[spacer height=”20px”]

Here’s how most young trumpet players progress over time (ok, you already know, it’s how I progressed). And, it goes something like this…..

It’s fourth grade, it’s time for you to choose an instrument, you really want to play drums, but realize you have to start on a pad and decide forget that! In lieu of playing all the latest cool drum beats by Van Halen (yes, I’m old), you hear the trumpet being demonstrated and decide “THAT sounds loud AND high so i’ll play THAT instead!”.

[spacer height=”20px”]

The very first note you play is probably a low C and it goes pretty well. You learn all the basic beginning “Belwin Band Builder” songs and are one of the better players for whatever reason. You’re never really taught where you should place your lips on the mouthpiece, or how to breath, you just get lucky (I really can’t remember that far back). Your range and reading ability slowly increase and your’e progressing pretty well for someone who hasn’t studied privately or hasn’t really practiced on a regular basis.

You make it to 6th grade and realize that EVERYONE is better then you. You figure if you want to make it to the first trumpet part you had better get some help. On the advice of your band teacher, you start taking lessons from the “local pro”. Now this “pro” may actually be a pro or maybe just a good amateur. At any rate, he or she may be a good player, but know absolutely nothing about teaching the trumpet. If you’re lucky, you start discussing breathing, tonguing, air speed, aperture, tongue arch, sound concepts, buzzing, pedal notes, transposing, range, and tone and start pounding out the classic trumpet exercises and etudes by Arban, Clarke and Schlossberg etc. At this point, your teacher may or may not notice some embouchure problems such as; playing “on the red”, extreme pressure, excessive horn movement, closing of the throat, inefficienct air usage, playing extremely far left or right of center, endurance problems, and poor sound quality………..or not.

[spacer height=”20px”]
In 7th grade you get braces, it hurts a little at first, so you use wax to cushion the pressure. After ingesting enough wax to make a fist sized snowball you decide to tough it out and go without. None of the music you play goes that high, or is that demanding endurance wise, so none of your shortcomings rear their ugly head. Through 8th grade you realize, “hey, this music thing is fun, and better yet, there is no homework!”

[spacer height=”20px”]
Your freshman year of high school you realize that EVERYONE is better then you (even though you take private lessons). You can, however, read really well so the jazz band director wants you to split the lead part, even though you can barely play a high C. It’s mostly to hold the hand of the other lead player who has crazy high chops but astonishingly enough can’t read his way out of a paper bag. After probably developing the early stages of what would later become 4 hernias, you decide maybe the jazz chair would be more suitable for you. At this point you figure there are those who were born to play high, and then there’s everyone else. After all, none of my teachers taught me how to play high, so it must be something you just do naturally, right?!

[spacer height=”20px”]
You continue to play first part in all the concert bands and wind ensembles and solo festivals but you tire very easily and still have range problems even though you constantly practice, perform, and rehearse everyday of the week. By the time you hit your senior year in high school it seems like the more you practice, the more tired you get. Regardless of your shortcomings, you decide to enter college as a music major because you can’t think of anything else to do that is more fun.

[spacer height=”20px”]
Going to college in the 80’s as a jazz major was really about playing jazz fusion. We just called it fusion. Acoustic jazz was considered “old and tired” or “museum music” as my friend used to say. At that time, there were very few jazz education books out there. Getting a hold of a real book (or the only jazz fake book worth buying) was like buying drugs. You had to know a guy, that knew a guy, that knew a guy. Then, you’d give that guy $40 and he’d show up with a copy of the “illegal” real book. Then there was “28 Modern Jazz Trumpet Solos” volume I and II, maybe 6 or 7 Jamey Aebersol play alongs, and a few Dan Haerle books like “Scales for Jazz Improvisation”. There wasn’t an emphasis on learning standards, at least not at my University. Free Jazz and Free Electric Jazz were more popular. Nobody seemed to want to “rehash” a bunch of old show tunes and iconic pieces from old movies. Then, Wynton Marsalis came along.

[spacer height=”20px”]
Wynton is a whole two years my senior, yet, by the time he turned 22, he would have achieved more then 99% of most trumpet players ever will……..two Grammys in the same year! One for Jazz and one for classical. How can this be when at the time, I probably had memorized 5 or so standards and was still working on my diminished scales?! The whole Jazz scene changed almost overnight. The “neo classical jazz era” was in full swing. What was old, was hip. Standards were in. Acoustic jazz was back and record labels were signing almost every young cat who could play. They called them the “Young Jazz Lions”.

[spacer height=”20px”]
I graduated college with I highly inefficient working embouchure, limited range, very little vocabulary, and very little endurance. I was not a “Young Jazz Lion”. I wasn’t even a “Young Jazz Kitten”. Yet, when you play second trumpet all the time, you get by. I’m pretty sure it was because I could read and follow the lead player. However, it’s when I’d have to play first is when the “wheels came off”. And yet I worked. A lot. Cumbia bands, salsa bands, broadway shoes, jazz gigs, brass quintet gigs, church gigs, Chinese funerals, big bands, top 40 gigs, herald trumpet gigs, playing taps, Dixieland gigs, and recording sessions kept me surprisingly busy. We used to play 6 sets 6 days a week at the local amusement park and then play 4 sets 4 nights a week all summer long. I always played second, or third, or fourth.

[spacer height=”20px”]
I decided after forty years of playing that enough is enough. I needed to find a better, easier, more efficient way of playing. It simply just hurt to press so hard and pound my face into oblivion. Plus, I want to play first! Maybe that’s what happens when you get old. It’s either that or quit. And, quitting isn’t an option. It’s “personal” now. I’ve learned more about the embouchure and air and how to practice in the last few years then I have my whole life. Things start to happen when you ask a lot of questions and start applying them. Either way, it’s a fun ride.
Through it all, I’ve been extremely fortunate to have played with so many talented bands and musicians that I am very grateful for every minute. I honestly believe that I am, and will always be, a student of the trumpet. I guess that is what happens when things don’t come easily. I’ll keep you posted…….