1. Overview

This page records years 5-10 of learning the trumpet. See also Years 1-3 and Year 4. The point is not to demonstrate how wonderfully I play but to say "Hey if I can do it, anyone can.". Perhaps this can serve as a resource for others.

2. Year 5 (2012)

2.1. Standard Practice

Each day has a warmup session and then as many practice sessions as fit. Each session is about 30 min followed by 90 min rest. Thus a session every 2 hrs. Typically getting 2-5 sessions per day.

Each session starts with Bobby-Shew-style mini-warmup. 5 flutters, 5 lip buzzes, MP buzzes up-and-down, and then a full-range scale (G, ... C'''). Based on that, decide how hard the session should be (e.g., can we hit high notes?). Might decide to do technique, studies, or "easy playing". Of course the first session after warmup gets the freshest lip, so I generally rotate the batting order.

The warmup start with Ken Saul's Long Tones. Then do Clarke "dailies". I've numbered each exercise in Studies 1-6 with days of the week, rotating (M, Tu, W, Th F, Sa, Su). On a given day I play that day's exercises. Thus a few from Study 1, a few from Study 2, etc. Thus repeatedly going low range to high range. Do one of the Studies single-tongued to keep up s.t. speed. For the Study currently in work (e.g., 6), I also do dailies but then work on the Etude.

The practice sessions include:

Scales from University of South Carolina "Trumpet Study Rqmts Packet".
Arban Characteristic Studies or Fantasies, on C or Bb. One piece, played maybe 2 times (counting restarts and focus) in the session, and repeated 2-3 days (hopefully improving).
Something musically pleasant. Jazz, Broadway, Country, Blues, seasonal. Something I can play and sounds good to family and to me.
A really hard piece (well, hard for me). Work on this 2 weeks at a stretch (one session per day). I burn out after that and need to go do something else for a while.

3. Year 6 (2013)

3.1. January-October

3.1.1. Standard Practice

Backed off this year, as I focused on voice and now piano. Typically do just one sesison in a day (2 on weekends).

Each session starts with Bobby-Shew-style mini-warmup. 5 flutters, 5 lip buzzes, MP buzzes up-and-down. Then lip-bends for all fingerings (low C-G-C, B-F#-B, Bb-F-Bb, ... low F#-C#-F#). Then Vizutti-style soft-to-loud quarter,quarter,quarter,quarter,whole for low C...low G.

Then do dailies from Clarke "Technical Studies": 1 (slurred),2 (slurred), 3 (single tongued), 5 (double tongued).

Then Clarke Characteristic Studies. Took a year to go through each at 2 weeks each. Going back through at 2-3 days each. I'm not performance-ready, but I can play them appropriately.

Takes about 30 minutes.

3.1.2. Playing

Maybe 2-3 times a week I get back to actually playing. I rotate through Arban Characteristics and Fantasies as the mood strikes. Otherwise items from Cornetists Joy, or Best of Bach, or similar. On sunny days I play Latin pieces.

I can play them all recognizably but not performance-ready. Usually spend 2-3 days on each. First session is "What the heck is this piece?" (it may have been a year since I last tried it). Then "Let's work on a couple of sections". Then "Let's play for musicality". Each cycle I get better. And by working on many genres, I gain skills usable elsewhere.

I'm only using the C trumpet for Blues and for Americana/folk songs.

After re-doing Clark "Characteristic Studies" I redid Arban's "Characteristic Studies". In both cases, some I can just play, some I have to do a couple of days, and some I stumble over the same spot again and again. But all in all, these are all now old freiends, rather than the monsters they appeared at the beginning.

3.2. November-December (Baroque)

I went looking for the next adventure. A common direction is to go Bb, C, then piccolo. But no picc for this household. However, the same "old" music is even better on the natural or Baroque trumpet. After a lot of reading on-line, I was willing to give it a try, but had no idea how to start.

Dr. Brian Chin (SPU music professor, director of the SPU trumpet festivals, and a Baroque trumpet player) was willing to talk to me. After discussing my current skills and my goals, he recomended a Naumann 3-hole, short, Haas bell. I talked with Barry Bauguess at the Baroque Trumpet Shop, and made an order. Also ordered Edward Tarr's VOl 1 "Basic Exercises".

It came with crooks for C and D, in A=440 and A=415. In my confusion, I started using the D crook and found that I could not get tuned to CEG, even with heavy lip bending. Finally discovered the problem, put in the right crook, and began hitting the right notes. I read various ideas about tuning, and chose: Push the crook all the way in, and tune with the lead pipe. With all holes covered, I was getting good CEG.

Next, I had no idea how to use the vents. But Tarr said to practice everything with no-vents at first. So I put in the supplied screw-in plugs for the finger holes and covered the thumbhole with tape. Voila, a natural trumpet.

Next started working through Tarr. Per recommendation, I use exercise 20 to warmup. I found I could do to g'' easily and a'' and b'' ok, but c''' was hard. So the principale register and mid-clarino register to b'' are ok, but clarino c''' is hit or miss for now and d''' is a no-show. I don't understand the "pyramid" so maybe I'm doing it wrong.

To get the right notes, I have to pre-hear the notes and the phrase. So I have to play an exercise several times to hear it at all, and then play it in tempo and phrasing. By then I'm wiped out. As a result, I have to work on one exercise at a time, get it, rest for a few minutes, and then try the next one. Sometimes I can do a whole page of exercises in a day. Sometimes it takes several days to get one exercise.

2013-12-28 Working through Tarr page by page (he says you don't have to but I don't have a better approach). Currently at Tarr pg 37. Have looked ahead and done some trills.

Tarr says do the exercises but also do repretoire. I'm using Kresser's 1-18 (Tarr pg 63-68) as "repretoire". Currently working on 1,2,3.

4. Year 7 (2014)

4.1. January-April

Completely shifted to Baroque. No modern trumpet. Warmup is Shaw-style flutter, lip-buzz, mp-buzz. Next do Tarr vol 1 no 20 ("Elephant").

Worked through Tarr vol1 and vol 2. Started vol3.

4.2. May-August

4.2.1. Instructor Feedback

Went back to Brian Chin, who listened and said I needed to:

Return to using Bb each day
Return to std warmup and "startup ritual".
Work on intonation, without mute.
Don't fight so hard for high notes. Feel them as "out farther from the trumpet". Do the practice at lower, comfortable pitches. (Being a trumpet player, I of course took this as a challenge, not sound advice. Overdid it and had to back off for a couple weeks to recover.)
Work on Baroque fingering. Esp F and B holes.
Work on several specific Baroque parts.

When I got home, I shifted to the Db crook. That makes everything higher pitch -- a written "C" is sounded as "D". Naturally, I overdid it at the high end, chops suffered, and it took a couple weeks of just warmups to get back in business. This reminded me that resting during a session and between sessions is critical.

4.2.2. Standard Practice

Session 1: Bb warmup

Shaw-style buzz warmup
Clarke Tech Studies 1 (slurred), 2(slurred), 3 (single tougue), 5(double tongue). Rotate studies by day of week.
Arban for intonation (no mute). Intro section, 11/13/14, then 16/17/18. Do each piece twice. Rotate days of week so Monday is 11 (twice) and 16 (twice).

Session 2: Baroque warmup