| Exercises are Boring… | Trumpet Exercises |
| Wherever possible, it’s best to try to simply use your ear to help you reproduce the sound you hear – the sounds you want to hear. But this can be frustrating especially when you’re on your own & you’re struggling to play to you’re latest CD or play a tune in your head. So only struggle for so long, then try a couple of exercises. |
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Dinny kill your love of music with exercises. If they rob you of your passion for the instrument, they’ve done you no good. Try them - but stop as soon as you start to feel like a robot. |
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However,
exercises will:
Give you a break from the brain ache of using your ear |
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Exercises are patterns. They can be a key to becoming very proficient but they also bore thousands of youngsters into giving up. Don’t do them relentlessly! – unless that turns you on… |
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Lessons touch on exercises now and again sometimes to break up the lesson but usually when something is highlighted that needs particular attention. Long notes for a good tone & diaphragm control on wind, scales for ad-lib playing or finding the notes to a tune once you've sussed out it's key. I don't dwell on them but like students to know how to do them if they wish.. |
| A few to start you off... |
| Chromatic scales start with the lowest note on your instrument & go all the way up the highest note. They use ALL the notes you have & go up in ‘semi-tones’. There are 12 notes in a chromatic scale, or 13 if you include the top 'octave' note... which is actually the same note as the 1st note – just an octave up - the first note of your next octave. But don't let that make you stop at 13...no, no, keep on goin'. |  |
Scales: The theory here is the same for every instrument, thought the keyboard is used to demonstrate.
Scales & arpeggios can help you lock into a certain key. If you are playing a piece in A major for example, you have a certain set of 7 notes of the 12 available which will be played very often, missing out the other 5. The Arpeggio gives the 3 'safest' notes within this key & which will often be used the most within these 7. Although all 12 may be used. So knowing a scale of A major by rote will automatically lean you towards playing the right notes for your piece.
Scales also give you valuable practice at sustained runs, & arpeggios the skill to move fast & accurately up your instrument whilst only playing 3 notes per octave. They also instil a sense of ‘chord’. There are 8 notes in a normal scale. No 8 being the same note as no 1 so if you start on an ‘A’ when you’re playing note number 8 you’re also playing an ‘A’ – just an octave up. Start on any lowish note. (You don't have to know what the note is) Scales can be minor or major. On a piano, in a scale of C major, you would not play any of the 5 black notes in your scale. It's the same for every instrument though for some, knowing which are black or white notes is not so easy. However.... |
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You can work out which notes you should play in a scale, first play the 13 note Chromatic scale - from any note on your instrument. You should finish on the same note as you started - but 1 Octave up (on a sax or flute this is the same fingering but in the next register ....on any brass instrument it's also the same fingering). Next start again but only play notes: |
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LISTEN to the sound of the scale carefully. You should aim to be able to find a scale in any key by ear without always having to work it out using the method above / left. Normally though, you'll need to work it out though in a few keys before this'll happen. Find a piano & play a scale of C major (C is pictured being played above). Just play the white notes & listen to how it sounds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arpegios: These are like scales, only you play just 4 notes in an Octave. These are the Root note, the third the fifth, & finally the root again up an octave. You can keep going up as far as your instrument will allow – then back down again. ‘The bugle call ‘The Last Post’ is based on an arpeggio. This is because a Trumpet with no valves is only capable of playing arpeggios. Arpeggios are good for identifying the notes being played in a particular chord because they are indeed, the root, the third & the fifth. Some more advanced chords have something added – like the 7th but the basis of all chords are made up this way. Arpeggios can be minor or major . |
Long Notes
Playing a single note for as long as possible – as long as your lungs can last or as long as your fiddle bow will allow gives you a good exercise in control. If you can make a note last as long as is possible on your instrument whilst keeping it pure in pitch, volume & tone, you will be ahead when a long note comes along in your piece of music. As it’s unlikely to be as long as the one you tried in your exercises, you’ll find it easier & it'll sound good & controlled.
Not too necessary on the piano! – or even the guitar.
| HOME | Weavers Hall, Bank Close, Newburgh, Fife |
email: james
mobile: 07970 744986 |
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