Original subtitles

[Music]

hi folks it's jim here

to talk about how to hold a trumpet this

is going to be a quick lesson

so pay attention your hand

wants to work like this that's where the

trumpet goes

how that really looks in my case

is i've got my ring finger through this

ring

my pinky is floating around it could be

underneath it could be in there

two fingers grabbing the valve cluster

my thumb is on the other side in this

nice little saddle that this trumpet has

ring finger in the ring

chances are good that your

third valve ring like this one

is adjustable so you could loosen this

screw here and adjust

the position of the ring so that it's

comfortable for your hand

i strongly recommend that you put your

ring finger in there

if you got big hands and you really want

to put your middle finger in there

then bring it a little closer and do

that the reason the placement here is

important

is that you do as you're playing have to

be able to move that slide out

and back in again if your slide doesn't

move at all

you might need to get it to a repair

shop if like this one

it's difficult to move then you can

probably solve that problem on your own

i think i go through that on my five

things to do in daily maintenance

lesson on my website so

this one's not in great shape but it's

adjustable probably like yours so that's

why we're using it right now

there is another little keeper screw

down here by the way

this little keeper screw is just to keep

that thing from falling out once you get

it sliding really well

let's get back to the business of how to

hold it my thumb

is in this saddle some trumpets don't

have that saddle

it's no big deal 100 years ago nobody

had that saddle

so just if that if that wasn't there you

would just be grabbing

the valve but if you have a saddle there

put your thumb in it

in a way that you could potentially move

it if you had to

i tend to move mine some people don't

the right hand is all about playing

valves that's really all it does

it kind of balances the instrument helps

keep it steady helps you keep it up

if you're not very strong and you find

your instrument drooping like this

maybe it can help you a little bit i

like to get my thumb

right underneath the lead pipe

in between the first two valves that way

i've got a really strong anchor point

for it

some people will put it against the

first valve really it has to do with

what's comfortable

for your hand your hand should

essentially be in a relaxed gripping

position

as though you were holding a tennis ball

or something like that

all right that way you can take full

advantage advantage of all your knuckles

the uh tips of your fingers we're not

playing down on it like this we're

playing it

with the pads of our fingers almost as

though it was a clarinet and was going

to leak air

or a flute if we didn't cover the

instrument with the soft

pad okay so soft pads of your finger

and the other thing to try to do is make

sure your your fingers aren't all

crammed together like this they should

be nicely spaced

you want to be pushing these valves

straight down

i cannot count the number of times i've

had students with issues

sticky valves my valves are sticky my

valves won't come up

only to find that they were pushing them

down at an angle well

look what happens so you push them down

of course this one won't do it there

if you push them down at an angle they

want to come up at an angle and it's

just not going to work

push them straight down so to do that

anchor your thumb

get some spacing in there so the next

thing i suppose

is to think about getting the instrument

up

now if you're in a marching band you've

already been told

that you need to have that thing

horizontal to the ground

in actual practice i and most other

professional trumpet players

are probably down a little bit from

horizontal

sometimes we'll hide into our music

stand if we want to use it as a mute

we won't get too close but we'll get in

there but basically

somewhere near horizontal i can usually

see over my belt

if you're sitting it looks exactly the

same it's just that

you're sitting nothing changes

if you're left-handed good for you

you're going to be holding your

instrument extra well because of all

that dexterity in your left hand

do not try to play this instrument

backwards

unless there is something really unusual

about your anatomy

hold it with your left hand play the

vowels with your right

a big part of that is this business of

using

i'm going to get back to this other one

i know the slides work on this

instrument the business of using that

third valve slide and even the first

valve slide you can see that going out

when i played that little example of

either god say the queen or

america

the second note was a d do you see how

far out that third vowel slide is

if you're not playing d with your third

valve slide out

you're playing it wrong it is so sharp

that it's awful if you're playing along

with anybody else

you'll hear it because it'll just sound

wrong

here it is right i'll put it out there i

can just leave it out for this tune

now i'll pull it in and you'll see how

awful it sounds

that should leave you cringing imagine

that

time say 10 in your beginning band and

all the clarinets and flutes and

everybody else are all

dutifully playing it in tune and you're

not

so let's fix it and make it part of the

fingering you want this to be

automatic that's an aside i think again

that's probably in in lesson one or in

one of my scale

uh exercises it's definitely on my

fingering chart

if you're looking at this for the first

time and you already have a fingering

chart

and it claims that the fingering for one

for d is one and three

without any mention of that slide you

need a new fingering chart

okay we have dealt with

left-handedness good for you like i said

you'll just be that much

more dexterous at getting these things

in the right place pushing three

three vowels down is not a big deal this

pinky you'll notice my pinky is flying

it's connected up to this other finger

too closely if you lock that in this

finger suddenly becomes quite sluggish

and less available to you there is also

the potential that you could use this

pinky ring

to pull the horn hard onto your teeth

they're not made for that we want to

play this instrument

in a balanced way with very little

pressure and

all that's going to do is hurt so keep

your pinky out of there if you have to

turn pages in your book

if you have to wave at the adoring crowd

uh

if you need to put a mute in for

instance you might have to

to use that pinky ring if you want to be

cool and stand in the front of the band

and go like this like your band teacher

that's great but when you're playing

out it comes okay keep

it up a couple of oddball things

if you don't have one of these rings on

your trumpet

you probably have a place to put one you

might be missing the ring itself

and you can get these at a music shop

they do come

in different sizes if you have an older

trumpet they're

often a little thicker newer trumpets

they're usually a little thinner

you will probably also need a screw

some band teachers have little

collections of these screws

like me but your music

shop should have them and the repair

shop at

often at the back of your music shop but

not always

they should either have one or be able

to get one for you i wouldn't try

substituting just

any old screw i have had luck believe it

or not with a clarinet ligature screw

in an emergency but that's an emergency

um

if it did occur to me that if you have

some other kind of a mechanism there

that's spring-loaded like a a

trigger that has a spring and is

actuated on a

a lever that's a different setup

but the principle is the same get

yourself so that you're holding the

instrument comfortably

in a way that you could hold it for

hours and

then just use that trigger in the same

way

this old trumpet this one here

i had to make this out of i used one of

these rings

i used one of these and just cut it off

filed it down and had a jeweler solder

it on for me because i didn't have

access to a real repair person

at that time you can see the posts

mounted on it there was one there

and there was a trigger that came out to

here so you pushed in like this

and the thing shot out and the same here

it was mounted

there and you pulled you pulled the ring

in

and it shot out like that if you have a

setup like that

that's great just make sure that it

works in a way that doesn't disturb the

horn as you're playing

that's why for instance we we want these

slides to work really well

because you don't want the instrument

shaking around

while you're trying to move these slides

in and out or you'll just stop moving

them

and you'll play out a 10 which is no

good

all right thanks