Playing Trumpet

Wow, I love to play the trumpet!  It's a daily thing for me.  There's a few reasons why:

1)  It's not the saxophone, my main instrument and the one I've played for 17+ years, so it's fresh and it's new.
2)  It's challenging, and fun.
3)  It punishes you severely if you don't play it every day, forcing you to be more disciplined.
4)  I think it makes me a better musician.
5)  It definitely makes me a better improviser.

#5 is really important to me.  I think that playing trumpet makes me a better improviser because I'm so limited.  Range-wise, I'm only up to halfway decent As (above the staff), and pretty rough Bbs.  One time, I hit a D.  And I think I hit a pretty bad C three or four times.  I'm still not sure how I hit the D.  As far as playing low, I practice down to very low F# in my daily chromatic workouts, lip slurs and little exercises I made up or heard somewhere.

Did I mention how much I love trumpet?!!

Other than the range limitation (below staff F# to above staff A and Bb), I'm limited by versatility.  Obviously you can't be a virtuoso on trumpet in 2 years and 3 months of playing.  Probably not in a lifetime, either.

With the trumpet in my hands, I feel like a true improviser.  My real voice is saxophone, mostly alto these days, but the trumpet offers me something the saxophone cannot:  remembering what it's like to be a beginner.  Ideas pop in my head while I'm playing that never would have on saxophone.  I just feel on top of the world every time I play it.  The fact that I can't do what I can do on the saxophone on the trumpet drives me crazy and keeps me motivated!

Here's a few things I should add as well:

1)  I started playing trumpet as a teaching tool for beginner bands.  Saxophone is not only intimidating-looking but is a mess to try and hold and play (since you need a neckstrap and 2 hands!) while you direct.  It also projects so well and the brassy sound spreads through the band so there is absolutely no doubt what the rhythms and notes are that I'm trying to teach.
2)  I was also very terrible from the get-go sound-wise.  While I learned the fingerings and some basics quite quickly (since I think it's very similar to the right hand on the saxophone), buzzing into a mouthpiece and getting a good sound was a nightmare for months on end.  It still can be some days.
3)  I have developed some not-so-good habits, like puffing my cheeks when I play and overblowing.  When I practice alone, I play dynamically and mostly softly, but occasionally go for it and sometimes have no control.  I get this strange buzzing or even splitting sound sometimes.  This is the main reason why I have implemented the daily practice of slow chromatic warm ups no higher than middle C down to low F# below the staff and lip slurs.  I also really try to control the puffing-cheeks thing.  Maybe one day it will get better.  I also adjust pitch with my mouth and don't move the tuning slide.  This is partly a habit I developed due to having a stuck valve for the first year and a half of playing it and never getting it repaired.  I just felt like I could adjust like I do on the saxophone and could overcome it.  Playing super sharp and adjusting for that long must've really damaged my progress.  Then again, maybe it didn't.  Not really sure on this one!  It's fixed now, though.

With all of those factors in mind, trumpet is such a great instrument for me.  It's also something I wish I could really get good at, but I know it would take years and years and years and some serious private study.  For now, it's just fun in the sun for me.  I just eat it up.  I try to play like Clifford Brown, I try to play like Lee Morgan and I really, really try to play like Miles Davis.  It's kind of like when I play alto saxophone, I really, really try to play like Charlie Parker.  I can only hope that somewhere down the line all these different influences and approaches will turn into playing like a very honest soul.  For now, it's a lot of fun though, and that's something I really needed in my musical life was just pure and honest enjoyment, fulfillment and satisfaction.

Learning tunes on trumpet is a blast.  While I spent a long while learning Cherokee in all 12 keys on saxophone, trumpet has been another story.  I sure have trouble with fingering combinations in a few of the keys, like F# and Ab, but especially in C#.  Eb, F, G and of course C all just make so much sense to me on the trumpet, as the fingerings make a lot of natural sense.  Here's kind of what I mean:

C# Major Scale fingerings on trumpet consists of:  123, 23, 1, 2, 23, 1, 0pen, 12
Ab Major Scale ":  23, 1, Open, 12, 2, 1, Open, 2 What a nightmare!
Now compare to G:  Open, 12, 2, Open, 1, Open, 2, Open
With saxophone in mind, this is a piece of cake:  The open fingerings are G, C, E and high G.  F# is 2nd and on saxophone, that's 2nd in the right hand.  Low E is 1 & 2 on trumpet, and that's the same on saxophone in the right hand, and so forth and so forth.

Anyway--this gets me to my point.  Cherokee's bridge forces me to solo in my trouble keys on the trumpet.  It makes my mind stretch A LOT.  I believe this is helping my saxophone playing immensely.  With a stretched mind, suddenly saxophone is a little bit less complex and easier.  With limited abilities on the trumpet, I feel like I can do so much more when I pick up the saxophone.  Of course even after a nice practice session on saxophone, the saxophone is one of the most humbling of all instruments.  It tends to kick you square in the face.  It's mean and evil.  But then it's sweet and apologizing sometimes too.  It's funny how after playing this long, you can sound like devil's stepchild with just one bad reed.  Guess trumpeters don't have to worry about that.  That's a nice change.  However, saxophonists don't chop out quite as severely.  So we are blessed in that department.  Never did I understand that until I started playing the trumpet.  Man do I feel bad for jokingly ragging on complaining trumpet players in the past, even for the most gentle of ribbing.  Now I know the truth:

"Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins."
Dizzy Gillespie on playing the trumpet