Playing the Trumpet can be a brave thing to do. Every performer will experience
the ‘fight or flight’ response. This can be experienced to a worse degree on
the trumpet. It is both very easy to hear a ‘split’ note and also because the
sound relies so heavily on the player’s physical condition i.e. their lips.
Many trumpeters worry (most of the time unduly) if they will have the ‘lips’
to play the high notes, or if they have the stamina to play long passages.
Have a firm
foundation
When people ask a very good player what they are doing whilst performing
a ‘hard’ piece (as if they are doing something superhuman), they invariably
answer, “I’m focusing on my breathing”. People often don’t really understand
how simple trumpet playing actually is. All you have to do is blow air,
vibrating the lips and a sound is created. Obviously we need to practise this
until we change the airspeed easily and smoothly. Nonetheless it is a very
simple thing to actually do. We are always complicating things and having
negative thoughts about our playing. Whenever we have a problem there is always
a simple solution, which will enable us to easily play a particular phrase or
technique.
Whenever we pick up the trumpet never think a negative thought! This
will never help. We should rather say; how do I do this? Only when we are at
this point, we are then ready to start to improve.
However, this is the most critical point; we know need to know what a
good foundation is in order to start to make improvement. If we start
practicing the wrong way we only ever learn how to play incorrectly and with
bad technique.
Trumpet playing is simple. Over the next few posts I will try to explain
this.
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