Help with trumpet ambiture building?

Question

I just wanted to know, is it better to practice building your ambiture by playing realy low notes, or realy high notes. I can hit a G above the staff, and a C but not that comfortably, and I do not last as long as i would like to (also I sometimes use massive amounts of air and somethimes turn red). - thanks

Trumpets rock! and Violin!

Answer 1

First off it's embrochure that your wanting to develop.  It all comes with time and practice.  However, practicing the right way makes it happen a little faster.  What many band directors don't teach, mainly due to not being trumpet players and lack of time, is that it's all about air speed not mass volume of air.  It's kinda hard to put into words but here is a way to think about it.  Visualize a garden hose with no spray nozzle on it, just the hose.  You turn the water on and the water come out about 6 inches and falls to the ground.  You turn the water valve all the way up and it may go a little farther before it goes to the ground but not much, just more water.  This is like blowing air, you blow more air it gets louder and maybe a little higher but not much.  Now take that hose and cover part of the opening with your thumb and what happens to the water?  It sprays much faster and goes much farther before dropping off.  How do you do that with your air?  You reduce your apperature (the opening between your lips) and raise your tongue to more of an EE position.  The air speeds up and makes higher notes easier to achieve.  This is a very simplified explaination, there is much more to it.  I'd suggest finding a private trumpet teacher that knows how to work with air speed and take lessons.  There are many different approaches, but you have to ask yourself what are the top pro's doing?  You'll find that they emphasize air speed, and using your tongue to control the speed of the air along with the lips.  One other tip, if you try to make your apperature smaller by mashing you upper and lower lip together you'll get a thin pinched sound because your blocking the air to much.  You need to compress in from the corners to keep the apperature open.  The right combination of pulling in from all four directions is what makes it work.  How do you figure that out?  Practice!

Answer 2

my college private instructor's magic approach;

1. long tones (across mid & low range)

2. lipslurs (mid & upper range) do them on your horn, then just mouthpiece, then just lips

3. diatonic scale excercises (slurred) on horn, then mouthpiece, then just buzzing lips

after a semester of this regimen, my stamina tripled, i added an octave to my upper range, my tone quality and pitch control became much better. It is basicall an emory remington approach.

p.s. its spelled embouchure