(Part 3) Top products from r/trumpet

The Arban is a great investment for long-term, often called the trumpet player's Bible, but I'd never hand it to a beginner and tell them to go wild. Too easy to develop bad embouchure techniques playing hard/high stuff or burn out from overly challenging material. Still good to have around, especially if you can have a more experienced player/director pick out specific exercises for you (plus there are old edition pdf's that can be found online for free) but here are some more beginner-friendly recommendations.

First of all, get a trumpet method book. I'd go with whatever your school uses if that still applies to you, but if you need recommendations we use Essential Elements in my district - I like the online practice stuff. We've also used Measures of Success which is also good, and was written by some great composers.

I love this book for beginners. It's got etudes that are more musical and not as boring but are still super helpful. This one is for very early beginners, but there's a second one that jumps up a good bit in difficulty. I like this one a lot - we use it in Illinois for our middle school state festival auditions.

For some more "serious" books that are commonly recognized, Chicowicz's flow studies and long tone studies are good for warmups/tone production, and the Clarke studies are great to get your fingers moving. All of these are a little more challenging and arguably more dry so proceed with caution, but they're excellent industry standards that will make you great.

Finally here's one of my favorites if the earlier etude books were too easy for you. This is definitely more challenging but I love it because it's got studies in every major and natural minor key that are fun and musical, plus some bonus scale stuff at the end.

If you have more specific questions or would like more recommendations feel free to reply or pm me. For now it's getting late and all my trumpet books are out in my car so I can't remember anything else. Best of luck!

Edit: First of all, I format like an old man. Second, I actually carefully read your post, so here's some things to investigate on Youtube beyond just these books: trumpet embouchure first and foremost, long tones, breathing exercises (the breathing gym is a good place to start), and key signatures if you're not already well versed in them - you're gonna see different ones more frequently than you're used to on mallet percussion. Also, please try to find someone to help teach you. There's no substitute for in-person instruction, and a good teacher is going to be able to tell you things in more detail and prevent bad habits before they get their grips on you.

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

First, while it's good that you have ambitions of practicing three hours a day, that's a bit much for a young cat like you. The unfortunate truth is, that due to the physical demands of the instrument, brass players just mature in their playing later. When you're a pro, then maybe consider practicing that long. (There's a joke there, I know) So baby steps, brother. Only practice in 45 minutes sessions, that's what Bud does Consider practicing 20-30 minutes, and taking a 10 minute break? I got through ALL of House of Cards in my practice breaks this summer, and practiced two hours a day, at least.

I like your long tones; those help with tone quality and consistency. Keep it up! Sight-reading is also a skill we need to keep sharp. If you don't use it, you loose it. Read anything and everything.

I would practice multiple tonguing every day, until it's good and warmed up. Stick that in the practice routine daily.

Scales- All your major scales up and down, all your minor scales up and down. Clarke's technical exercises help with this, and help mix it up. Check out that book, and start working on those? Nos. 2 through 5?... Anyway, they're all good. There's also good resources in Arban's.

The last couple things I would add each day are lip slurs, focusing on good tone and minimal jaw movement,

mouthpiece buzzing, to focus your ear. This can be anything. Sirens, pop songs, literally anything with pitch to get your ear going, and your lips ready.

And most importantly, breathing. I always START with good breathing, gently stretching my lungs, getting used to the air it takes to play brass. We are just movers of air, after all. Look up Brian Frederiksen's book Song and Wind First of all, Arnold Jacobs was a beast tuba player and amazing all around musician, but I use a couple breathing exercises that Frederikson (studied with Jacobs) says that Jacobs taught.

So for an example, my normal practice session looks like this per day:

Breathing exercises.
Mouthpiece buzzing.
Long tones- (With a metronome and tuner, here on out)
Lip Slurs
Single tonguing, Multiple tonguing, double, triple, just "Tu"s and just "Ku"s
Scales, Major and Minor, Two octaves.

For my warm-up session, I don't set any time limit that i HAVE to work on something; I just work on it until it feels good. Breathing, slurs, tonguing, etc. Don't belabor a point just because you said you would do 5 minutes of triple tonguing, for instance.
Then I rest. This takes 30-40 minutes, and I rest for at least 15.

The rest of the day, I work on repertoire. So, solos, orchestral excerpts, etudes, ensemble repertoire, jazz standards/improv. I will work on one for at least 20-30 minutes and shed it, and then take a break. Then I move on. You can't conquer Rome in a day, and your brain SOLIDLY works on small things the best, rather than canvassing the whole piece. You need to rest your mind as well. Good practicing is tough work. Always work smarter, not harder.

It took me a LONG TIME to get a good routine down, and mine works even through the summer. You have a lot of ambition and discipline if this is your practice routine, and that's great! Keep it up, and this consistency will give you great gains. Some bastard somewhere said, "in the war between water and rock, water always wins. Not with strength, but with persistence."

Keep up the work, man! The trumpet is a TOUGH instrument.

If you have questions, or want to cuss me out for saying something you disagree with, message me. I'll be happy to field both. Best of luck!


Edit: Formatting, remembered some stuff

I've been critical of Arban's for a while. It's a great catch all and can be a good place to start getting a bit of fundamentals in all the major food groups.... with guidance.

My biggest complaint is how often it's blindly recommended to people. It's honestly not a very good instructional book and definitely not a book you can learn to work out of without a teacher. Those who recommend it (to people just starting in their 20s with no background) often are taking for granted that they know how to use it. Some are just saying "trumpet bible" like some kind of meme and not actually considering the pedagogical value.

This is the exact same problem with Levine's The Jazz Piano Book in the piano world. It's a resource.... not a guide and not for someone trying to teach themselves.

I think Arban's is particularly lacking in flexibility work which is absolutely core. There are some lip slur bits, but there's virtually no partial skipping.

I think multiple tonguing is also petty weak.

I do think a lot of the arpeggio work, and interval work is particularly solid though.

Ultimately, I think everyone should own one, but it should not be their only go-to book. I think there are a lot of books that do much better jobs in specific areas. The Salvo tonguing book; Bai Lin, Irons, and/or Colin for flexibility; Clarke Technical for much more robust technique. Technique of the Saxophone and this book
are vastly better scale books even though neither is explicitly for trumpet and so they probably get overlooked or even actively ignored by most


Now, anyone can argue that you could milk Arban for more and never master it, but at the end of the day, you should work smarter, not harder. Just because it's in there doesn't mean it's practical. There's also a lack of hierarchy expressed in the book. If you really want to get the most out of Arban's, you need to go off the page. This is particularly true in the scale section which is far from exhaustive. There are great ideas, but you need to go beyond the written ranges both up and down. Many exercise (including the scale ones) need to transposed and not just played in the written keys to be maximally beneficial.

If there is an approach that better attacks a particular problem in a very practical way, you should take that rather than spending all of your time trying to master a less useful exercise in Arban's just to check off a box. You could force yourself to learn every scale exercise in Arban's at tempo with all articulation variations and still not be nearly as fluid as you would working out of either of the two non-trumpet scale books I mentioned above, or even just Clarke Technical.

Humans have an inherent bias toward the old, familiar, and dependable. Musicians are probably even worse and end up being staunchly traditional and not only resistant to change, but progress. If you say there's something better than Arban's, people seem to get defensive like it's a personal think to them. It's considered near blasphemy to even suggest it's not that great. Maybe it's that they feel like since they trained with it, it must be the best and don't want to think that maybe they weren't practicing the best material all these years. I grew up with people (and still know plenty) that hated ideas like cell phones and the internet, etc. because it wasn't what they grew up with. That didn't mean it wasn't better, but they were resistant.

There are honestly better books out there. None as comprehensive that I'm aware of, but there are definitely books that cover almost every category in Arban's and do it better. Just because your teacher or your teacher's teacher thinks nothing can never outperform Arban's doesn't mean it's true.

So own one, but don't feel like it's the be-all-end-all of trumpet pedagogy because it's nowhere near it.

As said before, it's hard to diagnose problems like this without hearing you. However, here's a few things to keep in mind that help all of us.

• long-tones: there are so many ways to do long-tones and really none of them are wrong. I personally subscribe to both long-tone exercises in the Michael Sachs Daily Fundamentals (http://www.hickeys.com/music/studio/eastern_new_mexico/ben_fairfield_trumpet_studio/products/sku042708-sachs-daily-fundamentals.php) and Allen Vizzutti's Trumpet Method Book 1 (https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Vizzutti-Trumpet-Method-Technical/dp/0739019414). Again, there's no wrong way to do them, but what has worked best for me is using the metronome and playing them first on my mouthpiece or lead-pipe (simply take the tuning slide out and play the notes with just the mouthpiece and pipe. this is a longer discussion for a separate post but that's the gist)...and then I play them again on the trumpet as normal. I do all of this with a drone or piano, so I'm aware of the correct pitch at all times, and a metronome, so I'm aware of the time.
  
• basic lip trills: Lip flexibility is vital to good playing and after long tones I find it best to do lip-trills (moving up and down a single partial throughout the harmonic series). There are countless method books that show this, most notably the Arban Grande Method, however I prefer Extended Lip Flexibility by Raymond Mase (https://www.editions-bim.com/sheet-music/brass/trumpet/trumpet-methods-studies/raymond-mase-extended-flexibility-for-trumpet-and-other-valved-brass-instruments). I prefer his method because he uses alternate fingerings at first which allows the player to more smoothly transition into using their tongue efficiently.
  
• Lastly, first attacks: everyone can work on first attacks more. Chris Martin (principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic) in a recent masterclass at Rutgers University noted how much he prioritizes practicing first attacks. Lip Trainers for Trumpet by Shuebruck is a tried and true method book to developing this skill (https://qpress.ca/product/complete-shuebruk-collection/). Another way Mr. Martin and many others suggest is simply put a metronome on quarter-note equals 60 and articulate one note for every four beats. Be sure to take the mouthpiece completely off your lips and re-set each time. This gets you in the practice of training your embouchure and tongue placement in your set up. It's like a choreography and once it is right, you feel set each time.

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.

I completely understand where your coming from.

A tip that I found really useful is to play at 90%. You know the music inside out, by trying REALLY hard you will actually make things harder for yourself, not easier, both in stamina and by from tensing up.

This mindset helps me relax into performances, which leads to the process of enjoying and being swept up in the music - hereby taking the edge off playing to an audience.

Another thing my old man always says to me before any exam, competition or recital is to take a good deep breath, exhale slowly. Taking that short time focusing on your breath really can work wonders.

A book I would highly recommend (for long term) to help with nerves but also helps in productivity of practise is The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green. Its not heavy reading and doesn't have to be done all in one go.

He discusses the mental 'battle' that occurs during performances or high intensity situations. Identifying not only common problems that occur but finding ways to deal with them, part of which is during the practising process. There are a few exercises inside as well but they are not desperately to improve technical ability but rather aid in a way of thinking.

Hope this was helpful.

I have so many complicated emotions reading your post. I've been trying to think of what to write, and I don't know what.

I went to school to be a music teacher, and tried teaching several times, and never got positive feedback. I even took some graduate school classes. I'll never forget one of my instructors saying, "that was a great lesson, but I could never see you actually doing this..." Whatever sort of demeanor or manner teachers have, I don't have it. Education is a very passionate matter for me, so it's really tough to just let it go, but I don't know how else to handle it. I've never had a positive review, it feels really stressful to work in a classroom environment... I guess it's just not my thing. I feel really sad when I think about teaching. It sounds like you've been a lot more successful as a musician than I have been as a teacher, but maybe I can empathize somewhat; in the way you find the industry intimidating, and the work environment uninviting, I feel very similarly about the education industry. But your sentiment that it's not for me but I wish it was - that's exactly how I feel about teaching.

So I decided I want to be a singer/songwriter, as crazy as that sounds, because music is the only thing that means anything to me, and I know I'd regret pursuing anything else, even if it means taking a vow of poverty.

While I'm working toward that, though, I've been working at my aunt's law firm, and I have the luxury of a single family home, which is a great place for an acoustic musician to live. Tax breaks are in your favor (even though I don't actually think this is a good social policy...). If you're really serious about playing more, consider a cheap single family home on the fringes of town.

If it's any consolation about playing, I feel like I can pick up my horn and play with nearly my best tone quality, even if I haven't touched it in months. I really swear by Jim Thompson's Buzzing Book. You could at least do the exercises in your car with the mouthpiece or in a park with an ipod.

But life just takes us all kinds of places whether we expected to go there or not. And you can choose what you want to be a part of your life, and how much of your time you want that thing to take up. Perhaps not without sacrifices, it's certainly possible for you to play as much or as little as you like, and take it as seriously or not as you like.

Two books that come to mind are Centering by M.C. Richards and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

• Rent a trumpet from a nearby music store (I see you live in Sweden, do they offer instrument rental programs there?): cheap, and you can ensure it works (instead of buying a possible dud from ebay). Most shops will ask for a minimum of 3 months- this will give you some time to figure out if this is something you'd like to continue with.
  
  
• The trumpet is a very physical instrument and it's easy to develop lasting bad habits that will really hurt you down the road. Try to take at least 1 lesson with a teacher so you can get the ball rolling. If that's REALLY not possible (a 30min lesson is $20-45 usually so it's not much!) search for Charlie Porter on Youtube and check out his vids.
  
  
• You will improve fastest if you can play everyday: even if it's only 5 min. Rest often! The goal is to reinforce good habits.
  
  
• Get a method book that will inspire you to continue playing. If you have not played an instrument before, I wouldn't recommend Clarke/Arban like another poster suggested- those are extremely technical and Arban is frankly probably out of your range right now. Try The Jazz Method for Trumpet. It has a playalong CD and tunes that are much closer to the type of music you like (rock) than most other method books. Other good beginner books: Embouchure Builder, or Getchell (might be a little out of your range for the 1st few weeks).
  
  
• Lastly, please do not get discouraged! Most people sounded awful when they first started out- that will probably include you. Don't judge yourself too hard- just be patient and practice consistently and I promise you that the improvement will come.

Like /u/MarioKartGuy27 said, the most important part of becoming a better sight reader is to practice sight reading every day. The "Famous Melodies" in the back of the Arban are a good starting point. Another good book is Sachse's 100 Studies, or maybe try some books by Sigmund Hering.

Here are a few more tips that will really help your sight reading:

• Sight reading is mostly just pattern recognition. Learn all your major scales, then all your minor scales, then all your major and minor arpeggios, then dominant 7th arpeggios, then diminished 7th arpeggios (these are all in the Arban). If you can play these with ease, most music will seem much easier to sight read, because a shocking amount of music is just different versions of these patterns strung together.
  
• Start practicing transposition - the Sachse linked above is a really good book for this. A nice approach for Sachse is to play one study a week, transposing to one or two new keys each day. It will be painful at first but just go slowly and it will get better in time. Nobody was born knowing how to transpose, we all had to practice it.
  
• Finally, deliberately train yourself to read a few notes ahead at a time. Etudes (which usually have the same rhythm over and over) are good practice for this. Try "seeing" the notes in groups of two, then three, then four.

You should try to talk to as many pro musicians as you can about their experiences. Ask the salespeople at guitar center and your band/orchestra store if they have performance/ed/recording studio tech degrees, they love to talk about it. Some of them will tell you not to load up on student loans, that the right private teachers will get you 60-75% of what you get from a performance degree. If you go to Berklee, NT State, Indiana, Miami or someplace of that caliber, you'll have a really well rounded experience, you'll have theory, live and studio sound tech, composing/arranging, all kinds of ensemble experience and hopefully great contacts. You have to choose

Here's some good books also, by Cutler and Beeching: https://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Musician-Building-Earning-Difference/dp/0982307500

Based on this, I would recommend the Getchell First and Second Book(s) of Practical Studies. I used these for transposition exercises in college, but I've used them with intermediate students for sight reading or lyrical work.

Sounds like they would work out well for you. If you want some more "musical" stuff to play, try the Canadian Brass Book of Beginning Trumpet Solos - it even has an accompaniment CD.

I'd suggest picking up Arban's method, as that contains a pretty good range of abilities. You can probably find it online. As well, the Real Book contains melodies and chord changes for many different jazz standards. You're going to want the Bb edition.

The Voxman Selected Duets (Vol. 1, Vol. 2) are pretty nice. I think they're meant for study but I think they are underappreciated.

How about this one? The whole collection is good and probably about the right level if Andante and Allegro is too hard.

Alternately, there’s the Voxman solo book .

Jerry Coker’s Patterns for Jazz -- A Theory Text for Jazz Composition and Improvisation: Treble Clef Instruments

Edit: Denis DiBlasio’s approach to Coker’s book

And there's also this: http://www.amazon.com/Thesaurus-Scales-Melodic-Patterns-Text/dp/082561449X

Get this! https://www.amazon.com/Real-Play-Anderson-Trumpet-Method/dp/1492716154/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511289125&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=how+to+play+the+cat+anderson+trumpet+method

Cat was the lead player for Duke's band for years. Before there was Maynard there was Cat. I just started working out of the book.