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Trumpet Quotes

Adolf Herseth:

• Every time you sound good, your breathing is good
• I couldn't imitate his (G. Mager's) playing, and I'm convinced one should never do that in any case.
• Why don't you just pick it up and play?
• What is fundamental is to have a good example of the sound and then to try to copy it as faithfully as possible.
• Records are frauds, you know...to the extent that somebody other than the players and the conductor has a lot of control over how it's going to sound. Musicians are really meant to play for a live audience.

Vincent Chicowicz:

• The American symphonic player of today is more sensitive, using a greater range of shadings and interpertation. Formerly, trumpet players were more circumscribed in their tonal response and interpertation.
• The battle is not with the instrument. The battle is with ourselves.

Charles Schleuter

• Playing the trumpet is hard because it is so easy.
• Stay a day ahead of the struggle.
• Warming up is a euphemism. I need to see theat everything is working as it should.
• I think about the concept of sound, not how i'm going to do it.

Armando Ghitalla

• The biggest job of a trumpet player, particularly in an orchersra, is to stay in absolutely top shape.
• Playing the trumpet is such an intangible experience. The player is complelled to start from the beginning and build anew each day. It isn't like building a house, where we can resume building where we left off the previous day's accomplishments. Each new day we must rebuild the foundation of our musical structure.
• The purpose of the daily warm-up and practice is to reach this high pitch of performance every day.
• There is no way to realize your potential unless you throw yourself into it.
• Great desire is indispensable. This ingredient is the catalyst that makes success possible.

Raymond Crisara:

• Be sure every note is a class "A" sound.
• In order to be successful, you have to play your best when you feel your worst.

William Vacchiano

• Most successful performers have set routines, remember, repetition is the mother of perfection.

Herbert L. Clarke

• It is so easy to play right and so difficult to play wrong.
• If the lips remain flexible and the tone is not forced, it willbe possible to play easily andy note, regardless of register.
• Proper wind control is 98% of correct cornet playing.

Maurice Andre:

• I have never seen a country where they worry so much about their chops as they do in America.
• If I play four or five hours at home, I can easily play an hour-long concert. My lips remain fresh the entire time.
• From a musical point of view, it must be said that they need to be a bit more musical and take their time to make music. I want them to pay more attention to the attacks, the vibrato.
• You must not forget that the lip is a muscle and it must be treated with care all of one's life. I massage with (warm water in the) shower then with butter. It's the vitamin C in butter that is wonderful.
• I built my staccato like the piano: my low register with the warmth of the cello; lyrical melodies like the violin; running notes like the clarinet.
• Often I hear people say,"He is gifted, he doesn't need to work". This is worng. I am convinced that I work much more than all the others.
• It is important to practice often during the day, and not a long time. Play thirty minutes and rest fifteen minutes. Then play thirty minutes, rest thirty minutes. Play thirty minutes and rest an hour, The lips are a muscle and it is important to rest them frequently . In all, it is good to practice four hours per day.

Timofei Dokschitzer

• Questions concerning performance practices are sufficiently complicated that it is difficult to talk about them, since the music speaks more eloquently that the word.
• Try to determine that in the actual exhalation of breath there are already living fluctuations of the airstream which will bring about he vibrato. It is best to use that as a point of departure and avoid using anything artificial by means of motion or lip movement.
• Mouthpiece practice is particularly recommended after a long period of interruption, vacation, or sickness. It is not mandatory to buzz on a regular basis. Each should use it according to its appropriate suitability.
• If a player wants to practice for two or three hours, divide the time into three sessions, fourty to sixty minutes each, morning, afternoon, and evening (before dinner). Or, in two sessions of 60 to 90 mihnutes each, one in the morning and one in the evening.

David Hickman

• physical control should be learned by striving for musical results, regardless of physical feeling or appearance

John Haynie

• To be a teacher you need to be as good a performer as you can be: you'll have more to impart to your students musically.
• Today's musicians, listening to the near perfection found in most recordings, have begun to demand perfection of themselves and of everyone else. Higher standards are good, but too high is dangerous, and make us hyper-critical and dreates fear of performance.

Del Staigers

• When a vetran in the business gives you advice, listen carefully to what he has to say. The chances are a hundred to one that he is right.
• Lots of players can hit high C and play very rapidly and are still useless when it comes to ensemble playing.

Roger Voisin

• My best advice is listen to your teacher. Don't listen to other students.

Charley Davis

• Hitting high notes consistently has a lot to do with practicing. To play high trumpet and keep the flexibility to do other kinds of playing, which is neccessary for studio work, you have to practice. I put in a minimum of three hours a day.

Arnold Jacobs

• In order to play any brass instrument, you have to be a singer in your brain.
• We should not think in terms of the trumpet player but of the man who is playing the trumpet.
• We communicate through motor systems not sensory systems. Do not become involved in self analysis while performing music. You must keep the product (your musical message) foremost in your mind.

Vince Pinzarella

• No one will ever pay to hear us strain and struggle.

Arturo Sandoval

• I have to play every day in order to keep absolute control over my form
• Blow your life through your horn.
• To rise above the crowd, you must discipline yourself unceasingly to the strict demand and realities of your ambition.
• I know that I haven't invented anything myself, that I am only a mixture of countless influences, and thanks to that I am able to find my own style of playing.
• It's so important to listen to music, to listen again and again. Eat, sleep and drink music.

Art Farmer

• When I'm home , I practice four or five hous a day...I warm up for an hour before a gig.

Clarke Terry

• I believe that regardless of how many people you've listened to or emulated over the years, your sound is you and what you really feel inside.

Marvin Stamm

• When I hear Bobby (Shew) I don't hear his trumpet playing-I can't stand trumpet playing- his music is what reaches me.
• If I'm called for a job, I perform to the absolute best of my ability.

Don Jacoby

• We never blow to the horn. We blow through the horn. We never blow up to a note, we blow out to it.
• Try not to think of individual notes or intervals. Listen to phrases and try as hard as you can to feel the flow of the melody.
• Kids think that being a good trumpet player is being able to play high. high playing is the result of being a good trumpet player.

Bobby Shew

• Let you inner self or feelings flow through the horn.
• You must be willing and able to play anything, no matter how absurd it may seem to you, at the moment of conception, with no consideration of whether it will be liked or disliked, good or bad, without fear of making mistakes.
• When the lip muscles are working well for you, stop! Feel them and memorize as best as you can, that feeling.
• I made real progress once I finally started to realize that it was possible if I was willing to take responsibility for the amount of work to be done.

Bill Chase

• In my early years, I had weak chops. One thing I did to build them up was to hold my lip muscles as tight as possible for as long as possible until they ached. I would rest and then repeat this many times, I did this wherever I was, even driving the car.

Allen Vizzutti:

• There is no such thing as no pressure playing.
• Above all, be patient, For most of us the upper register and legthened endurance does not come quickly.
• The trumpet is an extremely difficult instrument. It feels and reacts differently to the player each and every day.
• The more one performs and is heard, the more likely one will be asked to participate in other musical settings.
• It is possible to improve your trumpet sound almost immediately by working on the mouthpiece.
• The main thing is to conserve my strength and know when to stop before I get to tired. I like very much to practice in concise sements, very hard, for short periods of time. It's thanks to this self-control that I have acquired good endurance.
• Keep in mind that 99% the music and 90% of the money in the professional world is made below high C.

Bud Brisbois

• The most important factor in developing the high register is desire, the patience to wait, and the necessary time to acquire it.

Lew Soloff

• Be in competition with yourself. Only when you decide to be as good as you can be will you make real progress.

Dominic Spera

• The most negative and problematic attitude that trumpet students can have is the notion that progress on their instrument is totally the responsibibity of the teacher.

Randy Brecker

• I practice things I have a hard time with. Be honest with yourself and focus on your weaknesses.

Jon Faddis

• I have to bread out of the shell and develop my own identity. What I'm trying to do is take phrases all these cats have assimilated and let it come out as Jon Faddis.

Tom Harrell

• The hardest part of playing the trumpet is the physical act of making the sound.

Wynton Marsalis

• Try to find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing, and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.