Reddit reviews The Art of Trumpet Playing

I studied trumpet at North Texas with Keith Johnson. I cannot recommend his book The Art of Trumpet Playing enough. Unfortunately it's "out of print", so head to your local used book store and see if you can snag a copy, because 80 bucks is highway robbery. He is one of the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and he made me into the professional I am today. He taught me more things than I will ever be able to write down, but let me try to share some important pointers...

Practice, practice, practice. It's not going to be easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Pick up a copy of the Arban's book. Much of it may seem boring, but it's not called the "trumpet bible" by accident.

Your breathing is the most important part of playing the trumpet. Your trumpet is just the equivalent of a guitar amplifier. Your lips are important as they are the "reed" of the instrument, but your breath trumps all. Forever and always. Breathe deeply and freely. (Oh-Ho ... where oh is intake, ho is outward expulsion of air. Don't force the air, simply "sigh through the horn".)

Your hardware doesn't matter nearly as much as some may try to make you believe. When you are inevitably trying to fix a problem, your airflow (typically the lack thereof) is the culprit 7 times out of 10.

Get into the habit of playing every note more musically than you think you can. You want every note to sound better than the previous one. If you play with this attitude, you'll quickly surprise yourself. Even if you're playing boring, sustained notes, there is music to be made. It is your duty to find it using whatever means necessary.

Playing an instrument is an artform. It is your job to force the listener to pay attention to what you are doing. If you aren't convinced what you're playing is important, no one else will care enough to listen... except maybe your parents, but their opinion is always a little biased.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message.