This one sounds like something your Band teacher might have mentioned, but gravity has a way of making Trumpets and players droop. Your instrument (like most) was designed to be played with good posture. What that looks like for us is bell and elbows up and away from the body. In a serious Marching Band the bells have to be out perfectly horizontal. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but maybe too much work for some of us. You want to point the bell at your intended victim – oops – I meant your Band Teacher. When your Band Teacher is at their music stand where they conduct, your music and that teacher should be in the same line of sight. You might have to look through your hands and slides to see the notes but you’ll manage. If you’re not tall enough to get the bell over the stand the move the stand a little to one side. Don’t play straight into it and don’t even think about playing under it.
You should be sitting upright with your chin up so that the massive amounts of air that you’ll be taking can flow freely through your airway and throat. If you can’t sit up and hold the bell up because you have some weird grip on the Trumpet it’s time to change that grip.
Assembling
The mouthpiece goes in with a slight inward twist. Don’t pop the end with your hand or you risk getting the mouthpiece stuck. (If you do get the mouthpiece stuck don’t try to get it out with any tool other than a mouthpiece puller – a tool which band teachers and repair shops have and use. Using any other tool will result in damage – perhaps cosmetic, perhaps structural and in any case expensive.) With any luck your trumpet came with a fairly standard mouthpiece. Check the mouthpiece post if yours seems odd, really uncomfortable or just won’t work for you.
While you’re at it make sure that the main tuning slide is out a little (around a centimeter or ½ inch or so). It’s the first slide your air will hit on most trumpets (the second bend on most Cornets).
Listen to Yourself
This might be the single hardest thing to do, but you can make it the easiest just by doing it all of the time. Every time you pick up the horn listen to all of it – every characteristic of every note. Before long you will hear things that you know you should fix. You’ll probably be able to fix them yourself, but if you can’t your teacher or conductor will love you for asking them for help. “Excuse me Mr. Goodband, is there a way I can play that note better in tune with the clarinets?” You just got an “A” for asking the best question of the year.
Every note you play has a bunch of different traits, or characteristics and all of them are things that good musicians care about. It really matters that you hear them, that you care, and that you try to do something about them. Several of these traits are listed below.Thank you Carly, for pointing this out.
Pull the Tuning Slide
Your Trumpet was built too short – all of the good ones are. The idea with the main tuning slide is that you should be able to adjust it in either direction to accommodate any fluctuations in pitch that might occur in your Band. Most beginning bands sounds bad that it doesn’t matter, so Band Teachers sometimes don’t get around to dealing with this little detail. Most beginning Trumpet players are struggling enough to find the right notes without adding another issue to the mix – the fact that they are painfully sharp. Pull that slide out about a half an inch (that’s 1.3 cm for some of us) and leave it there for a few days.
That slide should actually be pulled out the right amount, but what is the right amount? If you have access to a tuner or a tuning app try tuning to your G (Concert F) and see where the tuner says you should be. If the tuner says you’re sharp pull it out a little more. If it says you’re flat push in a little. What that tuner is telling you is useful information but that’s all it is. Use it as a setup guide, but don’t trust it. There’s a bunch of factors that can change from note to note, minute to minute, etc etc etc. Use it, but don’t rely on it. Learn to listen and adjust if you must.
Get More Notes
This is not as obvious as it sounds. If you have diligently learned your fingerings you might think you sound great. Chances are that you play plenty of wrong notes, but you play them with the correct fingering. We call that mispitching and all brass players do it. As we get better at playing we mispitch fewer notes but it’s a thing that all Trumpet players work on. This might be the most important reason for us to read the notes in the music, not the fingerings that we’ve pencilled on. As the noteheads rise on the staff, the notes in the music are higher – it seems so simple. Try this quick test to see if you’re playing mostly right notes.
If you’re only working with several notes then you’re odds of hitting right notes aren’t too bad if you’re listening. As your range increases you have to get better at predicting what the next note should sound like and setting yourself up to hit it correctly. That means that as you become a stronger player you need to strengthen your ability to separate right from wrong as well. The more notes you can play, the better you have to be at finding them (listening). Learning to sing through your parts doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to some players but it is a really important skill in finding right notes. Relax, you don’t have to be a good singer; just a good note finder.
This might be the single hardest thing to do, but you can make it the easiest just by doing it all of the time. Every time you pick up the horn listen to all of it – every characteristic of every note. Before long you will hear things that you know you should fix. You’ll probably be able to fix them yourself, but if you can’t your teacher or conductor will love you for asking them for help. “Excuse me Mr. Goodband, is there a way I can play that note better in tune with the clarinets?” You just got an “A” for asking the best question of the year.
Every note you play has a bunch of different traits, or characteristics and all of them are things that good musicians care about. It really matters that you hear them, that you care, and that you try to do something about them. Several of these traits are listed below.Thank you Carly, for pointing this out.