Do you struggle with flexibilities?

Weather you call them lip slurs, harmonic slurs or various other things but its when you slur from 1 harmonic to the next without using valves.

Whatever you call them there are many players who struggle with them. I used to struggle with flexibilities. it was quite detrimental to my playing too. I never practiced them because I was terrible at them and therefore I never improved my sound, range or endurance. T

hat was until I had lessons with an amazing teacher who taught me the trick of honking. Watch this video to learn about honking and how it can better your trumpet playing. You can get the sheet music I use in this exercise from my website https://www.learntrumpetnow.com/trumpet-lessons You'll find it by signing up for my membership under flexibilities level 3. It's a free 14 day trial so sign up download the sheet music and cancel if you don't like it. As always,

Happy Practising

Are you sick of Splitting notes while playing the trumpet? I used to split notes all the time! It really frustrated my! No matter how easy the piece of music was I would always have at least 1 split note per piece. So I spent years trying to figure out why I was splitting and how to stop it. Follow along with this video and you too can stop splitting notes on the trumpet. (It also works for other brass instruments) To get the sheet music completely free click this link. https://www.learntrumpetnow.com/stop-splitting-notes 

If you would like to learn trumpet with me visit my website www.LearnTrumpetNow.com If you would like more trumpet related videos hit that subscribe button. Next week I show you how to improve flexibilities. As always, Happy Practising.

Pedal Tones have vital to the development of my trumpet playing. They have been vital in helping me develop a good embouchure so that I can keep up with the demands of being a professional trumpet player within military bands and as a freelance player. 

In this video I demonstrate my approach to playing pedal tones and how I can make them benefit my playing. Be mindful though as playing pedal tones the "Wrong way" can be more detrimental to playing trumpet than not doing them at all.

If you would like to improve your pedal tones on the trumpet check out this video. I like to use the Louis Maggio, James Stamp and Pierre Thibaud books to practice medals.

If you would like to buy the Louis Maggio book click this link. http://amzn.to/2tI37oB

To purchase the James Stamp book click this link http://amzn.to/2p7KN3t

To purchase the Piere Thiboud book click this link https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/method-for-the-advanced-trumpeter-sheet-music/4619339?kw&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KC...

Hi Guys, In this video I unbox and give my first thoughts on the Yamaha SILENT Brass version 2. The Yamaha SILENT Brass is a practice mute system with a belt pack that allows you to practice any brass instrument at full volume without disturbing your neighbours.

After putting the SILENT Brass through the test I find that it is a fantastic system that can definitely aid in any trumpet players development. There are some flaws however.

The mute still feels like a practice mute. Its a much more improved mute but it still feel like a practice mute. There is an unnatural resistance which I find does cause some intonation problems. This is much less obvious in the video but through the headphones it is very present.

There is some delay between the instrument and hearing the sound through the headphones. This can be off-putting when trying to practice fast passages, especially when a lot of fast tonguing is involved.

I would strongly recommend against using this every day as I beli...

Over the years I have been very fortunate to work with many amazing musicians. One of these amazing musicians is world renown multi instrumentalist James Morrison. Working with James is a huge privilege and every time I have played with James I have learned something new. Today I wanted to share my top 5 lessons that I learned working with James.

1. Work hard to achieve your goals but make sure you enjoy the journey. James is a big believer that hard work gets you the results you seek. Just listen to his playing, it speaks for itself. But He also believes that without enjoyment the hard work can feel like a  chore and prevent you from achieving your goals.

2. If you want to learn multiple instruments (or variations of the same instrument) practice the change. James is an incredible instrumentalist. He says that for him to become so good at several different instruments is from practising changing between them. He would practice his main instrument until that felt good then he would...

If you’re anything like me and most of my students your practice room is small and dead sounding. Usually many of my students can only practice in their bedroom. Practising in a small room can be a real challenge. It’s hard to create the bright resonant sound were used to listening to in large concert halls or churches. As a result of this we compensate for the environment by playing too loudly. 

From time to time I like to setup a home recording studio using my laptop and add artificial reverb to make it sound like I’m playing in 1 of my favourite concert halls. 

Check out this video blog to see what gear I use and how  to set it up so you can do it from home. It’s easier than you might think.

You can also find a list of the gear I recommend you use at home by clicking on the link here.  https://www.learntrumpetnow.com/trumpetstudio

What practice tips do you use to make practising at home more enjoyable?

Happy Practising 

Have you had one of those moments where you think “This is too good to be true”? As a kid I never thought music would have as big an impact on my life as it has. Because of music I have met and performed for every Australian Prime Minister between 1996 and now (2021). I have performed for Queen Elizabeth II, Prince's Philip, William & Harry and several other monarchs. I have shared the stage with music icons such as James Morrison, Guy Sebastian, Ian Moss, Kate Ceberano and several others. I have performed at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet. Travelled to India, Hawaii, Fiji, Kingdom of Tonga, Papa New Guinea, Afghanistan United Arab Emirates to perform. I’ve Sounded the last post at Isuarva PNG (where the Australian Defence Force held off the Japanese during the 2nd World War watch the video here - https://youtu.be/B8Ngk0mA6eU ).

This isn't including the countless amazing friends and Colleagues I have met all over ...

As a young man I remember seeking ways to become physically fit and visually appealing without having to spend lots of time in the gym. All of my research lead to weights training and specifically using compound exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that use multiple muscle groups for 1 exercise. Training this way got me thinking, “Is there such a thing as compound exercises for my trumpet playing?”. So I got to work researching. I read books and articles written by many elite trumpet players. I watched master classes and took lessons with many of the best players available. From doing all of this I discovered that Herbert Clarke’s 2nd studies can be used to improve almost every aspect of my playing.

This video I demonstrate how I use Herbert Clarke’s 2nd studies to work on both Single and double tonguing and double my tonguing speed and endurance.

As a Trumpet player and teacher I am often asked “If you only had time to practice 1 exercise, what would it be?”.

This is a good question because there are many different exercises out there and there are advantages to all of them. Sadly none of them totally cover everything we need to know to be a fantastic Trumpet player. On the upside there are exercises that we can use to improve many aspects of our playing at the same time.

My favourite exercise to cover as many aspects of my playing is the Clarke Technical Studies for Trumpet. Especially the 2nd studies. 

If we adjust our approach on this exercise we can improve many aspects of our playing in the shortest amount of practice time.

Check out this video and apply the skills to your practice and I’m sure your playing will reap the rewards.

#HappyPractising

Most trumpets only have 3 valves, The piccolo trumepet however commonly has 4 valves. The 4th valve has 2 main uses. The first is an alternative option to 1 and 3 valve combination and the second is to extend the range at the lower end of the instrument. (Down to C# rather than F#) 

Because we don’t use 4 valves very often as trumpet players I have created this exercise to help me get stronger and more co-ordinated using the 4th valve. Check out this video to see a demonstration of my exercise. You can get a copy of the sheet music from this link.

https://www.learntrumpetnow.com/4th-v... If you would like to win 1 of 5 FREE piccolo trumpet courses sign up at this link HERE before the course is launched. 

#HappyPractising