Range and How We Use the Air in the most important thing to think about when we are playing high notes on the trumpet. Here are some tips to help us master the high notes.

1. Too muscle based. How We Use The Air For Range is the # 1 tool of a brass player.

2. Compression + compression + mouthpiece pressure = NO aperture for the air to go through. Basically the tight muscular chops create such a small lip aperture that any other help closes and seals them. The pressure needed for a seal between the lips and the mouthpiece is not a lot but it WILL have some affect on the lips. Added to that the air column needed to play high is trying to blow the chops open. This actually blows them forward and that puts some of the embouchure inside the cup of the mouthpiece. This also closes the lip aperture. Lastly there is feedback added to your lips from the pressure wave inside the horn returning to your lips. This feedback from the horn stops at around a high g. The reflecting boundary is pushed out farther and farther as you ascend. And this causes a lot of players to have a break in range. When you add all of this together you have sealed them shut.

3. I was where you are now. You have all of the tools but you need to relax the chops so that the sound can be released. It is possible that you could accomplish that in a short time. It is possible that it also takes forever. This is now about overcoming the severe handicap of thought.

You know the facts. High notes need compression……. How We Use The Air For Range is important so you make an effort to add compression. Along with this some extra air support, a little more mouthpiece pressure. These things are what keep 95% of all high f and g players from being triple high c players.

At some point you have to not only stop adding pressure but actually take some away. That’s why Stevens and Mendez both told people of the ability to play a “No pressure note”. For the sake of a good sound you don’t want to go that far. You do want to pull the mouthpiece away and allow the lips to respond to the air. I use less mouthpiece pressure to play a double c than I do to play a g on top of the staff. If I use the same as I do for high c the note will NOT sound. Make an effort to pull the horn away from your top lip as you play higher.

1st lesson for range

Well the real key (To Think About) is to move the air faster and farther. Thinking and reality often differ. But thinking about actions or outcomes really helps to play. So I think about How We Use The Air For Range.

To keep abdominal reserve strength work on a natural approach below 4th space e. If you place your hand on your stomach and sing a g or c you will find that you do not tense your muscles. Check to see if you are using this same relaxed approach to playing. It only takes a day or two to learn this and you have more strength to speed up the air in the high c area.

For the mental part there are several points. Low notes are more non-directional than high ones. All you want to do is let them roll out of the bell onto the floor. Nice and relaxed using warm breath (haaa). The higher notes are directional and you want to shoot them through the horn to the back of the room. Use cold air like cooling soup. Music is an expressive art not an athletic event. Don’t go for records work on painting a picture.

As for the chops always set them for a g on top of the staff. This can prevent dozens of problems. Plus it is only an octave to high g over high c and an octave and a half to low c. Most problems come about because the set was on a low note like second line g. Now you have to muscle two octaves to get to g over high c. This is really a big deal. It is easier to set for the upper register and relax for the low notes than to set for the low ones and fight the high ones.

Make sure that you have a close (lips touching) embouchure then let the high notes out. To get a feel for what the lip needs to do in order to play higher try this. Put your teeth together and place a pencil between your lips. Let the eraser touch the front of the teeth. The other end (unsharpened please) will stick straight out in front. Raise and lower the end of the pencil using only the lip muscles. Raising the pencil takes lip compression (lip against lip) as do higher notes. This is also used by some as an exercise to strengthen the lips.

95% of the people that ask about endurance and range exert too much overall pressure (chops, abdominal, mouthpiece) and the notes can not escape into the horn. Relax the chops and pull the mouthpiece away from your lips as you ascend. The extra compression and force of the air column are already trying to blow the lips toward the mouthpiece. Pull away and give them some room to buzz. It may sound strange but I’ve seen it work hundreds of times.

Pops

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I prefer the use of lip slurs and trills combined with playing simple melodies as opposed to arpeggios. Using Lip Slurs to Develop Range is great because I can really think about my anchor tongue and how my whistle helps me access the high notes. I can concentrate on the tongue moving toward the teeth and then up as I whistle the lip slurs.

I like to do a lot of music about a third under my highest notes. Playing a lot of note a third to a fifth under your highest notes allows you to play more music and not strain and get so many bad sounding squeaks. 

I do some arpeggios but not a lot because arpeggios are like flagpoles no more than 1 of each note played. I like to do exercises and melodies so that I get to play accessible notes more than once and work on owning those notes.

Another thing I like is lip trills which is just a small fast lip slur.

The reason is that lip trills help to keep your lips flexible while arpeggios tend to make them stiff. Also by playing simple melodies one or two octaves up you work on musicianship and ear training not just making awful squeals and squeaks.

Any melody will work Mary had a little lamb or any melody I have included Blue Bells of Scotland as an example. When you can play it up 1 octave then work on playing it up 2 octaves.

You will notice that it is more difficult to play a melody than to do arpeggios but it is much more beneficial as well.

Pops

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There is a huge difference between playing music and “WORKING on your range”. I worked on my range 30 years ago and forgot how to play. That’s one reason I ended up at Don Jake Jacoby’s house. I needed to learn How To Build Musical Range.

The weightlifting / marathon running concept applied to trumpet playing often leads to failure because they get too involved in it and forget real music.

Every aspect of playing that is important in the lower and middle register is also important above the staff. ie tone, phrasing, smooth slurs, clean tonguing, vibrato. We learn these by playing music like the Concone studies or the Charlier exercises.

Well, if you want those same skills in the upper register then play music in the upper register. A month of playing those same Concone studies an octave up will do more for your playing than a year of arpeggios, scales , pushups or anything else. Yes it is HARD to do. It is NOT fun and since you will not perfect it in a day or two then you don’t get that “feeling good about yourself as you hit your first squeeky high r.”

The arpeggio approach builds muscle but not control, not tone, no tonguing skills, it stiffens and causes a loss of flexibility . But it does make you “FEEL good” after all you can see that you moved a note. The arpeggio / scale exercises are all gross muscle building. These will help you to pound out a high note at the end of a chart but they will not help you to play musically up there. They were designed to take you to a certain point and no further. Even the names imply their goals Stevens costello triple high c.. double high c in minutes.. double high c in 37 weeks. They shoot for the student to be able to ————— hit —————- a certain note.

My goal is for you to play it.

Let’s look at how most people develop their range. From low c to g on the staff they played scales, etudes, SONGS, ect. From high c to super c they played arpeggios holding the top note. So the lower register was developed by making music and it IS musical. While the upper register was ‘developed’ by making noise and it is NOT musical. I hope that my point is clear. Arpeggios, scales and slurs are only for power. To make music you must play music.

Maynard Ferguson developed his range by playing the Arban book an octave up. Jacoby had me use the Williams book. It’s the same idea. To be reliable you have to play music. You have to work on tonguing, lip trills, vibrato, phrasing, you know total music. That’s what makes Maynard Ferguson, or Bill Chase different. They played musically.

How To Build Musical Range is also why I took the time to write a 985-page range extension exercise book. I used many exercises from each section of the Arban and added many of my own exercises.  Then going up a note at a time up to an octave. It is free on my Trumpet Foundation page. Trumpet Foundation Page

Let me expand on How To Build Musical Range by playing musically in the upper register. I’ve known players who developed range by arpeggios only. It works to a point. They worked on it as weight training. (Every other day. The problem was that they increased the stiffness in their lips to a point where they lost flexibility. This approach also easily leads to requiring an embouchure shift. Think about it as you play your 1 octave arpeggio or even a scale the starting note gets higher and higher. You take a breath and play the next series. You take another breath …. There is an almost overwhelming desire to make subtle changes on each breath.

Here is a test start on high c and play an arpeggio up then play it down to low c. Was it slow to respond or of a poor tone quality? Then you are playing with an embouchure shift. There are some ways to avoid this.

Always set your chops for a g on top of the staff. It is only an octave to high g and only an octave and a half to low c. When you do practice arpeggios or scales up for range always play them back down to low c or below on the same breath. This will help you to learn to play all registers with one embouchure.

The reason to play simple songs one or two octaves up is to learn to play musically. Even if it is Mary had a little lamb there IS phrasing. Take a group of melodies that you already have ie Concone (legato or the lyrical studies), Hering 32 etudes, old H.S or Jr. High solos, allregion music, Beethoven transcriptions. Play each exercise 2 times the first time as written and the second time 8va. I used all of these plus The Lazarus Method for Clarinet. Hey clarinet parts move around and if you practice this stuff no lead book will ever throw you.

So you say that you have tried all of this yet still the notes don’t come out. Then you are not letting the sound out. There are several ways that this can happen. Too much lip compression will roll the lips in so far that the air can NOT come out. Too much pressure on your top lip can pin it and again hold in the sound. Finally Too much lip curl will prevent the notes from coming out. The difference in embouchure set between low c and second line g is almost none. After all it is only a fifth. So why do people make faces and strain when going from high c to high g. It too is only a fifth. Very little difference in embouchure setup just more airspeed.

Pops

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