developing single tongue. His…

  • Why do you need lessons?

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    by

    Stanley
    in

    Public and private schools (elementary through high school) have been offering music courses for a long time. Students, including trumpeters, usually love band, orchestra and chorus, and the directors for these programs are usually fantastic teachers and will help all the students a great deal. But each of these students needs something more. If they…

  • Exotic articulation

    Exotic articulation

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    by

    Stanley
    in ,

    On the trumpet, we have the basic articulations of single tongue, triple tongue and double tongue. These are well-explained in most methods, although I should state that there are different opinions about the sequence for triple tongue. Arban stipulated t-t-k, but many trumpeters instead play t-k-t. Every now and then we have to do something…

  • A little word about the aperture

    A little word about the aperture

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    by

    Stanley
    in

    I have been thinking a lot about the aperture over the last year or so. It has become much more important to me than the embouchure, because it is more fundamental than the embouchure. It is the vibrating surface that initiates the trumpet tone. I have one idea about the aperture that can be useful.…