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!
