Trumpet Lessons For Beginners

1. Trumpet Lessons For Beginners: I am. Welcome to the Music Coach Online trumpet program, where you'll learn how to play the trumpet from scratch. My name is Todd Porter, and I'm a professional musician and educator, Canada, where I've been teaching and performing for the last 15 years. The music Coach trumpet program is taught by my good friend and colleague Steve Date, who's an amazing educator and Trump music coach. Program has been designed to get you playing with other people as quickly as possible, because the real joy and music is being able to express yourself with other people, listen and interact. And so the whole course curriculum has been designed around this idea of teaching you how to play the instrument, but at the same time teaching you how toe have the skills you're gonna need to play with. By the end of the court, you're gonna have the confidence to bone up friends and family and other people who play and get a jam session going, because the goal is to get you playing with other people as quickly as possible. Program starts by learning how to pick your first instrument. You rent it or buy it. It helps you move through how to put it together. Make your first sound and learn how to play some scales and rhythms and harmony so that you can interact with other musicians as quickly as possible. You've always dreamed about playing the trumpet and just not knowing where to start and come to the right place. Thank you for your interest in the new Coach online trumpet program, and I hope you're as excited as I am to get started. 2. 4 Essential Elements of Music: What is music? Music is the language of the planet, spoken by every society since the beginning of time. Music is a vibrational language that allows us to convey complex ideas that spoken or written language alone cannot adequately express music gives us an almost unlimited vocabulary for communicating emotional information through sound way. Are all born musicians Theo Idea. That some of us are musicians and some of us are not is so far from the truth. It's laughable. You are made of music. Your heart is beating steadily in your body, keeping the rhythm of your life flowing. Your ears and voice are constantly working together to shape your experience through the sound you make and sounds. You hear it is all music, therefore, essential elements to be able to play music on any instrument. They are rhythm, harmony, melody and your passion for music. To explain these concepts, we're going to use the analogy of a train train itself is you. And the passion that you have for music is the boiler. Inside the train, you were born with the deep passion for music, like every other person whose ever been born and come before you and everyone who will come after you now you might be saying yourself, I have no passion for music or I can't even remember a time when I did thistles just simply because it got extinguished in you. And the good news is it could be reignited and made to burn hot and passionate again. The key to starting any good fire is to start with the right amount of fuel and a little bit of air. This is the same in music. One of the biggest problems people run into is they get overwhelmed. This is like putting too much wood down and trying to light it with one match. A roaring fire always starts out small, and it's helped, along with just the right amount of fuel at the right time and a continuous flow of air fire and the boiler of your train is the single most important part of your musical journey . Now, for a train to go anywhere it needs to go along a track. You can't just have a train in the middle of nowhere, with no track and get a fire burning hot and expected to go somewhere. A railroad track has three main elements. Railroad ties, which are the wooden beams that go along the ground. And two tracks, one on either side with trains. Wheels sit on rhythm is like the railroad ties, which are evenly spaced and allow for the stability for the train to move. Once the tracks are in place, railroad ties air spaced in a way that is even and breaks up the distance between two points so that time can be felt in a consistent way. If you put your train on top of just railroad ties, you're not gonna be going anywhere, so let's have the next piece of track. Harmony is the piece of track that runs alongside the railroad ties. It's fastened securely to them, which allows the rhythm to pass freely underneath harmonies most often expressed as cords. Cords air simply a grouping of three or more notes stacked vertically. The most common use of them, his major and minor. Most people experience major chords, is sounding happy, and minor chords is sounding sad. Almost all music that you've heard on the radio or on television and in movies is made up of major and minor courts. Melody is the piece of track on the other side. Opposite the Harmony, the melody is the most recognizable and distinctive part of any song to songs can have the same rhythmic and harmonic structure, but melodies are completely unique to the song from which they come from. When you think of a famous song in your head, most likely you're thinking about the melody. A melody is just simply a pattern of notes moving up or down involving the rhythm and interacting with the harmony that is connected to once you have these three elements of track of railroad ties, which of rhythm Harmony, which is one of the tracks in the melody, which is the other track your train can now roll along. Then all you have to do is keep adding more pieces of track your train control further and further faster and onward in your musical jury. 3. Harmony and Chords: harmony like the universe itself, is all about relationships. We're alive right now on Earth because of its relationship to everything else in our solar system. Any two notes played at the same time are considered harmony. Sound travels in waves that are measured in Hertz hurts measures how maney waves per second a note is generating a string on a guitar, for example, vibrates 440 times per second. Lower notes vibrates slower and higher. Notes vibrate faster human ears can hear in a range of approximately 31 hurts. Up to 18,000 hertz dogs, for example, can hear a much larger range. They can hear from 40 hertz all the way up to 60,000 hertz when two or more notes air played. At the same time, the sound waves interact with each other, creating two states of dissonance and continents, more commonly known as tension and release. Imagine the sound waves are like dolphins jumping in and out of the water notes that Aaron dissidents or tension never line up evenly so that the pattern of the dolphins being in and out of the water is never in complete alignment. This is a physical event and why some people experience tension in music as very uncomfortable. This technique is often used in movie soundtracks to enhance the sense of unease. Continents or release is having the dolphins come into a pattern where sometimes or all of the time they're at the top or bottom of their pattern together at the same time, much like our preference for spicy or sweet tastes, we each have a sense of how much tension and release we like in our music. And like a sense of taste, it can evolve over time, depending on what were exposed to the fact that there are no wrong notes is not just a spiritual state of mind. It's a fact. All that exists is tension and release or dissonance and continents and how much you enjoy . He is entirely up to your own sense of personal taste. Cords are organized harmony. Harmony is used most commonly to make up chords that air called triads. They're just simply cords that have three notes in them, cords are built like houses. There is a foundation which we call the route the third, which is like the main floor and the fifth, which is like the second floor of the house. The route is the note that gives Accord its name. For example, in a C chord, the route is see. The third of the note is the third note in the scale, so see is one is to and is three. The fifth is the fifth note in the scale. See is one D is to his three, Fs four and G is five. There are several different types of chords. The two most common are major chords and miners. What makes a cord major or minor is the relationship of the third to the root of the court . When it is closer to the fifth than the route, it is major, which is like moving the main floor of your house up slightly when it is closer to the basement, where the root it's minor. The way you move a note, closer or further away, is with sharps and flats to change a C poured from major to minor, you change the third, which is E. T. Flat. Most people experience major and minor chords by hearing them as happy sounds for major on and sad sounds for minor. It's always good to remember that music is a language that you were built to speak. And even when you're working on something that's a challenging concept, just know that with enough time and practice you'll be able to master it. 4. Melody: melody is the part of songs that most people identify with, since there are so many harmonic and rhythmic combinations melodious the most distinct part of any song. Close your eyes and think for a moment of your favorite piece of music. Chances are you're hearing the melody in your head. A melody is both rhythmic and harmonic, and if it is well constructed, it could be sung or played on its own and be clearly understood. Simply put, a melody is a string of notes and rests that move up and down in relation to the harmony underneath it. 5. Notes, and the musical alphabet: throughout the world. There are many different notation systems in music in Western Europe and North America. We use a 12 tone system with the musical alphabet toe. Understand the 12 tone system. We first need to understand how we measure the distance between two notes, their two main distances used in our system. They're tones and semi tones. The easiest way to see and understand tones and semi tones is on a piano. A piano is made up of white keys and Blackie's, and a tone is the distance between two white keys with a black in the middle or between two black keys with a white key in the middle. A semi tone is our smallest unit of distance, which is between a white key in a blackie or between two white keys where there is no black he in the middle. All scales and music are simply a pattern of tones and semi tones that repeats. The most common one is the major scale, which goes tone, tone, semi tone, tone, tone, tone, semi tone on a piano. If you start this pattern on, see, there's no need to use any black keys because the pattern is built right into the keyboard of tone, tone, semi tone, tone, tone, tone, semi tone. If you start the pattern on any other key, however, you need to use the Black Keys to maintain the pattern. This is why we have sharps and flats to make up the 12 different keys inside of the system . 6. Rhythm: rhythm is a word that has many meanings in music. This could be the source of unnecessary confusion for students. When they first begin. You may have heard the words time and tempo used in the same way. Let's break this down into the essential elements. Tempo is like a river. Think of a river for a moment. It usually flows at a constant pace, but it's not rigid or mechanical. When humans make music, it is a goal to be as consistent as possible with the tempo. But in reality it's alive, and it has subtle shifts, like the flow of a river Rhythm is how we interact with flow of this river. Imagine sticking your hand in the flow of the river for one second and then pulling it back out. Then imagine doing the same thing for two seconds and half a second. This is the equivalent to playing notes of different lengths. The river is constant, but how long we play the notes for is what makes it in the music. Rhythm is the most mathematical part of music education, but fear not. There is nothing more advanced than simple addition and subtraction involved. Imagine your favorite type of pie for a moment. Now, the size of the pie is constant. No matter how we slice it, the pie represents a bar of music. If you eat the whole pie yourself, it's like playing a whole note, which takes up the entire bar. If you invite a friend over and cut the pie in two, you have to half notes. If you cut it again, you have 4/4 tones. Cut it again and you have 8/8 in music. All time has to be accounted for again. Think of the pie if you have a pie and you cut it into 4/4 and you only want to eat one of the quarters. The other 3/4 still exists because the whole pie was baked. This is the same in music. So wherever there's not a note played, there has to be arrest to take his place. So each of the note values in music of whole half quarter eighths and so on all have rests that last for the same amount of time 7. Trumpet Setup and Buyers Guide: the trumpet. Um, it's comprised of press. A lot of trumpets are made of brass some of as you'll see our dull in finished some coming silver, some coming gold. Um, some coming yellow gold. When you first get your trumpet, you'll see that in the case, it will come in to pieces the trumpet itself, and it'll come with the trumpet mouthpiece. All you need to do to put this together is to take the mouthpiece, put it inside the lead pipe, give it a tiny little twist and they're good to go. Once you've gotten the trumpet put together the most peace in the lead pipe. Um, I'll show you how to hold the trumpet. Basically, all you need to do has been in your left hand. You'll wrap your hand nationally around the valve casings and you can stick either your middle finger or your third finger into the finger loop there. Um, keeping someone flexibility in your left your right hand. You will just, uh, rested on top of the valves, remembering not to put your, ah, your pinky finger in the ah, the hook there. That is only meant for holding the trumpet and the mute at the same time, you're gonna put your index finger on the first valve, your middle finger on the second valve and the third finger on the third above. This is the first valve second valve there. When you're playing the trumpet, you'd like to have the most natural posture possible, making it easy for the air to get from your lungs and out of your body into the horn. So you want to think of it just doesn't normal that, as you would be standing, have the trumpet pointing straight out sort of thing naturally. Now the way it would want to fit on your teeth, sort of just flat straight out. And you want your arms to be, ah, completely relaxed. You don't want TEM. You don't want them tucked into your body that can create tension. You just want them kind of float, actually, sort of, I guess, a kind of a right angle. Um, you can see like that. So if you ever get, uh, your mouthpiece stuck in the trumpet, which is a common problem, especially for a beginner, um, First of all, it's important never to hammer on the mouthpiece. You always wanted treat it like it's a screw going into a piece of wood. Just sit it on tiny little screw and it'll we'll stay there. No problem. But if you ever get stuck, you're gonna want to try and twist a counterclockwise. Just keep doing that until it comes up. I'm gonna talk a little bit about daily trumpet maintenance now, each day before you. Um, when you take the horn out of the case, um, it's always good to rinse the mouth piece. It can get pretty donkey in there, uh, every few days. So just maybe run under some warm water. Don't need any soap. There's They make special little brushes for most pieces that you can get any music store. Just a little, uh, sort of wire brush fits in there. Give it a thing. Clean it up. Um, and as far as valves valves go, you'll want to. I always give the valves a bit of oil every day before you start. This could be done by just simply unscrew the valve cap lifting involve up just so that the shoulder shoulder of the valve, this sort of exposed there and then you can sort of take your Bob. Well, I use T two for this horn. There's many different varieties. It there, Um, so you just basically take it one or two drops around the the shoulder there. Put the valve down, give it a little twist so that it gets entirely covered. Make sure to put the valve down back in the same way that it came. You'll see this little sort of ah device here that tells you that within the right spot, it'll start to click if it there's two ways it could work this way or get click the backwards, but just try to make sure it's in the right way. The way to tell if you did it wrong is this. You can blow notes where you can't learn somethin wrong. It's like, really hard to blow, if, if at all. So, yeah, try to put it back the way you found it. Let's go back on good as new every day, at least every couple of days, depending on how much. It's also important to keep the trumpet slides in good working order and the tuning slide in good working order. Um, consistently. So each day when you pick up the horn. Make sure everything is moving, uh, moving smoothly. And you should have, um, slide Greece for the trumpet, which you can apply is you should only have to apply it once every few months. Um, to the, uh, just a little bit around each, which, um you Jerry there and then just slide it back in kind of coat the whole thing. Same of the top kind of work it around. Just put it back in. Same thing goes for the third valve slide and the first outside. 8. You will learn how to put the trumpet together, make your first sound: Hi there. My name is Steve Date. Welcome to Week one of the music Coach. I'm gonna teach you how to play. Trumpet. This is a trumpet. Um, it's comprised of brass. A lot of trumpets are made of brass. Some as you'll see our dull in Finished some coming silver, some coming gold. Um, some coming yellow gold, yellow brass. Um, this happens to be my trumpet. And it is Robert ass. When you first get your trumpet, you'll see that in the case, it will come in to pieces the trumpet itself, And it'll come with the trumpet mouthpiece. All you need to do to put this together is to take the mouthpiece, put it inside the lead pipe, give it a tiny little twist, and they're good to go. Once you've gotten the trumpet put together piece in the lead pipe. Um, I'll show you how to hold the trumpet. Basically, all you need to do has been your left hand. You'll wrap your hand nationally around the valve casings, and you can stick either your middle finger or your third finger into the finger loop there . Um, keeping someone flexibility in your left hand with your right hand. You will just, uh, rested on top of the valves, remembering not to put your your pinky finger in the ah, the hook there. That is only meant for holding the trumpet in the mute at the same time. So just rest your fingers on top and you're good to go. You can put your index finger on the first valve, your middle finger on the second valve and third finger on the third above. This is the first valve second valve there. When you playing the trumpet, you'd like to have the most natural posture possible, making it easy for the air to get from your lungs and out of your body into the horn. So you want to think of it just doesn't normally as you would be standing, have the trumpet pointing straight out sort of thing naturally. Now, the way it would want to fit on your teeth, sort of just flat straight out and you want your arms to be, ah, completely relaxed. You don't want TEM. You don't want them tucked into your body that can create tension. You just want them kind of float, actually, sort of, I guess, a kind of a right angle. Um, what you're gonna see like that? I'm making a sound on the trump. It can be difficult at first for a lot of people. I know it was difficult for me at first. What you want to think about is having your lips very loose, somewhat moist. Um, and we basically need to make some sort of buzzing sound on what you can do to do this. It's kind of, uh imagine you're trying to make a be sound as, ah, as in Obama be sort of the guy. Mm mm. Once you get that sound, you can try to take that sound and put it right into the mouthpiece just like this. And then once you take that, you can take that sound and try to get that sound happening into the trumpet itself. Her e u. Although the pitch once it wants to make a different sound once it reaches the warm because of the the length of the tube. In week one, we're gonna learn how to play three notes and a B and a C sharp. 1st 3 notes in a major scale for the A We're gonna He was the one and two vows for the B. I'm gonna push down the second vowel with C sharp. We're going to use the all three valves now. The trick with C Sharp is the way that Trump is made. There's a few notes that are a little bit out of tune when you want to play them. So they come up with this idea where the third valve slide, this little slide. Here it's attached to the third valve. As you can see when we play the C sharp and later you'll learn her play D as well. We have to pull pull the third valve, slide out just a little bit in order to bring the note into tude. Otherwise, it might be a little bit sharp. So when we play the C sharp well, remember to bring our third Volvo outside when playing the trumpet you want. You don't want to be thinking too much about what your body is doing. You want it all to come out naturally, so I'm really just thinking about breathing and having enough air to get the note moving. You don't want to take in too much air because that can cause you to have tension. So when especially playing in low notes, you'll find that you don't need as much air. But you still want to take in a full breaths, just as if you were to have a regular conversation with somebody. So for the first note, A. We'll just take in a normal sort of speaking breath and then blow into the horn with that buzzing action that I showed you. Here's an A ah, to play a be on the trumpet, We're gonna use the second valve again. We're going to just take a a natural breath. We want everything to flow. Naturally, we don't want to be blowing too hard, especially in the lower register of the horn where we are right now. We just need to take a natural breath and on blow it they're like, So this is a B Ah. Um, in order to play C sharp on horn as mentioned, we're going to use the valves one to end three altogether. This is also in the lower register, similar to the A and the B. Um, and again, we just want to take a nice, relaxed breath and, uh, blow there. Oh, nice and relaxed, just as if you were speaking somebody's. Here's a c sharp and note that in order to pull it into tune, we need toe lower. The we need to extend the third involve slide just a little bit to bring into tune. Do the C sharp, Keep up the great work and we'll see in the practice video. 9. Trumpet Week 1 practice: We're gonna play whole notes for the 1st 3 notes of our scale, which are a B and C sharp. Take a big breath in and hold an a Ah, Now take a big breath in and played Be now take a big breath in and play C sharp. Uh, we're now going to do the same thing. Using the click track. You're gonna play a for four beats, take four beats, rest play, be for four beats, take four beats rest and play C sharp for four beats. 12 ready. Begin a one 23 Here comes B and two for the rest. One to get ready to play c sharp and so sure, let's do the same thing again. One two. Ready? Play a arrest. 1234 Nutley be one Arrest 1234 Napoli, See shirt one to 34 Now we're going to do the same thing using half notes so they will get to beats. Will rest for two beats. B will get two beats. Arrest for two beats and see Sharp will get two beats and rest for two beats. One to ready. Begin. Ah, rest, too. To rest too see? Sure rest to do the same thing again. 12 Ready. Begin, Teoh. Rest too. Rest to see shirt rest to now We're gonna do the same thing and take the rests out. So each note will get two beats. 12 ready. Begin to su. Sure. Try it again. 12 ready. Begin to ensure. Let's try one more time. 12 Ready. Begin a to now. We're gonna play quarter notes, so each note is gonna get one Beat 12 Ready? Go! Sure. 12 Ready? Go! Sure. 12 Ready? Go! Ah, sure. Good. Now we're in. Try going up and down. 12 Ready? Begin! Ah, sure. Thing again. 12 Ready? Go! Ah, sure. Uh, Same thing again. 12 Ready? Go! Sure. One last time. One, two. Ready? Go A C? Sure. 10. Learn all of the notes in the A major scale: Hi. Welcome back. This is Week two of the music Coach Trumpet lesson program. Today I'm gonna talk about a little bit about, um What? How what the How the trump it works now. One of the interesting things about the trump it is unlike some other instruments like saxophone is that there's only three buttons or vows. They're called on dumb. You won't be wondering well how there's so many notes that I could play it there. How do you get to play them with only three vows? Well, what the thing that the way the trouble works is that each of these valves could play multiple notes, depending on how hard you blow into the horn. The way a lot of wind instruments work, especially brass instruments, is there's a length of tubing and a lot the longer the length of tubing in general, the lower the pitch that you get because the sound has to go further to get to the year. So it is lower the short of the tubing, the higher the pitch. So with the trumpet, we have entire length of tubing like this. Um, so when I blow any note that comes out and I want to make that no lower. I want to make the tubing just a little bit longer. So you'll notice that there's three vowels here and they have each have a little attachment length of tubing with, um, But the first valve, second valve, the third ball. Um so if I start with this note, I don't want to make it just a little bit lower. I'm gonna just I'm going to use the second valve because it's got the shortest, um, the shortest extra tubing, shortest amount of extra tubing. So if I push that down, the air now has to go through this extra piece which will less lower the note. And if I want to know lower even more, I go to the next, uh, I want to make the horn just a little bit longer again. I go to the first ball and I can lower it even another semi tone. And that's sort of how the trump it works. If we won't even go lower, we've. So far, we've added, we've added this length of tubing to go a little bit lower from unopened position, and we've added this tubing to go even lower. Now there's a couple of ways we could go even lower. Now you'll notice that this is the shortest. The shortest. Ah, short similar to this one's twice as long. And the third buff has one that's even longer. Now, the interesting thing is, this length of tubing here is the same length as these two combined. So if I wanted to go lower starting from my original notes, which is a G going lower. So that's one semi tone we're going. This is the length of one semi tone. I'm gonna go down two semi tones now, uh, now three semi tones. We're gonna use either third valve or the first to put together. Uh uh uh, Now we want to even go further. We've just done three semi tones. Now we're gonna do 47 tones, so we'll take the one semi tone plus the three semi tone and use those to violence. Uh, five semi tones will take the three semi tones plus the two semi tones now down. Six semi tones, three plus one plus two. Ah, Now we've had We've just gone through the seven combinations of valves in the trump it in this week's practice video. We're gonna learn the rest of the notes in the a major scale, starting with de now with a D, just like the c sharp, we need to extend the third valve slide just a bit to bring it into tune. This is a D. And they were using E and F shirt and then g sharp a back to a starting with the D uh, using the first and the third valve. And here's how to play an E. Now this is the same fingering as ah previously learned. A. The only difference here is we just need to use a little bit more air and tighten up the lips a little bit just to get the air moving a little bit faster. There's an E No. The next note in the scale isn't sure We're gonna use the second ballot for this in the second last note in the scale, or it could be thought of as the last note in the scale is a G sharp. For this, we can use the second and third bombs. Ah, and the last note in the scale. The eighth note in the scale is in a which is first valve and second ballot together. Keep up the good work and we'll see in the next practice video. 11. Trumpet Week 2 practice: the way the rest of the notes that make up the a major scale. We're going to start by playing whole tones on D E and F Sure take a big breath in and play a d. Ah. Now take a big breath in and play E no, take a deep breath and play f sharp. Uh, we're gonna do the same thing using whole notes with the click track. So each note will get four beats and then the B four B beats rest one to ready. Begin for the rest. 23 for now. E to 34 Rest one to 34 now F sharp. One arrest. Now we're gonna do the same thing again. One to ready. Begin. D one, 234 e 13 for rest. One, 234 Now we're going to do the same thing without the rest between the notes. 12 Ready? Begin D to 34 Effort. 12 34 Studio one two. Ready? Go. Now we're gonna play the final three notes that make up the a major scale your f sharp g sharp and A to use the same technique. Start by putting a long tone on F Sharp. No long tone on G sharp on a long tone on high A. Now we're gonna play them as whole notes with four beats. Rest in between them. 12 Ready. Go F sharp. 1234 Rest one, 234 g shar rest 123 for a one four. Now let's try it again. 12 Ready? Go! Sure. 34 g sharp for a three. Now let's play them without the rest in between. One to ready go F sharp. 13 G sharp, 3/4 Tried again. One to ready Go f sharp. 134 g sharp 123 for a 1234 Now it's played D E and F sharp as half notes. So two clicks for each note with to click. Break in between one to ready go d. Rest to e. Rest to after Let's try it again. 12 Ready? Go D Rest to e. Rest to F Sharp now has tried without the rest in between. 12 Ready go D to It's tried again. One to ready Go D now let's play D E and F sharp as quarter notes one click for each note. 12 Ready. Go. 12 Ready? Go! 12 Ready? Go! One to ready. Go Now we're gonna play F sharp, G sharp and a as half notes with the to click break Then without the break. And then his quarter notes. 12 ready? Go after rest too. She sure rest too. A to rest to Let's try sending again. 12 Ready? Begin. Sure. Rest too. She sure rest too. The rest to now we try the same thing without the break in the middle. 12 Ready? Go after two. She sure a same thing again. 12 Ready? Go! Sure. One more time. 12 Ready? Go. Sure. Now we're gonna play F sharp. G sharp in a as quarter notes. 12 ready. Go after she sure a one two. Ready? Go after she Sure one to ready? Go after. Sure. 12 Ready? Go. Sure. Sure. On to ready. Go after. Sure. 12. Learn the first melody for music coach song: Hi and welcome back to Week three of the trumpet lessons in Music Coach. This week we're going to talk about a little bit about the overtone series and how it relates to the melody in our song. Basically, how the overtones stories works is as you increase the amount of vibration. Um, the pitch goes up in certain increments, I'll demonstrate what that might sound like. Back in the olden days before vowels were invented, trumpets were literally just one length of tubing. Um, such of this without the valve casings. So you just have one loop of tubing, so you could only play a certain amount of notes. Um, so a lot of times in, ah, when people were called to eat dinner or there was war time, um, bugle calls, they would time something like this using only using new valves at all in the melody that we're gonna be playing in this song, we're gonna, uh, run into a couple of situations where we're gonna play. There are multiple notes in the scale using the same fingering What I mean by that Ah, the scale we're playing is the a major scale. There the notes a and the e r used use the same fingering. So the only way to make sure we know the difference between those notes and can get those notes uh, differential differentiate is to blow a little bit harder and to, um, uh, personal lips a little bit tight in the lips a little bit so that we could get the air moving faster. I'll demonstrate this is a low a Ah, So in order to get an e, I'm just gonna blow a little bit harder. I'll also raise my tongue a little bit so that the the cavity in my mouth is a little bit smaller, thus making the air go a little bit faster. I'll start with an and then we'll move up to me. Ah, and then also from the E to the top octave A. We also need to do the same thing a little bit more. Always my tongue just a little bit more about a little bit, A little bit harder. Starting on the low A Ah, so in this melody were using the A major scale in its entirety. Basically, um, starting from the low C sharp and getting up as high as the A. So I'm gonna show you how to play each of those nodes in order of the melody. Starting with C sharp. We have a 12 and three bounds with on extended third valve slide. Ah, Then we have a D, which is one in three, also with the extended valve slide. Uh, and then we have an E, which is one and two, and then we have the top octave a one and two, and then we have a G shirt. I am sure. Second. Well, then back to the A. No, I'm not. I'm ignoring the rhythm of the song right now. We're just talking about the notes that you need to play back up to the A and then a g sharp two and three. And then we're gonna do another g sharp and then in a You sure I'm sure. Ah, and then back to the seizure with the extended third about slide. Ah, here's what the melody sounds like on its own. Ah, the, uh, the, uh ah. Uh keep up the great work we'll see in the next practice video 13. Trumpet Week 3 practice: Theo. First melody that makes up the a section of our song. First, let's just play the notes in order without the click track C sharp. Uh, c sharp. Ah, a She sure? Sure. She sure she sharp? She sure, Sure. Let's try that one more time. Si, Sure. So sure. A She sure? Sure. She sure? She sure? A She sure. F sure e uh knows. Try playing the melody along with the track One to ready. Go Now let's try the same thing again. 12 ready? Go. 14. Learn how to play the A major scale ascending and descending (up and down): Hi. Welcome back, Teoh Week for trumpet lessons. Today we're gonna talk about ascending and descending the major scale the A major scale. So on the trumpet, we've learned the notes. Now we just want to learn how to it's an and decent A sending, going up in descending, going down the scale. So, uh, with the trump. But it takes more than just knowing the finger rings to get the notes to come out as previously mentioned, we need to use our air and our lips to make the north vibrate. Now the higher we go, the harder we want him. Lo, I wouldn't say blow hard, but it needs to be to use a little bit more error, a little bit more pressure and, uh, raise the tongue level up as we go up and lower the tongue as we go down. In order to make the notes go higher on the trumpet and be able to ascend the scale because we have only three valves to make it work, we need to use our our lungs in our tongue level and the air wind speed to help the notes go up. Otherwise, the notes, we'll just stay in the same range, and they will not go anywhere. So talking about tongue level, um, when playing low notes on the trumpet do you generally want to have your tongue low in your mouth so that there's a bigger cavity inside the mouth for the air to move through and get to the mouthpiece? This will keep This will keep your lips vibrating loops loosely. Louis, lady, um, some something like this is a low A. So I'm gonna keep my tongue level low. Keep the kind of my jaw down a bit. Keeps the, uh, area inside my mouth big. Ah, Now we ascend the scale. We need to make that area inside the mouth a little bit smaller as we go up. Now, we do this by raising the tongue. Imagine this is the top of the mouth and this is my tongue here. So we're gonna as we go from low to high, we're gonna raise Raise the tongue level in the mouth, making the cavity inside them of smaller, which will make the air move faster. And that will help the notes go up in the scale. Now, with tongue level on the trump Do you want to have your tongue in contact with your bottom teeth rather than your top teeth. Because this this keeps the flexibility of her tongue. Just ItT's kind of naturally how it you would talk anyways, It's just you don't overthink it, but it goes at the top of the teeth that way, it has a pivot point when you raise it up. This is the tip of your tongue were here. It just kind of raises up. Sort of like that. Rather than being at the top when ascending the A scale, we're gonna go up to the top, to the top A. We're gonna repeat it, and we're gonna descend back down to the bar. May just like this. Uh huh. I'm gonna explain why we need to learn why it's good to learn the bass notes in the song as well. Because sometimes when you're not by yourself, you're gonna be playing with other music musicians and there's gonna be other people there with other instruments. And it's always good to know what the other people are playing other than the melody, so that when you're not playing the melody, you can mess around and experiment with playing with the bass notes as well, so that when they're playing the melody, you can support them using the basements. Here's what the bass notes sound like on the trumpet. The bass notes in this song are always going to be four beats long, which is, uh, one bar in length. So four beats F sharp four beats on an A four beats D and four beats on an E in this week's practice video. You're also going to be learning the beginning stages of how to improvise, which means just making up your own melodies without looking at music or without any influence other than your own. So we're gonna keep in the a major scale, and we're just gonna be learning how to use the different notes in the A major scale in any order just making up your own melody. I'm gonna show you, ah, brief example of how I would improvise in a major using all the notes that we've learned in the A major scale, uh, way, Keep up the great work we'll see in the next practice video 15. Trumpet Week 4 practice: Theo Not gonna play the entire major scale using half notes and then quarter notes with the click track. We're going to start by going ass ending, which is up. Starting on the low A to the high. A playing half Notes 12 ready. Begin. Sure, sure. Let's try that again. One to ready. Begin. Great. Now strike using quarter notes. 12 Ready? Go. Try it again. 12 Ready? Go. Sure. Now we're gonna play a major scale descending. Starting on the high A going too low A using half notes. 12 Ready? Go A try to get one too. Ready? Go. A t shirt? Sure, sure. Try using quarter notes. 12 ready? Go A Sure, Sure. Again. 12 Ready? Go A Sure. Now we're gonna try playing this scale ass ending and descending First with half notes and then with quarter notes. 12 Ready? Go! Sure a Now descending came she shirt. Now we're gonna dio ass ending in descending with quarter notes. 12 ready? Go! Sure. 12 Ready? Go! Sure, Sure. A T shirt. You're now gonna play the notes that make up the bass part of the A section of our song. The notes You're gonna play R F Sharp, A, D and E. They're gonna be played as whole notes, so each will get four beats. 12 Ready? Go. Sure. Three for a one. Let's try that again. 12 Ready? Go. More time. 12 Ready. Go f sharp one. Now you're gonna take your first steps towards improvising by playing the notes in the A major scale out of order along with the track simply would just move in a non sequential order. Meaning, for example, you could start on a But instead of playing be, see if you can move to a different note like E or F sharp or seizure. 12 Ready? Go Now let's play the melody along with the track. 12 Ready? Go Now let's play the bass notes along with the track. 12 Ready? Go. Sure 16. Learn how to play the bass notes for the B section of the song: Welcome back. This is Week five. Trumpet Lessons in Music Coach This week, we're gonna learn how endurance sort of fits in to playing different rhythms on the B section of our song. For the B section of the song. The notes in the bass part we'll find are the same as in the A section, just in a different order. The notes in the B section based part are, and a hey f Sharp and D. Here's what it sounds like. Ah, uh, in this video, we're going to be playing the notes at different lengths at different times, sort of improvising how we can mix up the rhythm so sometimes we'll play whole notes. Sometimes we'll play half notes, maybe some quarter notes, Onda mixing it up to make it exciting. One way to build on the energy in while playing music is to experiment with different lengths of the notes. Um, whole notes, for example, are how longer and using more lower energy settings, whereas in when you start to increase the frequency of the rhythm by adding half notes and quarter notes, the rhythms become a little bit more active, thus raising the energy as a trumpet player. When I think about accompanying another musician and I have to play the bass notes or the melody, Um, there's gonna be a lot of interaction between myself and the other musician, so we want to make sure that we're not always playing the exact same thing. We want to complement each other. So say I'm talking to somebody. I don't want them talking to me as well. I want them to be listening. So while I'm doing all the talking, they're listening. So when it works a lot of the same one playing with other people. So if I'm playing with a saxophone player, for example, and I, if they're playing the melody and ah, I'm playing the bass line, I want to make sure that when I'm playing the bass line, I'm not getting in the way of the melody. So I want to be playing slower rhythms like whole notes, and happens while the other person is playing the melody notes, which are many times, quarter notes or a thumbs. Keep up the great work we'll see in the next practice video 17. Trumpet Week 5 practice: you're now gonna learn theme notes that make up the bass notes for the B section of our tune. The notes are A E f sharp and G A, uh, asshole. Notes. 12 ready? Go. 12 Ready? Go for e 1234 234 Let's try them all as half notes. 12 ready. Go to to me too. Sure to after two. To strike again. One to ready. Go F sure to after two. Now let's try them. Is 4/4 notes. 12 ready? Go straight. 12 Ready? Go. Sure. Now we're gonna mix up the rhythm by playing a is a whole note. E is to half notes. F sharp is 4/4 notes and D is for quarter notes. One to ready. Go. Sure, sure, sure. Try to get one to ready. Go. Sure, Sure. Sure, sure. Now you're gonna try the bass notes section with the back on track. Go. Sure. Now, let's try it one more time. Go. Sure. 18. Learn how to play the melody for the B section of the song: Hi. And welcome back to Week Six of trumpet lessons in the music Coach. This week we're gonna learn the melody to the B section of the song. Um, the melody to the B section of the song is a little bit different than the a section melody but the two of them together kind of give a contrast and make the song interesting. If every song that you ever heard only had one section, it probably wouldn't be all that interesting. So, um, a lot of songs pretty much every song that has ever been written oftentimes has different sections. Here's what the melody to the B section sounds like the way I'm going to show you The notes on the trumpet to the B section First notice an f sharp G sharp A, uh, repeat the a again the G sharp. Okay, G sharp f sharp. Uh, about two years, uh, ending with an f sharp. The interesting thing about the B section is the melody to the B section starts just a little bit before the first bar of the B section. We call that a pickup. It's going to start on beat four of the previous bar. So the melody to the B section starts on beat four of the previous bar leading into the B section. So you're gonna hear three beats and then we're going to start the melody on beat for okay , They fun thing about this, uh, song is that we get to play along with a saxophone player who is also playing the melody. So what we want to try to do is match First of all the tuning and the volume and the sound and the tone to the way the saxophone is playing the melody. If you find that you're having difficulty playing along with the saxophone player at first , don't worry. Just keep were winding the tape or the track and starting over. This is the best way to ensure that you don't keep practicing mistakes as you go along just slow and steady. I'm just gonna talk a little bit about the way articulation, which is tongue ing, fits into how we play this melody. Now there's a few notes that repeat themselves sometimes in a row. So the only way toe the best way to separate those notes is to use our tongue. So we're gonna be tugging those notes something like this, because otherwise, if we didn't tongue would just sound like this. So that's the way we need to separate notes. So just like any, any note that we play on the trumpet were usually, if not always going to start with what's known as a tongue attack. Um, so we're gonna use a syllable taw anytime we start the melody. So this an example? Here's the beginning melody of the bridge with a tongue attack. So I'm gonna take a big breath and hit the note, starting with it on now the way it would sound if I didn't use my tongue and just used air , it would sort of have, like a who, who, who kind of thing? Let's see what that sounds like. So there I only used the vows to differentiate the articulation between the notes, but you'll have more of an impact if you tongue each 11 important thing about tugging on the trumpet is to make sure that your tongue is low enough in the mouth that you can still create the note. Um, fortunately, we're playing in somewhat of a low register in the trumpet, so uh, we want to just focus on keeping the tongue low and the tongue again, uh, contacting the bottom teeth. Something like this. Something like that. If you want to dio work on your tongue in articulation. One way to do this A very good way to do this is to just practice on one note. Any note you choose, I will. I will pick in a and weaken. Just practice. Um, using different rhythms, you can start slow, but the best way to increase getting faster tongue speed is to just practice speeding up as you go and monitoring this using a metro. So I'll start with whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and then I will just keep going. Thank you. Keep up the great work we'll see in the next practice video. 19. Trumpet Week 6 practice: sure. G sure. A a a Chiche are a she sure f shirt e. Let's try that again. F sharp. She sure? A a She sure? A she sure? If sure e Yeah. Now, the second melody is difficult to enter because it starts on the third beat of the bar. So, for example, we're gonna count four whole beats and then three more and begin the melody like this one, too. 34123 After the shirt. Try that one more time. So one bar. 12 34123 g sharp. Now we're gonna play it with the backing track, and we're only gonna have the three beat count in. So it'll go. 123 after a g sharp. A one after. Sure. Now let's try it one more time. - Uh 20. Learn how to change your role during the B section from lead to accompaniment.: Welcome back. The Seven Lessons on Music Coach This week we're and talk about a little bit about how Teoh experiment playing through the song and the melody and the bass part. Andi making the song interesting sometimes in ah, in band or in a musical situation. If you're performing, you'll find yourself needing to play the melody sometimes, and sometimes you need to play the bass part. Sometimes you'll be improvising. Um, so it's important to practice all of these things and, uh, better prepare yourself for when that needs to actually happen on in a performance situation. This week we're going toe. Try playing the melody to the B section without the saxophone in the backing track, so it's just gonna be you in your instrument with the rhythm section. So this is kind of like, uh, it's kind of like flying on your own for the first time without the help of your mother kind of thing. So, um, it's important to really have really know the melody Really? Well, eso that one so that you don't need someone else to sort of keep you in check. Being a trumpet player, uh, means a lot of the time you're actually going to be playing the melody because the trumpet is sort of in more of a higher range than a lot of other instruments, like the trombone or, um, French horn or something like that. So the trumpet is basically known primarily as a melody instrument, and one of the most important things when playing the melody is to have the confidence and to play it as if you're singing to somebody, um, and not be so timid and sort of have a nice stoke volume to it. And, um, very musical vibe. So when playing the melody, as I was saying, it's important to play with confidence, I'm gonna give you a little example of what it might sound like playing with confidence versus not playing with confidence. A lot of this has to do with volume and projection, making the sound go far. And, um, confidence. Here's Here's a a version with maybe not so much confidence. Uh, so you noticed that was very quiet, and I was even messing up a few notes because I wasn't using an affair to make the note to speak properly, just like in singing You don't give it enough attitude, it might not come out the way you want. So here's an example of playing with more confidence, more volume, more attitude way. So you'll see there. That was much more nice sounding melody out, in my opinion, and I hope yours as well. There was more volume or more confidence in a little more attitude, I would say Keep up the great work we'll see in the next practice video. 21. Trumpet Week 7 practice: we're now gonna work on playing through the form, doing different things. We're going to start by playing the melody for the B section of the song followed by the bass part for the B section of song And then the melody again for the B section of the song 12 ready Now you're gonna play the bass notes for the B section of the song One we go Sure. Four Now you're gonna try playing your melody on your own with the backing track Go 22. Learn how to change your role during the entire song from lead to accompaniment.: either. This week we're gonna experiment, playing the melody of the A section and the B section as well as the base part as well as improvising. So one thing that I think trumpet players, uh, even professional trouble players encounter is having getting tired and having sore lips. And in this lesson, you're gonna probably experiment experience that, um because there's gonna be a lot of playing with outbreaks, so it's important, especially with an instrument, the trumpet to take as many breaks as you need. Ah, and never play tired because that's that'll cause injury to your lips, and it'll just make you not be able to play for a long period of time. So, um, we're gonna be playing the melody a couple of times, and then we're gonna be playing the bass part a couple of times, and then we're gonna be improvising. So, um, one thing I would say is, especially if you're playing with other musicians, it's a good thing to know that if someone else is also playing the melody with you, you can experiment with taking breaks and letting the other person take over the melody or take over the bass part if someone else is playing the same thing is you, because it can help you prepare yourself for the next section and avoid fatigue. So in this practice video, we since we're gonna be playing the melody to the A section and the B section in the bass part of improvising. Sometimes the A section is going to happen two times in a row, or the bi sexual happened two times in a row. You can experiment with only playing along with the video just the first time, or just the second time and resting each every other time. This is a good way to experiment with resting. You'll notice in Week eight video of me playing along with the tape that you might hear me using inflections such as vibrato or taking breaths in different spots. Important thing with breaths is just a tick breath when you need it. Basically, now with Melody, um, it is good to sort of look at the way the melody is shaped and where the brakes naturally occur in the melody and try to take in as much air as you didn't think. You need to complete the phrase in one breath. Um, otherwise, just breathe where you see fit and improvising. You could breathe anywhere in the base part. It's usually good to breathe. UH, Adam markers such as after each bar or after two bars or after four bars. A Sfar, a czar bottle goes. That's just sort of, ah, my choice to make the music sound a little more pretty, Sort of like when you sing see singers used by Brodell. It sort of helps make the tune sound a little more nice. Now I'm going to explain, Ah, a couple of ways you can make vibrato on the trumpet. Um, there's one way, which just involves sort of lightly shaking. Begin to shake your body to get too lightly shaped the horn. Something like this I'm doing is literally drugging my my hand back and forth. Not too hard, because I'm actually a jamming the horn into my face. So you don't want to do that too hard because I could cause an injury. The other way is to use your jaw, and you could just lightly move it up and down. Um, because the by bravo i e. I e. I find that that's a more beautiful way to play. And it also, uh is easier on enough easier on the lips in the opera Chur Good luck with vibrato. Keep up the good work we'll see in the next practice video. 23. Trumpet Week 8 practice: no practice playing melody and the bass notes and taking a solo all the same time during the song. The first form you're gonna play is the a melody once than the a section cords in the B section Melody once and the B section melody Courts one two. Ready? Go. Now you're gonna play the A melody twice the B milady twice and then improvise over a B B 12 Ready? Go Now provides way , Way over the B section. 24. Learn how to play your first scale pattern: Welcome to Week nine, Trumpet lesson in music Coach This week we're gonna talk about using, um, thirds in our improvisation and in the melody to the song. So we're talking about the a major scale, and I will demonstrate how to play the A major scale in thirds. So what that means is we're gonna take the A major scale a b c sharp d e f sharp Do you sharpen a and we're gonna play the first note skipping. Don't go back and sort of go back and forth that way. So we're gonna go from a to C sharp deed after up and selling. Here's what it sounds like. Way you'll notice I'm using my third valve slide a lot. This is a good scale to get used to using your third valve slide and making those that see sharpen that d stay in tune because they have a tendency to be sharp. Um, especially this especially noticed that when you're playing with other musicians and those two notes content to be sharp, so always use the third valves like now I'm going to demonstrate what the A major scale looks like from a value perspective going up Ascending a see? Sure. Be day C sharp de after e. Do you sure? I m sure. A t shirt g sharp again. A to finish. I'm gonna now demonstrate a major scale in third's descending from a down to the low way. A No, sir. Do you share a half shirt de a seizure? De? Okay, C sharp. Okay. Being be again. Hey, there's a little bit of ah, word of advice. Um, for when you find yourself getting tired or fatigued, you'll start to notice that your lips are getting sore. What's actually happening is your just Your body's getting tired and you're unconsciously using less air to do the work for you. So you're by compensating you're pushing. You might push the horn into your face a little bit more just to try and get those notes that especially when trying to increase your range. Um, it's sort of the bodies human nature to sort of slip into survival mode and do what you need to do whatever that takes just to get those notes out on a lot of the times, that means pushing the horn in your face. But you don't want to do that because that will cause injury eventually. So it's It's important to take breaks when you feel that fatigue coming on and you always think about the air flowing and always taking nice big breaths. Onda. Avoid pushing the most peace into your face. Keep up the good work we'll see in the next practice video. 25. Trumpet Week 9 practice: we're now going Play theme. A major scale ass ending in thirds using half notes. 12 Ready. Go! Ah, after a she Sure. Now you're going to try the same thing. Using quarter notes. 12 Ready. Go! Same thing again. 12 Ready? Go! Sure, Sure, Sure, Sure, sure, Sure. We're now gonna play the A major scale descending in thirds using half notes. 12 Ready? Go! Mm. Being seen. Okay. Uh 12 Ready? Go A. Sure. Sure, Sure, sure. Sure. Try again. 12 Ready? Go! A T shirt. Now let's play the scales. Ass ending and descending. Using half notes. 12 Ready? Go! Sure. Okay. Sure. Sure, Sure. Uh uh Ah! Now let's try it asks ending in descending using quarter notes. 12 Ready? Go. Sure, Sure. Sure. Si, Sure, sure. 26. Learn how to play your second scale pattern: Hi there and welcome the Week 10. Trumpet lesson of music Coach This week we're going to get a little bit more in depth with , uh, scale patterns using, ascending and descending four note patterns on the A major scale. Um, what we're doing here basically is just expanding the language of music, using using all the notes in the scale as you grow as a musician, it's good to get comfortable with different patterns of the notes in the scale. To make things more interesting. It's just like you. Just like learning the alphabet. You learn all the letters in the alphabet, but then you start to learn how to put them in different order to make different words. You have the word tab ta be, But you can also switch lower letters around to make backed. Same kind of thing. Um, we're just trying to make music more interesting and allow you to be more expressive through learning these different patterns. Here are the notes in the a major scale, ascending in four note patterns. A be C sharp de be C sharp, The e seizure. The yeah I m shirt de f sharp, g sharp, Yeah, after G sharp A after G sharp A g sharp. A will now demonstrate the A major scale starting at the top, Going down to the bottom in descending for no pattern with a at the top. G sharp, I'm sure. E back of g sharp, I'm sure. Mm De. I'm sure he the see? Sure. Mm. Do see? Sure. Be. Do see Sure. Be a c sharp. Be a back up to be and ending on low a Keep up the great work and we'll see in the next practice video. 27. Trumpet Week 10 practice: We're now played. Second scale pattern. We're going to begin by playing the notes as half notes. 12 Ready? Go A Sure? Uh, I m sure f g show Sure. G shirt A f Sure she share a She sure A. Now we're gonna try the same pattern again. Using quarter notes. One, two ready. Go A C Sure. See? Sure. See? Sure. F a f sharp. G sharp. A G shirt A. Now we're gonna try the same scale pattern descending using half notes. Starting on the high A 12 Ready? Go A g sharp. Sure. F sharp. F sure, Sure. I mean, Dean C sharp. I mean, sure a see. Shut a Now we're gonna play the notes Descending as quarter notes. 12 Ready? Go! Sure, Sure, Sure, Sure, sure, sure. A. Su sure. Now we're gonna play the notes ass ending and descending as quarter notes. 12 ready? Go A c? Sure, Sure. Okay. See? Sure. 28. Learn how to play embellish the melody as part of your solo: this week, we're gonna talk about improvising around the melody of a song and using, um, notes in the melody and other ways to create a nice solo, a melody. Any good melody is something that you can remember and you can sing along to think of Ah, anytime you solo as an opportunity to try and create your own melody Way one really good way to get better at improvising is to just practice playing the melody over and over in your head. Ah, and on your instrument to see you have a really good idea of how the song goes and how the melody plays against the cords. That way, when it's time to Solo, you almost have that milady in your head, running the whole time so you can practice playing parts of the melody and then veering off into your own sort of ideas and then back into the melody. Andi sort of mix the two together. If you're ever in the middle of a solo and, uh, you I seem to hear that the ban doesn't sound like they know where they are in the song. They might be playing the wrong chords or someone's got the time mixed up. One way that you can try to bring the band back in is to simply just go back to playing the exact melody, the way it is in the song that way that everybody can recognize where they're supposed to be in song and then hopefully slide back into where they're supposed to be a big thing with playing trumpet. It's always there always gonna come back to the endurance thing, and I'm getting sore and having enough strengths to keep playing. I find that improvising of ah very can be very tiring to a lot of trump players, professional or amateur, any of that, because improvising you don't necessarily know what you're about to play on. DA. The most important thing with Trump it is knowing what you're gonna play because you need to know how much air to take in and how hard to blow to know what notes are about to come out of the horn So it can be. I find it could be very tiring if you don't know what you're about to play. So it's important to, uh, take a lot of breaks when you're Soling. Try to think of, um, using space. As much as you use notes, you can take the horn up your face for a couple of bars here and there just to reset. Just experiment with the use of space and taking breaks and consoling. It'll help you a lot. Keep up the great work and we'll see in the next practice video. 29. Trumpet Week 11 practice: you have been improvised off the main melodies to start with. Play the A melody regularly once, and then the second time through improvise around the main melody. One two Ready? Go Now you're going to do the same thing with the B section of our melody. Play the melody once normally, and then improvise around the melody the second time. - Now try improvising freely over both sections, choosing to either use some of the melody or make up your own part completely. 12 ready go. 30. Learn how to put all the skills together, melody, solo, and accompaniment: Hello there. And welcome the week 12. You made it. You are now at the end of the program. Congratulations. You've worked very hard to get to this point and encourage you to keep working this week. We're gonna put everything we've learned together all in one video. So we're gonna be playing the melody. We're gonna be playing the bass notes. We're gonna be improvising. We're gonna be making a different no patterns. We're gonna put it all together, all the major all the time. Okay, One point, uh, for improvising is ah, basically, you're gonna have a certain amount of time and to play a solo, whether it's four bars, whether it's eight bars, you want that soul that I have some direction to it and you wanted to flow just like, you know, a song or a movie. There's always a climax near the end. So you want to be ableto figure out how to do that or learn how to do that while improvising. And the main way you can do that is to start simple, longer notes, quite a volume, simpler ideas, and you can sort of build that towards the faster notes like quarter notes or half notes or eighth notes even well, getting louder and ah, a little bit more intensity as you go. This can create, um, a little more energy and intensity for the listener to keep your solo interesting. On important fact. Remember, a boat soling is that you're gonna be improvising. Well, other musicians, they're playing around you and they're they're gonna be playing music to try and support you, because as a soloist, you're gonna be the most important or most focused instrument happening at that time. So it's important to listen in to what your comrade there are playing around you, whether it's the baseline coming from the bass player, Um, he's gonna be listening or he she's gonna be listening to you and trying to feed off your ideas. So he should also be aware of what the the other instruments are playing as well. So you can contrast your parts with There's music is best enjoyed as a group activity. So I would encourage you, Teoh, invite your friends over, or go to friends, places and and player and certain along with them and jam and and just enjoy music and being in another room with other people because that's where inspiration the most inspiration can come from. This is interacting with other people. And remember, don't be shy to get into the jam room and play along with the other instruments. Congratulations on getting the end of the program will see in the next practice video. 31. Trumpet Week 12 practice: we're gonna try putting together all of the pieces we have playing the melodies, playing the bass note patterns and improvising. To begin with. I want you to play the melody in the first a section, followed by the bass notes in the second, a section in the B section. We're going to use the same pattern. We're gonna play the melody on the first B and the cord notes on the second Be 12 Ready Go regular melodies based on section ability. - Now you're gonna work on building your solo by thinking about starting low and ending high and starting with a quiet sound and ending with a loud sound. Try this out with a practice video and see if you can build your solo across the whole form . 12 ready? Go finally. See if you can make up your own arrangement of how to play along with the track. 12 Ready go 32. Jam Room 60bpm: 33. Jam Room 80bpm: 34. Jam Room 100bpm: 35. MC breathing Exercise: We're now going to do a reading exercise. You're going to inhale to the count of four, hold to the count of eight, and exhale to the count of eight. And we're gonna do it four times. 12. Ready? Begin, inhale 1234, hold 12345678, exhale 12345678, inhale 1234 hold 12345678, exhale 12345678, inhale 1234 hold 12345678, exhale 12345678, inhale one, 234 hold 12345678, exhale 12345678. 36. 7 key steps to starting a band: I'm Todd, the music coach. And right now we're going to talk about how to start a band with either your friends or family. Playing music with other people is truly the richest experience you can have in music. So it's a great goal when you're just starting to learn an instrument to try and bring more people in. It's the same. If you play a sport you're gonna wanna do with your friends, you're gonna wanna do with your family and social time, a way to really express yourself. So unfortunately, for a lot of people they have no experience with how to put a band together, how to make it function properly. In a way, a bands no matter who's in it, is like a little mini tribe. And there are dynamics between people and how people communicate to each other that are important. There's also some accountability which is great to learn in terms of if you're deciding on some goals, like we're gonna learn the songs, everybody has to go out on their own and learn their own thing and come back and be accountable to the group that they're in. The first step is to choose what instruments and what kind of banded is you'd like to have. Some big decisions that you're going to want to make right away is, what do you want to have a drum kit, for example, depending on the style you want to play. Now, a drum kit is an amazing instrument, but you may not have the physical space or the ability in terms of volume to play music that loud. And a full drum kit also influences. For example, if you're gonna play an acoustic guitar with a drum kit, it's very limited how loud you can play on the drum kit without having to have the guitar amp through a guitar, through an amplifier. So that's sort of 1 first big decision you have to make. Then beyond that, you might want to think about what kind of style of music you're moved by and what kind of instruments maybe are already in that style of music. So if your favorite band is made up of, you know, electric guitars and bass and drums. And it's big and it's allowed us raucous, and that's what you wanna do. Then you probably want to organize yourself in a way where those instruments are part of the picture. But if on the other hand, you're like, I really like, you know, classical woodwind instruments. You know, I like flute and clarinet and oboe. And so those are things to think about and finding friends and family who can share a common vision of what kind of music you want to do is your first step. Once you're into choosing instruments, it's important to make sure that they're divided up in a way that will allow you to make good music and have everybody's voice be clearly heard. So you may find out that you've got two people who really want to play guitar and you might be able to make that work. What has to happen then is you have to adjust what parts everybody's playing so you can hear each other properly. But you may decide that, you know, somebody else really wants to play the guitar and I kinda wanna play the guitar, but I've always thought about playing the bass or I've always thought about playing the saxophone. And it's a chance to challenge yourself and move into new instruments. The great thing about learning second, third instruments, if you already know one, is that all of the musical knowledge that you've gained on the first instrument comes with you to the second one. So it's never really like starting over. And the more instruments you learn, the easier they get to learn, because you're just taking more and more information with you to the next experience. Just like with your own personal practice habits. Having goals as a band is really important. And every band has different goals, even professional ones. So if you may have a goal where you say, I really want to be able to play at a talent show at my school in a year. Like we, that's our, that's our goal, that's what we wanna do. Or I want to be able to play at this fundraiser or maybe the goal is I just want us to be able to once a month get together and perform just for ourselves and the songs that we really, really like. Or we want to be able to play together on holidays. Or there's certain colony music we really want to be able to play whatever those goals are. It's important to just have them be clear and have everyone understand what they are so that everyone can draw their focus and attention towards getting yourself to those goals. It's also important to make time to reset your goals when you get to where you wanna go, don't just stop. Go. Well, now that we're here, where do we wanna go next? Whether you're in an amateur band or professional band, it doesn't really matter. Scheduling time for your own practice is equally important as scheduling time for the bands practice. One of my teachers has a great saying that I love. He always told me, said, a rehearsal is not where you go to learn your part. It's where you go to learn everyone else's part. So in that sense, when you come into a rehearsal, you should already know the parts that you're going to play, at least to a general level so that you can see how they plug in and go together. And for that to happen, you'll need to schedule time on your own to practice. And generally speaking, the ratio of rehearsal time to practice time is somewhere around two to one. So if you're planning on having a half an hour rehearsal, you're probably going to need a half an hour to an hour of total practice time to make yourself ready for that rehearsal. And change a little bit depending on, you know, you might choose a song that you actually really know. So you don't really need to do too much to get ready. But as a general rule, you want to keep that in mind. Scheduling time for the band to rehearse, and also picking a place for that to happen is the next key step. The location is really important because you're going to want to be in a place where you can make the amount of noise that your band is going to be making comfortably so that you're not disturbing your neighbors or other people who aren't involved in your musical project. So a couple options are, you've heard of the classic ones. You know, garages can be great if you have one because it's usually a separate from the house enough that you can make a little more noise of the bothering people. Basements tend to be pretty good for the same reason because most of it is underground. If you are in an urban area, it can be very challenging because so many apartments and buildings are close together. But there are rehearsal rooms that you can rent by the hour, and they often have everything you need in them to play. They'll have a full drum kit. They'll have guitar amps, base amps, they'll have keyboards, even they'll have a sound system with microphones if you want to sing. And you pay by the hour. So you sometimes pay about $15 an hour and you just walk in and you play as loud as you want. They're usually soundproofed and made in a way that you can play as loud as you want. So it's a good option. And if you have three or four people together, if everybody chips in a little bit of money and you're doing it once a week or once every two weeks. It's not that expensive and it's a nice option. Scheduling the time for rehearsal is similar to scheduling your own practice time. You're going to want to check in with everybody about what their schedules are and when ideal times r. And depending on what stage of life you're in, this is going to have a huge difference if you're planning on starting a band with a bunch of 16 year-olds like year 16 and all your friends are that age. You have different schedules than somebody who's in their forties or fifties. So you want to think about when it's going to make the most sense for everybody and when it can be convenient, where everybody can be present and focused and enjoy the process and not be waking up too early, going to bed too late, trying to rush there in a real hurry. Inevitably, in any kind of tribal situation or band situation, there are gonna be conflicts. People have strong opinions about music and about their own parts, and about how the music should go and should fit together. So it's good to have a plan in place for how to resolve those conflicts. And when he combined this plan with a general sense of an agreement between people about how to communicate in conflict, this can alleviate a lot of unnecessary tension. A really simple example I'll give you is, if you're playing a part that I don't like and I communicate to you in a way that implies that I'm also not liking you at the same time. You're going to feel defensive as soon as I talk, even if my eyes, even if you agree with the idea, you're probably going to defend yourself because you're like, Hey, you're telling me you don't like me. And this is just primal human to human stuff. So learning how to talk about the music without talking about the person is a really important skill. And if you think about the language you're using, you can really become skilled at this and say, I'm feeling like the part that you're playing isn't fitting together with this other part over here. As opposed to, I don't like what you're playing because it's not working with this. So I'm talking about the same thing, but you can probably feel even through the video, there's a different energy to it. And how everyone communicates has to be carefully negotiated so that everyone feels safe and they can really express themselves clearly. Because ultimately you got to remember that making music together as a very vulnerable experience. And people need to feel like they can take chances and that it's safe. And one last thing, also, remember to take the time to really cheer each other on, makes a huge difference if somebody speaks up about something that you're doing in a positive way, this doesn't have to be manufactured or phony. But if you hear someone playing something and you're really digging in and it's like you're feeling it may start to tell them like that's a great, you're like you're playing that amazing and like what you came up with his sounds great. And I'm really digging in. This kind of positive real reinforcement just creates this sense of everybody is rowing the boat together in the same direction, which is part of what makes playing in a band feel so amazing. You feel like you're part of a team and everybody's working together towards the same goal. So learning how to do that is also important. You may come from a cultural background or a family background where there just wasn't a lot of encouragement. So I know you have to use something that sometimes you have to cultivate and learn how to do. But it's really important and it makes a huge difference in the sense of togetherness that you have in a band. 37. General gear guide: Music coach. And this is a bonus feature where I'm going to talk about some general tools that every instrumentalist should have with them. They're not very expensive, but they're gonna make a huge difference to the quality of your practice. And also if you're rehearsing with other musicians, the things I got in front of me are two different music stands and a tuner and a metronome. So first, let's talk about the music stands. There are two basic types. This one is a solid music stand. It does fold up. They're a little bit more expensive, but there are a lot more practical to use, especially if they're just going to live at your house. I'd recommend spending a little more money getting something that's a little more durable. Because the other option are these wire foldable stands, which are great for traveling with. But because they're not solid, things can fall through the screws and everything on them are usually a little bit cheap and it'll sometimes bend easily. So the difference in price, these wire ones are going to be sort of 20 to $30. These are going to be closer to a $100. But in the long run, I recommend getting a good solid music stand. If you're going to be in one location. A chromatic tuner. If you're playing an instrument where pitch is going to be an issue, which is almost every single instrument, with the exception of the drum kit and the piano. You're gonna need to know whether you're playing sharp or flat and how to make adjustments. And the only real way to do that is with a chromatic tuner. These will cost you around $30 and they have basic functionality. They take a AAA battery. One nice thing that's happened in the last few years is most apps stores for smart phones have some kind of a free tuner. And even for like a dollar or two, you can buy a more advanced version. So if you don't feel like having a physical one, I have owned these for a long time, so I've got them. You can download something to your smart phone and make sure to use it to be constantly checking in to see where you're at or you playing sharp or flat and certain registers. And a note for guitar players, you might think that a guitar tuner, which is something that's sold in stores, would be the right thing for a guitar or bass. And in fact, the guitar tuner isn't really useful at all because it's always checking to see what string you're on. It's trying to figure out, are you on the sixth string, on the fourth string. And we actually want us to be able to know is that string I'm playing, playing the right note. The other reason this is important is if your guitar gets really at a tune, a guitar tuner won't really give you a relative sense of where you are. You'll have to get a close before it's even usable. So I don't even recommend ever even buying a guitar tuner. Metronomes track time. And this one looks like the same as the chromatic tuner, but it basically is set, you can set it to how many beats per minute. Which a simple way to think of it as 60 beats per minute is like the second hand on a clock, because it's 60 clicks in a minute. And if you had a 120 beats per minute, you'd have two clicks for every second. A good metronome, we'll have a couple of important features. You want to make sure you get one that has the ability to plug headphones into it. Especially if you're a drummer, because the speaker on this is never going to be loud enough for you to hear it while you're playing drums or even to be honest, playing most instruments. So you want something with a headphone adapter and you also wanna make sure that you have something where you can easily change the tempo. So they all have the ability to change the tempo, but some of them will go up in increments of three or four. Just make sure it's something that you can adjust the tempo evenly. And last but not least, it's important to have one that you can clearly, visually see as well, that it's easy to see the display because sometimes when you're playing, you're going to want to just check and check on visually where you're at in terms of the time. And much like the tuner, you can download these off of most apps stores, there's almost always a free one. Sometimes they're not great. But for a dollar or two, you can upgrade and get a more advanced metronome, which will work great. And this is going to cost you about $30. So a dollar or two on an app store to upgrade the free version is often what I recommend for my students. 38. How to create a furtile musical home: I'm Todd, the music coach, and welcome to this video where we're going to talk about how to create a fertile ground for a musical home to grow. I'm sure that you've had the experience of walking into someone else's house for a party or a holiday. And it seems like everyone is musical, like people picking up guitars and sitting at pianos and singing along. And it just seems like it's all natural and it's happening and it's really beautiful. And you may have wondered like, how does that happen? How do those homes happen? And unfortunately, you might think, well, those people are, that's a musical family. And their, their musical, and I'm not, and that's the reason why we don't have that. And that's a complete and total lie. The truth behind it is that those people found a way to create a fertile ground for people to feel safe and express themselves and challenge themselves and set goals so that they could play music together. And they probably did all of this without even really knowing that that's what they were doing. So I'm going to lay it out free, explain how this actually happens. So in my family home, there were no musicians. My parents loved music, but they didn't play. I didn't grow up watching people play. And both my brother and I ended up being professional musicians. So you might go, How did that happen? And there were a lot of things that my parents did that I think they didn't even realize that they were doing. One really simple thing is we listened to music and we talked about what we liked about it. And hearing them share that with me was really invaluable. And we took long car rides. We would listen to, I know that my parents, there was an oldies stations that they really liked, which was like fifties and sixties rock. And we had dialogues about like who is that artists and when did you first hear that? And they would share stories with me about where they were when they heard that song or what kind of meaning it had to them. So a great way to set this up for yourself is in your own home, you can initiate it. And a great way to do it is to allow everyone a chance, even if you've got little people in your life to share a piece of music that they feel moved by. And feeling moved by music can be all sorts of different feelings. It doesn't have to just make B the song makes me feel happy. It can be this song makes me feel sad or the song makes me feel like agitated, or it's just what you're looking for, something that makes you feel something. And a good forum for that is to go to the living room and decide that we're going to we're going to spend a half an hour doing this and everybody gets to pick one song. You might wanna set some ground rules where, you know there's not gonna be any songs with any swearing editor inappropriate, whatever for your family, you feel as appropriate. And then while you put your song on, everybody agrees to be in silence and really listening. And this just developed so much good ability, not just for music, but just the ability to sit for three to five minutes at a time and really listen to what's going on around you is such an important life skill that will really have a huge impact on everyone. And you might want to set some other very simple ground rules, which is, it's like the everything I learned, I learned in kindergarten, which is if you don't have anything nice to say, you don't have to say anything. It's better not to say something really negative. Because. People are sharing something that means something to them. And learning how to have that dialogue is important to be able to say, it's not to my taste, instead of it's socks or I don't like that song or it's the same way that we teach each other how someone prepares a beautiful meal for you and it's something you don't like to eat. You can talk to them about that in a way that's not going to hurt their feelings in music is the same way. You can then expand on this game by adding in some other artistic elements. One really fun one that I like to do is do the same thing, put on a piece of music. Everyone gets to bring something that they feel moved by. And everybody just takes a piece of paper and during that time, they just draw or sketch something that they feel is connected to their experience of that music. And then everybody can share that with each other and talk about, well, I shaded this thing this way because it made me feel good to think of a cloud, or it made me think of a tree, or it made me think of this or that. And again, it's, it's an exercise in not being critical. It's just expressing yourself through art while listening at the same time. And another variation of it can be to do the same thing of having a listening circle and have everyone write down an idea for a short story. Something that they either through the lyrics, if it has that kind of thing in it or if it's instrumental, just talk about ice. You know, I'm seeing a story about somebody walking their dog in the woods when I hear this. And again, as long as no one is being harsh with each other about it, it's a really neat window into how we all experience music differently. Making time to watch movies that are about famous musicians are famous music is also another great way to help get a really fertile ground for music going in your own home. There are tons of great documentaries about all sorts of things, about the backup musicians in Motown or you know, even about famous composers like Mozart and Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. You can watch and discuss and talk about what their music, the music of that artist, or what the story of that musician, how it, what you thought about it and what it meant to you. The more you share your own experience with other people about how music moves you, the more it grows inside of you and more passion that you have for it with all of us traveling and car so much these days. Another great musical fertilization that you can do is to plan on having music on car trips and really having people listen for a lot of us. Actually, the best stereo that you're going to own is going to be in your car. Car stereos are usually quite high-quality, So it's a great way to experience music. One thing that's happened, unfortunately, as we've gotten into more individual devices of smartphones and mean it started with Walkmans and CD players and things like that is we tend to experience music isolated. Each person will have earphones in and be in their own world experiencing music, which in a way is great. It's nice to have some personal time with music. But one of the things we've really lost is the connection and the sharing of our joy with each other. So trying to set that up on, on travel, times together with your family can be great or with your friends and just talking about and sharing it and letting everybody have a turn with the stereo and okay. 39. How to create a sucessfull practice routine: Hi, I'm Todd, the music coach. And in this video, I'm going to be talking about how to set yourself up for long-term success when you're practicing music and learning an instrument. The biggest challenge I've found, not only for me personally, but for most of my students. It's not the technical requirements of whatever instrument they are playing, or even how much innate ability that they have when they start. The biggest challenge people have with consistently making progress in music has to do with their practice habits. And for most of us, we have a negative reaction to that idea. Even practice habits, discipline these things. We feel like we get tense about it. And adjusting your relationship to those ideas will open you up to being able to fully embrace all of your abilities and really take giant leaps forward in your playing. I know for me personally, I realized early on I had to change my relationship to what I thought practicing meant, how it worked, what I thought discipline meant. And I had to really re-frame in my mind what it meant to play an instrument. This has a lot to do with where the way we're, we're perceive learning a musical instrument and society unfortunately is largely negative. You've probably seen this mostly what you get fed in the outer surroundings is that some people have talent and some people don't have talent. And when you go to a concert and you watch someone play, you think, well, they're just have it. And that's why they sound amazing. And this doesn't in any way reflect reality. It may be that they had some natural ability, but there's thousands of hours that went into what you're seeing when you see someone performing in a professional context. Then the question becomes, well, how did they get from not playing it all to having the discipline and the patients and learning the right things to get all the way through that process. And although musicians will give you a variety of different answers, I think the best way to do it is to find a healthy way that's realistic and is repeatable. So what first key to having real success in your practicing is to set goals. Because like anything else in life, if you have an idea of where you wanna go, It's a lot easier to tell where you are in that journey. Rather than just a loose idea of like, I want to learn how to play this instrument. And if you have that thought and it just sort of dissipates out into the air. When things get difficult, you're more likely to quit because it's like, where am I in the middle of that journey? As opposed to you could say, my goal is I want to, for example, I want to play the piano and I want to learn how to play these three songs in the next year. And he may have no idea how you're gonna do it, but even just having that goal is going to help propel you along. And when you hit rough patches, you can check in with yourself and your goals and you go, Am I doing the things that I need to get to my goal? A good goal to think about when you're playing a musical instrument is how to get to a place where you can make music with other people. Music throughout human history has always been a community event. It's only in the last few 100 years that it's sort of moved into conservatories and into school settings. And we've isolated from each other. And somehow we've lost the idea that the point of it is that you can actually make music with another real life human being. So my suggestion, if you're not quite sure what goal to set, I'd pick a goal that involves eventually playing with other people. Whether that's joining a band or just playing with a friend and going like my friend also plays the guitar and I want to be able to play the same song so we can play together. Another really big key to long-term success with practicing is finding a consistent time of day that you're the best frame of mind and being to practice in. And this is different for everybody and which is why there is no one answer of everyone should practice like at five o'clock or I mean, that's not helpful for anybody. We all have different lives and different schedules and commitments. I suggest you experiment around with it a bit. I found for me personally, I feel the best practicing early in the morning. And for me it's just I find my mind is very clear and relaxed and I haven't been sort of inundated with emails and phone calls and other commitments. And I set aside a small amount of time, not every day of the week, but four or five days a week. Because I'm a professional musician, I have to work on a lot of things, but for you it might be one or two times a week and I block off that time and when I'm there, I'm as present as I can be and I'm working on my goals to get me closer to where I wanna go next. Some things to think about, about when the time of day is going to be, when you're gonna practice, are make sure you have had enough sleep. So waking up too early if you're going to bed too late is not going to be ideal. Make sure that you've had something to eat. If you're really hungry, like if you get home from work or school and you're starving, it's not going to be ideal for your nervous system in your body to be in a calm place. So make sure that you've had something to eat. But you also may find you don't want to play right after you eat something because you might feel a bit full. So these are things to think about about where in your day you're going to plan to have your practice time. When it comes to practicing, quality is so much more important than quantity. Unfortunately, you may have even already heard from other music teachers that you gotta practice for an hour every day or half an hour every day or so many hours per week. And this information isn't really helpful because the quality of the time you're putting in is what's really important. If you were to take the same approach to eating food and say, well, the way you get nourishment and your body is you sit at the dinner table for 45 minutes. It's missing so much of the point. There are so many other factors. Are you eating too much or you are not eating healthy foods? Are united eating at all? Are you just sitting there and practicing music is the same. You can sit down with your instrument for an hour and not only make no progress, you can actually regress because if you're reinforcing bad habits, then you're not actually you actually making your playing worse. So what I like to tell my students is focus on the quality. Five minutes of really focused practice can change your life forever. I know for me it's that way. I had this. I had to start out by getting the routine working first rather than trying to figure out what I was going to even practice. So picking a small thing and being consistent with it. And when you're there, challenging yourself to do a little more of it each time is the best way to go. Now in life, things are gonna come up. You're gonna get sick. You're going to have to travel places. You're going to have holidays, all of these things. And it's important to be flexible with your practice routine and to think a little bit into the future. And so for me, for example, when I'm planning, when I'm going to be practicing, i'm taking into account some of those factors, the ones that I can control anyway. So like if I know that I've got family coming to visit and I'm going to be busy entertaining people and doing things. I will suddenly is put my practice routine on hold to give my full attention to that. Knowing that when the time is right, I'm going to come back and be fully focused rather than trying to ram in practice time when you're distracted with other things. The same can be true of getting sick, having a cold and flu, something like that. I would say it's good to have a break from things. And always when you're practicing, you want to be in a good frame of mind and being. Because you're not just practicing musical information, you're training your body to have a relationship with the gaining of musical language. And if your body is in a frenetic state, every time you do that, when you go to touch your instrument, it literally will reset your brain to feel anxious and upset. Now the other side of that is that if you can train yourself to be calm and presence every time you're with your instrument. Pretty soon after a while, you'll just go over and pick it up and your body will come into a calm place. Before I practice, I like to take a moment and before I even touched the instrument or put it together and just see if I can get myself. I sometimes close my eyes and take a few deep breaths and try and get myself into a very calm place because I want to reinforce that with everything that I'm learning. If you don't have any experience with meditation, I highly recommend that through whatever form you can find, you find a good practice that's small and to the point where you can get yourself into a calm and relaxed place before you start. Another key element to actually getting towards your goals is to make sure to always be challenging yourself. There's this fine line when you're learning new things between going over what you already know and challenging yourself to do something new. And the balance, you might think, well, once I learned how to do a few things, I'm only just going to ever wanna do those things over and over again. But what will happen is you'll start to get bored with what you can already do. And a good thing I like to tell my students is you should always be feeling a little bit uncomfortable when you're practicing. And I don't mean like nervous and agitated, but you should be doing things where you're not getting it right all the time. Because you want to be that's a sign that you are actually working on something that's making you better. It's the whole point of practicing in the first place. I work on things on my own so that when I go play with other people, I can have more things that I can express. Not so that I can just repeat the same things that I already know how to do over and over again.