A trumpet question for you!

[Swiftay]

So, i've been playing trumpet for about...4 and a half years now, and just recently i noticed that my range is total crap. The highest i can get is high A, and i can barely even squeeze that!

So, the question is, what excercises should i do to increase my range!

[Vanhalen234]

Well one of my all-time favourite trumpet excercises is to try and fit a regular sized water bottle in my mouth. And then you can start playing your trumpet but I would recommend buying the book Chantone's Big Book 'O Trumpet Excercises

[Dishul156]

So, i've been playing trumpet for about...4 and a half years now, and just recently i noticed that my range is total crap. The highest i can get is high A, and i can barely even squeeze that!

So, the question is, what excercises should i do to increase my range!

I play trumet as well um well u r gonna have to aim for a lmaybe high F and if u van keep hitting that continue also warming up plaw high short notes and when u r don playing play some long short notes will improve plaing

[Jessizzle]

Scales.
Iv been playing for 5 months And im also suck at the high A mark for songs. Normally I can get the higer notes, but while playing a song I dont have the air to make it.

[Zappa]

The exercise I always did, which has brought me to about an Eb, involved slurred major triads. You start on the C in the staff, and slur up to E, then G, then back down. You continue this pattern, moving on to C#, then D, and so on. Play these QUIETLY, and don't ever force a high note.

Also, you may be flat out playing your high notes wrong. The key is not to jam the trumpet as far as you can into your face and pop blood vessels in your eyes. Your embouchure does need to move some to hit those high notes, it's true. But the key to playing high isn't "smiling" like some may have been taught.

High notes come from fast air. Good air in trumpet playing comes from breathing from your diaphragm and tightening your stomach muscles. The best way to speed up this supported air stream is to use your tongue to pinch it off. Think of a hose. When you put your finger halfway over its opening, the resultant stream is concentrated and much faster. This is the idea you use in trumpet playing. Basically, you place the tip of your tongue lower in your mouth, around the gumline of your bottom row of teeth, and the air is forced over your tongue. This should give you better results, if it is not what you've been doing.

[trumpeter]

Alright...here it goes

Vincent Cichowicz flow studies are gold...

also...

From Allen Vizzutti's New Concepts

About 99% of music is below a high C
Lets examine how a note is made

1) The embrouchure must be strong enough to hold position as the mouth's interneal pressure builds. Think analogouslyto the nozzle of a hose

2) The diaphragm muscles must produce temendous air support, water pressure

3) The left hand and finger ring pressure must be in balance with the cushion created by the lips. You may be able to decrease the pressure you use, simply by being aware of how much you are bearing down.

4) The aperture of the emouchure and the tounge placement combine to create a small tunnel passage over the tounge and a small hole thru the lips resulting in tremendous air speed when aggressive diaphragm pressure is applied to expel the air. (Tighten the nozzle on a hose...more water speed)

5) One's equiptment can and hsould help your efforts. The effect of one's equipment on the ease of playing beceomes especially ovbvious above the second ledger line high C


I really reccomend you get this book...its got tons of stuff...very good reading and very good exercises.

[trumpeter]

Also, in my personal experiance, I know it helps me a lot to also practice LOW notes. You want to have the same feeling throughout your entire register. So if you can have a nice open sound when you are playing low, try to replicate that in your upper register. Try doing pedal tones and low note exerices, it will help as well.

[MathMusic]

My brother tried a Maynard Ferguson mouthpiece, and he can go higher, but in one band he plays in, the band director thought the tone was not good for concert band, so he added these weights that screw onto the bottom of the valves on a King trumpet, that make the tone darker. Caps, he calls them caps, but most trumpets don't have the threaded metal on the bottom of the valves for these.