Mark "Doc" Shellhammer

I'm located in the Orlando area which is rich in entertainment opportunities. I'm the inventor of the RingMute dampening ring for Bb trumpet and the author of the S.P.I.T. Book (scales, patterns, inversions, triads) which is a new methodology for learning musical improvisation. I've been blessed to have played with many of the greats and still perform. I also teach trumpet and one of the hardest things is to get a student to understand that the trumpet does not have to be an instrument of acoustic destruction and there's more to trumpet than double high C. Learning to be lyrical, sensitive, and how to make the audience cry. That's when you get to the big stuff. That's not to say that intensity and range are not important, you need it in your tool box too. But the trumpet is a "singing" instrument (notice I put vocal in the genre) and my tidbit of advice: never blow air into a trumpet. Breathe life into the trumpet. A good question to ask is "How is this done"? A little rethinking is involved. How many times have you read or heard about trumpet players doing sit-ups to strengthen their abdominal muscles in order to play in the upper register? Let's first look at what make the tone or pitch when we play. It's the size of the aperture, period. The smaller the aperture, the higher the pitch, the bigger the aperture, the lower the pitch. Here's where the thinking changes. Let the aperture determine how tense the abdomen needs to be. Not "I'm going to tighten my abdomen to play in the upper register". Most trumpet player blow way too hard for the work that's needed. Here's a little experiment to show you what I mean; Blow into an empty paper towel roll with a steady unforced stream of air. While doing this, pay particular attention to what your abdomen is doing. It might be only a little tight. Next Blow the same steady unforced stream of air through a small straw or coffee stir. What happened!? The abdomen tighten on it's own! You did not have to do anything. So, the secret is to teach the abdomen to respond to what the aperture tells it to do. It's all about "YOU" not purposely crunching your abdominals to play in the upper register. I've seen people pass out using this method. Allow your aperture will tell the abdominals what to do.

Think about it. It's all about resistance and the smaller the aperture, (given the same steady flow of air) the more the abdomen will tighten due to resistance. The bigger the aperture, the less abdominal tense up. The lesson to be learned is, if you are focusing on your abdominals, chances are you are over riding the aperture's information to the abdominals. In this case, the person is probably over blowing. To learn how to do this you must begin by "Backing off blowing so hard" and play in the upper register soft. It is then you'll discover how to allow your abdominals to respond to the size of the aperture. Once this is mastered, your thinking changes and playing in all registers becomes exponentially easier. Good luck and I hope this helps. Doc Shellhammer Show less