BRASS
Paul Baron is one of today ’ s most highly respected lead and commercial trumpet players . His sound is distinctly bright and powerful and carries with it decades of experience in a wide range of musical styles from jazz to rock , big band to musical theatre , and TV jingles to movie soundtracks . As well as being a performing artist for Jupiter Instruments and Pickett Brass with his signature line of mouthpieces , Paul is also an author , educator , and clinician . www . paulbaron . net .
By Paul Baron
Third Valve Exercise
I
like to think of ways to utilize the third valve as often as I can in practice so that , when it comes time to play a tricky fingering passage on a gig , I have worked out my third valve fingering in more difficult ways than one would typically encounter with regular performance .
In the same way I think building range with headroom above what we would normally see on a gig helps by having extra strength and confidence with range to spare , pushing the use of the third valve in practice helps build that extra headroom , speed , accuracy , and confidence for when it really counts .
Ex . 1 uses the third valve only as an alternate to the one and two valve combination whenever they occur . With this exercise , I like to keep the flow as constant as possible while banging the valves down rhythmically . That means that , like many of us who don ’ t normally use the alternate third valve , I need to slow the tempo way down at first so I can play the whole exercise without any hitches . Then , once I ’ ve got the accuracy at the slower tempo , I slowly build up the tempo while making sure I maintain my accuracy .
If I do find some little hitches in flow , then I go back and work through them at a slower tempo , isolating the problem areas and repeating those smaller sections until I really feel that they are under my fingers . Some keys are definitely harder than others , so if I have a limited amount of practice time on a certain day , I ’ ll play just the harder keys so I ’ m practicing them more frequently to build them up to the same speed as the easier keys .
I have found that by working Herbert L . Clarke ’ s “ Study Number Two ” with all third valve alternate fingerings for the one and two combinations , when I go back to the regular fingerings , the exercise has made my third finger much stronger and more accurate .
You may also notice , as I have , by the time I play in the key of E , my accuracy and speed have really improved compared to practicing with conventional fingerings . As with so many of the exercises I do , I like to start on first space F # and play that key , then the keys of G , F , G #, E , A , E , and so on , spreading out to middle C starting pitch and then low C starting pitch . You can use this same model for practicing any fingering exercise , like the other Clarke studies , for instance .
You may find , as I have , that on occasion , you need to use the third valve alternate fingering in place of one and two valve combination to bring down the pitch in certain keys for certain notes . Having developed this skill and grown very comfortable with interchanging the alternate with conventional fingerings , it makes it easier to use whatever valve combination flows easier and is more in tune . It also helps to play the alternate fingerings to get a feel for how the timbre and blow might be a little different .
At first , you may notice a bigger difference in blow and timbre ,
EX . 1
but with time and practice , you ’ ll be able to instinctively play the alternate fingerings with the same sound and timbre as conventional valve combinations .
This is an excerpt from Paul ’ s new book , Trumpet Voluntarily – A Holistic Guide to Maximizing Practice Through Efficiency , containing more expanded information on this subject as well as 19 chapters with music examples and exercises . The book serves as a guide to teach the player how , what , and when to practice .
30 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN