Does anyone know how to get above an E on the staff on the trumpet?

Question

I have been playing for 3 years but have meen "musical" for over 7. I am tired of all the boys getting first chair but i cant get up there if i cant play the high notes. Help!

Answer 1

Look, there is alot more about first chair then being able to play high--there are things like leadership, experience and musical skills to consider also. The worst thing you can do to justify playing high notes is wanting to do it for all the wrong reasons. First of all this is your third year of trumpet playing which means that (unless you played a very similar brass instrument before) you are just getting comfortable with your embrochure. Embrochure mastery is the key to trumpet range and endurance. What I mean by embrochure mastery is the mastery of the entire system of how air flows through your vibrating lips into the horn, including the system of muscles around your mouth that form the vibrating lips.

To be comfortable with embrochure means that you must know what embrochure produces the best buzz to air ratio. Have you ever tried to just buzz with your mouthpiece? It is a more difficult feat than playing your trumpet. Take your mouthpiece and using only two fingers, hold the lowest most part of the stem and buzz with your lips barely brushing the mouthpiece. Try buzzing a trumpet G note in the middle of the staff. Once you get the hang of that, you need to fiddle with your embrochure to find the best buzzing sound, meaning that you maximize the buzzing sound to the amount of air you put in. You will learn quickly that the problem is that you do not put nearly enough air through your mouthpiece as you think you can. This is what I mean by buzz to air ratio.

Once you have learned to buzz the note G with minimum tension of the moutpiece to your lips, you are then ready to learn how to build both endurance and range. Using the same apparatus (mouthpiece only), you practice scale excersizes: start low C, then D, then C again, then E, then low C, then F, then C the G, then low C, then A (and hoooold), then low C, then down to mid G, then low C, and finally F (and hold until you run out of breath). This excerisize needs to be done all in one breath. Then you take a deep breath and go up a half step and do that scale (ie. the C# scale). You may need to use a piano to help you find the pitch. You keep playing the scales as high as you can to the point where you cant produce a sound. There you cool down for five minutes. If you do this excersize once every time you practice. You will improve both endurance and your range successively over time.

And that is the problem kid, time. It has taken me four or five years to be able to play from a low G to a high G with the optimal embrochure. Once youve learned to master these though, sky is the limit. Mastery means the control over the mechanics of playing trumpet. As far as being first chair, well that depends on your ability to tune notes/chords, the ability to listen and balance to your surrounding band and section, the musical know how to be able to play and teach how to be rythimacally and articulately accurate to both your section and the band.

All this takes time and with more time comes experience. Hang in there and eventually you will get it!

Answer 2

I am the first chair trumpet in my high school's top band. I suggest doing a lot of lip slurs. They not only help your flexibility, which is a great thing to have, but they also do wonders for your overall range. Most method books have different types of studies. If you've been playing the trumpet for three years, I would suggest concentrating more on tone, consistency and endurance. Range will come with a lot of practice.

Peace
Chris

Answer 3

Well, there **is** the way that you can cheat. Get a shallower mouthpiece.

If you're playing with the one you already have, chances are you're using a 7C. Try an A -AA -AAA - Sometimes they're numbered. Your music store will be able to tell you which they carry.

The other choice (which is definately not a shortcut and a good thing to do anyway), get your chops built up. There are plenty of people out there that play a regular mouthpiece and can blast out the notes.

Answer 4

Play lots of long LOW notes.Bottom G [1st and 3rd valve] Low F sharp [All three valves] or as low as you can go.First Piano pianissimo [very quietly] then Forte fortissimo [very loudly] for as long as you can .then try again after a break.Long low notes starting quietly with crescendo getting louder and diminuendo getting quieter again.Take another break and blow slack raspberries to bring back circulation massaging cheeks. After a pause try the same again for 5 minutes.Take another break and try the same with mid range notes. Then go to scale practice.first staccato then slurred.Try a bottom C to mid C adding one note ,mid D, and back down again.Do the same from D to top E.if it does not come rest and try the scale of A.
Low notes [long ones] then scale practice will add a couple of notes to your extension.Also E is not a high note at all.It is psychological,try thinking of it as a mid C. Take deep breaths,breath from the bottom of your lungs at the back.Most of all Practice,practice ,practice.And if it hurts you are doing it correctly.No pain ,no gain.Good luck.