One problem many brass players face is the variety of styles that they are forced to play with, sometimes even within one concert. Styles can range from jazz to classical to swing to pop with the change of a measure. If you find yourself having to adjust to a new style, every time you just had gotten used to another style, this tutorial is for you.

The first step, of course, is to understand how the styles are supposed to feel, and what should be portrayed musically to the audience at what time. Stylistically, you will be concentrating on your vibrato and rhythm for these changes.

When the styles change in a single concert, it is generally a good idea to have a vision of how these two areas need to be performed. Does the vibrato need to be distinguished and extended? Or does it need to be subtle and easy-going? Is the rythm more of a swing style? Or is it a strict classical movement?

The most important thing, though, is practice. No matter how well you know a style, you will never be able to transition smoothly and correctly between pieces of music if you do not practice them first. First practice the pieces individually, to make sure you understand the style. Next, put the pieces together and practice transitioning between the two styles.

Once you are on the performance stage, listen to yourself. Are you playing the right style? How it your vibrato? Is your rhythm correct? These questions and steps will help you to play with a transition of styles that is smooth, connected and very professional.

One thing many directors fail to teach trumpet players is the importance of buzzing. Warming up, playing and general performance can be increased by doing buzzing exercises prior to playing.

As opposed to what many think, it is a better idea to play scales, chords and other random notes, as opposed to playing long drawn out notes. Playing long notes can "lock" a trumpet player into that note on their buzz, and actually make it more difficult to hit notes on the instrument itself.

For best results, you should buzz low, slowly get as high as you can, and then progress downwards. You can slip into arpeggios or other forms to make this process more interesting if you would like to. Buzzing on a mouthpiece prior to warm up isn't something that seems interesting, or even useful, but simply try buzzing for about 5 minutes prior to your next warm up with the instructions above and you will see a difference.

Vibrato is one of the key elements a trumpet player needs to master in order to influence an audience's mood for a piece. Vibrato can change the feeling from smooth and flowing to tense and suspenseful in one click of the metronome.

As opposed to some other instruments, the trumpet player’s vibrato comes from a fluctuation in pitch, rather than the loudness. This fluctuation can be caused by either a movement of the hand or the lip. Essentially, vibrato is the player pulling the mouthpiece slightly away from the lip, causing the pitch to drop.

To create vibrato with the mouth, loosen and tighten the embouchure, forming the sound “yaw-yaw-yaw…” silently with the mouth. Specifically, loosen the embouchure, open the jaws and drop the tongue a bit.

Although many players can lip down almost a quarter tone, it is very difficult to lip up that same amount. Also, when a note is lipped down, this opens the embouchure and generally makes a richer tone than lipping upward.

Also, if you are planning on playing a piece that uses extensive amounts of vibrato, it is generally a good idea to tune the instrument slightly sharp. As vibrato lowers the pitch on the instrument, tuning a bit sharp will compensate for this and make it more enjoyable for the ear.

For specific vibrato, it should be a good 5 or 6 smooth “yaw”s per second. If you use to few “yaw”s, you will sound very wobbly, while too many “yaw”s will make the vibrato sound tense and shaky.

To master vibrato, implement it into a part of your daily warm up. Spend a small amount of time holding out notes and counting the vibrato waves every second. Work on making the waves as smooth as possible, until it becomes natural to you.

When vibrato is to be used in the upper registers, many players find that it is hard to dip down, and often create a jerky vibrato that doesn’t sit well with the instrument. This can be resolved by practicing smooth waves in the upper register during a warm up or practice.

Another problem many players face is the natural tendency to put vibrato and swelling on every note. I know it sounds beautiful and you want to show it off as much as you can (you’re a trumpet player…aren’t you?), but it should be refrained for long notes that require a lot of emphasis and feeling. This will allow for the greatest effect in the music.

Don’t try and match other trumpets you have heard before, this is what leads people down the drain. Learn vibrato on your own, and, instead of trying to sound like a professional player, try to make good vibrato of your own form. If you need further assistance on your vibrato, a trumpet teacher should be able to give you good examples of the correct form needed to make it sound perfect.

Practicing dynamics is not generally a common occourance for most trumpet players, but is vital none-the-less. Most guides recommend playing at 60% soft levels, 20% medium levels and 20% forte and fortissimo levels, and I couldn't agree more.

The logic is this, a player could never last performing a suite of music in a symphony, and could never play a Concerto if they played forte the entire piece. Also, it would just be plain boring.

Building a warm-up routine is the best way to practice this. Whether it be modifying your school's or your own warm up routine to get softer and louder as the warm-up goes on, or simply holding notes at graduating values of volume, it's up to you. You should practice to the extremes of your range, to the extremes of the dynamic ranges. This is the only way that practicing these will be effective.

A tip a friend of mine from a leadership camp gave me to improve my range and endurance is as follows:

1. Get a full-length pencil, and stick it inbetween the middle of your lips by the eraser.
2. The pencil should not go behind the front teeth, or even touch them.
3. Hold the pencil parallel to the ground as long as you can. Remember, the pencil is light at first, but you will start to feel it if you are doing it correctly.
4. Hold the pencil there as long as you can, burning lips just means you're building muscle there, which will help you to improve your range and endurance.

Make sure you give yourself plenty of recovery time between lip exercises. Constantly doing this won't help, you need to give time for the muscle to rebuild itself. This method will be useless if you do not give your lips time to rebuild. A good idea is to work very hard on your lips repeatedly (in a short period of time), and then wait 48 hours before repeating.

I can personally vouch for this method, because, in the past week when I have been trying this, I have already seen results.

So you want to be a lead trumpet, but every time you come back from the summer your chops are back down to a beginner level? You are a lead trumpet, and you want to keep up your endurance and performance levels? Check out this tutorial for some tips.

These should be done as often as possible, if not every day. Not only will these practices cause your performance levels to increase, but you will find that your range will improve along with many other things you only dreamed of.

1. You should always warm up before you play. Start with low notes and gradually get higher. Playing low notes allows your lungs to get used to the pressure needed to play the horn and also allows your lips to get ready to play accurately.

2. Play some technical studies. No, these are not songs, these are little music pieces, usually 1 to 3 lines, that are very technical and are specifically written for player improvement. Play the technical pieces both tonging and slurring, and then mix it up.

3. Work on lip slurs. Work on slurs that change fingerings, as well as slurs that have the same fingering. This post explains more about lip slurs and how to improve them.

4. Play through all the major scales. Knowing all the scales is a great way to step into many forms of music, from classical to jazz. Improv especially. Always play to the top of your range daily. Don't just skip up there and play some high notes, play scales up to them. If you want to try and improve your range, try hitting a half step higher than your highest note, but don't force it. That will only hurt your lips.

You should take as much rest time between exercises as you need, there is no rush playing. Always use minimal mouthpiece pressure, and concentrate on correct embouchure and breath control.

So you've been trying to do slurs on the trumpet, but can't make it very smooth? Do you find them exceptionally hard to master? This tutorial may be for you.

One major problem many trumpet players naturally face, is that they move their fingers too slow. Because the notes are supposed to be smooth and connected, many players believe that, even if they don't mean to, their fingers need to move slower also. This is definitely not the case.

When playing slurs, fingerings should be made quickly and at the same time. Some players tend to put down the fingers at separate times, almost like going down chromatically to the note. This should never be done, especially when playing slower music.

When a player uses lip slurring, or when they go between two notes that have the same fingerings, a common problem is that the player does not change their embouchure, or does not change it enough, to allow the appropriate amount of air enter the horn.

To correctly play lip slurs upwards, you need to quickly tighten the embouchure, while moving your tongue higher up on your palette. A good method I personally use is to think of the mouth shape for "AAH-EE"

When going downwards, you need to quickly relax your embouchure and move your tongue lower on your palette. Opposite of the upwards motion, you should think of an "EE-AAH" mouth shape for this move. Some find that moving the jaw forward a slight bit can make this move easier.

Welcome to Trumpet Doctor. This journal gives tips for improving performance, endurance and overall quality of a trumpet player.