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Trumpet Lessons with Arturo Sandoval

Private Trumpet Lesson with Arturo Sandoval in Los Angeles Ca!

For Serious Trumpet Players Only of all ages, and all styles…
Work on your sound, technique, breathing, and all aspects of your playing.

All Styles including:
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Starting May 1st. 2010
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$110.00 per hour Cash, or Check
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“TOPPING OFF THE LUNGS” by Wayne Naus

A breathing technique for all brass and woodwind players.

I would like to share a breathing technique with you that I have been practicing and that will help you increase your range, power, support, endurance and sound. The technique, which I refer to as Topping Off The Lungs, is synonymous with topping off the gas in your car’s gas tank. I adapted and then modified the technique for brass and woodwind players from a technique used by deep-water divers holding their breath for long periods of time. Although I am a trumpet player and familiar with the Yoga breathing techniques as described in the Science of Breath * I have not heard of anyone (not even Maynard) describe this particular technique until now. The technique is not about holding your breath but rather using additional air to create more diaphragmatic support while playing. Here is the technique:

1) Place the mouthpiece on your lips and then take your normal breath for playing.

2) Before playing, take six quick, short sniffs of air through your nose. You should feel the area just below your rib cage (not chest) expand with each sniff of air.

3) After the last sniff of air, allow the newly expanded stomach area just below the rib cage to remain extended while you play. Feel the extra support here and use it to, as they say, “sit on the air”. This feeling of support should feel good and give you added strength, range, power, endurance and sound.

I hope you find this technique helpful. I used it while recording my recent CD titled “Touch The Spirit”, a collection of Spiritual and Patriotic songs for trumpet and symphony orchestra. The recording and accompanying videos can be seen and heard on my site www.waynenaus.com or youtube>wayne naus. The CD, which includes play-a-long tracks, can be purchased with printed music for Bb,C,Eb and bass cleff instruments through CDBaby>waynenaus. Warning: Trumpet range ascends to concert Bb 6.
Copyright 2010 NausomeMusicPub.All rights reserved.

*Science of Breath 1903, Yogi Ramacharaka,W&J Mackay & Co. Ltd, England(Expired)

Going into battle armed with a trumpet

Bountiful, Utah (CNN) — It was two weeks after D-Day, a few miles from the bloody shores of Omaha Beach. An airstrip had been carved out of the Normandy countryside, costing the lives of 28 Army engineers at the hands of German snipers.

A lone sniper still remained in the nighttime distance.

Despite the risk, Capt. Jack Tueller felt compelled to play his trumpet.

That afternoon, his P-47 fighter group had caught up with a retreating German Panzer division. As the U.S. Thunderbolts descended on their targets, they saw French women and children on top of the tanks. After an initial fly-by, the order was given to attack anyway.

“We were told those human shields were expendable,” Tueller said.

Back at the airstrip, Tueller took out his trumpet. He’d used it on many a starlit night to entertain the men of the 508th Squadron 404th Fighter Group.

“I was told, ‘Captain, don’t play tonight; your trumpet makes the most glorious sound,’ but I was stressed,” he said. He was so troubled that he was willing to take a chance the sniper wouldn’t fire.

“I thought to myself, that German sniper is as lonely and scared as I am. How can I stop him from firing? So I played that German’s love song, ‘Lilly Marlene,’ made famous in the late ’30s by Marlene Dietrich, the famous German actress. And I wailed that trumpet over those apple orchards of Normandy, and he didn’t fire.”

The next morning, the military police came up to Tueller and told him they had a German prisoner on the beach who kept asking, “Who played that trumpet last night?”

“I grabbed my trumpet and went down to the beach. There was a 19-year-old German, scared and lonesome. He was dressed like a French peasant to cloak his role as a sniper. And, crying, he said, ‘I couldn’t fire because I thought of my fiancé. I thought of my mother and father,’ and he says, ‘My role is finished.’

“He stuck out his hand, and I shook the hand of the enemy,” Tueller said. “[But] he was no enemy, because music had soothed the savage beast.”

“Boy, you have strong lips”

Tueller had learned to play the trumpet as a child growing up in Wyoming. His mother, a nurse, died at 29, and his father, a bartender and alcoholic, left the next day — leaving Jack and his brother, Bob, orphans.

They left their home in Superior to live with an aunt in nearby Evanston. She gave Jack his first trumpet, and he quickly discovered he had a musical ear.

He was no enemy, because music had soothed the savage beast.

“In 1939, I was playing in Yellowstone Park in a dance band of 22 musicians at Lake Hotel. The famous trumpet player Louis Armstrong came up to the band during intermission and said, ‘You sound pretty good for white cats,’ ” Tueller recalled.

He asked Armstrong what advice he would give a young trumpet player. “He said, ‘Always play the melody, man. Look at them, see their age group, play their love songs, and you’ll carry all the money to the bank.’ ”

Tueller enrolled at Brigham Young University, where he met his future wife and fellow trumpeter, Marjorie.

“This beautiful brown-haired gal with luscious lips said, ‘Did you play the trumpet solo at the freshman assembly?’ And I said, ‘Yes, ma’am, I did.’ She said, ‘Boy, you have strong lips.’ Being a sophomore, I said, ‘Would you like to try me?’ She nodded, and I went over and kissed her.”

In 1941, as war clouds gathered, Jack enlisted in the Army and was sent to fighter school because he was an “individualist,” he said.

“I wanted to fly it, fire it, navigate it, shoot the guns.”

He once flew his plane through a dirigible hangar at Moffitt Field in Sunnyvale, California. The commandant was fuming mad.

“He stood me in a brace, then he kind of smiled and says, ‘We don’t want to quell spirit like that … but don’t do it again!’”

When D-Day arrived on June 6, 1944, Tueller was in the air, flying five missions.

I was an unruly child. … Music tamed me.

“I witnessed the invasion from a ringside seat. We saw 2 million men, 10,000 ships. And we just shot at everything,” he said. “We tried to help those men trying to get off the landing craft at high tide, where a lot of them were drowned.

“I remember feeling pride and sadness as I saw the bodies of 4,000 killed in two hours.”

Tueller credits common sense and his first flight instructor, a crop duster, with his survival that day — and the rest of the war.

“I learned to love low-level flying. I never came off enemy targets high. I’d lay it down a row of trees 400 knots, a foot off the ground, so all the flak would go over my head. They’d wonder where I’d gone.”

Trumpet in the cockpit

Tueller managed to fly 140 missions without taking a single bullet hole to his airplane — the name of his infant daughter, Rosanne, painted on the side.

“Everyone wanted to fly it; they thought it let a charmed life.”

And on each mission, Tueller carried his trumpet in the cockpit.

“I took it in a little canvas bag attached to my parachute. I figured if I ever got shot down, it would go with me, and if I survived and got put into a prisoner of war camp, I could get an extra bar of soap from the guard.”

His tour of duty ended just before his fighter group left for Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge. Three months later, his plane was shot down and destroyed. The pilot was killed.

Tueller went on to fight in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and served in the Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War. He retired in 1966 as a colonel, having earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, almost two dozen air medals and two Legions of Merit, the nation’s highest peacetime award.

Now 89, Tueller takes care of Marjorie, his wife of 68 years, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

As Veterans Day approaches, he has a word of advice to veterans: “When you become a veteran, it’s my opinion that you should do everything to make people realize the wonderful life that you really have.”

He still has his trumpet of 70 years and still performs at schools, family get-togethers and church functions. He has a stereo system installed in the back of his family van, where he inserts a CD of big band music and begins playing the melodies of a bygone era.

“I was an unruly child,” he said. “Music tamed me. … My ambition as the last action on my part as a veteran is to hit high C and fall right into the grave. What a way to go!”

The Bass Trumpet

The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet, which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8′ C or 9′ Bb today, but is sometimes built in Eb and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth or a ninth lower than written, depending on the pitch of the instrument. Although almost identical in length to the trombone, the bass trumpet possesses a tone, which is harder and more metallic than that of the trombone. Although it has valves and the same tubing length as a trombone, the bass trumpet is very different from the valve trombone. Note that certain modern manufacturers, offering ‘tenor horns’ in upright shape, ‘valve trombones’ and ‘bass trumpets’ are actually using the same valve cluster, bell, tubing and bell flare, just bent differently – in these cases the bass trumpet would be identical to the valve trombone

Wagner’s bass trumpet

Richard Wagner’s first intention for Der Ring des Nibelungen was a bass trumpet in 13′ Eb, based on the instruments he would have come across during his dealings with military bands. However, while the opening section of Das Rheingold might indicate the use of such an instrument, the part quickly rises to G5, which would be the nineteenth partial on this long instrument; Wagner understood brass instruments very well and saw that this was impractical.

While it was argued during the late nineteenth century (Oskar Franz: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, 1884) that the instrument in question was actually pitched an octave higher, the instrument actually built by Moritz of Berlin on Wagner’s personal instruction for the Munich theatre (according to Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, 1908) was pitched in 8′ C with crooks for B and A and sounded one octave lower than written. The records of Moritz were not preserved, though a wide-bell bass trumpet with military-band proportions in 8′ C with Bb and A crooks does make an appearance in their post-1900 catalogue, while Gebrüder Alexander of Mainz offered a narrow-bore model in either Eb or C.

The model normally used today is in 8′ C with four rotary valves, and is played by a trombonist owing to the size of the mouthpiece. Bass trumpets in Eb are usually played by trumpeters as the mouthpiece is closer in size to that of the standard Bb trumpet.

Wagner wrote adventurously for his new addition to the brass section, exploiting open and muted effects, and extremes of range and dynamics. The bass trumpet is frequently featured in Der Ring des Nibelungen, playing solos in every register, as well as playing in octaves, unison or harmony with trumpets, trombones, and Wagner tubas. Its very distinctive timbre is easily identifiable and Wagner used this new and unique tone colour extensively.

Other composers have also used the bass trumpet in the orchestra, including Richard Strauss (in the tone poem Macbeth and the opera Elektra), Arnold Schoenberg (in the cantata Gurrelieder), Igor Stravinsky (in the ballet Le sacre du printemps – fourth trumpet doubling bass trumpet in Eb), Leoš Janáček (in the Sinfonietta – two bass trumpets in Bb). However, as with the Wagner tuba and the contrabass trombone, Wagner’s other additions to the opera house orchestra for Der Ring des Nibelungen, the bass trumpet has not become a regular member of the orchestral brass and is seen rarely.

Notation

The bass trumpet is usually notated in the treble clef. The bass trumpet in C sounds one octave lower than written, the bass trumpet in E sounds a major sixth lower than written and the bass trumpet in Bb sounds a major ninth lower than written. Wagner’s transpositions include bass trumpet in E, Eb, D, C and Bb, though players often have parts for the bass trumpet transposed into C to play on the C bass trumpet.

Performers

Cy Touff was one of the few jazz musicians to play the bass trumpet and while the bass trumpet is usually played by a trombonist, British trumpeter Philip Jones performed on the bass trumpet while employed by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Salsa musician and trombonist Willie Colón plays a Getzen Eterna bass trumpet and can be heard improvising on the Fania label recordings Maestra Vida part 1 La Fiesta, Siembra Buscando Guayaba, Cruz and Colon Zambullete, Doble Energia Cuando Tu Quieras and Canciones Del Solar De Los Aburridos Tiburon.
Leonhard Paul of Mnozil Brass (an Austrian based brass group consisting of three trumpets, three trombones and a tuba) plays bass trumpet regularly with the ensemble, incorporating its use in many different styles. Up until late 2006, he played a traditional rotary valve bass trumpet made by Gebr. Alexander of Mainz. Now he plays a totally redesigned bass trumpet by Schagerl.
Jazz trombonist Elliot Mason, who plays with Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as leading his own bands, regularly plays the bass trumpet.

How does a trumpet work?

Remember when you first played a note on a trumpet? There’s a good chance that what came out of the bell sounded… well, kind of like a fart. So why is it that you now make nice, musical sounds? To find out, we’re going to have some childish fun.

Purse your lips and blow a raspberry. That’s the sound that first came out when you blew into a trumpet. The trumpet was amplifying that sound, much like a megaphone. Now, purse your lips again, but this time tighten your lip muscles as much as you can. With a bit of practice, you should be able to make a buzzing sound. This is caused by a vibrating column of air forcing its way through a small hole between your lips.

If we put a trumpet to our lips and make that same buzzing, we’ll hear a crisp musical note. We can change the sound of that note using our lips. Tightening out lips will make the note higher.

Enough of the simple stuff. We’re about to get technical!

When we play a low C, just below the bottom line of the stave, we’re playing what is called the
fundamental note of the instrument. It’s the lowest note we can play without using the valves. Now, tighten your lips and blow again. That’s a G, a perfect fifth above the C. Another tightening of the lips and we hear a high C, an octave above the original note. And again… that’s an E. The next note up will be a high G. We’ll stop there for now!

What do you notice about those notes we just played? As we moved higher, the notes got closer
together. We started with a fifth, then a fourth, a major third, and a minor third. Had we kept going upward, into the highest reaches of the instrument, these intervals would have been a tone or semi-tone apart.

This series of notes (or partials) is known as the harmonic series, and before the invention of the valve, they were the only notes that trumpeters could play. The natural trumpet used throughout the Baroque period and until the middle of the 19th century had a fundamental an octave below that of the modern trumpet. Through a slight adjustment in lip tension, the trumpet could play a series of harmonics spread over four and a half octaves.

The achievable tones were known as partials, and the very best performers could reach a 24th partial, a super G. Two of Michael Haydn’s trumpet concertos demand this note, although most composers stuck to the first twenty partials, as above this there were often tuning issues.

Valves
The basis of most musical instruments is the same. When we play a guitar or violin, we change note by shortening or lengthening the string. An organ sounds different note by blowing air through different lengths of piping. That’s why you move your tuning slide in and out when you tune up.

And it’s the same principle with trumpet valves.

Have a closer look at the tubing around your trumpet’s valves. You’ll notice that the first valve has a D-shaped piece of tubing coming out of it. The second valve has a similar bit of tubing, only much shorter, and the third valve has a much longer piece of tubing.

Now take on of the valves out, and have a look at the holes that go through it. Normally when we play a note, the air will pass through the bottom hole, which takes it straight through the valve and out the other side. When we press the valve down, the air goes through the top hole, which in turn passes it into the D-shaped tubing sticking out of the valve. See what we’ve done there? We’ve increased the length of tubing, and the note that comes out will be lower as a result.

Valve up:
air passes straight through the valve Valve down:
air is sent into extra tubing, lowering the pitch

Hang on a minute though, because it’s about to get really clever.

Did you wonder why the three lengths of D-shaped tubing were all different lengths? When we press down the second valve, the one with the shortest bit of tubing, it lowers the pitch by a semi-tone. Press down the first valve, and the pitch lowers by a tone. The third valve? A tone-and-a-half (a minor third).

How about the first and second valve together? Well, that’s a tone, plus a semi-tone – also a minor third. That’s why we can have alternative fingerings for some notes. Through
different combinations of valves, we can play every note between the harmonic partials – so any note is possible!

Valve Slides
You know how you ping a tuning fork and it sounds a specific tone? It’s resonating (ask your physics teacher). Trumpets resonate too, when notes are played whose frequency is close to the natural frequency of the instrument. The two frequencies interfere, and the note sounds out of tune. This is known as a wolf tone.

To fix this, there are slides attached to the first and third valves. When you play a low D or C#, you should push the 3rd valve slide out with your left hand. And for a low E and high F, push the 1st valve slide out a little. Hopefully you have a spring-loaded trigger on your slides, so they’ll pop back into their normal place afterwards. Otherwise, you’ll need to pull the slides back in, or other notes will sound flat.