Posted by Flute player, too! on February 21, 2008 at 10:05:51:
In Reply to: Trumpets not playing higher than a D above Middle C posted by Melinda on February 21, 2008 at 09:44:45:
: I have a handful of first year trumpet players (and some second year players) who just are not getting the right partials. I've tried lots of different analagies, one of the schools I go to has even had several sectionals and they just are not getting anything. They are finally getting different pitches and there IS improvement in some, but just getting an E above middle C is a HUGE challenge let alone anything higher. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can better teach this? My main instrument is flute, but I can get to an E top space on the trumpet and I usually play trumpet along with my beginners (6th grade).
Hi! I have found that the solution for my trumpet players is the prep time before we try to do anything in a lesson book. We spend a lot of time with just mouthpiece "buzzing"-buzzing long notes-then low and high-sirens-mouthpiece tunes. We still do this every lesson for about five minutes at the beginning. Then we transfer the long tones and sirens(lip slurs) to the trumpet. The kids get the idea pretty quickly. At whole band rehearsal, we still do the buzzing as a whole brass section while woodwinds play long tones and percussion does steady beat or easy patterns. This prep work has paid off in players who are conscious of how their embouchure helps them to get the correct pitch and the muscles are in pretty good shape. Hope this helps your kids, too.