Play High Notes on the Trumpet
So you want to learn how to hit the high notes? All it takes is practice, support, a good embouchure and air.
Steps
- After you pick up the horn, take about three deep trumpet breaths, then place your mouthpiece at your mouth. Blow through the mouthpiece until you get a buzz going using the least amount of air and energy.
- Using a piano if your ear is not good enough, play one note on the mouthpiece only, followed by the note one step above it. Continue this for a maximum of two minutes.
- Play three notes up, 5 notes up, and back down and try to play a scale. You may also want to do a siren, where you are going from the middle of your range to the bottom, to the top, back to the middle. Try to do this without any breaks. Don't force it. If you can't play the higher notes, don't work too hard. They will come with practice.
- Place the mouthpiece in the horn now.
- Blow through the horn for about 1 minute without playing any notes. Make sure you're taking deep breaths and exhaling with ease. Use warm air. Also be sure to keep the airflow constant. Don't pause after the inhale.
- Begin playing with some major scales, using long tones. Start with the C (concert Bb) scale, working your way up to the next major scale. Do this for 5-10 minutes.
- Begin playing arpeggios (1-3-5-8). Again start at C (concert Bb) and work your way up. Perform this for 2-5 minutes.
- By this time you should be quite warm. If not, do some lip slurs, going no higher than E (concert D) at the top of the staff.
- Start by playing the G (concert F) right above the staff. If you have a metronome, set it at 60 beats per minute. Hold that note for 4 beats (equivalent to 4 seconds) and then proceed up a half step every 2 beats until you reach high C (concert Bb). Do this for 2-5 minutes. If this is too much, keep practicing up to this part until your chops have gotten strong enough to move on.
- Work on expanding your range through lip slurs. Start on C (concert Bb) and slur up and down from there while keeping the same fingering. Keep your slur slow so you can center each note as it's played. Gradually work up the scale, by half-step, as high as you're able to play.
- Repeat! One time isn't good enough. This takes consistent practice. You will begin to lose strength if you rest for more than two days. Persistence is crucial while expanding your range.
- When you get to the highest note that you can play, just tongue and play it over and over and over again. This is very tedious work, but the payoff is excellent, you will build the muscles needed to play that note every time you play it, so, make a little rhythm, whatever you need to make it, just a little interesting.
- Try buzzing your lips together to mimic the sound of a trumpet. Get tighter until you reach the highest pitch buzz that you can make. Keep that same embouchure and put the line in between your lips at the lowest playable section of your mouthpiece (screamers and shallow mouthpieces help a lot). Now blow some good, fast air and hear how high you can play.
- Try breathing in 4 beats and releasing air in 4. Then 3 beats of air inhaled and 4 beats of releasing air. 2 beats of air inhaled and 4 beats of releasing air. Lastly, 1 beats of air inhaled and 4 beats of releasing air.
- Try breathing in for 2 beats and releasing for as long as you can. Use a stopwatch to time how long you can release.
Tips
- Always have good posture. Never slouch.
- When you are going to play a higher note, lift your tongue up. This causes air pressure to build up and forces the air to move faster, creating high pitches.
- Never push on the horn. Keep the pressure that you have on your lips to a minimum.
- Never force high notes out on your trumpet by force of your lips onto your mouthpiece. This can lead to embouchure problems (i.e. bruising, tenderness, abrasion). If the highest note you can play comes out fuzzy or half-audible, check every area of your regular playing to find faults and correct them. Your lips should be set in the mouthpiece in a tiny, small circle and your airstream should be fast and focused. Tighten your lips to form a 'smile'. Sit up straight with your hands relaxed on the trumpet. If you are straining to reach the note, go up in a scale to the note. It's important NOT to overblow (produce an overtone by blowing too hard); rest after a maximum of 5 minutes.
- Rest at least as often as you play. It is only when you are not playing that you build muscle. If you play too much too often, then you are only tearing down and never building up.
- Try to take some of the major scales up an octave without removing the horn from your lips between octaves. If you can play from a low C to a high C and keep the same embouchure you'll start to see a dramatic increase in your range.
- Practice while looking in a mirror. This will help with posture and you will know how to set your lips the same way when you get the note right.
- Avoid puffing out your cheeks when playing in the higher register in order to keep a quicker air stream. If you can't do this on your own, try squeezing your cheeks in with your hand while playing in the higher register in order to teach your cheeks, over time, to stay that way. This will take practice.
- Don't blow only from your lungs, use your abs to help air flow more powerfully.
- Don't limit yourself to scales to get into the super register. Practice arpeggios,chromatics and also cold attacks (after long rests) on those notes
- Breathe in deep, filling your lungs with enough air to execute the notes.
- Keep a solid embouchure (relaxed in the middle, solid on the corners).
- Sit up to improve your breathing.
- Breathe from your stomach, not from your chest. This will give you more air pressure when reaching for higher notes. Support your tone with your stomach not your diaphragm.
- Be thinking "o" in your throat and mind even though it's high.
- Never permanently set your embouchure for high notes. As you work your range up you should also keep working it down. Doing this will help you retain a good sound quality in all registers.
- Try to relax your embouchure as much as possible and not pinch. If you practice high notes with the same open embouchure as low notes, then your range and sound on higher notes improves.
- You may want to practice with a friend who has experience. They may be able to give you some tips on how to reach high notes.
- When you breathe, let your tongue hang loose, sort of like a dog panting. This will open up your throat more, allowing more air to enter.
- Do lots of buzzing, both with and without the mouthpiece. Buzz the full range low, high, and super-high. Do it without mashing the mouthpiece into your chops. This will build your muscles so they can support the notes on their own, without pressure from the horn.
- Don't only worry about expanding your upper range, also concentrate on improving you lower register with slurs and pedal tones. This will not only help to make you a more rounded player, it will also help your tone and your ability to more effortlessly move around in different registers.
- Avoid tuning to a piano. They have tempered tuning. Instead, tune using an electronic (or better yet a strobe) tuner. Learn to hear pitch, especially in relation to any group you play with.
- At first, try to keep a steady lip and maneuver the pitch by air. Then, tighten your lips and see how higher you can go.
- The key to playing high notes on any brass instrument is making your lips tighter and using quicker air. You'll find that as you go up a scale, the embouchure will be tighter. That's what makes a G higher than a C. Sometimes getting a smaller mouthpiece can help with this.
Warnings
- Being dizzy is good in most cases. That means that you're using air and over time it will go away. Also, Dizzy Gillespie is called Dizzy for a reason!
- You may get dizzy or light-headed. If this happens, rest. You may be tightening your throat or chest too much and constricting the blood and air flow to your head. Practice over weeks and months will also help, as you learn to control your air and your body becomes more accustomed to breath control.
- Listen to Bill Chase and Maynard Ferguson for a good reference
Things You'll Need
- A trumpet or cornet
- A book of slurs
- A mouthpiece
