Set the Tone
When deciding to take Trumpet lessons for beginners – getting started right is the most important consideration. Find the best teacher and you will “set the tone” so to speak. The right teacher will help you build a great foundation for success.
Fundamental Music Instruction offers trumpet lessons for beginners and our trumpet teachers focus on starting right! Sign up for your Complimentary music class. Adults and children may take trumpet lessons online, so students can live anywhere. In addition, we offer at school lessons. You can check our school list here. Students learn from our top-quality and talented trumpet teachers. You can Learn more about each of our instructors at Fundamental Music Instruction (About our Teachers). We are looking forward to helping you with your trumpet class journey with FMI.
Trumpet Players Must Learn How to Buzz When Playing First Sounds
The trumpet “Buzz” is the first step in the process of playing the trumpet. To do this, start by pulling the corners of your mouth back. Hold the lips together, making the lips thin and closed across the teeth. Make sure your teeth are slightly apart so that the air can get through. Your mouth muscles will probably get tired because you are using muscles you are not used to. To produce a buzzing sound, hold this shape and blow air from the back of your lips and through the closed front of the lips. Usually, this isn’t difficult as long as you don’t squeeze your lips closed but rather, stretch them across the teeth.
Trumpet teachers demonstrate “Buzzing” for students but meanwhile, view this video for advice on starting right Trumpet Lesson Video. Download a free copy of “First Songs for Band” Free Lesson Book.
Once you can buzz, it’s time to place the mouthpiece up to your mouth. Divide the mouthpiece evenly between the top and bottom lip and, line it up in the center of your mouth – not off to one side or the other.
Now that the mouthpiece is in place, do the same buzz as before. The mouthpiece is only a circular prop on your lip and should not make you change anything.
If you get the air to move at a decent speed past the lips and into the mouthpiece, you will hear the sound of a “duck call.” Try not to be overly motivated to put the mouthpiece on the trumpet, but rather spend a good deal of time perfecting your “duck call” to make this sound at different pitches.
Cheeks Should Not be Puffed Up When Playing the Trumpet
Dizzy Gillespie was famous for puffed cheeks, and at one point, he was the only person to have become so famous despite such a muscular difficulty. “Puffing the cheeks” is the biggest problem to avoid when learning online trumpet lessons. I refer to this as “chipmunk cheeks.” Keep the corners of your mouth pulled back and it will be nearly impossible to puff. If you have “chipmunk cheeks,” the corners of your mouth are not set correctly. Likewise, if the sound is similar to the sound you might get playing in a plastic bubble, the lips are probably squeezed shut and not letting air get through.
Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong was one of the most famous trumpet players of the 20th century and the “Father of Modern Jazz on Trumpet.”
The Sound of the Trumpet can Change Without Even Using Your Fingers
How can a trumpet student learn how to change the trumpet’s sound without even using their fingers? The trick is to change the speed of the air.
Have you ever watered plants with a garden hose?
When you want to water plants that are far away, you put the sprayer on jet spray (a smaller, thinner opening for the water pressure), causing thinner, faster water spray, making it go farther.
Buzzing speed changes from slow to medium to fast and very fast by stretching the corners of your mouth more and more across the teeth and making the air move faster into the trumpet. But, this is not achieved by squeezing your lips together and pressing the mouthpiece against your teeth.
This picture of Sachmo accurately portrays him playing a high note/fast buzzing – notice the corners of the mouth are stretched back, and the mouth is not squeezed shut.
Fundamental Music Instruction has Trumpet Teachers for Beginners of all ages
Brass instruments do not produce sound; brass players produce sound by the buzzing of the lip as the driving force of the brass sound. There is so much for a student to learn about the trumpet, and FMI trumpet teachers are an excellent help. All of us at Fundamental Music Instruction are beyond happy to help students find their sound and enjoy music in their life.
FMI trumpet teachers teach children and adults the best way to learn a trumpet at-school or from the comfort of home with online lessons. Fundamental Music Instruction is for everyone! Music has tremendous benefits, no matter how old you are. Learn to play an instrument today! Find out more about Trumpet lessons with FMI Trumpet Lessons.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected], call us at 908-244-4943, or Contact Us! We can’t wait to fill your world with music with our valuable music lessons online.