Two Things from a Trumpet Class

April 18, 2008 by John Ericson 1399No comments yet...http://hornmatters.com/2008/04/two-things-from-a-trumpet-class/Two+Things+from+a+Trumpet+Class2008-04-18+10%3A44%3A00John+Ericson

I often say that you can pick up a lot from other brass players. Soloist and Arizona State University Regents Professor of trumpet David Hickman gave on Wednesday a version of his presentation/demonstration for the ITG conference this summer for our Brass Area. In it there were two points that stood out for me.

1. In the lower range of the trumpet, below the staff, he suggested sort of a pouting, rolling out of the lower lip. We horn players spend ages working on the low range. At least a good horn player does. In that range normal pedagogy involves dropping the jaw and/or a change of angle. But I always tell students in the end how they achieve the result (the goal is a result, after all) will be personalized and unique. I believe some players will be able to make some use of his rolling out suggestion on the horn.

2. Every advanced trumpet player should have at least four mouthpieces they use regularly; a normal orchestral mouthpiece, a medium small mouthpiece for lighter situations, a very small mouthpiece for light/extreme situations, and a trumpet-Flugelhorn mouthpiece for extra dark situations (yes, something like the Curry 1HTF that works for horn players on mellophone).

In relation to point 2, a lot of pretty advanced hornists are stuck on one mouthpiece. Preparing for a version of my High Horn presentation this weekend in Potsdam I tried again my Moosewood BD cup mouthpiece and will say it; everyone needs one of these for special situations. On regular music it is too shrill and cutting but it really helps the top of the horn in certain light, high situations. For those on a budget, the Yamaha 30C4 is similar and will give some of the same result.

For me there are actually four mouthpieces I use quite regularly. My regular mouthpiece right now is a Laskey 80J. I use the BD cup on descant mostly, on the type of music I would play on descant (see my book). I use a Laskey 80F on Wagner tuba for the darker tone. And finally I normally use a Stork CMA 12 on natural horn for an even darker tone.