Expert: Michelle Kaminski Michelle Kaminski - 5/18/2001

Question
Hello Ms. Kaminski!
I have been playing the trumpet for about 6 years now, and I hope to play first part my 12th grade year. (I am now in 10th) I thought it would be a wise idea to improve on my range in the meantime. Usually I can hit a high C with little warm-up,but I would like to improve on the tone of my high notes, and also being able to endure playing high notes for a moderate length of time without my lips giving out. Any exercises or suggestions to help me reach these goals would be strongly appreciated.
Thank you.
Kerri Landis


Answer
Kerri,

Playing questions can be hard to answer without knowing your playing and your practice habits, but you've done a good job of telling me about your background and I will give you a general answer. My answer assumes that you are already practicing on a daily basis and that physically everything is working correctly (there are no major problems with embouchure that need to be fixed).

First, the best way to improve range is to make sure that you use your high register every day. Often in band, we don't go  up to the top of our range which makes it even more important that we do so at home. I suggest scales, ascending as high as you can each day. Your highest note will vary from day to day - it does for everyone. Use commone sense and only go as high as is comfortable each day. That will help you to avoid either injuring yourself or starting any bad habits.

Second, I always try and do a lot of lip slurs (Arban, Embouchure Builder, Earl Irons, etc...). Since they strengthen the embouchure, this is in my opinion the quickest and safest way to improve your range and in fact your overall playing. If your embouchure is strong, you will be able to play longer, make a better sound, play both higher and lower, play with a wider dynamic range, and be more consistent.... So this is one area of your practice that I suggest you don't neglect. And again, you may not get enough of it in band - clarinets and flutes really have no need to do these types f exercises, so it can ba a waste of time for the full band to spend as much time on this as we need to.

Third, to build endurance in your upper register, you will need to play songs, or other exercises that are sustained in this register. As opposed to playing a scale where you simply hit the high note and then descend into the low register, you want to choose something that is going to stay  higher for a longer time. Based on what my other high school students are able to do, I suggest that you start with songs or pieces that go up frequently to G, Ab and A. It may not seem very high at first, but to spend several minutes playing in this register should prove to be tiring. You should rest frequently. If you transpose, this exercise is easier, because you can find songs and then play them in whatever key allows them to be ibn this coreect range. My favorite exercises for this are from the first book of Practical Studies by Robert Getchell. The etudes are very simple but can be transposed easily as high as you are able to play.

Fourth,
you may want to try increasing the amount of time you spend practicing. You may have already done this, but based on my teaching experience, many of my students expect that there range should be improving because they are getting older and more advanced in other ways. If you were practicing 30 minutes a day six years ago, you would have to logically expect that if you continued to do 30 minutes a day, you would at some point reach a plateau. Maybe try adding a small amount of time, or try to increase the time gradually over a period of time.

I hope this helps. Good luck and let me know if it helps.

Michelle Kaminski