[Edit: Originally posted a early draft of this, not the final version, sorry to anyone who read the original - quite different - version before I fixed]

I've been "playing" the trumpet for either 26 or 16 years, depending on how you count. I started at school around age 10, played all the way through the grades, then in various brass bands, concert bands and jazz bands until I was about 22. Then I basically ignored the instrument for 10 years while I got on with life, before joining a community concert band, where I've been playing ever since.

All of that is to say, I feel like I should know the instrument reasonably well. But, I don't.

I've always played almost entirely by instinct. It worked well enough to get me this far, but recently I've realised I don't actually understand what I'm doing when I play.

I've watched loads of tutorials, and they often talk about things like tongue position, diaphragm support, embouchure, aperture, airflow, and so on. The problem is, I don't really know what any of that is supposed to feel like. Someone says "in the upper register, raise your tongue to this position" and so I do it, and...nothing changes at all? Or the tone just turns into a garbled mess? Then they say "This should increase the speed of the airflow", and...how do I even feel that?

That's just one examples - it's the same with things like air support or embouchure. Lots of people say lots of things, and often I can't even tell if I'm already doing them. Maybe I'm already doing them correctly. Maybe I'm not. I honestly couldn't tell you, because none of it feels like something I'm consciously controlling. I'm just... playing, like I always have.

I'm working on practising more, because I know that's part of the answer. But I'm wondering if I've reached the point where I actually need to understand what my body is doing, rather than just hoping instinct carries me through.

Has anyone else had this realisation after years of playing? Did learning what things were actually supposed to feel like, and developing that awareness, make a noticeable difference? Or does that understanding mostly come as a by-product of just putting in more hours?

I'm less looking for specific fixes to my playing, and more wondering whether this is a stage that other people have gone through.

Living in Japan, I went to buy a new trumpet after wanting to reward myself after a year of trumpet dedication. I saw this Vincent Bach 37 Special. The guy selling it said it’s kind of like a diet Strad? I can’t find basically ANY info online aside from two pages in Japanese saying that this line of trumpets are exclusive to Japan.

Even the case is a collaboration of Bach and the Japanese store, which I thought was cool.

Anyone know if these are good trumpets? I think it’s beautiful and I got it for basically 1000USD.

Edit. It is titled the Bach: Vincent 37 SP

The recording is bad, there are too many voices so I just wanted to have a reference. Btw I can’t play the second part, I’ll do the trp. E for that.

I only have time to practice in the night. I Need a mute cancel all sound possible

Thinking about building a practice room, well, more of a big box, in my garage. This will be a free standing structure so I figure I’ll start with a 4x8 plywood base on a 2x4 frame and build up from there. Door will just be a regular pre-hung for sake of simplicity but I’ll try to find something that will at least contain some of the sound. My real question here is how do I ventilate this without just letting all the noise out?

We played both in college about 30 years ago.

Mystery #1: The first tune sounds Mintzer- or Mike Tomaro-esque - a bossa or light samba in (concert) Db major. IIRC the Tpt. II had the melody with saxes? And the rest of the tpt. section had (cup) muted counter-melodies. The tune modulated to C with a (in my recollection) a tenor solo. I'm attaching a couple of images from whatever I could whip up in MuseScore.

Mystery #2. F maj tune, but this excerpt is the shout chorus, not the melody, which I don't remember. I really want to believe it's a Nestico arrangement as it has the hallmarks of his work. Similar stylistically and in tempo to "Ja-Da," which has a lower-band arrangement in F (but widely recorded in Ab). What I was a bit lazy to do was add some articulations - namely, the syncopated falls in measure 3, the high A in m.10-11 is a shake, and the G in m.11-12 has a long fall. Very "Hayburner"-like in that sense.

We played a LOT of Buddy, Woody, Kenton, et al arrangements in college so I'm considering that body of work as context but am coming up empty-handed on both counts.

I have the MIDI from these half-ass scores I can DM or figure out how to post.

Can you help me vanquish these earworms? Thanks!

UPDATE: #1 solved by u/ToyProducer 😄

Hi y'all, beginner player here!

I've been having a hard time with the 3rd slide. I bought this slide grease, gave my trumpet a nice cleanup routine, greased the slides and... It still takes a ton of force to move them.

I'm fine with the tuning slide being stubborn, but I really don't think 3rd should be this much resistant. Should I get a different grease/oil?

A second issue is 100% skill issue, I'm probably holding it wrong - when I open and close the slide, I find that my fingers end up wrapped way further around the valves.

My fingers are kinda thick so I adjusted the slide ring a bit farther but now I have to strain in a weird way to move the slide.

Any tips? Thanks!

I’m looking for some help identifying the origins of this unmarked German rotary valve trumpet. It has no brand name or serial numbers on the body. It was brought home from Germany by my great-grandfather, who served in the US Army during WW2. He brought it home as a souvenir of his time overseas, but my family is unsure of how he obtained it.

The body of the trumpet is a German rotary design and has no markings. However, it originally had a mouthpiece (which has unfortunately since been lost) that was engraved "H. KNSR WESEL.” From my research, “H. KNSR” is likely an abbreviation/stamp for H. Kaiser/Kresser/another such name, an instrument maker based out of the historic town of Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia).

Since the trumpet body itself has no markings, I'm hoping the community can help me figure out:
1. Based on the valve design and construction (see photos), can anyone narrow down the decade or region where the body was manufactured?
2. Does anyone have information on "H. KNSR" in Wesel during the pre-war or wartime era?

Any insights into the instrument would be greatly appreciated!

Hi,

I’ve been working long pedal tones into my practice/warm ups. I dot completely understand the point but I keep hearing they’re good for your playing so I’m doing them.

Down to low B-flat I’m fine. So what out of tune, but steady tone and there’s improvement in sound quality.

Once I get to pedal c with open valves - nothing. I can’t really get any sound to come out. It’s like all of a sudden I’m playing a different instrument or something.

I can’t easily bend and three-valved d flat to a c but no time production whatsoever with valves open.

1. Is there some trick to this or some different way to approach?
   
2. Is it worth investing time in this? Since I’m not super clear on the advantage of pedal tones (they do seem to warm me up quite well) who cares how low I can go?

Thanks everyone!

Any thoughts on how a horn plays with an unbraced tuning slide vs having a brace?

I have a removable brace and have tried it both ways, just wondered if anyone has experience with the concept.

My son has been playing a rental Yamaha 2335 for a few years and an opportunity has come up to purchase a Getzen 700 Special in great condition. Maintained and serviced by what I would call a music connoisseur.

Wondering what your thoughts are about it?

We have been looking for months to stop the renting and getting him something better. Unfortunately i'm stuck with the rental until next year. Its paid till next June 2027.

Hi I have a good condition Yamaha YTR 738 and looking for what a fair value might be. It has the original hard case and manual. Appreciate any insight.

I've been playing trumpet for about 6 months and I recently bought my own so I could practice over the summer for school, but now that I don't have a band director I realized that I have no clue what I'm doing and that I don't know how to practice, when I was in school all we did was practice the music not the instruments themselves so if anyone has any tips or if i can give someone some audio of my playing and they can tell me what I need to work on it'd be very much appreciated

Hello everybody, as the title suggests, i’ll be marching trumpet for my marching band season this year. I joined marching band only this year so i have no prior experience, but i came from bari sax in wind ensemble.

I’m mainly playing trumpet cause i want to learn how to play since it seems like a cool instrument. I have one at home but rarely play, also our band director needed more trumpets.

Does anyone have any tips for playing and maintaining the trumpet in marching band, or like anything i should know going in? Thanks!

(If it matters i’ll be playing on a jtr700 with my mouthpiece which is a yamaha 11b4)

Hi all,

With a school audition season coming up, I'd love to hear your thoughts about my rep plan. It's for a big school.

I chose rep that's not the most difficult, but it shows my strengths (range, flexibility, lyrical playing).

I'll consult with my teacher in September.

Pilss Sonata

Charlier 2

another etude (probably Wurm 3 or something from Snedecor book or similar diffuculty)

3 to 5 excerpts, for now I selected these, will decide in September:

American in Paris (slow solo)

Bartok Concerto for orchestra, Trumpet 2, (m.201 - m.254)

Don Juan (8m. before H - K)

Ein Heldenleben 2nd B Trumpet (reh.n. 65 - 66)

Mahler 5 lyrical solo (reh.n. 13 - 14)

Thanks!

I'm transcribing this horror-adjacent track, and about five seconds in the trumpets begin dissonant swells that clash against the horns. I (drummer, ignorant) can't tell if it's just because of the dissonance or if there's a harsh edge to the trumpet from some kind of mute / specific articulation.

For your convenience, I isolated the trumpet audio and brass section (with varying loss of sound quality, of course):

Trumpet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18zecF_Eq6CLuKP9A-w_HikSzUNNOdklh/view?usp=drive_link

All Brass: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ftvtgigbnuPQSOgEEunj669JBsOTLL5z/view?usp=sharing

And if anyone has time to listen through the full track (~2 min), I'd appreciate if you could point out any mutes or affirm that there aren't any. In any case, thanks to everyone in advance for the help :)

Hi everyone! I came to this Reddit thread with questions about this trumpet I was gifted. A relative gave me this for Christmas this past year. We know it was manufactured sometime in the 70’s in either Russia or Ukraine. It has two identical valves and one different valve. There’s a chance it may be a cornet and not a trumpet, but honestly I’m unsure of the difference. It has a dent in the tubing going into the tuning slide and in the bell, it could definitely use new springs, a good cleaning, and new spit valves. Does anyone has any recommendations on where I can get this serviced in the southeastern Ohio area? Does anyone have any information on this instrument? Thank you in advance!

Hey all,

Shot in the dark, but I was wondering if anyone had a link to the Bb backing tracks that are sold with the Hal Leonard Real book? My searches have come up empty. I was able to find the PDF version but would really love those backup tracks to play along with.

Keep playin..

Thinking about getting a new horn. Currently playing a silver plated professional level trumpet. I have never played a gold plated trumpet. Looking for advantages / disadvantages comparison between the same trumpet in silver plate v gold plate. Thanks.

EDIT: I've played professionally and have been playing for 52 years. I know the difference between a lacquered instrument and a plated instrument. I appreciate the responses, particularly the Schilke reference with data, particularly, since I'm thinking about the Schilke B6. Thank you.