Personal Narrative: I Am A Trumpet Player

I am a trumpet player. It has been a huge part of my life since I was in the sixth grade. I love the music and I love the blaring sound of brass. Playing, however, has not always been easy. On the trumpet it’s relatively simple to make a sound, but it’s far more difficult to make a good sound. There is only one correct way to play the trumpet, but many wrong ways. I was originally told that all I had to do was buzz my lips and pick up the horn. For most kids, this description of how to play works, but it didn’t for me. As a result, I played it incorrectly for five years.

I could only seem to get notes to come out at four measure intervals. After that, I was unable to continue. My airstream was weak and unsteady, my throat kept clenching shut, and my teeth would ache each time I played. It seemed like the more I practiced the worse things got. This didn’t make sense. No musician should be getting worse when they practice, unless they were practicing incorrectly and therefore enforcing bad habits. This led be to believe that something was really wrong with my technique. My teachers disagreed. One of them told me to just believe in myself and the other was convinced I wasn’t practicing.
I watched videos and listened to professional trumpet players. I read countless articles and research reports. I asked my fellow trumpet players questions and kept trying different things each time I practiced. Eventually, as I was watching other trumpet players, especially professional ones perform, I noticed something significant. Unlike mine, their embrochures (mouths) never seemed to change when they played notes in the upper register, or notes at all for that matter. I realized what the main flaw in my technique was: I wasn’t using muscle to play at all. Instead, I was ramming the trumpet against my face and tightening my throat to create higher pitches. This was why my teeth were always sore after I