Archived under: Mellophones & Marching | Beginners
From the Mailbag: Trumpet to Mellophone–an Easy Switch
I was recently contacted by a parent who had a child that had been asked to switch from trumpet to mellophone for marching band. The youngster is an incoming high school student, and had an audition coming soon on mellophone.
In short, it won’t be very hard for a student at this level to adjust from trumpet to F mellophone. The pitches sound in a different position (lower) but the fingerings are exactly like trumpet in relation to the printed music.
The key, brief suggestions for the audition would be to have an instrument for at least a few days first if possible and don‘t play it on a trumpet mouthpiece, the tone will be very harsh and the instrument won‘t play as well as it should. Any handy trumpet music will work fine for initial practice. Welcome to the middle brass!
For more on the mellophone check out The Mello Zone.
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