It’s trumpet time!

Over the last few years, I have been teaching a lot of trumpet private lessons. I don’t mind it, I love the sound of the trumpet; ESPECIALLY when the student fills the instrument to produce this beautiful, rich tone. It is like witnessing a work of art come to life… like the first time a baby laughs- it just fills you with such extreme joy.

To achieve this sound, the student will have to put in extra effort. Back in my student days, they used to tell us to spend 20 minutes per day. Twenty minutes isn’t long at all and kind of manageable… but when you are first starting out, those 20 minutes on the C scale in long tones can be quite boring. SO what do we do? we get some Etude and technique books. Some trumpet studies!!

There are different types of studies which can help you to become a stronger musician. Lyrical studies and technical studies. The lyrical studies help you to work on the expressiveness of the piece, while the technical studies help you to become comfortable with different types of passages that may be difficult at first.

When I was younger, I thought “Lyrical” and “Etude” were interchangeable. I didn’t understand that ‘Etude’ simply meant “Study” in French. Le Sigh…

After a student’s first year on the instrument, I begin working with them on developing as an instrumentalist. A fuller sound, double and triple tonguing (not to fast just yet… just the body mechanics and kinesiology of the technique), building up the range, breathing exercises et cetera. So we typically dive into some studies and books.

**Full Disclosure- While I am an amazon affiliate, I am not just recommending anything haphazardly. I have either had experience with or done extensive research on everything I recommend because I believe that students should go beyond my level of musicianship. When possible, I will have a link to the material. By no means is this list exhaustive or complete.

One of the first books I will have the students look into is the “Rubank Selected Studies for trumpet or Coronet”. Not only does it give you scale and arpeggio exercises, it has some fantastic and really beautiful melodies and etudes in every key. Play the scale to get comfortable, do the arpeggios for flexibility, finish with an etude to really understand the key. I like to use this one BECAUSE it uses every single key. We will always come back to this book when they need to work and feel comfortable in a new or unfamiliar key. You can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3EbXb9U

Another Series of etudes and studies I really like is the “Complete Ost Etudes for Trumpet”… These are some of the most beautiful etudes I have ever heard. They have a very modern sound. These are a little more expensive, but they are worth every cent. It comes with PDFs of all of the etudes and MP3s for reference. I love these. I have a particular etude I like for them to do as a cool down because it is in such a low register; but I will also use it when we are working on breathing or learning to breathe and support of the higher registers when they are trying to increase their range. Check them out here: https://nathanost.com/product/the-complete-ost-etudes-for-trumpet/

The third Book I will have them use is the HL Clarke Book “Technical studies for the Coronet”. While (in my opinion) not as beautiful as the previous two method books, this one focuses more on technical exercises and is a great companion to either of the other two. https://amzn.to/3M5p6tT

And Finally, I will have them work out of “the trumpet bible”, yep… The Infamous Arban’s book “The Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet”. This bad boy starts from the very beginning as if you have had no experience with trumpet and takes you all the way through the virtuosic performer ultimately cultivating in “Variations on the carnival of Venice”. I would recommend getting the spiral bound book so it lays flat. https://amzn.to/3V01GdE

If you can only get one method book, I say go with the Arban’s book. It has everything you will need. If you can get two, then Arban’s and Ost exercises. Ost will give you some variety. After that the choices are yours.