Have you benn doing everything youve been told, but you still cant get those high notes? Well that was my problem but i have figured it out and i`m on my way to hitting double high c. Did you know its possible to hit notes like htis in just 3 to four months, it just takes patience. Ok, all you have to do is paractice, but when you practice dont kill your lips, practice 3 times a day in 30 minute intervals. make sure you warm up well, and warming up doesnt mean just lip slurs, you have to warm up your high range. just play scales to do this. thats it, you just play your highest note and higher. So the secret is practice daily so that your at a point where you can pick up a trumpet at any time, warm up, and then be able to play your highest note. thats all theres to it, just lip strenghth that is comfortable. when you kill your lips you put them out for days so that they dont get stronger but when you warm up and your "feeling it" but you dont go past that you`ll be playing high notes in no time

This is how you hit high notes with GREAT EASE:
http://acmech.me.und.nodak.edu/DubbaC.html
I NEVER KNEW IT WAS SO EASY!

I had a high C in 6th grade

I had a high C in 5th grade

The key to developing range and then being able to actually use it in playing music is to make sure the vibration continues while your tongue raises to an eeee position while also using lots of compression of air (speed of air and air pressure both). Without those things together it won`t happen.

1.Too much pressure will tend to cut off the vibration so you want to back the horn slightly off ....especially the top lip....

2. Playing efficiently is a key part of trumpet so when you practice or perform playing in all ranges in an easier way leaves you ready to play higher when it comes up.

3. Improv solos can tend to make you go back to bad habits so you need to reinforce all the good habits enough that you play efficiently all the time. That takes time to develop but should improve in a few months if your habits are really changing.

4. The basics of trumpet playing are these:
a. Have good comfortable air support
b. Remember your tongue level creates pitch by changing the air stream awww to eeeee low to high
c. notice when playing becomes easier....that means you are on the right track....you need to have lip vibration in all ranges so watch out for signs of strain starting even in your mid range and extend the comfort level to a higher range where you are in the eeee position and the air is traveling much faster.

Many of the articles at www.bbtrumpet.com from Clint `Pops` McLaughlin might help as well as the Jerome Callet approach mentioned earlier.

Hope that helps,
John

The best post on the internet - and I mean including politics, religion and the price of oil. (I bet valve oil`s going to go up as well).

1. Totally agree - yet I still do it and - closely related to your next point - pressuring your lip is probably the most inefficient way of using your vital resource (your lips) on the trumpet.

2. Not quite sure what you mean by "an easier way" - but I find that most of the barriers are psychological. I`ve not overcome mine yet - but on rare occasions, I`ve managed to recreate scales going from bottom F# to double G with no pressure and an excellent tone. But 5 min. later - it`s gone, and I have to spend weeks finding it again.

3. As a jazzer, it has been improvisation that has made me choose to play for a living. I`ve played my best when I`m not in front of a piece of classical music - and yet, as you say, my technique reverts to all the bad habits when I`m passionately engaged in improvising (well, not all - but, you know ..) That`s because improvisation is such a quick and instinctual thing. Like driving a car - you may be perfect during your test, but when that`s over you do all the horrible techniques that may one day end up costing you a fortune or even your life.


4. Air is vital, as is the vowel shape of the tongue - ideally, these alone should determine how a high note is formed. But - I find other deeply ingrained psychological factors come into play, like the notorious throat and the left arm (I`ve started to counteract the left arm by deliberatly pressing forward with the right thumb - works on A - C but I know that fighting fire with fire`s not going to work in the long run).


All of us who struggle with high notes know the meaning of the phrase "trying too hard".

So when we practice high notes, we have to find a way of making them feel easy. Vowel sounds and basic air support is the way to go. But we have to unlearn all the other nasty habits that are ingrained, that`s the hard part - a part I`ve not yet mastered. Like a long-term drug addict, it will take years for me to kick the habit and I`ll have to be dilligent - but I will make it in the end. Beautiful high notes with little mouthpiece pressure and a beautiful tone. I`ve done it before for about 15 minutes - it`s in me, I know it - the sad thing is that if I TRY to rediscover it I never will. I have to let it come back again.

It`s better to just, as you say, focus on making the sound of the instrument nice and then ensuring that the nice tone is carried as high as it will go before it even begins to reduce in quality [that`s the non-judgemental way I achieved my 15 minutes of extasy!] (as you say - if this happens in the middle register, there`s no point trying for the high notes. Get the middle register to sound spanking gorgeous and this should carry through to the immediate higher notes, then repeat etc.)

Buzzing the lips with the correct shape is what I teach my students - ie. a very easy and minimal shape from your natural "I`m bored" mouth position. It works - I`ve had spectacular results with beginners; and yet, I`m unable to give myself my own advice because of the instincts that are built in from my my bad-old-days that come out worst during the improvisation that forms the bulk of my playing.

I swear that playing high notes can literally be as easy as whistling high notes. I`ve done it in practice. But in the pressure of a performance, I can`t be sure that I`d be able to produce that due to all the factors I`ve outlined.

Somebody once said that "trumpet playing is a state of mind". It is the truest statement ever said. The physical aspect is relatively small in relation to the mental aspect.

what about jet mouth peices? do they help? what if i can hit like a normal g above the scale? ( g as in the note from star wars)

People will say alot about long tones, that` s because they help your volume, quality, intonation, range, and self-confidece (which helps alot)

Breath through your nose. Dont press too hard.

i am in the 10th grade and can currently play an "A" in the triple scale range. i use a 7c mouthpiece for concert band and i use a 6a4a mouthpiece for jazz band. the 6a4a is a really shallow mouthpiece and can be diffucult to play, you end up sacrificing the really low g. i cant hit that note to often with the 6a4a. my secret to playing so high, is when i starte in the fifth grade at 11 years old, i would play nothing but the scales. over and over again. what it does is help you get the ear for every note so one you can hit it, and two you can play it. as you play the scale your lip muscles will become stronger over about a month or so and you will find yourself playing higher in no time. if you are however playing high and noticing it being really hard to do so, your face is beat red, and your neck muscles are bulging out, then your not ready to be playing that high yet. the real key is alot of scale practice. both, regular and chromatic.
hope that helped some of you ppl. i am currently the leader of my trumpet section of 12, and am the youngest to become lead trumpet in the jazz band at my age. i have been this good since last year, right after i joined some of the highschoolers, and have continued to get better, it will happen eventually. just be patient.

You mean you can play a double high A? Well can you scream it? Can you double tounge it? Can you do the Clarke studies up there? If not then you dont actually have that note in your range, a squeal is not a note you "own" as a trumpet player

I kind of like how the 10th graders are trying to tell people how to play high. A lot of playing high is from letting yourself play high, not making yourself play high. I found that playing scales slurring up to an octave and then taking it up an extra note helps. It helps you fell the notes better, and also playing long tones. Being able to buzz those low notes and mid range a lot better will help you to buzz the higher notes as well. The website www.bbtrumpet.com has a technique to help you build strength using a pencil. Which does help work out muscles and help with compression that you need to play high, but I would like to say to be careful if you actually partake in this exercise because it can cause you to press your lips together closing up the aperture.

thank you I just started right now and now I can almost get a double high C

I`ve been playing trumpet for 6 years and can hit every "registered" note there is, the only thing I can tell you to do is practice long tones, breath control, and lip slurs. If you want to play higher, put less hot air and more cold air in your horn. When you play, push from your stomach, not your throat, and open your throat up. The easiest way I`ve found out to play high notes is to put less of your top lip in the mouth piece and put alot of air into your horn.

I don`t know if it still fits this thread but...

I was a player for trombones(half a year) , then euphoniums(2 years), and tubas...(1 year). My band "director" made me change from brass to brass.

And I wanted to ask, is it because of that(changing of instruments) I can`t hit high G and A with consistency?