Category: Tales of the Trumpet

Epiphanies from the Trumpet

I have had some epiphanies from relearning the trumpet for the past month or so. I thought I’d give you guys an update and let you know what has been happening, since I talked about relearning the trumpet here.

My Lips

I’m of the age where wrinkle cream is a thing that I use. After my first week of learning the trumpet, my lips got so much more muscular that the two wrinkles on my lips went away! Woohoo!

Another thing that happened that surprised me a little bit was that my lips became a little fuller, more like how they were back in high school. The reason that surprised me is because I’ve known a lot of trumpets with very thin lips.

So, one of my epiphanies from the trumpet was that my lips were losing muscle and I didn’t realize it. I really wouldn’t realize it on the flute because that’s all about relaxation of the lips.

My Flute Embouchure

Speaking of the flute, over the years I’ve noticed there are two groups of people when it comes to embouchure. Some people find that the trumpet improves their tone, others find that their tone fuzzes out.

Back in college, my tone fuzzed out a lot during brass class. I couldn’t figure out what happened, until a month after brass class when my embouchure came back.

Knowing that, I decided to make sure that I was doing a twice as many tone studies as normal on the flute. Hopefully that would stem the tide.

After about a week, my normal tone on the flute had a new texture to my tone color. Normally my tone color is dark blue velvet with silver streaks. Now it is dark blue, clean and clear water with the sun glinting just a little on the surface. My high notes are now effortless. Great improvement!

So, one of my epiphanies from the trumpet is that if you pay close attention to not lose your tone on flute, your tone will improve.

Backpressure

The backpressure on the trumpet is real! I know that oboe has it the worst, but wow!

I’ve had to switch to J-breathing so I don’t accidentally take too big of a breath. Even then, I still take too big of a breath sometimes. I end up with a bunch of stale air in my lungs because I still need to take in oxygen but I haven’t been able to expel my air.

It’s hard because I’m used to using so much air on the flute. It’s common for a new flute student to get dizzy or faint from over-breathing.

On the other hand, my abs are feeling a little stronger from the backpressure! Sometimes it actually feels like a little bit of a workout. I’m sure that will pass as I get used to it.

So, one of my epiphanies from the trumpet is that we need to breathe in different ways for different instruments.

My Kids

My kids have thoroughly enjoyed hearing me mess up. It has shown them that it doesn’t matter how good you are at something, when you start out, you aren’t good.

It doesn’t matter how much I say it, they needed to see me do it.

So, one of my epiphanies from the trumpet is that I need to start a new project every once in awhile and let all of my students (not just my kids) see me mess up. It will help motivate them to continue in their practicing and not get overwhelmed.

Conclusion

I’ve learned a lot from adding the trumpet at this stage of life. It’s so different from when I was in college! I have developed the habit over the years of mostly doing back breathing, so it’s nice to hone J-breathing a little bit. My lip muscles were deteriorating , and the trumpet helped out with that, which also helped my standard tone color.

I’m so glad I’ve started this process!

Guess I Need to Buy a Trumpet

It all started at my studio Christmas recital. My oldest child was getting ready to play her solo on Clarinet. I noted that I don’t teach her anymore on Clarinet, but she still wanted to play in the recital. I’ve done that in the past with other people. For the record, I still teach her piano.

I went on to say that back in college I took all the pedagogy courses which helped me be certified through 8th grade on all the wind and percussion instruments. My oldest is now in high school, so I handed her over to a clarinet specialist.

I got a phone call shortly after the recital, asking to start two young trumpet players. They’re below band age, but I knew that technology has changed. If I can start a flute player in 1st grade due to new technology in flutes, I can definitely start a trumpet in 1st grade. The trumpet only uses a quarter of the volume of air as the flute (not talking about backpressure) and they don’t have to worry about a long reach with the arms.

Research time!

I love research. My favorite way to do it is to sit there with a cup of coffee and 20 tabs open on my browser, reading through each website that popped up on my internet search.

I looked at a ton of websites, and they all agreed that the pTrumpet was the way to go, especially for children under 5th grade. The reason for this is not because of lung development, but because of the weight of a regular trumpet vs. a plastic trumpet. A regular trumpet is just too heavy for the littles.

My trumpet mom bought the trumpets at Reverb (affiliate link) because that was the best price I could find, being on sale for 50% off for Christmas. I didn’t see any at my local music stores. I also didn’t think to ask, so, if you’re reading this, sorry!

Now I had to research which what the best trumpet method book to buy. I looked at a ton of websites to see what the best method books were out there for trumpet. I saw a bunch of them recommended band method books, but I wanted something specifically written for trumpet.

The number one ranked was Rubank (affiliate link). Well, I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, lol. The Rubank series has been a standard for band instruments for decades. I trust it.

There were a few websites that also recommended using Arban along with the Rubank. It’s a $45 book, which I thought was a little steep for a brand new beginner book, even though it’s supposed to stick with you all the way through college. I figure I’ll mention it later once they’re a little more serious.

Time to Message Musician Gear Garage

So, I’ve made it pretty clear that I love buying used instruments, especially when first starting out. As soon as I was done doing the research for my client, I messaged my friend, Chad, over at Musician Gear Garage. I said, “Welp, I need to buy a trumpet.”

Chad asked me what my budget was and I told him. He told me he had an Olds Ambassador from the early 60’s. Due to my purposes, he said that it would be a great fit for me. I should have something better than a student trumpet for teaching as I get better and better.

He told me that Olds started out as a professional instrument maker. As the student market grew, they took their professional trumpets, stamped them with the Ambassador label, and sold them as student trumpets. They did that until 1964 when they merged with Reynolds.

“Sold!” I said, and I set up an appointment to do my yearly checkup for my woodwind instruments, at which I’d buy up my new trumpet.

Buying a “New” Trumpet

When I got there, I dropped off my woodwinds and said, “So, where’s my new trumpet?” We opened it up and it was a shade of brass that I’d never seen before. It has almost a reddish tone to it.

He had a wide selection of mouthpieces for me to try out to check which one I liked the most. As I stood there buzzing, I double-checked every mouthpiece after I made my decision. As I tried them out, I was getting better. Due to this phenomenon, I changed my decision at least three times. I finally settled on a standard 7C (I can’t remember the brand, lol).

I really loved the fact that he allowed me to try out all the mouthpieces for my individual best fit. I’m sure I wouldn’t get that kind of treatment if I were to buy a trumpet at most other places.

Maintenance

This is what he told me about maintenance:

  1. Valve Oil should happen any time you feel one of the valves sticking. He showed me a different way to put in the valve oil that makes it less likely that you will ruin a valve.
  2. Slide Oil should happen once a week. I like to do those types of things on Sundays.
  3. A Bath should happen once per quarter. It’s just a little dish soap in the bathtub and your disassembled trumpet (minus the felt pads).

As long as I meet these requirements, I don’t need to bring in my instrument regularly like I do a woodwind. I only have to bring it in when something is stuck or dented. Woohoo!

So, that’s the story about how I bought my first trumpet. I had a lot of fun doing it. Stay tuned for hearing about my first week playing it.