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Trumpet lesson

Learn about the trumpet from an expert musician with the U.S. Marine Band. Includes exercises to improve ease of playing through “natural air-flow” and learning to “replicate the sound you hear in your head.” A demonstration of “Taps” concludes the lesson.

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Video transcript

(bright orchestral music) - My warmup is really based in the same way I would instruct a younger player to come to me. It all starts up here. What we hear is what we replicate. So many times parents want to bring children to teachers, whereas the best thing they can do is have these kids listen to recordings of their instruments, or music that they like, instrumental music that they like. The point being, if you ask Rachel behind you what she drinks every morning, you might get "coffee", whereas I say "coffee", because 8 million people in the city where I come from say "coffee". No one taught me to say coffee that way, I heard it. I replicated. The brain is wired to copy. So if we can get something in front of those kids that they copy, they're gonna begin to figure it out. And, as teachers, we can help them along. Strength on a brass instrument is nothing more than air in motion. And the freer that we get that air in motion, the easier we are to play. So if we give them the kind of models that parents do, or siblings do all the time, the kids will begin to figure it out, and we don't have to get into well, you should do this, you should do this. (triumphant music) I start my day with something as simple as this. So you can go to Home Depot, you can go to Lowes, and yes you can become a better trumpet player, a better brass player, a better musician. Does this actually help me play the instrument better? No, it's a mental tool, which I was talking about before. So if I put this up, (air blowing) the ease of playing is right there. That's what I wanna copy. Golfers will step back from an important putt, they line it up, they move the club head back and forth. They step up to the ball. They're looking to do the same thing because when they were away from the ball, they saw exactly the path of the ball they wanted. Skiers visualize all the time. Athletes do that all the time, so why can't we? So going back to the tube, (air blowing) all I'm trying to do on the simplest level, is copy what I did here. (trumpet playing) I'll be honest, on that one, I was not close at all. I was more concerned, oh what if the note doesn't speak? All these things that could happen. And you know what? That's exactly what happened. So my practice, I would literally back up right there and say "No, I'm not going any further". (air blowing) (slow trumpet playing) That's my starting point, every single day. The blackboard is blank every day. I do have, I'm gonna say not a system what I have, but kinda like the old food pyramid where you should eat this, you should eat this and this amount, I'll start my day with just, for lack of a better word, some flow. I used to do more long tones, but a flow is nothing more than... (deep breathing) (trumpet playing) That same ease of tone production, but I'm gonna do it in what we call a very famous book called A Clark Study. (deep breathing) (bright trumpet music) And the goal is to, going back to that same ease of... (air blowing) Sometimes I'll buzz the mouthpiece, and that can take the form of holding the mouthpiece in my hand, or throwing something that I came up with. (buzzing trumpet playing) Here, I'm completely, completely in control of what comes out, versus the trumpet kinda helping me. Does this really help me be a better trumpet player? Not really, it's a mental tool all going back to "what do I hear? What do I want to replicate?". The freedom that gives us, and when I have a student in the room sometimes I'll say, "You know what, close the book. You sit over there. I'm gonna sit here, and we're just gonna play things back and forth, and what can we copy?". Going back to that original, when kids learn to speak, they're copying, and if we can get them doing that on the instrument, they're gonna be a healthy player and their enjoyment level I believe will go through the roof. (somber orchestral music) When we're playing here, we're concerned what's coming here. I have to stay on my side of the mouthpiece to stay healthy and stay happy. But once we take the mouthpiece out, for some reason, the fear of making a mistake is not the same. (buzzing sound) We just play, you put that in the trumpet all of a sudden you're thinking "okay, well do I have to do this?". I didn't think about anything, physically or what I had to do, I just heard something and copied that. So, yes. There is a practical application. I can say, "I'm gonna do 500 pushups", but in reality, unless there's a practical application of I'm gonna practice, I'm gonna do X amount, this is the system that I'm gonna get there. But the driving force behind all of those is the end result of what we want. There are days we play "Taps", and it's 14 degrees out there, or it's 98 degrees. If I'm thinking of the fact that it's 98 degrees or 14 degrees, I'm in trouble. All I know is that, I put the horn up everything else is gone. I don't think about the weather, it's me providing a service to that family. I put the instrument up, and it's the same thing I've thought before of... (air blowing) I'm hearing the pitches. (plays 'Taps') And I just allow myself to play, 'cause I'm hearing myself. What is it that I wanna sound like? Because there's great freedom in that. I have a uniform, I have to look the part. Now here's an opportunity for me to play what I hear, and that's freedom. And it's freedom to provide a service that they deserve. The fascinating thing about that is we're trained to perform and entertain, but when we're in that situation, we're no longer entertaining, we're providing a service. And we're providing a service that hopefully they only have to hear once in their lifetimes, for the family. And, when I play "Taps", the family has no idea who I am, but they're never going to forget what I did that evening, morning, or that afternoon. And so that service I provide for them is more than gratifying, in some ways it's some of the most gratifying things I do. (playing 'Taps')