Trumpeting: How to learn to play jazz?

[Gabriel]

Hey there,

I would of put this in the jazz section but decided to put this in skills and smarts since this sort of goes a bit more in depth than just just merely jazz music. Anyway, without further adieu, I'll shoot away.

Since my teens, I've always been very keen to listening to jazz or old time music (Probably like most here on FL haha!) From the 5th grade to 9th grade, I played the trumpet as a standard player in the band and always liked to persevere within the class. However, one factor that really drilled me was that I could never really afford the tutoring payments that businesses charged to help me learn. Now don't get me wrong, tutoring is certainly NOT a must to learning music; however, I personally achieve the most when I have one-on-ones with my teacher/tutor and typically didn't learn to the best of my ability while in the big classrooms. Again, note I said learn and not the word perform, as normally after enough repetitions of hearing parts played back I could eventually slowly but surely piece my part together.

Nevertheless, as of this year as a 10th grade student I unfortunately resigned from band to focus on my AP/Honor classes and haven't played music since. I'd still love to be able to play jazz but honestly just don't have the money that's required for that one-on-one tutoring that helps me so much from a learning standpoint. So at the end of the day, what can I as an individual do as a former band student to still learn that jazz I'd love to play without having to shell out those massive tutoring fees?

Thanks!

 

[LuvMyMan]

Hello. No horn playing expert, but perhaps you could find a good DVD that has some lessons on it? They seem to have them for everything now, so maybe you could look to see what is out there? eBay should have some as well as Amazon.

 

[Nobert]

Listen to recordings you like with trumpet on them. Attempt to emulate the trumpet parts. Use your knowledge of music and music theory to expand upon that. Repeat.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Don't play trumpet, but I do play a bit of guitar. I've always heard that if you make a mistake while you're playing, it's just a mistake. But if you intentionally make the same mistake again...it's jazz!

AF

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I played trumpet from 5th grade until I graduated from High School. If it relaxes you, place after you study and as breaks. Beg, borrow or steal some sheet music, and just play it. Listen to Jazz, a lot of Jazz is improvisation, but not all. As long as you can stand to hear it, you're not doing too bad. Mainly play as much as you can to keep the lip up.

Later

 

[Retro Spectator]

If I were you, I would do some Google searches for trumpet websites. There are plenty of forums dedicated to certain musical instruments, and the people are all friendly. I personally don't know of any (as I don't play the trumpet, but rather the button box), but I am almost certain you can find one. Good luck with the trumpet, and try sounding songs out by ear, as well as learning to read music.

ABC Notation is extremely useful. You can get public domain (I think) sheet music for free via it. After copying the code, you can transpose it with the transposer I linked below. After that, you can compile it all (after copying the code from the transposer after putting the K part of the code to the correct key), by pasting the code into the Concertina.net Convert-O-Matic. You can then print out sheet music in the correct key for your trumpet.

These websites will come in handy for reading music.
ABC Notation is extremely useful for sheet music: http://abcnotation.com/
Transposer to change the ABC notation key: http://www.franziskaludwig.de/abctransposer/
Concertina.net Convert-O-Matic to compile the ABC music, and make it printable as sheet music (after transposing it with previous link to the key of your trumpet): http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
Folk Tune Finder, for finding ABC files: http://www.folktunefinder.com/
JC's ABC Tune Finder, similar to the Folk Tune Finder: http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind

 

[Dawna]

If you want to play jazz, you've got to learn how to improvise. To be able to improvise you need to really know your stuff - what's your range like? You should do drills every day, and you don't need a tutor for that. Have you tried the Rubank method? You can order the books online, they're not expensive (10-15$) and although they say beginner method, they progress quite quickly and will give you a very solid playing foundation. You've also got to train your ears - so that you can recognize intervals for example. Listen to lots of jazz!
Okay so say you've got your chops, now how do you learn to improvise? I found a book at my library with methods for jazz trumpet improvisation. Try the library! You don't need a tutor to learn improvisation, either, although it's more fun to play with others. Local jazz clubs will often have jam nights, don't be shy, get up on stage! If you don't have any local clubs, try facebook or your band friends - surely someone will want to jam with you? If not, just keep it up on your own!
Now after all this, maybe you're saying, hey I don't really want to improvise, I just want to be able to play exactly like Miles Davis does on that one song I really like! Well go ahead and google that song - you'll find that lots of nice people have gone to the trouble of transcribing all our favourite jazz solos so we can sound just like our heroes! - fair warning, though, it might be fun to copy solos for a while but it's not really playing jazz and it won't get you far in the long run. It's like quoting passages out of a Spanish textbook because you want to learn Spanish - sure you're talking the language, but you're not saying what you really want to say in your own words.
Okay now go practise, kid!
PS in case you wonder - I am a jazz trumpeter, and speaking from experience!

 

[El Zipster]

My two bobs worth.
If you want to learn to play jazz start with the blues. (The blues has fewer chord changes) Learn the blues scale in your favourite key and buy a couple of backing tracks. You can get many styles of blues backing tracks here on the web, jazzy rhythms too, with just a google search.
Put the backing tracks on your music player, and just using the scale notes to start with, improvise along with the music. You'll be surprised what comes out of your trumpet.
Enjoy!!
Cheers
Zip

 

[stratcat]

So much good advice already, but I'll chip in and agree with it.
Listen, listen, listen. Learn to play by ear. Start simple with nursery rhymes if you have to. There's slow down apps you can also use to try to 'get' faster passages of music.
It's like learning a language. Assuming you've got all your scales and arpeggios in the bag then you need vocabulary. There's lots of web sites devoted to jazz but remember you can spend years going down the wormhole that is "jazz theory" without being able to play anything. The 'cats' learnt mostly by ear, I strongly believe that it the best way.

Also in the interest of qualifying my views, I'm a classically trained musician with 30 years teaching experience. I've spent the last 20 years trying to play jazz like my heroes. Remember, it's the journey not the destination!!

 

[Blackjack]

Great advice from all... been a teacher for 30 years now and whether it be trumpet , drums, piano, whatever, steal from the best and play a lot! ( Say man, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? PRACTICE!)

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

I second Zipster in saying to practise playing the blues, you more easily learn a lot of structures that are the basis of jazz. I played jazz trumpet in several small combos. We eventually had a regular Saturday night slot at a club and I've never had a jazz trumpeting lesson in my life. I originally started playing as a child with free lessons from the Salvation Army! I found transcriptions of Chet Baker solos in a music shop and set myself to trying to memorise them. The only thing that really helps is playing, and playing, and playing...

 

[Hercule]

Learn to play the instrument first so you can actually use it to express yourself, as your voice. All the sheet music, listening and learning about improvisation aren't worth a hill of beans if you can't actually play the instrument. There are no short cuts to paying your dues - Clarke studies all the way, maybe even a bit of Arban. Then practice for endurance.