HOW to PLAY the TRUMPET BETTER

What's stopping you from playing the way you really want to play and how do you fix it? In today's video, I'm going to show you a more personal and independent approach to playing the trumpet. Hello, I'm Paul Mays. Welcome to the Trumpet Prof channel. It's been a while and I hope you're all well. It's been a very, very difficult year for many, many reasons, but I'm hoping now to produce some great trumpet content to really help you to improve your playing. Okay, let's get to work. Trumpet playing problems are often the result of conflict. Conflict between you and the trumpet. Conflict between the air and the throat. Conflict between the tongue and the jaw. Conflict between the valves in the tongue. And of course, conflict between you and yourself. To overcome your problems, you're going to need to reduce the amount of conflict in your playing. Lots of parts and components make up the trumpet engine, but if you can think about them independently, you'll find that you'll understand them much, much better. You'll understand their role much, much better. If you can work at them independently, then you will have more potential and far, far greater efficiency. And if you can allow them to function independently, then you'll find that they will perform for you much, much better. So you will greatly improve your ability by allowing your components and your parts to function independently. So what do I mean by being more independent and working and practising more independently? Well, think about a symphony orchestra of 80 plus people, 80 independent parts, 80 components, all doing their own thing. Now, if one plays over the other one when they shouldn't be playing, then it's not going to sound very good. They're going to get in the way. If one's sitting too close to the other, they haven't got the room to do what they need to do technically. So their performance is not going to be as good. You've created that conflict. Now, what we're trying to do in our playing is, well, what I'm trying to do and what I'm suggesting that you think about is to free those components. Are they free? Are they independent to be able to do what they need to do? And if you can achieve that, then you'll find you will have the efficiency and the potential that you really need. So how are we going to do that? Well, the best way to reduce conflict and increase component independence is through isolation. Isolate those parts, improve and strengthen them, and then learn to use them in a way that they can function independently. Isolate, improve and strengthen, function independently. They're the three things that you need to take away from this. So we're going to take a few areas of technique now, and we're going to work at those things within those areas. So we'll start with the air, and we're going to isolate the inhalation. Now, this is for the purposes of trumpet playing. And it's important to say that because you might ask, well, why do you need to teach me how to take in an inhalation? A deep breath is quite a natural thing to do. And I agree with that. But the evolution of the deep breath, of a full breath, wasn't for the purposes of playing the trumpet. And we need to think about potential. We need to think about your potential to play high frequency because that's what we do on the trumpet. So we're thinking about isolating and developing the inhalation for trumpet playing. So with the inhalation, think about a reverse sign. Think about drawing the air from directly in front of you, straight into the chest. A good way to think about it is to imagine that your mouth is at your chest, and you're just going to draw in the air that is directly in a straight line in front of your chest. We're doing it like this because we're isolating the inhalation, and it's independent of movement elsewhere. And therefore, there is no conflict. So another way to try to get the sensation is actually to do it with the trumpet. Just put your trumpet mouthpiece at your chest. Imagine your mouth is there, and then just draw in a breath. Reverse side, straight line inhalation. Now let's get the trumpet on the lips. We'll do the same thing that we did before, holding the mouthpiece, imagining that the mouth is here, drawing it in, feeling that sensation. Now just put the trumpet against the lips and think the same way, still thinking of the mouth being at the chest. Your inhalation is about so much more than just taking in air. It's about the way it affects the shape of your face, and that affects the way that you play, the way that you form your embouchure, and that therefore affects potential. So it's really important that you spend time with it to understand it, to isolate it, to work at it independently. Let's talk about exhalation now. If you've seen my other videos on YouTube, you know that I talk about the sigh to exhale. Now the sigh is a very relaxing thing to do. That's great for playing the trumpet. We want to be relaxed when we play. But when we play the trumpet, we've added resistance. And when we sigh naturally, we don't have that same level of resistance. So to try to carry the exact sensation of a natural sigh onto the trumpet is just not going to be possible. Really important that you remember that. But we'll use the same idea that we did for the inhalation. So imagine that your mouth is at your chest, your lips are at your chest. Place the trumpet against your chest and sigh, push the sigh through the instrument. Just remember when you play, you've got the added resistance. Play the trumpet from the chest. Remember that phrase. It's really, really important. Write it over your music. Remind yourself of that every time you play the trumpet. Play the trumpet from the chest. Try to reduce movement in other areas where it isn't necessary. Keep your top lip relaxed. But not just your top lip. Try to keep everything above your top lip relaxed. And a really good way to help you with that is to play long tones and look around the room. Look up, look down, look left, look right while you're playing. Try to remain relaxed and think about all of these things independently in isolation. When they come together, you'll perform much better. Let's put that into practice. Choose a note, any note, doesn't matter. I'm going to do it on a middle G. Trumpet to chest, reverse sigh, sigh to get the sensation. Trumpet to lips, same process. Isolate, improve, work independently. We've spoken quite a bit about isolation and how you can do that and then how you can work at these techniques in isolation. But how do you actually make sure that they can function independently? The best way to do that is simply to think, turn on, turn off. Imagine that you're going to flick a switch, push a button, pull a lever, whatever you want to think about, to turn it on and then turn it off. We're going to use the same process now with the tongue. And all I want you to do to begin with is flick the blade of against the back of your front teeth, just for a few seconds, really quickly. Be free with it, just go wild. Now, I wonder how many of you started to blow. Remember, we're trying to isolate the tongue. We don't want conflict from the air. We just want to isolate the tongue movement and work at it independently. That's what's important about this. I want you to feel and be aware of just how free and agile the tongue can be. We'll bring in the air later on, but for now, just isolate the tongue. So if I do that, I'm just moving the tongue. That's all I'm doing. No air, no conflict, in isolation, totally independent. Watch out for any unnecessary jaw movement when you're moving your tongue because sometimes they work in sympathy with one another. You might want to do this in front of a mirror so you can really see if there's any other activity going on. Remember, turn it on, turn it off. Use a simple piece of music or an exercise to practice and improve moving your tongue. In isolation, of course, no air. It's not easy to do to begin with, but you'll really get used to the feeling and the sensation of moving that tongue without any conflict. We've been working with the tongue in a very general way up to now, just to see how agile it can move, how free it can be. But of course, when we articulate, we need the tongue to be in a specific position, in a position where it seals off the air. So to find that position, a good way to do that is simply to sigh very gently and move the tip of the tongue until it seals off the air. Now, that position may be with the blade of the tongue or the tip of the tongue. It doesn't matter. It's going to be different for different people. The only important thing is that it seals off the air. When you found that position, go back to the exercise we did at the beginning, where you were just flicking your tongue freely against the back of your front teeth. Only this time, you're going to be flicking it in that exact position, the position you found that sealed off the air. We're not using any air. We need to keep the air out. We don't want the conflict, but just feel how freely you can move that tongue in that particular position. You might find several positions that seal off the air. The tongue may be flat. The tongue may be pointed. You might be using the top part of the tongue or all of the blade. It really doesn't matter. As long as it seals off the air for you to find the position, and then you can take the air out and just work at flicking the tongue in that particular position. So, what is an articulation? Well, it's a release of air pressure by the tongue. It's an indirect result of two independent actions, and they indirectly produce an articulation. So, we've isolated the air and the tongue. We've worked at improving them technically. Now, we're ready to turn them both on, but allow them to function independently. So, turn on the air first, then turn on the tongue. Now, turn on the air first, turn on the tongue, but then turn off the air. This is how you work at them independently. Then, turn on the air, turn on the tongue, turn off the tongue. It seems very simple, doesn't it? But this is the way that you isolate, you work, you improve technically, and then you allow them to function independently. So, let's just try that one more time, but this time just touch the mouthpiece against your lips. Isolate, improve, function independently. Finally, carry that into your playing, but remember the sensations. You might want to try it like this. Trumpet to the chest, reverse sigh, just to get the sensation. Trumpet on the lip, reverse sigh. Sigh to get the note, and as you're playing the note, then turn on the tongue, turn off the tongue, turn on the tongue, turn off the air. That way you may get a little popping sound from the tongue. But work at these things independently, and you'll find that they'll perform much, much better together. Hope you've enjoyed today's video. I promise it won't be as long until the next one comes out. If you've liked it, then please click that like button. 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