As trumpet players we normally learn that ‘bottom c’ is the
lowest note in the open position on the harmonic series. It is however the
second partial. Pedal ‘c’ is the lowest. Interestingly there is a lot of
mystery about this note, how it should be played, which fingering to use etc.
If you find it hard
to play the low notes on a trumpet (those notes between bottom c and low f#)
with ease and at any dynamic, and if you also find it hard to tongue these
notes clearly, then this is mainly caused by over tight lip tension, especially the
actual vibrating part of the lips. An easy way to correct this is to learn to
relax your lips. Playing pedal c is a very good way of learning to relax the
lips and thereby allows them to vibrate in a better way.
Pedal c will at first feel very hard to play. Do not force
the note out. Otherwise you are simply defeating the object of the exercise. One
of the best ways to learn to play pedal c is to play a bottom ‘a’ on 1+2 then
drop the note an octave but play
this note on open. This note will
sound a pedal ‘a’, in fact you are playing a very flat pedal c, so flat that it
is actually and a. This will be easier than to try for the c straight away,
which will more often than not sound really flat in pitch. Once you have learnt
to play a good ‘pedal a’ on open try to move the pitch up gradually using a
very slow glissando up to Bb and then b the finally pedal c. When you lose the
vibrations start again from that open position on the pedal a. Learn to agree with the trumpet and thus
make improvements rather than fighting it.
The best way to improve something is to always practice something which you can either already play, or something which you find very easy to do. It is not good practice to ‘try’ and play notes you simply can’t play. Always work from something you can do to something you can’t, rather than something you can’t do to something else you can’t do!
The best way to improve something is to always practice something which you can either already play, or something which you find very easy to do. It is not good practice to ‘try’ and play notes you simply can’t play. Always work from something you can do to something you can’t, rather than something you can’t do to something else you can’t do!
Once you can play pedal c correctly then you can work at playing
the rest of the pedal notes on the correct fingerings: b on 2, Bb on 1, a on
1+2 and continue down to pedal f# on 1+2+3. What you will find by learning to
play these notes correctly is that your high range will improve not because
playing low helps directly but because you are improving your lip vibrations
and using airspeed more to play these notes. Practice linking your register
from pedal c up the range of the instrument. There is a really useful video on
you tube which I strongly recommend that you watch in order to understand
better the use of pedals.
