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What a study about music making in America! I had to include it here.
The Victory Vertical Project
A Historical Case Study in Recreational Music Making
Two nights past we received welcome entertainment when a jeep pulling a small wagon came to camp. The wagon contained a light system and a Steinway pianna (sic). Mom, you would laugh if you were to have seen it, because the Steinway is not at all like Uncle Jake’s.
It is the beginning of the school year, and just like every other school year, we get several phone calls a week asking the same question, “WE really want our child to play a musical instrument, but WE don’t know which one!”
“It's not just a job, it's a calling!” from the Muse.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, Moũsai, Modern Greek: Μούσες) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The word "muse" can refer, in general, to anyone or anything which inspires an artist, musician, or writer.
The trumpeter produces sound from the trumpet by buzzing his lips. That said, it is in fact the metallic mouthpiece that produces the sound. There are various different mouthpiece shapes-a mouthpiece with a deep cup will produce a mellower sound, while a mouthpiece with a shallower cup will produce a bright, piercing sound.
Mouthpieces are made of brass or silver (among other materials), and trumpeters choose a mouthpiece according to their personal preference. An individual trumpeter may use a number of different mouthpieces, according to the key of the piece or the particular timbre he wishes to produce.
Mouthpieces with cups of different size and depth
Cross-sectional diagram of the mouthpiece of a trumpet
The trumpet or cornet is the smallest and highest member of the brass family. The sound is made by buzzing your lips into the mouthpiece. Trumpet and Cornets are very similar; the trumpet is a bit longer and more slender than a cornet. The real difference has to do with the way the tubing of the instrument flares. A cornet is more cone shaped or conical than a trumpet.
The trumpet is played with the right hand on top of the instrument with the first three fingers resting on the valves. The left hand holds the instrument with the fingers wrapped around the middle of the valves.
There are many types of trumpets and cornets, the most popular is Bb trumpet and the starting place for a beginner. There is als a “C” trumpet, “D” trumpet or even a piccolo trumpet. The most common version is a Bb (“B” flat) trumpet or cornet. All beginning trumpet players should start on a Bb instrument.
The trumpet is certainly one of the most popular instruments for young players. Since lots of other students will choose the trumpet, there will be more competition with other players.
The trumpet is used in many types of settings including: bands, symphony orchestras, jazz groups and small instrumental groups. It often is the solo line in these groups.
On the trumpet the pitch of notes is principally varied by using the valves to change the length of the tube.
In general, the longer the tube, the lower the note. The structure of the trumpet enables the note to be lowered by one tone by pressing the first valve, by a semitone by pressing the second valve, and by one and a half tones by pressing the third valve.
The first valve lengthens the trumpet's tube by 160 mm, the second by 70 mm, and the third by 270 mm. These are just the right lengths for altering the pitch by the required interval.
For example, the valves are operated as follows in order to play the notes of the scale:
To change from G to F, the trumpeter presses the first valve, which lowers the pitch by one tone. To change from G to E, he presses the first and second valves, since E is one and a half tones below G. To change from G to D, he presses the first valve (which lowers the pitch by one tone) and the third valve (which lowers the pitch by one and a half tones), since D is two and a half tones below G.
View a video of a scale being played
Playing a scale
On the trumpet the fingering to operate the valves is the same for C, G, and High C. In other words, the length of the tube is the same and the pitch is varied by blowing the instrument in a different manner. This is because a property of sound known as the harmonic series allows notes to be distinguished by blowing in a different manner when the tube length is the same.
The following figure summarizes the relationship between valve operation and the note produced. Even when the valves are pressed in an identical fashion, several different notes can be produced. How can this be so?
No valve pressed
First valve
Second valve
First valve and second valve
Second valve and third valve
First valve and third valve
All valves pressed
The various combinations of the trumpet's three valves allow a complete chromatic scale to be played. In addition, a single note can be produced using several different fingerings. For example, a high C can be produced without pressing any of the valves, by pressing the first and second valves, or by pressing the first and third valves.
The triggers that the trumpeter hooks his fingers around are not simply designed to make the instrument easier to carry. The trumpeter controls the pitch of the note by using his left thumb to slide the first slide and his left ring finger to slide the third slide. This is why the instrument is fitted with these triggers.
Pressing the valves on the trumpet does not necessarily produce the right note. The valves can produce an approximation of the note; however, the trumpeter must use his mouth or the slides to make the necessary fine adjustments.
See video clips of adjusting the pitch by sliding the rings
Example of pitch adjustment (as seen from right)
Example of pitch adjustment (as seen from left)
Take a deep breath. Then, with your lips lightly closed, steadily exhale.
* Take care not to puff out your cheeks, and to keep your lips in the same lightly closed position.
Example of blowing technique
With the mouthpiece placed at the center of your lips, take a deep breath, and then steadily exhale. If your lips vibrate as the instrument emits a honking sound, you're doing well.
Example of how to blow into the mouthpiece
With the trumpet supported firmly in your left hand, relax your shoulders, and position your right hand on the instrument without applying force.
* Take care with the position of your thumbs.
As seen from the trumpeter's position
* Take particular care with the position of your thumbs.
As seen from the side
As seen from the front
F/B♭ full-double horn
Compared with the simple animal-horn instruments of the past, the modern horn is highly complex instrument with coiled tubing. Let's take a look at the structure and how that structure affects the timbre.
Though the soft timbre characteristic of the horn allows it to blend well with strings and woodwinds, it is also capable of bold, dynamic tones when playing with other horns and brass instruments. This wide tonal range makes it an appealing instrument for composers, which is why the horn is one of those instruments that seems to be everywhere, even in orchestral music. Let's listen to some exemplary pieces.
The first is an example of the horn's dulcet tones from Brahm's Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, and the other is a powerful performance from Wagner's Tannhäuser.
Soft
Powerful
Can you hear the difference? In both cases, the horn impressively expands to fill the space.
The bell of the natural horn was said to face backwards so that the horn could be carried on the shoulder. The bell of today's horn also faces towards the rear of the player. How does this backward-facing bell affect the tone?
Indoors, the horn's tone reflects off of the wall at the back of the stage before arriving at the audience. Thus, the quality of the tone will be affected by the materials used to make that wall.
Generally, the reason why people say that the tone of the horn is soft is because it loses its edge when it reflects off of the wall, but when the listener faces the bell directly, it has that boisterous tone characteristic of brass instruments. Let's take a listen. When heard from behind the player, the tone has quite an impact.
The tone is soft when heard from in front of the player.
The tone is more boisterous when the listener is facing the bell.
With most brass instruments, the levers or pistons are operated with the right hand. With the horn, however, the player puts the right hand into the bell, and so the levers are operated with the index, middle, and ring fingers of the left hand. The instrument is supported with the little finger of the left hand and the thumb of the right hand inside the bell. Some weight is also placed on the skin between the thumb and index finger on the left hand. Because of the weight of the instrument, people who practice a lot sometimes get what are called horn calluses.
The weight of the instrument will depend on the thickness of the metal that forms the tube, but generally speaking, a single will weigh 2kg; a semi-double, 2.3kg; a full-double, 2.5kg; and a triple, 2.8kg. An increase of only 0.1kg will put a crushing weight on the little finger of the left hand.
The horn is made up of a tube the size of a ballpoint pen that gets gradually larger, and if you do not keep your mouth clean, a catastrophe is just waiting to happen. One day, you will think that something is not quite right, that it is too hard to play, so you remove the slide and blow into the mouth piece. Surprise! Some mysterious matter will come flying out. It's slime!
Because you did not brush your teeth before playing, the bits and chunks of food stuck to your teeth collected inside the horn and rotted. Playing while you eat is also an outrageous mistake. Even if you clean up before you play, the instrument requires regular maintenance. Read the owner's manual carefully, and take good care of your instrument.
Hold the horn by the thicker outer tube, not by the center part. The center part has moveable slides, and they may bend under pressure and become non-functional.
It is dangerous to leave a horn on a chair. The bell protrudes and sticks out beyond the chair, so it would be very easy for someone to accidentally run into it and knock it on the floor, denting the tubing. In that case, the only person to blame is the one who left the horn in an unstable place to begin with.
A horn should be placed in a wide, flat area that can contain its entire bulk. Whether the valves are facing upward or downward, make sure that the instrument is balanced and stable. Never ever stand a horn on its bell, like a tuba. It is very unstable in this state and will fall over.
The twisted bell stem of a horn.
What is the average lifespan of a brass instrument? In school brass bands, where the instruments are passed on from upper classmen to lower classmen, some instruments last more than ten years. Many of the instruments used by Austria's Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are several decades old. The Vienna Philharmonic values tradition, and they have preserved their traditional timbre. The fact is, however, that even strong metal will wear out over time, and the levers and other places that come into contact with the hands will develop holes. When that happens, they fix it with a patch and play it with respect. The lifespan of an instrument is determined by how it is handled.
* A tenorbass trombone is shown in the diagram.
One interesting thing about trombones is how they extend and contract. But what allows these instruments to do so? Put a trombone to your lips and just look straight ahead for your answer: you'll see two parallel tubes right in front of your face. These two tubes (the outer slide and inner slide) form what is called the slide.
Trombones are played by holding the instrument to your lips with your left hand, gripping the brace right in front of your left hand with your right hand, and sliding the slide back and forth. It is therefore extremely important that a trombone's slide moves smoothly.
A trombone is held with the left hand and played with the right hand
If you slide the slide out too much it will detach from the instrument. The outer slide and inner slide are just inserted into the instrument; there is nothing holding them in place. Therefore, if you aren't careful and let go of it, the outer slide could fall to the ground under its own weight. The slide is designed like this for a reason: the player needs to be able to slide it back and forth very smoothly to play the instrument.
Just keep this in mind, and be careful not to let the slide drop to the ground!
The slide on a trombone enables the player to change his or her pitch in a truly smooth and "stepless" fashion.
For example, in the piano there is a very clear delineation between C, D, and F. Although any given black key and its neighboring white key have a half-tone difference, a trombone is capable of producing quarter-tones (one half a half-tone) and even eighth-tones (one half of a quarter-tone).
Example of sliding the slide back and forth to vary the pitch
Thanks to its slide, the trombone can produce a very unique vibrato. By finely adjusting the pitch, the player can make the sound appear to "flutter." Vibrato produced from the action of the slide is one of the most recognizable characteristics of the trombone.
Example of vibrato
Each trombone has a maximum slide position it can be played at. For a tenor trombone this is around 60 cm. This is right around the maximum distance that the average Japanese adult male can extend his arm.
However, what if your arms are simply not long enough? One clever way of overcoming this is to attach a string to the slide, allowing you to reach the farthest slide position.
The reason you extend your arm, in the end, is to extend the length of the tube. Trombone manufacturers then came up with an idea. Why not attach another piece of tubing somewhere on the instrument? Doing so would allow the player's breath to pass through this new piece only when needed.
This additional tubing also plays a role in extending the bass range of the trombone. For tenor trombones, this extends the range from B♭ (their fundamental pitch) to A, G, and F. The additional tubing is thus called an "F attachment." A valve must also be installed to use this additional tubing.
This has made it possible for even smaller people to play the trombone.
The coil-like tubing on the inside is the F attachment.The round silver object is the valve.
The valve makes it easier to play low notes without having to extend your arm as much, and can even be switched out to change the sound completely.
There are even bass trombones with two valves. Turning on and off the two valves gives a total of four combinations, for four different sounds.
Trombone valves were first invented in the 19th century. Until then, it was extremely difficult to play continuously from, say, B♭ to C. Valves now make this easy.
Example of a bass trombone with two valves being played
Trombones work by using the slide to change the length of the tubing, which controls the pitch of the sound. The slide has seven positions, counted in order from the 1st position (toward you) to the 7th position (fully extended). However, there are no position markers on the tubing. Trombone players learn the positions by feel. Although guitars have positions (frets) on their necks, trombones are more like violins, which do not. Trombones are therefore not so unique in terms of position markers (or lack thereof).
Just because there are seven slide positions doesn't mean that trombones can only play seven sounds. A trombone can produce several sounds from a single position.
Let's listen to what kinds of sounds can be produced from the 1st position.
Examples of sounds produced from the 1st position
The sounds produced at each position, from 1st to 7th, are shown below, expressed as notes:
Sounds at each position
A trombone player varies the sound produced at a single position by changing how he or she blows into the instrument. Trombones do not have finger holes, so a trombone player changes the sound with his or her mouth rather than his or her fingers. The more a trombone player tightens his or her lips, the higher the pitch produced.
Notes are played on a trombone through a combination of the slide position and the way the player blows into the instrument.
Saxophones and clarinets utilize a small part called a reed that vibrates and produces noise. Trombones do not. Since they do not use reeds, when playing a trombone a player causes his or her lips to vibrate-basically acting as the instrument's reed. What this means is that the mouthpiece does not contain any vibrating parts.
Lip size and shape vary from person to person. Furthermore, the shape of the mouthpiece can alter how the instrument sounds. A mouthpiece with a deep cup will provide a large and full sound, while a thin mouthpiece will provide a forceful and bright sound. Manufacturers therefore build a large variety of mouthpieces with slight differences in the diameter or the volume of the cup so that players can choose the sound they want for their instrument.
A set of mouthpieces of varying sizes
First, imagine the feeling of holding a single piece of paper between your lips. You wouldn't need to use much strength. Lightly press the mouthpiece to your lips, so that 2/3rds of it is above your lips, and 1/3rd of it is below your lips. Then try making some noise.
If you loosen your lips and open them, you won't make any noise at all. Keep your lips somewhat tense and then vibrate them.
Position of mouthpiece and lips
Were you able to make any noise? Once you are able to do this, next try it with the mouthpiece attached to a trombone. Having practiced like this, you're sure to make some beautiful sounds!
Install the mouthpiece to a trombone
Take a deep breath, lightly close your lips, and then blow.
* Be careful not to puff out your cheeks or change the shape of your lips.
Example of how to blow
Press the mouthpiece to the middle of your lips, take a deep breath, and blow it out. It's enough if your lips vibrate and you hear a blowing sound.
Example of how to blow into a mouthpiece
After confirming that the slide lock is locked, join the bell tube and slide, and then insert the mouthpiece as you gently twist it.
Detaching the bell tube and slide
Support the trombone firmly with your left hand, relax your shoulders, and hold the trombone with a relaxed right hand.
From the point of view of the player
From the side
Right hand grip
When playing a trombone you can change the sound it produces just by how your lips vibrate when blowing-no fingers required. To produce low notes, vibrate your lips slowly; the higher the note you want to play, the quicker you will need to vibrate your lips. When you are blowing be sure not to press the mouthpiece firmly to your lips.
| Blowing | Pitch | Lip vibration | Watch the video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toh | Low |  |
|
| Tay | Middle |  |
|
| Tee | High |  |
Once you are able to blow properly (toe, too, tee), try using positioning and tonguing to produce sound.
Also, once you can play the scale, try playing to sheet music.
Example of practicing positioning and tonguing
Example of practicing positioning and tonguing
"When the Saints Go Marching In"
Example of how to blow into a mouthpiece
There are two main ways to create vibrato when playing a brass instrument: with breath control (as with a flute) or lip area control. Trombones add a third method: using the slide. Knowing when to make use of these three methods can really increase your range of expression.
There is a pipe called the "mouthpipe" located inside the pipe on the side the mouthpiece is attached. When cleaning the inside of the instrument it is important to be aware of this. There are some players who just clean it with a swab. It is very important to hold the end of the cleaning rod that is wrapped in gauze with your hand.
* A mouthpiece brush can be useful when cleaning the mouthpiece.
