Now, in order to actually make a sound on a trumpet, you’ll obviously need an instrument in order to play it.
Where to find them
Depending on how much money you’re willing to spend and what your overall goal is for learning the instrument, you’ll be looking at a pretty broad price range of $100 to thousands depending on brand and on quality. If you’re on a tighter budget or don’t to invest a good deal for something that you might not like, garage sales, thrift stores, or any other second hand shops can do wonders as you can find really good instruments for relatively cheap. Amazon and ebay can be decent places to find instruments of varying quality as you can find very cheap instruments, and even some really well known manufactures like Yamaha or Vincent Bach instruments though you’ll probably spend more on those.
I have a trumpet, now what?
- Great! The trumpet should have come with a mouthpiece, if it did not you should be able to buy a mouthpiece at a local music store.
- Before any noise is to be made, we wanna make sure that the lips are positioned properly. I like to think of how I would go about making my lips “flat” or tightened, sorta like a small smile. Keep the corners of your lips the same, and untighten the center
- Pick up the mouthpiece with one hand and place the opening of the bowl side on top of your lips like this:
- You want the mouthpiece to be centered over both lips with as little pressure as possible. With a steady stream of air, try to buzz into the mouthpiece. You don’t have to buzz, but you want your lips to vibrate from the air you’re blowing.
This is what this should sound like:
- After you’re used to the feeling of buzzing, put the mouthpiece into the trumpet. You can do a small twisting motion if you feel that the mouthpiece is too loose or the mouthpiece rattles. Make sure NOT TO TWIST TOO HARD, you might overtighten the mouthpiece and be unable to remove it.
- With a little more air, buzz into the mouthpiece until you’re able to generate a pitch it should sound something like: