Ten things that will make you a better trumpet

player right now

By Luis Aquino

 The first thing is to see yourself as an Artist. Even if you're starting out, your
final purpose should be to make art. Your goal should be that what comes
out of the bell of your instrument is art and also, beauty. Artists are made.
Visualize yourself as an artist. I'm not talking about the fame or glamour, I'm
referring to an internal agreement with yourself to make people sigh when
they listen to you. Make them feel something good. Maybe you sound bad
right now. Maybe you're not happy with your present sound or it’s just too
hard right now. That's all right because there's always room for improvement
and that should be a quest. A quest for excellence, for art.

 Point number one above takes us to the inevitable point two: You've got to
practice. Decide how much and how. Plan you day. Give the highest priority
to make time for your daily practice session. Yes, you have to practice every
day. It's kind of logical, but we tend to forget it in favor of electronic games,
watch TV or just plain old laziness. It's not fair to pretend to sound really
good if you don't dedicate sufficient time to your instrument.

Michael Angelo said:

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so
wonderful at all".

 Get out of your head the concept of "time" in regards to your practice
session. Quality over quantity. How good is it to practice eight hours a day
if none of those hours contain any clear goal? Seems like a contradiction that
in point number one I talked about time and now I'm talking about time not
being important. Not a contradiction, really. It's simply that priority units in
your mind should lean towards the quality of your practice session, not to
the amount of minutes or hours.

©Luis Aquino
 Another important point is:

 How good is it to practice exactly the same all the time and in the same
order? Before your practice session, decide what you want to achieve today.
Don't practice "just to practice". Some players see it like this: Warm-up-one
hour. Flexibility-half an hour. High notes-two hours. Etc. How about today
you start developing a better, faster and more fun way to warming up? How
about tomorrow you focus on your low register and make it sound as good
as possible? Maybe the day after tomorrow you practice augmented and
"weird" arpeggios. These things can be included in your normal session, but
your practice session's order shouldn't be "cast in stone".

 Be thankful. I'm not referring to writing "Thank you, God" on your Facebook
every day. Be thankful, really thankful internally first and then write it
wherever you want. But don't be one of the supposedly thankful people that
do it for public relations. If you believe in God, that's OK. If you don't, that's
OK, too. It's your right. Then, be thankful to yourself, your family, to
whoever has been good to you. Be thankful you're one of the chosen to give
music to Planet Earth. Thankful to your teachers. If you don't have a trumpet
teacher, be thankful for not having a bad teacher that would have probably
done more damage than good. Look at the positive in any situation. The
negative side is there too, of course. But it’s up to you to decide and see the
positive side. It will be more helpful to you in the long run.

 If a trumpet player next to you sounds better than you in general, celebrate
it. I'm not saying that you should throw a party. I'm saying that you should
celebrate it internally without hypocrisy. We grow a lot faster if we genuinely
feel good when someone prospers next to us. Don't worry, your time to
shine will come. But if you dedicate a lot of energy to feel bad about other
people's achievements, when will you dedicate energy to yourself? Think
about that.

 Learn to listen, really, really listen. To the music you have on your phone or
computer. To your significant other. To yourself. Many times in life it's

©Luis Aquino
 better to stay quiet and listen. When you're hearing music, go for the goal
of really listening. When someone in the Band is playing a solo, listen to it.
When someone talks to you, don't spend the time thinking on the next thing
you're going to say. Listen. When you're with yourself, listen to that internal
voice. To listen brings wisdom, it helps you grow.

 When and if you feel anguished or frustrated because you’re not getting right
now the sound you want, take a break. Get away from the instrument for a
while. Maybe even for a few days. Detaching helps to clear your mind and
you'll probably have a lot more positive energy towards the instrument when
you come back to it. We have to practice, sure. But we also have to rest and
get away from it here and there. Ying and Yang.

 Make sure you practice the stuff you have to play on your gigs or school. At
least, practice something that requires the same set of skills. If you're
working playing Salsa, why would you only practice Arban's? If you have an
Applied Music Jury soon, why would you practice Merengue? You have to
practice according to what is required and expected from you at work or in
school.

 Listen to as many styles of music you can tolerate. Even if you can't stand
certain styles, make yourself listen to them a little. You never know when
you'll be required to play in those styles. When and if that happens, you
better sound good and as authentically accurate as you can possibly interpret
it. Mariachi should sound like Mariachi, not like a joke. Jazz should sound
like Jazz. Jazz is not Pop; Pop is not Salsa, etc.

Those music styles that you hate probably have something that you like.
Find it, even if it is some little detail. It's possible. Your career could depend
on it for a few years.

These ten things are of utmost importance and many people ignore them
or don't think about them. Don't be another one of the bunch.

©Luis Aquino