Benefits for Trumpeters

Why should you learn to play a natural trumpet?
Learning the natural trumpet will make you a better trumpeter, a better musician, and a more marketable music professional.

Technique and Musicianship

  1. Flexibility and Efficiency
    • Using excessive air pressure (overblowing) produces especially poor results when playing the natural trumpet. In order to move easily between the partials of the natural trumpet's expanded harmonic series, one must learn how to produce sound and manipulate pitch with minimum physical effort.
    • Increases range and endurance.
    • Promotes a fluid approach to articuation.
    • Practicing trills on the natural trumpet translates to effortless, clear, and controlled trills on a modern trumpet.
  2. Aural Skills
    • Increases pitch & interval awareness through mastery of the expanded harmonic series.
    • Decreases reliance on the "feel" of valves and increases the reliance on internal sense of pitch to find correct partials.
    • Improves intonation and overall sensitivity in section playing through perception of resultant tones and sympathetic vibration.
  3. Musicianship
    • Playing the natural trumpet requires a more linear approach to sound production and musical phrasing, which transfers effectively to modern trumpet playing.
    • Practicing "Baroque" articuations from historical methods translates to a wider pallete of colors when playing modern trumpet.
    • Experiencing the sound of the natural trumpet firsthand inspires more creativity in sound production on the modern trumpet.

Artistic Perspective

  • Brings new meaning and insight to the performance of Renaissance, Baroque, classical, and romantic period music.
  • Illuminates the reasons and need for transposition in modern orchestral playing.
  • Helps to understand the conventions for writing orchestral trumpet music historically.
  • Helps trumpeters comprehend and appreciate the performance culture of the French horn.
  • Empowers trumpeters to make sound performance decisions with regards to Baroque and classical repertoire.

Employment

  • Gives teachers a fresh perspective and skill set, setting them apart from the competition, and makes their students more marketable as performers and teachers.
  • Makes trumpeters more marketable as performers: If an orchestra, choral association, or liturgical music director, wants to hear the natural trumpet, and you have and can play one, you get the gig!