I’ve been picking up my trumpet more and more now that my daughter has gotten serious about playing it. I watch a lot of videos on YouTube.
It would seem that much of the video focus on adding pressure to the lip to reduce the size of the hole between two lips through which air flows into the mouthpiece. The curious fact here seems to be that according to the Bernoulli Principal and Venturi Effect, because the same fluid air volume is flowing from the large-cross-sectioned mouth, into a very very small-cross-sectioned lip opening, and then back out into a large-cross-sectioned leadpipe, all sizes being relative, the speed and pressure of air at the lip is higher and lower, respectively, as compared to the same in the mouth and leadpipe. Air, being compressible, exceeds the physics I learned in AP physics. But the general gist without math would still be that the pressure at the lip is lowest. This has some immediate consequences. It explains why the force to vibrate metal can flow through such a soft tissue and not rip it apart. It suggests why experts on YouTube insists that sound production should be in the leadpipe and beyond(where they suggest visualizing the blow is fast and through the mouthpiece and into the leadpipe.) It also explains why most expert insist that pressure for high notes should only be a concern for preventing air from leaking from the lip—because as you reduce the opening in the lip, the pressure reduce. If more pressure is applied, the lip actually stops vibrating more quickly at higher notes than at lower notes (due to reduction in the Venturi.) beyond Venturi is the mouthpiece cup where pressure shoots up and vibrates the outside of the lip and walls of the cup. Heavy mouthpieces use mass to prevent vibration of the walls of the cup thereby putting more vibration on the lip structure itself. And again, here is the part where sound and quality is not coming at the little hole between the lips but beyond.
Another YouTube video shows a guy playing Yamaha Mariachi trumpet in a Mexican store. The Mexican store clerk comments that synthetic valve oil needs to be warmed up before it starts sliding. This explains why a lot of trumpet players play with the valves without blowing just before playing fast passages. The sliding action causes heat producing friction that heats up the valve oils.
After playing a beadless trumpet, I suddenly started feeling the effect of the bead on my beaded trumpets. I can almost feel it anchoring the bell rim from moving. The sound is very well contained from vibration of the bell but not beyond the bead. On the beadless trumpet, the sound is not that much worse or different. But clearly the rim of the bell is vibrating much more.
The brass instrument’s internal surface is important. Obviously, if you have a bean stuck inside leadpipe, it won’t make sound well. But some online discussions seem to indicate that if one is to smooth out the inside of leadpipe by adding lubricant, the trumpet plays better (higher/louder/slots better/etc.) trombone slide spray was one suggestion. My thoughts here are that the lubricant coats inside of the leadpipe to fill and rusting depressions and to smooth out bumps so that air is flowing through a more smooth surface. Of course the oil is also vibrating with the surface of the brass and evaporating into air. The oil in air conducts sound better. All these factors may explain the improvement.
Lastly, more notes on the strenuous effort trumpet players put into playing high notes. I have a hypothesis that when Maynard sets up his stance for that one last note, that a lot of that energy goes towards: 1.) steadying the mouthpiece, head, neck and jaw to ensure the vibration does not shift the setting; and 2.) the pressure between two hands towards each other squeezes the trumpet in a way that adds the body’s mass to the trumpet. This has the effect of keeping the vibratory energy inside the horn for pitch and volume production. I have never play above a concert D6, so all these are conjectures at this point. But this conjecture is consistent with the YouTube videos insisting that the apparent effort is never to push trumpet into the lip to create pressure.
Added to that, the isometric muscle strain might also change the resonance property of the human airway. The one realization disseminated by people on YouTube, such as Hickman, is that actually, the whole human airway is the resonance chamber for the brass instrument. There isn’t anything solid in between the trumpet and the bottom of your lungs. It’s all just one single airspace and sound bounces everywhere. So then anything you do to your body changes the sound. I swear, one time, I had a lot of pee in the bladder, and when I played high, the pee vibrated. Seriously, I kid you not, this may sound like Easter mystic jumbo jumbo about one’s body being one with the universe… But it’s not, it’s about your whole body being one with your instrument. DOH, that’s not much better is it? Anyways, IMMHO and YMMV.
As parents, we’re often supportive of our children. But the fact of the matter is that the trumpet player has a unique experience of listening to the sound from behind the bell. Now the fact that trumpet is vibrating onto the player’s hands teeth means that player hears the most unique sound. The parent of the player, however, may consider sitting next to the player, facing the same way. The auditory experience is different from this side. It may help you to share in this very fun and beautiful experience with the player. When they get good, you can sit on the other side and help the improve their projected sound. But at the beginning, there sound that the player hears is the most important.
That’s it for now. These are draft notes, so comment to help me clean it up.
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