My first year as Principal Trumpet in the Chicago Symphony had enough big repertoire in it to tantalize, terrorize, and titillate anyone with aspirations of sitting in that chair.  It just so happens that I was anyone.  It never really felt like sitting, however; more like roasting, but that is a story for another time... 

Amongst all the big concerts during that year there was one that stood out right from the time that I saw the press release for the new season: a concert featuring both Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale with Pinchas Zukerman as soloist and conductor.  This concert was to be done 5 times: Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday matinee, Saturday night, Sunday matinee.  Looking across the landscape of that season it seemed to me like the Himalaya Mountains: many high peaks, but only one Everest.  This concert was my Everest, my biggest chance to soar, my biggest chance to crash.  I did not want to crash, so I set up a strength building routine to make sure I was in the kind of shape I would need to be in to be able to play a concert that I wasn’t even sure was possible, to say nothing of well thought out.  Oh yeah, did I mention that I had never played either piece before?  Yes, my debut for both of these pieces was to be under the bright lights of Chicago Symphony Hall, playing with one of the world’s greatest violin virtuosos, while sitting in God’s very own chair.  Other than that, I was pretty relaxed about the whole thing.

The first step I take in working towards a goal such as this is to figure out what the biggest challenges will be.  For this concert there were big challenges, but they weren’t widely varied.  The biggest issue by far was to be able to get through the Brandenburg with enough gas in the tank to be able to have all the touch and finesse required of the Stravinsky, especially over a period of five consecutive days.  The other big issue was transitioning from piccolo on the Bach to C cornet on the Stravinsky and making the stylistic and technical shifts that went along with the change.  As far as the pieces themselves are concerned, once you are past the strength issue (assuming you have really good control over the lightness of sound required), the Bach is really quite simple.  The Stravinsky requires a lot more from the player in terms of wide ranging musicality and technique, but it is certainly manageable with good preparation; that is, of course, if the face hasn’t been shredded by that little ditty on the first half.   Thus, we come back to the lynch pin for this project: strength building.

The routine that I finally developed was based on an exercise that Bill Williams, currently the Acting Principal Trumpet in San Francisco, told me about.  It is a very simple scalar exercise where every step of the scale is a whole note.  Start out in the key of G major at a tempo of 70-80 bpm.  All notes in this exercise should be slurred, and each sustain should be held until you can no longer sustain the same sound and volume that you started with.  The exercise begins on a G in the staff and moves upward 5 notes (all in one breath) to D, which is sustained.  After a normal breath, you begin again on D and move upward 4 notes to G, which is also sustained.  Breathe, start again on G and proceed down 5 notes to C – sustain – breathe – C down 4 notes to G – sustain – breathe – G down 5 notes to C – sustain – breathe – C down 4 notes to low G – sustain – breathe – G up 5 notes to D – sustain – breathe – D up four notes to G – sustain.  Congratulations!  You have just completed one repetition of the exercise.  In order to build the kind of strength that is demanded of a professional trumpet player, though, you will need to be able to play through many reps of this exercise.  It is the strength gained through the repetitions that is the key to a truly strong foundation.

The first thing to determine is how many times (reps) you will play this exercise when starting out.  I started with three, but for most of my younger students I start with one.  It is important that you start with fewer reps than you can actually handle, building from a position of strength rather than weakness.  Regardless of where you start, you will be adding reps regularly, so having a high rep starting point is of negligible importance.  I added one rep per week, but you may find a slower pace to be more beneficial, especially with younger players.  Again, it is better to be conservative with the speed that you add repetitions.  Do, however, make sure to keep adding them on a regular basis; if you flounder around forever at 3 reps, you won’t get any stronger; you will have to push yourself in order to see improvement.  Each repetition should be followed by a short period of rest, somewhere between 45 seconds and 1 minute, and once all reps have been completed you should have a longer rest of 45 minutes or more before playing again.

When playing through this exercise, there are a few guidelines that will maximize its effectiveness.  First of all, pressure should be fairly light, but feel free to use some pressure while playing this exercise; it will be needed to stabilize the embouchure, especially at louder dynamics and in the upper register.  Secondly, the mouthpiece should remain on the lips at all times, although the embouchure does not need to remain active during the breath.  The breaths should be normal breaths, like those that you take with the mouthpiece still in contact with the lips, but with the corners opening to allow the air to come in.  Thirdly, this is a sound exercise.  You should always be attempting to make the most beautiful ringing sound you can.  Fourthly, experiment with changing the dynamics.  If I am doing three reps I may do one forte, one piano, and one mezzo forte.  This helps train the embouchure to deal with the changes in volume and still maintain maximum efficiency.

Once you are up to approximately six repetitions, you should start raising the key of the scale in half steps, but reduce the number of reps to three, then build them up again in the new key.  So a typical plan would be as follows: build up to 6 reps in G – raise the key to Ab and reduce to 3 reps – raise the reps according to your rate (mine was one per week) until you reach 6 reps in Ab – raise the key to A and repeat the same process.  Keep raising the key in this manner until you reach high C on C trumpet.  Six times through this exercise in C major will mean that you have a strength base to do just about anything you want, at least for playing trumpet in an orchestra.

“But you haven’t said anything about the piccolo trumpet!” you cry.  True enough.  That is because the true focus of this article is achieving the base strength that is needed to handle a concert that demands the highest level of physical capability, such as this one.  The achievement of that base should be your highest priority when training for such an event. However, in addition to the benefits that the strength base provides, you will need to ensure that the strength you are developing translates to the scenario in which you plan to use it.  For this reason I started doing the last repetition (or two sometimes) of this exercise on the piccolo trumpet.  Because of the immense demands of playing an exercise such as this into the upper register, I revised the exercise so that all notes are half notes with the “sustains” typically held only eight beats.  The starting note/key you pick should be one that is challenging to you, but that also allows you the ability to play through it successfully.  Before digging out your piccolo and playing through this exercise, though, I highly recommend that you develop a solid strength base.  I typically won’t involve piccolo at all in this exercise until I am able to do at least six reps in G major.

I firmly believe that strength building needs to be involved in every trumpet player’s routine, on some level and in some manner.  This exercise is another, among many, that is designed to take your long and disciplined work and turn it into the ability you seek.  Like those other exercises, however, it demands that you provide the work in order for it to show results.  The good news about investing time in this exercise is that its results have been proven under bright lights and extreme duress.  The results of my labor stood up to this difficult task, and the concerts came off very well.  By the end of the week, I felt that I could play anything, and I felt that I was getting stronger, not weaker.  It is only from riding on a well developed foundation of strength that such a feeling could be achieved -- a foundation that has been achieved through daily work and discipline over long periods of time.  Having made this investment and having achieved the benefits of that labor, however, I can guarantee you one thing: it is worth every ounce of sweat invested.

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