Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • September 2014
16
slightly darker sound, the sacrifice in endurance and
range may not be worth it. Here’s a novel thought: find
a mouthpiece that works for a student based on the
size and fleshiness of the lips. Students with larger lips
may need more room, while students with thinner lips
may need something a little smaller
to allow them to succeed. I don’t
believe all beginners should play the
same size mouthpiece any more than
I believe every 6
th
grader should
wear the same size shoe!
My main contact with beginners,
nowadays, happens at our annual
summer band camp. “Beginners” at
band camp have just finished their
first year of band, and that is enough
time for habits to have fully formed.
While many students are in fine
shape after a year, the most common
negative issues I encounter after one year are bad
posture, inferior hand position and poor mouthpiece
placement. Students who do not suffer from these tend
to be positioned for the most future success. Therefore,
let me quickly address each of these.
Students should sit up straight, with their heads
positioned directly in line with their spine. If the head
is on front of the spine it places a lot of stress on the
upper muscles of the back. Many band directors ask
students to sit forward in their chairs, and I have
no problem with that, but on a personal note, I am
much more comfortable with my back in the back of
the chair. Since children are people, I believe they are
likely to feel the same way. Controversial?
In order for the valves to function at the highest
level, mechanically speaking, they need to be pushed
straight down. Poor hand position often results in
pushing the pistons at an angle, causing the valves to
hang, resulting in poor execution. Encourage students
to hold the valves with the left hand so that the thumb
is in the saddle on the first slide and the third or fourth
finger are in the ring on the third slide. The right hand
should form an inverted “C”, with the fingers arched over
the valves so that they can depress the valves straight
down. I teach students to think of
their fingers as an extension of the
valvestem.The right thumbshouldbe
inserted between the first and second
valvecasings, andkept straight soas to
keep the right hand from collapsing
against the trumpet. Teach students
to move third and first valve slides to
adjust intonation on low D, C-sharp
and even E right from the begin-
ning. They can use both hands, just
like you expect your beginning wood-
wind players to. Never let them think
it is beyond them, because it is not.
Perhaps the biggest trumpet killer is placing the
mouthpiece rim directly on the red of the lips, and
especially on the red of the upper lip. The upper
lip is the primary vibrator; placing the rim directly
on it, puts great restriction on its ability to vibrate.
Teachers should constantly monitor the placement
of the mouthpiece on the top lip. If a ring appears
below the line that divides the face from the labial
skin, then the mouthpiece is too low. Experience has
shown me that trying to correct this problem once it
is the student’s customary manner of setting up meets
with very limited success. Once students become
accustomed to playing this way they find it almost
impossible to reestablish their mouthpiece placement,
yet some of the most typical problems associated with
this issue are poor range, inflexibility, fuzzy sound and
a lack of endurance. Directors should be consistent,
insistent and persistent in their instruction to keep the
mouthpiece high enough.
Teaching Beginner Trumpet Students
Downplay buzzing the
mouthpiece. Playing
on the mouthpiece by
i tsel f is harder to
do than playing the
trumpet . . . students
have l imi ted success
wi th i t . Instead, (blow)
smoothly through
the trumpet unt i l the
sound catches.