How to Have Fun With a Trumpet

Once you know how to play the trumpet properly, you can begin to have fun playing advanced technical pieces and showing off your skill to your friends or by performing in concerts. Playing an instrument should be enjoyable, but to reach that level, you must first master some basic skills. The feeling you get when playing with others and having the audience applaud your efforts can be addictive.

Stand up straight by keeping your shoulders back and your feet flat on the floor shoulder-length apart. When sitting, maintain a straight upper body and place your feet squarely in front of you.

Breathe from the diaphragm and pull air into your lungs. Without proper breath support you will struggle to produce enough air, barring any attempts at enjoying your playing experience. When breathing fill your lungs and feel your sides and stomach expand with air.

Tongue properly by using the tip of the tongue to hit the point where the roof of your mouth and your upper teeth meet. Doing this will provide you with better articulations and more accurate and audible note changes.

Extend your high register by playing long tones. Start on a F concert above the staff, hold the pitch for four beats, and then ascend to an F-sharp concert. Hold the F-sharp concert for four beats and return to F to hold for another four beats. Continue adding one half step at a time until you can't play any higher. For instance, your next sequence will be F to G to F, then F to G-sharp to F and so on up the chromatic scale.

Make goofy noises on the trumpet by learning to neigh like a horse. To do this, hold the trumpet in front of you and play an open pitch by not depressing the valves. Then wiggle the valves as you descend in pitch to imitate the sound of a horse.

Create multiphonics and impress your friends with your ability to play more than one pitch simultaneously. Play a multiphonic by singing one pitch through the instrument while holding another pitch. One way to do this is to hold out an E by pressing down the first two valves of the trumpet and then singing another pitch above the E.

Take requests from people to play familiar songs and see if you can improvise on the spot and play on demand.

References

"Trumpet Technique"; Frank Gabriel Campos; 2005