Range Familiarity

I really can't discuss the physical aspects of range development on my web site simply because this is a topic which I cover in my book, The Physical Trumpet Pyramid. I feel that including that information here, for free, where others have paid for it, is a conflict of interests. But there is a range related subject which I do not cover enough in that book. That is the subject of familiarity. I do discuss it in my book, but only in passing. Here I will cover this subject more completely.

Familiarity plays a key role in a great many aspects of music and trumpet playing. Certainly it makes sense that we do things better when we are more familiar with them. If you play a song once and then try to perform it, you will not sound nearly as good as if you have been playing that song for ten years of your life. If you have a piece of music which requires double tonguing and you have only tried to double tongue once or twice before, then you won't play that piece as well is you would if you have been double tonguing for many years. A lot of things in music are this way. That's why repetition is so extremely important.

It's also important to apply this concept of familiarity to range development. If you have only "tried" to play in a certain range on a few occasions, then you will not sound nearly as good in that range as  you would if you've been playing in that range for years. 

When I first made my big changes (which included but were not limited to changing my embouchure), I knew I was at a disadvantage, simply because I was doing it without the help of a qualified teacher. The initial effects of the change were that it produced the sound I wanted, but terribly reduced my range and endurance. 

Knowing that I didn't know what I was doing, I decided to design exercises which would force me to figure these things out intuitively. My range development was part of that. I didn't know anything about how to play high. But I did know that, if I did these exercises every day, I would gradually become more and more familiar with that register and much of that development would take care of itself. 

But don't misunderstand what I mean by this. I could see how someone might take what I've just written to mean that I recommend spending a lot of time playing high. No, that's not it. Spending a lot of time playing higher than what you are currently capable of playing correctly will open you up for all sorts of bad playing habits. This much I did know. 

So my plan was to become completely familiar with the range that I already had and gradually expand that familiarity into the range that I didn't have. 

I've said this to people many, many times in the past ten years. I achieved my range without out ever playing high. And what I mean by that is, when we feel totally familiar with a certain range, then it doesn't feel high to us. 

So these exercises I developed were set up in a way which utilized all of my current range. Far too often, people save range development for a separate portion of their practice day. Then, during the rest of the day, everything else they play is contained within a more limited range. The end result is that they play the higher notes differently than they do the lower notes. They do this because they treated them differently AND they are less familiar with those notes.  

So my recommendation is that all of the rudiments should cover all of your current range. But not just rudiments either. Everything you do should somehow be incorporated into this kind of approach.

Imagine a trumpet player who practices long tones in a way which covers his or her entire, current range. Imagine that this trumpet player does lip slurs this way, scales, intervals, articulation and even etudes. Let's say this trumpet player has a current range up to high C. To develop range beyond the high C, instead of practicing the notes above high C, this player utilizes everything he's got from high C to low F# (or lower). Every exercise he plays covers this range. He also has etudes and solos and maybe some jazz transcriptions that use all of his current range. How familiar will this player be with the notes in his range?

VERY familiar!!!!!

And familiarity is a neat thing. If you are familiar with the street you live on, you know some of the families there and have a general idea of "what's up" on your street. Then, that familiarity tends to overflow into the surrounding streets in your neighborhood. Maybe you were visiting with a friend and his brother comes by, a brother who lives three blocks away. Naturally and gradually your familiarity expands to include a larger area of your neighborhood. 

The same is true with range. If you become extremely familiar with the range which you've already got, that familiarity will expand into the higher range. Then you will gradually notice that you are ready to expand your current range, being already familiar with notes that you haven't even tried to play yet. 

I know it sounds too good to be true, but it really works. And the coolest thing about it is that you may not even consciously know what you're doing to play higher. One of the beautiful things about our minds and our bodies is that they can find ways to do things without our conscious efforts. All we have to do is expose ourselves to these situations long enough for our physiology to figure it out. 

Superficially, this approach may look identical to what other teachers teach. With my method, we approach each new addition to our range slowly. So do other methods. Sometimes we might even add only one note to our current range at a time. So do they. The difference is in the familiarity. The currently popular approaches advocate practicing notes outside of your current range in order to gain familiarity while I say that this familiarity is to be gained ONLY by practicing what you already are capable of playing. 

The results of the two approaches are different, even though they seem so similar from a superficial viewpoint. With the other approach, the level of familiarity is not as great. Their objective is to make the lower notes more comfortable by playing those notes which are higher and which are not as  comfortable or familiar. I call it the "ankle weights" approach. But it seems to me that this has too many negative effects. There's a certain feeling of apprehension we experience when we "go for" notes which are not in our current range. This apprehension leads to an application of desperation which manifests itself in physical alterations and manipulations which "get the notes out" but do not contribute to a greater degree of familiarity. The end result is that the player inevitably does something different, physically, to play what he or she labels in his or her mind as being high notes. 

When I envision my playing, I don't see myself as playing high notes as high notes. I don't want anything I play to sound different from everything else I play. Maybe this is my orchestral upbringing. I grew up striving for a consistent sound from note to note. How can you have this consistency if what you do, physically, to "get the notes out" is different than what you normally do to play the trumpet? I don't think you can. 

That's why I expand my range from within my range. That's why I don't ever play higher than my current range. That's why I DO use all of the range which I do have. 

The result is that high notes don't stress me out, simply because, to me, they are not high. I am familiar with the notes in that range and playing those notes is no different to me than playing anything else. 

Before I finish here, I should mention that the exercises I developed when I first made my changes were what eventually lead to my book, "Daily Routines". Daily routines incorporates everything I just wrote about. It includes seven separate levels of routines which utilize seven different ranges. I encourage everyone who reads this to make an effort to apply this familiarity concept on their own. There really is no need to buy my book. However, buying the book would make it a whole bunch easier.  So I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not writing about this just to sell books. You can apply this concept of familiarity on your own. But I also wanted to let you know that the book is  there for you if you need it. Not only that, the book is also the best way to explain exactly how I apply this concept. A majority of the people who have used it eventually become more and more familiar with the concept and develop their own personal routines based on that concept. 

And one more thing before I go. It is not my intention to make familiarity out to be the ONLY thing involved in range development. There is more to it than just that. But as I said in the first paragraph, I can't discuss those things here because it was constitute a conflict of interests.