I've been playing sax for about 6 years. I am in my school's classical, jazz and marching band. Recently I decided to learn and March trumpet, I decided to do this because I find marching sax akward. Any help would be appreciated!
Posted Mar 7, 2015, 4:57 AM UTC
Hey I've taught a few transitioning students and prospective band directors whose first instrument was a woodwind.
Their number one challenge was always the same: they couldn't change notes with their lips.
You're used to blowing, moving your fingers, and sounding good doing just that. With trumpet you gotta learn how to "sing" each note with your lips. So my advice to you is don't eve. Touch the trumpet for two weeks. Only buzz the mouthpiece. You have to learn how to get your air, lips, and oral cavity working together. After that I think the horn will be easier. Frankly, you'll get more gigs as a sax player so I don't know why you'd switch.
I'm doing it for marching band. For classical and jazz I love playing sax. I just find marching with tenor to be akward.
Also, what you said about changing notes with my embochure is the biggest problem I'm having. I can only got from B to G. I am not really focusing on notes very much right now. I am doing what you've recommended. For about a week I'm just going to practice buzzing and getting a clearer tone before I try to actually play very much. I was told to do this by the trumpets in my jazz band.
Clear tone is good. Look for the sweet spot. It shouldn't take a lot of effort or air to get the little mouthpiece resonating. But you also gotta play scales, songs, and make siren noises. You gotta move around in there ya know?
I've been told about making the siren noises. I've tried but I haven't been succesful with it yet.
air speed becomes much more important. Playing high feels more like altissimo. And work on your Aural skills; a trumpet is much less forgiving
It takes a stupid amount of time to get your endurance and range up to where you need it. I think you will be in your junior year of college before you can play suitably. Just a guess. I could be wrong. Get a decent instrument, get lessons, take lots of breaks. Playing high will blow your lips out quick, so go back to playing low stuff for a few minutes until they recuperate.
I did the same thing, ended up with trumpet as my major instrument in college. Remember, you're retaining muscle and building new muscle, that takes TIME. You've got to put in the time focusing on sound by playing long tones and clean lip slurs, don't try to force up into the upper register too fast. Fingers will come easier, work scales and simple tunes in as many keys as you can on sax. Start out on third part until you figure out the air flow differences and allow your chops to grow.
Trumpet is an incredibly difficult instrument to start playing because of the amount of really bad habits that most people form when they start. It's not at all like saxophone.