Trumpet Players Survival Guide!

The joy that one feels during and after a great performance is indescribable! It is this huge rush of positive energy straight to your soul that makes you almost addicted to playing / performing. I think that musicians and athletes alike experience the same feeling. But what about a bad performance? For me, it's almost like the world is crashing (if I let it get that over powering).

What causes a musician (in this case a trumpeter) to want to give up their passion and look elsewhere? I think if one takes a close enough look, they will find a trumpeters survival guide packed away deep within themselves.

Whether it be in business, love, music, athletics, or anything else a person can feel passionate about, we all get in to a "survival" mode at one point or another. If you're not making enough money, or paychecks are inconsistent (good month / bad month), you can tend to stay in this mode for long periods of time. So much so that we stop looking for solutions to end this phase and go more in to just trying to make it to the next "good check". Music performance (trumpeting) is no different. It's easy to get "stuck" on one thing or another and become consumed with trying to get beyond the lacking skill.

For me, it was trumpet high notes and trumpet range. My range was something that in High School I really started focusing on. I literally got stuck on working on range... it's all I practiced. So much so, that all of my other playing needs were never fulfilled. This threw me in to survival mode with trumpet playing because I couldn't see passed this one aspect. So my rhythm, timing, technique, and even tone went down hill fast! My performances were not up to par like they once were, and things just snowballed from there. Missing one high note would literally throw me in to a tail spin and wreck the rest of my performance... not caring about the music, but more about my ability to amaze and inspire the audience. A selfish desire I must add!

I ended up quitting for 3 years... miserable because I had left behind the one very thing that made my life feel like I had purpose. Coming back to it, I decided that I would not focus all of my energy on that one aspect... so devising a better approach, I found that this one skill that I so desperately wanted, came along with the rest of the package, once I worked other issues out.

If you are a trumpet or cornet player who feels stuck in survival mode too, please visit Brass Player Solution!

Keith Fiala
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Trumpet & The Tired Chops Syndrome

As a professional trumpeter, I often run in to times that I play for extended periods of time, have strenuous shows, or just push too hard. Recovering from this is more than just not playing, or taking time off. For me in particular, if I take time off after a strenuous day, I come back struggling even more.

After a hard day, I really can't say I warm down at all. I will free buzz a bit depending on how tired I am, but that is about the extent of a warm down. The next day, I extend my warm up (see Trumpet, Trumpeter, & Warm Up Woes) by playing very softly for extended periods of time... if I am still feeling a bit spent, I will usually limit my playing sessions to a few minutes and will not play anything above a High C.

What I've found through the years, is that it takes time to let the lips heal. I saw times with Maynard Ferguson where he would be extremely beat up from a long run of performances. He too would extend his warm ups, but also could take time away and come back strong.

What tends to happen to our lips is exactly what happens to a tired runner, exhausted athlete, etc. Our muscles need time to rebuild... if done properly, we can bounce back stronger... if we ignore the tired feeling or soreness, we can actually do more damage by staying in a tired or "torn down" state.

If you find yourself in a situation where your chops just don't respond, and you've played hard the previous day, give your muscles the day to be relaxed by playing softly in short practice segments.

For more information that can help you in your quest as a trumpeter, please visit Brass Player Solution!

Keith Fiala

Trumpet

If you are a follower or a reader of this blog, you know that this is dedicated to all things trumpet... trumpet playing, trumpet lessons, trumpet high notes, trumpet players, and trumpet hero's!

Please visit Brass Player Solution for information that will improve your trumpet playing! "Secrets to Efficient Brass Playing" can help trumpeters understand how the chops work, why theirs aren't working, and how to make relatively quick improvements without "changing" your embouchure drastically.

If you're a parent of a beginning trumpet or cornet player and would like a FREE LESSON that will get things kicked off in right direction, please click the link above.

There will be future posts on trumpet rentals, and the best solution to entering trumpet playing without major expense.

Trumpet Lessons - Beginner Through Advanced!

If you know of someone who is just starting to play trumpet, and would like to have a first lesson for free, I have shot a 15 minute video that covers everything from lip buzzing, mouthpiece buzzing, playing Low C, Low D, and Low E... I also discuss care of the horn and a basic overview of the instrument.

Please send the beginners to Brass Player Solution

Trumpet High Notes Screaming in Europe!

Where was I -

I had to take a break from posting over the weekend as I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to perform at a wedding with Memphis Train Revue. The weather was really great and another nice jolt that prompted the question again - why am I still in Austin, TX.

As we traveled through Europe, it became more and more apparent to me that my online presence needed to be boosted up even more. We decided that we needed to buy a new Mac, now we've decided that teaching webcam lessons would be a great thing as well. All in all, Europe was a great kick in the pants for me. Before we left, I had gotten complacent... a little too comfortable with things as they are. Now after playing to appreciative audiences, hanging with great musicians and seeing the world through rested eyes - I was ready!

We pulled in to Rotterdam, Holland to play our final gig at the North Sea Jazz Festival. Randy Brecker was going to perform with us one more time and we were all pumped!

The show was amazing! Randy played (this goes without saying) amazing and got us to step up just one more notch! What a rush!!!

After the show, I was fortunate enough to run back in to Frank Greene, and Terrell Stafford who had performed earlier with Village Vanguard! What great guys to hang out with!!!

Trumpet High Notes For the Delegates!

We woke up at 7am to be dressed, packed, and ready for a L O N G bus ride to Lyon! While driving through Paris, one of our own delegates realized that he'd left items of value and importance in the hotel room safe. So, he and Colin had to take the subway train back to the hotel. We had to stop and wait at the "Bercy" stop along the subway route to wait.

2 hours behind schedule, we arrived at our hotel in Lyon at 5:40pm - sound check was scheduled for 6:30 and we're still 30 minutes away from Jazz A'Vienne.

As we're driving to the gig, Colin received a call saying that our first performance in Europe had been canceled due to a heavy thunderstorm. So, we adjourned to a Pizzeria for dinner before we were to attend the Roy Hargrove Big Band performance in the Roman Amphitheater ruins. What an incredible venue!!!!

To my delight, I found out that Frank Greene was playing lead trumpet and Greg Gisbert playing 2nd! What a treat to hear them!!!! And Roy sounded amazing as well.

Disappointed that we couldn't perform, but satisfied from hearing a great performance, we all loaded back on the bus to return to Lyon and head to Geneva, Switzerland in the morning to play for the 4th of July celebration at the American Consulate!

6th Grade Student Who's Made GREAT Progress

Below is a video of one of my young students playing the new KF model mouthpiece by Austin Winds.

She played up to a high C so effortlessly, that we just had to see how far we could take it. On this video, she's playing a 2 octave F major scale!

Enjoy!