Trumpet Articulation: Note Release Issues

Articulation can throw a lot of problems our way. In today's video, I'm going to share some of my techniques for a more confident, comfortable and immediate articulation. Welcome to the Trumpet Prof channel, bringing you trumpet education at a much higher level. I'm Paul Mays and this channel is for advanced players and teachers looking for a deeper understanding of the trumpet and how to take their playing to the next level. You'll find tutorials and lectures on a whole range of trumpet related topics. So please consider subscribing. And if you liked the video, I'd really appreciate it if you could click that like button. Of course, if you have any comments or questions or thoughts about any of these videos, please do leave them below because it's really important that we get the content just right for you. Okay, let's get into the video. So articulation, it's a vast topic. This and today's video is just about note release issues because it's the most common question I get asked about the articulation topic. So what is an articulation? Basically it's a release of air pressure by the tongue. High air pressure release will give you a hard attack. Low air pressure release will give you a softer attack. So it's not really about focusing on the tongue itself. We need to focus on the air pressure, especially higher pressure and learning how to release that without delay. As it's air pressure, that's the problem. We need to take air pressure out of the equation and just work with some articulations without that huge force bearing down on the tongue. Now we also need to try to recreate a situation close to one that would trigger the response in the first place. So we're going to do these initial exercises in a particular way. We're going to use a rhythm, basically semiquaver minim, if you like. And I'm going to conduct you in on it. So it really kind of feels like you're starting a piece, starting a particular phrase. So it's going to go like this. And the other thing we need to do to take the air pressure out of the situation is to exhale fully before we do the exercise, literally down to a wheeze. So you couldn't even talk because you just don't have enough air. So articulating without air pressure. First of all, we're going to simulate an articulation, just simply going like that, just simulating the articulation. But remember we're going to do it to the rhythm and we're going to exhale first. Here we go. No air pressure building up behind that whatsoever. The next exercise is to take your mouthpiece and we don't want any sound out of the mouthpiece, but we do want you to articulate the way that you would if you played. Just don't make any sound. Same thing again, using all your air, blowing all your air out first down to a wheeze, and then I'll bring you in with the rhythm. Here we go. So you get the idea. Now we're just trying to get the tongue moving. It doesn't matter how you articulate. This video isn't about that. It's just purely about trying to free the tongue up and try to play in, in a way that isn't affected by air pressure. Then the third exercise is to play the note on your trumpet. Now it doesn't matter if you don't get a note speaking to begin with, but you will do when you increase the, um, the strength of the articulation. So let's just go through the same process. And I would probably advise that you aim for around a middle G with this. So here we go. Now, most of you should have been all right with that. If you can't articulate, if you can't release the tongue this way, then it's not an air pressure problem. I think 99% of the time it will be, but then we'll be dealing with some sort of musculature problem and we'll have to address that. Um, certainly I'd be really interested if that is, if you think that is a problem, um, leave me a question below or a comment because, um, then we can maybe tackle that in another video. So let's just try that again. Let's try the whole process. We're going to exhale and simulate to begin with and relax now with the mouthpiece and now with the trumpet. So the next stage is to do the same exercises again, but this time we're going to take in a breath, not a full breath, but probably just like two thirds, three quarters full is fine. However, we need to hold the air a certain way because we don't want to trigger any air pressure. We want to take in, um, a breath without air pressure and we're going to do it by retaining shape. So breathe in like this. Now hold your air, hold your shape. Don't let it collapse. You should be able to pen like that, which means that your throat is still relaxed. You're holding your air high and the air is under low air pressure. And that's how we're going to do the same set of exercises. So here we go. First of all, just simulate the articulation. Now with the mouthpiece, remember, try not to use any air, hold your shape. Now let's do it with the instrument. So those exercises are very much to remove air pressure from the situation. One by removing all the air in the first place, the next one by introducing the air, but keeping it at low air pressure. Now the next exercise, um, is to basically invert what we've done. We now want to take away the tongue as the articulating muscle, and we want to create air pressure and the sensation of articulating at high air pressure, but without using the tongue. Now you're probably going, how on earth, are we going to do that? Well, if you take your trumpet and remove the slide that's connected to the second valve, and you can either hold the second valve down with your left hand, or you can hold it down with your right hand. As long as you block the lower tube, where the slide came out, you need to block that. So when you blow through your trumpet, nothing's going to come out. It's completely blocked. But what you're going to do is you're going to open and close the hole that your thumb is over, and that's going to create an articulation. Remember we said an articulation is a release of air pressure, and we're going to use the thumb now to articulate. So all I want you to do is to blow at high air pressure and use the thumb to articulate like this. So we could do that with the rhythm that we've been using. Only thing is I can't conduct you in this time. So what is the point of this? Well, the point is that you have the sensation of high air pressure, but you're also articulating the note because the air pressure is stopping and starting, and there's no opportunity for the throat to close down. You might feel like it wants to close down. That is based on the body's natural reaction to air pressure and the fact that the way it normally generates air pressure is to close down at the glottis. So you might feel something wanting to go on at your throat, but you need to try to override that and just focus on maintaining a high level of air pressure and changing that air pressure from low to high with the thumb. So this is all about sensations. And now we're going to introduce the tongue, but I want you to keep your thumb over the tube. So we retain that maximum level of pressure. So you're not going to be able to blow any air through the instrument. You're just going to feel that really, really high air pressure. And I just want you to move the tongue in the same way that we did with the same rhythm that we did. So you're not going to hear anything come out, but you will feel the tongue move and the throat won't be able to close down because the air pressure is just too high. So you won't hear anything, but I'll show you what I mean. Basically I'm going like this and be aware of your throat because your throat won't be closing down. It just can't do that. And then the final exercise still with the tube removed is to put your thumb over the tube again. And on the second note, you're going to release it. So you're going to go like this. Again, this is all about sensation. And then finally open up the tube and play the rhythm freely. And that is a really good way of deactivating air pressure, deactivating what we call the Valsalva maneuver, which is the buildup of pressure. So you can't release, which stops you from releasing the sound. But remember, you're going to have to do this over time and gradually build it into your playing until it becomes completely autonomous. So the one other thing to say about this issue is that still your best way of preventing it, solving it, reducing it is to sigh through the instrument. Whatever you do, whatever technique is involved, whatever problem you have, always try to sigh through the instrument. Now, this is the third trumpet prof video. And what I'd like to start doing is just spending a few minutes at the end of each video from now on getting back to you on some of your feedback and some of your questions. So today I'm getting back to Anthony and George, who both left similar questions about mouthpiece placement. This is a really good topic, a really interesting topic because it comes up a lot and it's something that players do tend to worry about because everyone thinks that they should play in a very textbook way, having it very central, having it placed just in the right place, throw away the textbook. That's my advice. That's what I did. And my playing never looked back. The conventional way of course, is to try and put it in the center, but I've moved plenty of players over to the left or over to the right. In fact, I play with my, um, set up over to the left and recently I've moved it even further over just because I felt that it found more of a sweet spot with, with the resonance, but it really doesn't matter. So don't worry about that. It is something we'll discuss in future videos. So keep those questions, keep those comments coming in. Um, hopefully you've enjoyed today's video. If you did hit the like button, please keep spreading the word. If you haven't subscribed yet, please consider doing so and I'll see you next time.