A question about mouthpieces for trumpets?

Question

Currently I am going into my 4th year of playing trumpet, and I am playing on a Bach 5c... this is going to be my first year of marching band and some of the notes are pretty high... I was wondering if switching mouth pieces could help my range.. I can play a b above the staff but thats about it... ( not concert)If so what size would you recommend? If not what lip exercises should I do? Also... does anyone have advice for tonguing 16th, and 32nd notes? I swear I cant make a staccato sound... A lot of people have recommended double tonguing... but I'm not exactly sure how.. any help with range and fast articulation is much appreciated..

Answer 1

A smaller mouthpiece will help.  To practice range, practice low and long tones; this will help with using your air. It's important that you keep your embouchure relaxed: if you tighten up, you'll just cut off the note. Lip slurs are also very beneficial.  For double tonguing, start slow. Say, "Tah Kah Tah Kah..."  Slowly speed it up.  It takes a while to get use to it and to keep your tone from sounding pinched off.  Good luck and happy practicing.  It won't happen overnight, so try to be patient (which is the hardest part).

Answer 2

for trumpet you actually need a larger mouthpiece to get more air in the horn to make it flow faster.  I recommend a Bach 3C or even as you get older maybe a 1 1/2C.  there are plenty of excersizes such as lip slurs and such but really a solid warmup book like the 15 minute warmup or Michael Sachs Daily Fundamentals for the Trumpet is also extremely good and helps with more than a warmup. Tonguing will only come with practice... both single and double tonguing.  for single, set a metronome at a pulse where you can play sixteenth notes. play 4 beats of 16th notes and go up and down a scale, every few days try to speed up the pulse.  for double tonguing you are simply saying "Ta Ka Ta Ka Ta Ka" you really need to kind of cough out the Ka to get the full value to fool the listener so it doesn't seem like you're double tonguing.... again this takes time and frustrating practice. start slow and build up speed and length of time you can double tongue.