One of the more crowd pleasing things trumpet players do
is to play extremely high. You may have heard people do it in the drum corps or
Maynard Ferguson do it in one of his concerts and have a desire to do it. Let me
tell it to you straight, playing in the extreme high register of your horn is
something that some people can do and others just can't. Maynard and others
have a talent for it while people like me just plain can't do it. What I have
been told though, is that if I could hit a high E above the staff, I would be in
good shape for professional playing. Some people choose to use accessories such
as shallow mouthpieces or smaller rims in order to play high. As a rule, you
should not use these things unless you will be playing high all the time during
a piece. Using them will make you become reliant on them and
then you might have to change mouthpieces in the middle of a
piece of music and not have time to change back. That can
cause you to miss an entrance or bobble a note. You should
try to hit high notes on your regular mouthpiece consistently
and then branch into the accessories. One study that can
really improve range is the Earl D. Irons 27 Groups of
Exercises. If you can get through the book and are able
to play each exercise well, you will be able to hit a high G
above the one at the top space of the staff. Remember three
things though in your quest to play in the stratosphere. The
first is that playing high requires you to practice
consistently. Another is that you should not try to squeek
out a note and destroy your lip. Lay off and try to hit it the
next day. The last thing to remember is that higher and
louder is not what you should focus on all the time. While
they may get you some jobs, most employers of musicians will
take a person with a incredible tone and O.K. range over one
who has an O.K. tone and incredible range. Higher and louder
is not always best.
TRUMPETER'S FANFARE
Written and published by Chris Glazner, John Timpani, and Christian Reed.
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