Best brass songbooks according to redditors

Carl Fischer catalogue number N5156:

https://www.amazon.com/Rhythmical-Articulation-Bass-Clef-Inst/dp/0825834988#immersive-view_1491699620927

http://www.worldcat.org/title/rhythmical-articulation-for-bass-clef-instruments/oclc/222018304

Get these books; I wish I had them when I first started. They work in synergy, developing your tone, range, lip flexibility, and finger speed tremendously.

Systematic Approach to Daily Practice: I call this my "flagship" book because it tells when and how to use the other two books, as well as provide its own tone-and-range-work.

Clarke's Technical Studies: Develops finger speed and endurance.

Walter Smith's Lip Flexibilities: Develops range and lip speed.

And, lastly, a book not normally part of the Systematic Approach,
A Physical Approach to Playing Trumpet: Posture, breathing, hand position, embouchure, etc.

I'm not an expert on trumpet or anything by a longshot, but these books helped me tremendously.

Oh, I almost forgot: Arban's. Basically the Bible of trumpets.

I think that all depends on your own expectations.

If you've never played a musical instrument before, it might be a good idea to learn how to read sheet music. For some new players, note memorization can be the toughest part, but I think it's one of the most exciting parts of learning an instrument. There's something new to learn every day.

You'll also have to learn quite a bit of playing technique. You need to learn how to hold your instrument and sit with good posture. Then you'll need to learn how to actually make sound. This means developing good breathing habits and building a strong embouchure. There's quite a lot to learn here, and even professional players still work on their technique every day.

If you're looking for a place to begin, the internet can be a very friendly place. There are a lot of books to help you get started as well. My first technique book back in public school was Essential Elements, and a personal favorite of mine is Clarke's Elementary Studies.

If you have the budget, however, I would highly recommend taking private lessons. Having a teacher will make it a lot easier to develop proper technique when it comes to breathing, tonguing, phrasing, etc. A good instructor is more valuable than all of the technique books combined, especially when you're only just beginning to learn the basics of playing. A solid foundation will work wonders on your progress in the future.

With or without an instructor, be consistent with your practice. Once you play your first recognizable tune, that may be all you ever want to do, but don't neglect the more important exercises. Scales and long tones are your new best friend. Trust in them, and your tone will sound a million times better. Practice may not always be exciting, but progress definitely is!

When it comes to practice, be patient and don't get overwhelmed. You won't become an amazing player overnight, but you will get a little better every day. Every time you practice, think of one thing you can improve.

Finally, be sure to have fun! You are about to start a wonderful new hobby, so make the most of it. The toughest part for you may be note memorization. It may be a weak embouchure. You may have trouble using enough breath. Regardless, don't let the difficulties keep you down. Patience, practice, progress.

Happy tooting!

EDIT: wording

There are books full of these. Philip Norris has the "Top 50" book, which is pretty applicable. I've only had to pull a few excerpts from other sources, for the auditions I've done, and they were all readily available.

Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/Top-Orchestral-Audition-Excerpts-Trumpet/dp/B002QKVVN2

The Arban's book really is the gold standard for trumpet playing. If you're a beginner I would focus on the first 10-15 exercises in "First Studies" and the first 5-10 exercises in "Slurring and Legato Playing." If you practice that consistently and correctly (as the book tells you to) then that will help you tremendously with creating a good solid tone. Move on to other exercises in the book when you're comfortable with those first exercises.

Another book you could use is called Advanced Flexibilities for Trumpet. This may seem like a bit much, but if you work on just the first couple of exercises, they can do wonders to your lip muscles and help you get a large, flexible range. Some of the best warm-ups are in this book.

Arturo Sandoval put out a great Routines book (this one at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Arturo-Sandoval-Techniques-Performance-Intermediate/dp/0793530318

It's based heavily on Arban's book which is pretty much the bible for trumpet technique, but I found Arturo's book a little more accessible, plus it comes with a CD so you can hear what he does. That said, chances are the book you're using has more or less the same routines.

Trumpet is a much more demanding instrument than sax, requiring a lot more consistency in practice to maintain your ability. A good rule of thumb for practice with a balance of practice and fun is:

• 5 minutes of warm up of long tones
  
• 15 minutes of routines (arpeggios, finger exercises, etc)
  
• 15 minutes of fun (reading music, improvisation)
  
  For warm up and routines, you should be resting as much as you're playing, so the above 20 minutes is not a lot of practice... to really improve you're looking at 2X-3X that much.
  
  For fun, buy a fake book which will have hundreds of songs you can learn, and look for play-a-long songs/albums (like Jamey Aebersold's series).

When i was taking bass lessons, my teacher was also trombone player, and he had me use a Trombone Etudes book to work on reading music. It starts pretty simple with some diatonic quarter note stuff in Bb and F, and progresses from there. Something simple like this will help you learn the fretboard basics.

Another aspect that will be very different is hand strength and coordination. Using the 1-2-3-4 excercise and it's progressive variations will help a bunch. (If you're not using a pick, alternate your index and middle fingers on your picking hand instead of up/down with the pick).

Brad Edwards lip slurs is a fantastic buy, it covers a few of the routines you wish to work on.

Brad Edwards Lip Slurs (Progressive Exercises for Building Tone & Technique)(Bass Tenor and Alto Clef) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048U8712/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RQjvCb82KNRZ0

This maybe?

Freddie Hubbard

I suggest flex exercises for the range. I use "Advanced Lip Flexibilities for Trumpet" https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Flexibilities-Trumpet-Complete-Volumes/dp/B000JSM5QU

My motivation usually comes from having to play in situations where I feel like I fail. So when I was asked to improv and couldn't do it, I started on a journey to get better.

My instructor has me practicing patterns in all keys (like ii V I patterns), transcribing jazz solos and practicing improv over increasingly more complicated changes.

I would also recommend:

Advanced Lip Flexibilities for Trumpet by Dr. Charles Colin

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JSM5QU


And all the Etudes by Hering are nice too.

Arbans

Saint Jacome

Clarke

Schlossberg

And my personal favorite The Embouchure Builder

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colin-Advanced-Flexibilities-Trumpet-Complete-x/dp/B000JSM5QU this has always been my go-to warmup book, and for more complex exercises to improve specific technique, I use my Arban Cornet Method (http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/023130/details.html)

Hope this helps :)

I like Claude Gordon's approach, so I recommend his Systematic Approach to Daily Practice. It will be too much for you at the outset, but that's ok— most exercises will have a "play as much as you can" deal; move on after you've missed three times in a row.

Good books for specifically lip flexibility are Collin and Irons.

And of course, you can't go wrong in general with Schlossberg or Arban's.

Either Clarke or Arban's will be good for technical facility/etudes, once you're there, but really the only way to get there is to play them so start now. Play them way downtempo if need be, but you're not going to wake up one day out of the blue and be good enough to start playing out of the Clarke book full speed.

That being said, I also agree with the stuff /u/awashsound said; I just felt like giving you options if you want to go deeper, or if you—you know—prefer dead trees to computer screens.

Chas Colin man. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000JSM5QU?pc_redir=1408801575&robot_redir=1

I know I'm late to the party, but this is an awesome idea! I'll definitely be filling out the google form tonight with at least a couple thoughts. I've done my best to keep my chops up since starting teaching and I'm sure this will help!

What's the policy on scanning and uploading pages of stuff from our own libraries? I've got access to a ton of great material of widely varying difficulties between my own books and my school's library, but don't know if that's all above board regarding copyright.

Additionally, if anybody is interested in jazz stuff that's more focused on lead playing rather than improvising, check out the Thad Jones and Basie-Nestico lead trumpet books. I don't have either but played out of them in college, could be good for this.

I had trouble for years. Everyone always flipped me to 175 in Arban's and just said go. I used to spend ridiculous amounts of time with a metronome at ridiculously slow tempos (like quarters at 40) trying to make decent, even Ts and Ks.

The book that helped me more than anything was this one. It breaks up both double and triple tonguing very systematically. If you're willing to put the work in, but you get frustrated because you can't immediately do several clean rotations in a row like Arban's asks, this would be great for you.

It starts very slowly with single rotations on and off the beat and just gradually adds more complexity as the book goes. More rotations, more changing notes over small intervals while multiple tonguing... then arpeggios while multiple tonguing, etc. It's a much more gradual approach than Arban's and it really worked for me.


Advice

The other thing is give yourself permission to sound like shit. As we get better with pathologize it when things don't sound or feel great at the beginning of a warm up or we can't make something like our double tongue immediately less clunky.

You're going to sound like shit, probably even when you're slow. Rather than worry that you're doing it wrong and try to fix it constantly at a slow tempo to where your Ks sound like Ts... just practice actually doing it. It will sound terrible at first. Just let it. But with consistent practice just trying to get comfortable with the technique at a reasonable, but not ridiculous tempo, your ear and your tongue will start figuring it out and start cleaning up. So long as you have a sound concept in your head of what you want it to sound like and your ears are turned on, you'll get there eventually.


Here's the first two pages of the book if you wanna see what it looks like. Repeat each of the short exercises 3-5 times. I personally would recommend ignoring his metronome markings and picking one slow metronome marking that you can play these at around 60-80 and when you want to speed them up, speed them all up at the same speed rather than futzing with the metronome of each different one. So just play these through with repeats every day. Don't spend too much time on it. I find that double tonguing can be very tiring and if you over-do it, you'll get diminishing returns. Do this as a part of your regular routine of fundamentals.

If you like it, get the book and continue. Eventually you'll find yourself needing to review every other exercise and with less repeats each day while focusing on the deeper exercises that are more complex. Also, you'll want to work in the triple tonguing section as well. It's the same idea as the double, but a whole section of its own. Slow approach that get gradually harder.

Good luck!

"TOP 50" Orchestral audition excerpts for trumpet, compiled and edited by Philip Norris.

https://www.amazon.com/Top-Orchestral-Audition-Excerpts-Trumpet/dp/B002QKVVN2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496192838&sr=8-1&keywords=top+50+orchestral+audition+excerpts

It's an expensive book. Especially with our Canadian dollar.

Also, here's a solo that I remember playing way back when I was a HS freshman - Willow Echoes by Frank Simon
http://www.amazon.com/Willow-Echoes-Successfully-Featured-Composer/dp/B00APJGZS2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421598899&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=willow+echos+solo+collection

Trumpet takes a long time to learn how to play well, but picking it up is not terribly difficult. The biggest problem you'll notice when you start is the finesse it takes to play high notes. It uses muscles that you've probably never used before and It will take a while for you to even be able to play one octave.

Rubank Elementary method is a good place to start. Then move on to Intermediate. http://www.hornplace.com/BB038.html .

Once you have those under your belt, Arban's is the trumpet bible http://www.amazon.com/Arbans-Complete-Method-Trumpet-Platinum/dp/0825858526 . That book will keep you busy for a lifetime.

If you ever need help or have questions, feel free to message me.

If you're teaching yourself, get a book with exercises, etudes, etc. If you choose mellophone, trumpet books will work perfectly. There are a million to choose from. I like Schlossberg for exercises and Getchell for etudes (the second book is good too).

Disclaimer: I am not a music teacher.

If you can find a copy somewhere, this is one book I used when I was in school.
The Tenor Clef

Absolutely, a whole book of fantastic fundamental exercises!
No need to buy from amazon, ideally get it fro. Y
your local music store. Below is a link to be sure you get the right book.
https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Drills-Technical-Studies-Trombone/dp/1617271446

Use the woody shaw
https://www.amazon.com/Woody-Shaw-Jazz-Trumpet-Solos/dp/1423481399

I highly suggest you buy the platinum version. It has spiral rings that allow for the pages to easily turn and STAY turned (and that makes a BIG deal if you tend to get angry during practice like I'm sure most of us do)

The prices I saw in this entry are extravagant save for the $34 "collectible"; you may as well buy it at a music retailer for ~$50.