I've been learning to play the trumpet, and am having problems with the higher notes. Does anyone have any advice on excercises I could try to help build my embechure? Thanks
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YOU NEED TO TRY AND CONCENTRATE ON PULLING YOUR LIPS TIGHTER WHEN TRYING TO REACH THOSE HIGHER NOTES. SOUNDS FUNNY I KNOW. BASICALLY YOUR MAKING A SMILEY FACE WITH YOUR LIPS CLOSED.



NEXT TIME WE'RE AT BAND PRACTICE GET ONE OF US TO PLAY THE HIGHER NOTES WHILE YOU WATCH OUR LIP ACTION.



HOPE THIS HELPS,

MELISSA

Thanks for the advice, I'll try observing more. It's really helpful to get the input from someone who actually plays the instrument. It's so easy to learn bad habits when you're learning a new instrument (which are so hard to break!)

One thing I was taught in college that has served me well is that the angle of the air stream inside the mouthpiece determines the pitch of the note. If you start by blowing straight into the mouthpiece and get a good tone going try angling your airsteam down toward the bottom of the mouthpiece. This should cause your pitch to increase. Some brass players will angle their horn up to hit the "sweetspot" on the lower half of the mouthpiece so they can play the higher pitch but quietly, i.e. Dizzie Gillespie

No. Concentrating on making the lips tighter in a "smile" formation is a BAD idea.

It takes time. Be patient and practice in the range you can play every day.

You need to get a teacher to help you work on this systematically. there are no gimmicks or tricks to playing higher.

You can't learn to play the trumpet online. You can learn to build a deck or bake a cake, but not play the trumpet. :-)

Michael Anderson
International Trumpet Guild
http;//www.trumpetguild.org

Getting high notes out is one of the toughest things to learn on the trumpet. The best warmups you can do to help you with this, are slurs. you can make up your own. my favorite are the ones that stay within a specific key and go up and down the arppegio of that scale. james stamp has a book out that is very good in helping registers. take your time with many breaks. try not to take the mouthpiece off of your mouth as you are slurring upwards. as you slur upwards concentrate on raising the palatte inside your mouth as if you were making a hissing sound like a snake. Also, make sure your bottom jaw is pushed out and your lips are tight and pulled back, they higher up you go, the tigher they should become. It takes practice, but once you start getting it, you will be able to do it without much thought.

I hope this helps...I have other books that can help as well, so hit me up if you would like more info.

Sincerely
Amy