The End Result by Robert Baca
Attaining a good sound has been the goal of brass players for generations.
Attaining a good sound has been the goal of brass players for generations. Although our ideas of how to produce this sound have shifted from the actual physical study of sound itself to selecting suitable equipment, most musicians would agree that when range, technique and flexibility arrive at an acceptable level, creating a good sound becomes the greatest challenge. By studying the concept of sound quality, you can increase range technique, flexibility and overall playing ease to a more optimal level — a fact overlooked by most trumpet players. Imitating a good trumpet sound involves hearing and listening, processes best achieved when we slow down our mind and focus our attention.
Full vs. Loud
A full sound generates a strong fundamental and a full compliment of overtones. When we direct warm, moist, relaxed air through the center of the trumpet, it enables the overtones to set up properly and the sound will have the clarity that was intended in the design of the instrument. At this point distortion of tone is nonexistent. This is the difference between full and loud. How can we tell how much air to use, what direction it should go, or at what speed it should travel? These questions are resolved automatically by listening to the sound coming out of your bell. Through much listening, we will notice our sound getting closer to the instrument we wish to imitate. We constantly listen and compare. A sound can be loud, but it may not be full. Compare a $199 boom box with a $5,000 audio system. The volume level of the inexpensive set has to be turned up to nine or ten to achieve a loud sound. As the dial reaches this mark, distortion occurs. The $5,000 system creates a full sound by maintaining clarity in a room when the volume level is at 2, 3 or at its maximum.
Concentration
Producing a good sound requires much concentration. With concentration, refined by our interest in studying musical sound, our mind senses, isolates and analyzes the entire sound spectrum being heard. Eventually, through repetitious practicing and listening, the trained mind will unconsciously react by instructing the proper muscle groups to respond in forming the embouchure and air support to just the right degree, thus achieving the desired full sound. The same process exists when we learn to hit a baseball, walk or run. If we are preparing to run a marathon, most of the training is spent learning to quiet our mind to let the body function in the most efficient manner.
Dynamics
Think of dynamics not as loud or soft but as sound color, ranging from dark to bright. Imagine bright as the lead trumpet voice in the shout chorus of a big band arrangement, and dark as the second movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto. The dynamic color must fit the ensemble medium. A forte in the Hummel Trumpet Concerto with piano accompaniment would be drastically different than a forte written in a Mahler symphony or the shout chorus of a big band chart. Dynamics are greatly affected by the sound color of the rest of the ensemble.
The Printed Page: A Blueprint
Music written on a printed page should act as a guide to what the music should sound like. The sound is the end result. Printed music is only an image of what the composer had in mind. Three years ago I had a house built. From the blueprint I could conceptually see the roof, room sizes, landscaping, etc., but not until the house was completed could I actually observe the beauty of the design from the blueprint. In much the same way, the audience receives the full emotion of the performance based on what they hear, not on what is on the printed page.
Playing in the Upper Register
From the first music lesson we are taught that one note on the printed page is higher or lower than another. This is simply not true. Higher notes are actually faster frequencies. On the beach when the wind blows through a crack in a rock we hear the pitch go up with the velocity of the wind. A clear sound is easily attained in all registers when the velocity of relaxed air rather than the stiffness of the embouchure creates the upper register. Most importantly, build all registers slowly and securely.
Reading, Rhythm and Accuracy
If we practice too fast our mind initially develops the bad habit of not picking out all the details, resulting in reading, rhythm and accuracy problems. Slow down when practicing and let your mind see all there is to see. Near my house in Wisconsin is the town of Cleghorn, consisting of a few buildings and a thirty-five mile per hour speed sign. Few passing through this town observe the speed limit. Those traveling fifty-five barely know they passed a town, those doing forty notice the big oak tree with the endless branches that cover the road and those driving thirty-five could catch a rare glimpse of the squirrel that inhabits the trees. As Tim Gallawey states in his book, The Inner Game of Tennis, "...the unconscious mind hears everything, never forgets anything and is anything but stupid." Practice slowly enough with a good rhythmic sense to notice detail, but not so as to "daydream" with your concentration. Listen to mentors perform slower lyrical pieces and instantly try to imitate that which constitutes good musicianship.
Learn How to Play the Trumpet
Playing the trumpet, or any instrument, should be an extension of you. Jazz, orchestral and solo styles, while taking a lifetime to perfect, become much easier without fighting the fundamentals of the instrument. We have all suffered from the mistake of recovering from wasted practice time spent trying to work up a piece that was physically over our heads. In your practice day, spend a good portion on fundamentals and in music that is close to your ability level. Once you begin to feel comfortable with the fundamentals of playing, the lifelong journey of learning to express music in different genres becomes much more enjoyable.
Practice
Bill Adam, my trumpet teacher (retired, Indiana University), constantly reminded me that trumpet playing is a development process. There are no short cuts or sunken treasures to be found, only consistent practice and hard work. On the other hand, it's easy to lose sight that exercises are only a means to an end, and not the end themselves. Constantly listen to your sound concept and concentrate to keep it on track as you increase the difficulty of exercises, etudes and solos that you practice. Try to play musically with every note. Start the day by practicing simple exercises, like long tones, so the untrained mind can focus in properly on the sound and instruct the muscles where to go. Practice exercises that begin in the middle register and expand in both directions. Like a physical workout, slowly increase the musical demands at a pace so that the sound will always keep the clarity achieved in the middle register. If our concentration can stay focused, the "rough edges" of yesterday's playing will have no consequence on how we sound today. When our muscles are ready, they will perform correctly.
I practice three sets a day. The first set includes a routine of exercises to help quiet my mind and even out the rough edges of yesterday's playing. (Mr. Adam gave us a "routine" to help us refine our fundamentals. The routine was a series of exercises that would alone be useless without having Mr. Adam interject his personal interpretation of how they apply to each individual student. It was a kind of apprenticeship.) The second set is my musical session filled with etudes where I focus on what happens "in between the notes on those music pages." The third set (often at night) is usually filled with Arban's exercises, duets or jazz playing. It is better to exercise where you are not too anxious with your concentration. Sound quality should be the determining factor for speed, expansion of range, volume and the number of exercises to play. The sound must stay free in the higher range and technical exercises must remain relaxed. Because of performance demands, these factors may change daily and therefore practice must change accordingly.
Get a Good Teacher
Only through time and experience can we develop a deeper musical concept. Exposure to recordings, live concerts and actual performance situations are important but cannot replace studying with a good teacher. Living in Wisconsin, fishing is a favorite pastime of mine. When I first began learning the sport, I bought several books on the subject that discussed weather, lure choice, sonar, lake temperature, water conditions, etc. The books detailed how to properly hold the rod, provided casting exercises and even explained how to sense if there is a fish on the line. While the authors made money from my book purchases, I did not catch fish with any regularity until an experienced angler volunteered to take me fishing. He observed my actions and made suggestions like "Pull fast, but not that fast" and "You may think you have it on the bottom, but you don't. This is what it feels like to be on the bottom" and "Not yet, not yet, not yet. Now!" Simply put, there is no substitute for a good teacher.
Equipment
We refine our performance style for a lifetime, but as the difficulties associated with basic technique fade away and our sound consistently becomes centered, the actual instrument will have an influence on tone quality. As a performer and university instructor, I play a wide range of musical styles. A Bach Stradivarius trumpet delivers a very wide spectrum of musical color. The bright colors necessary for a Broadway pit orchestra or a rock session, and the dark colors necessary for the second movement of the Haydn Concerto with piano accompaniment are easily achieved with this instrument. Eventually, with perseverance, range, accuracy, time, technique, and flexibility, all reach acceptable levels through the efforts you make in practice. At this point, your sound concept can make all the difference for an audition or performance. Music is a lifelong challenge we never conquer, which is the very reason we find it so satisfying.
I hope these concepts will make performing easier and eliminate difficulties created by thinking too much. Many of these ideas I learned from my trumpet teacher, whose common sense approach to trumpet playing has produced an extraordinary number of professional players and teachers.
About the author
Bob Baca currently serves as associate professor of trumpet and director of jazz studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He has performed with the Buddy Rich Big Band, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams and with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He also freelances in the Twin Cities. Baca is in demand throughout the United States as a Bach clinician. His article Sound Advice appeared in the Spring 1992 edition of Bach Brass Notes. Bob performs exclusively on a Stradivarius model 180S37 with a Bach 3C mouthpiece. "I use the same trumpet whether I'm playing in a big band, symphony orchestra or for a solo recital. The Bach medium-large bore model facilitates production of a large, full sound with projection. It also allows for the flexibility of adapting my sound to fit the idiom."
