What do you need to do to become a good trumpet player?
You need to practice.
You need to have a good teacher.
You need to hear great trumpet players play.
In our lessons you will learn...
..the fundamentals of good trumpet playing. You will learn not just what to practice, but how to practice -( yes, you’ll need to practice!) You will learn how to use your air effectively and you will learn how to develop a great sound - your sound. Improve your range, flexibility, endurance, and technique. You will develop new skills and build on your existing ones. Want to play high notes? You can. We can also begin to build a repertoire of music that will help you develop as a musician. In short, you’ll learn how to play more efficiently, and in turn, have more fun playing the trumpet.
What to expect:
When we first meet, I will want to hear you play - just to see where you're at - and we’ll talk - what are your goals? What do you want to learn? What do you hope to gain from your lessons? This will give us a good starting point.
Beginning Students, we will start from step one and cover all the basics. Correct lip formation. Using your air. How to buzz on the mouthpiece. How to hold the instrument correctly and produce your first notes on the instrument. Valve fingerings. Learn to read music. I will be happy to help you select an appropriate mouthpiece and trumpet or cornet as the case may be. (I usually recommend cornet for elementary school aged students - and in some cases, older beginners as well).
The sound of the instrument is all important and “it is by imitating that we learn everything.” With this in mind, I try to model excellence for students, and will also recommend other musicians and music to listen to. We will do a lot of playing together - trading off, modeling, imitation. I also use time-tested trumpet methods of the masters (Clarke, Stamp, Irons, Adam, Shew) to help you develop good fundamentals, as well as sharing my own insights and exercises.
Each student has unique and varied talents, but they do have to work at it to develop them and bring them out. It comes down to conditioning unnatural reflexes to become natural - enabling you to let go and make music.
- Rick
