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If you have been playing the Stamp Warm-Up for the first time over the last couple of weeks, you are probably either already feeling some benefit from it or you are cursing the day you ever started this exercise. If you are in the latter group, take heart; it will get better with time, and these exercises will improve your playing.
In this article, we will begin to look at one of the principles that is a cornerstone to the Stamp philosophy: thinking down while playing up. To speak more precisely, you will always be thinking in the direction opposite to the direction of the notes. If the music has a D going down to a G, then you will think D up to a G. “What kind of voodoo is this?” you may ask, “How is this supposed to help my playing?” Perhaps a more detailed description will make this clearer.
Imagine that you are playing facing a tall brick wall (if you have an actual brick wall, that will be even better). Assign each brick its own unique note. The top brick on the wall is pedal C; the bottom brick is however high you are able to play; Bb, C, or A should be right in the middle. Before you play any note, find its location on the brick wall, and then place the note there when you play. Thinking in this manner improves three things: 1) As mentioned in the book, it helps to keep you from playing sharp in the upper register and flat in the lower register. 2) It keeps you balanced when you play, preventing you from puckering out too much when you are in the lower register, and from stretching too much when you are in the upper register. 3) It gives you a more concrete placement of each note before you play it. When playing the trumpet, we have almost no visual feedback or guidance. If you play the piano, you know where every note is; they are all laid out in front of you. The same thing is true of string instruments, albeit to a lesser degree. With the trumpet, however, we have almost no visual help. But if you visualize the place each note resides on your virtual (or hopefully real) brick wall, then it will reinforce to your body where each note goes, and what is involved in placing it there.
Stamping It Out (Part I) left off with buzzing on lips alone through what should be marked #2 in the book. Now we will begin the mouthpiece buzzing section of the routine. Before buzzing #2 on the mouthpiece, I like to take a couple of minutes and get a good buzz established on the mouthpiece. Buzzing on lips alone and buzzing on the mouthpiece are very different things. Do not be fooled into thinking that you do them in the exact same way. Buzzing on lips alone involves a great deal more lip tension than buzzing the same note on the mouthpiece. For example, if I buzz a Bb in the staff on my mouthpiece, then remove the mouthpiece from my lips while playing, the corresponding lip buzz will be roughly an octave lower. So for me, the mouthpiece adds roughly an octave to my lip buzz pitch. This will vary from player to player, but with everyone I have done this test on, they lip buzz at least a fourth lower after removing the mouthpiece. For this reason, I like to buzz a low Bb on the mouthpiece several times before playing #2 on the mouthpiece. The sound should still be started using the “pooh” attack as discussed in part I. Play a Bb on the piano, imagine the “brick” that corresponds with the note (fairly high up the wall), and then buzz the Bb on the mouthpiece. Allow for the tension to diminish, and listen for a warm resonant buzzing sound. Repeat several times until you feel comfortable and centered on the Bb. Then, begin #2 on the mouthpiece.
As you buzz through #2, you should place each note according to its “brick.” As the musical line ascends, the placement of the note on the wall descends. Conversely, as the musical line descends, the placement on the wall ascends. This is what is meant by “thinking up while playing down.” You should perform this exercise with a metronome at roughly quarter = 60. Begin with a “pooh” attack and sustain the fermata for at least two and a half beats. Observe the marking over the three eighth notes after the fermata indicating square corners. This marking indicates that you should not allow yourself to slide from one pitch to the next, but instead move crisply and quickly. Remember that you should move through this exercise diatonically rather than chromatically. So the first one is Bb-C-D-Eb-F, etc., the second is C-D-Eb-F-G, etc., and the third is D-Eb-F-G-A, and so on. Continue with this exercise as high as you can go without excessive pressure or strain. Be patient. The range will increase with time. Speaking of pressure, take note of how James Stamp describes holding the mouthpiece in the book. This is an excellent way to hold the mouthpiece to help reduce pressure.
The next exercise is #3. This exercise is the centerpiece of the Stamp routine, and great care should be taken to apply all of the concepts mentioned up to this point on this exercise. During #3 we venture, for the first time in the book, into the pedal register. It is imperative that we play pedal tones in the “correct” way if we are to receive the intended benefit of them. This “correct” way, though, can be difficult to understand. The main points to remember throughout this exercise are to keep embouchure movement to a bare minimum and to concentrate intensely on placing each note on its corresponding “brick.” When you begin the exercise, feel the position of your face, the expression you are holding. Think of this as your trumpet face. Keep the same face as you play through the entire exercise. Many people allow themselves a large shift, or allow the embouchure to collapse into the mouthpiece when descending into the pedal range. Don’t allow this to happen to you. Train yourself to play into the pedal register with the same embouchure, the same face as when you play in the middle and upper registers. The key thing you are trying to establish with this routine is to play in all registers with the same embouchure, thus improving accuracy, efficiency, control and quality of sound. If you allow yourself to shift or collapse while descending into the pedal range, it will undermine the whole purpose of this routine. Remember, even though the book is titled Warm-Ups, we are using it as a part of the foundation routine as outlined in Fundamentally Speaking. You should not think of this as a warm-up, but as practice on the true fundamentals of playing the instrument.
Exercise #3 is to be performed in its entirety, first on the mouthpiece, and then on the instrument. I like to begin this exercise at approx. quarter = 80, then increase the tempo to approx. quarter = 100 for the second half of the exercise, which ends with the ascending arpeggios. When buzzing on the mouthpiece you will likely experience a natural break somewhere between pedal low G and pedal Eb. This break will be a zone where it is difficult to get the sound to focus, and perhaps where it is difficult to make a sound at all. Be very patient when playing through the break, and be absolutely adamant about maintaining your same embouchure. Keep the same “face” as you descend. This point is absolutely critical. If you are unable to make it all the way down to pedal C without shifting, then simply go as low as you are able. From there, skip to the corresponding place in the second half of the exercise and play it through to the end.
After completing #3 on the mouthpiece, you may find it helpful to do some long tones or lip bends (to be discussed in a future article), to help ease the transition from buzzing to playing on the instrument. Mouthpiece buzzing, while closely related to playing on the instrument, is indeed different from playing the instrument. There is more lip tension involved in buzzing on the mouthpiece, and that lip tension can be flushed out quite effectively by doing lip bends or long tones. There is no need to spend more than a couple of minutes on this before beginning #3 on the instrument.
In spite of all of your efforts, it is likely that you will not play the pedal notes in the most effective way when you begin. This will result in your finishing the exercise feeling like you can barely squeeze out the F at the end. This will change with time, patience, and diligence. It took me about a month before I started feeling good at the end of this exercise, and you could well experience the same thing. Hopefully, this advice will make the path a bit easier and quicker for you. Good luck!
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Howdy,
Since this is my first post I’ll start out with a huge “Thank you!” for spending the time to maintain this blog. I believe your insights will truly help me become a better player.
I have a question about the pedals. When you say to keep embouchure movement to a minimum what do you mean by “movement”? When I watch myself in the mirror my lower jaw moves down when I descend and up when I ascend. I don’t push my lips into the mouthpiece when I go into the pedals – my lips stay pretty much the same – and I get big, full first pedals (and I’m starting to hit them in the center too which is a big plus).
Is that jaw movement OK, or is that another thing I need to fix?
Thanks!
Joe
I can’t figure out how to leave a note to you on this site, so I guess here is as good as any. The computer is still a foriegn invader in my life. Hell, I still prefer my LP’s and recording on my minidisc.
I digress…THANK YOU Craig for providing such insight and motivation to this pursuit, by a few of us humans, to become better trumpet players, better musicians, and better human beings. Your site is wonderfully inspiring and very informative. I can’t believe I never ran across it before.
Cheers to you!
Dan Duncan