How to Build Trumpet High Note Range - Free Online Trumpet Lessons

Have you hit a wall with the high notes you can reach as a trumpet player? Many trumpet players reach a certain pinnacle for high note playing, and decide that is as far as they are able to go. In reality, good technique and sticking to a few simple drills every day can improve your range on trumpet in a very short time, improving your confidence and overall practice and performance experience.

The first thing to know about becoming a high note player on the trumpet is that practice, every day if even only for a few minutes, is absolutely essential. It is better to put in 10 minutes per day of practice, every single day, than playing for an hour or two just a couple of times per week.

That said, if you are serious about becoming an accomplished high note player on the trumpet, a good goal to shoot for is to practice at least an hour per day. This will give your embrochure, or the muscles in your face used for controlling your horn, a chance to develop to their fullest.

Practice time with your trumpet is important, but what is it exactly you should be practicing to improve your high note capabilities. Merely blowing away at the highest note you can hit until you tire yourself out will do little to improve your skill in the long term. Stay focused and methodical in your high note practice. A universal piece of trumpet practice advice is to focus on what you don't know, rather than what you do.

Take a simple scale, the one you can play most comfortably. For most trumpet players this is the C major/A minor scale. Start on the lowest note of the scale, and play as softly as you possibly can. Continue up the scale as high as you can, again playing as softly as you possibly can. Playing high notes on the trumpet loud and off pitch is much easier than playing them tight, softly, with focused breath.

If you are reaching the upper limits of your high note range and miss a note, do not keep reaching for it. This is how you can strain your embrochure. Start again at the lowest note of the scale, and continue upwards, slowly and softly.

Move your way through the major and minor scales, always keeping an even, soft breath in the forefront of your mind. After completing the entire set of scale high note drills, move on to a chromatic scale and the same process.

This is where you can really stretch yourself to the highest limits. Moving upward in a chromatic scale is easier than in natural scales, as you are only required to tighten your embrochure a little at a time. This time, increase your airflow as you reach upward. Do not stop for breath half way up your chromatic scale; play in one seamless breath until you miss a note, and then repeat.

These chromatic scales should be continued for as long as is comfortable, and then just a bit beyond. At first this may only be a minute or two, but you will find that as long as you continue your chromatic high note drills in each day's trumpet practice session, pretty soon you will be hitting notes previously far out of your range.

It is one thing to become an accomplished high note player in scales and drills, but translating it into real-world ability, especially when improvising, is something many trumpet players never accomplish. Try transposing the sheet music you are working on up an octave, either by ear or on paper as necessary.

The importance of running these drills each and every day cannot be overstated. Every serious trumpet player practices every day, and range-building drills are part of that practice. If you'd like to attain that level of trumpet proficiency, the only way to go about it is to put in the work.