Taught by renowned trumpet player
Ben Gunnarson
If you are ready for a higher level of trumpet fundamental study, you're in the right place. In this extensive course, Ben Gunnarson explains his philosophies, routines, and methods on taking care of your instrument, breathing, understand the embouchure, articulation, building your warm up, and much more.
Equipment and Maintenance
In this lesson, Ben discusses the basics of learning to play the trumpet. From cleaning your instrument to practicing fundamentals Ben breaks down all the essentials to get started on your trumpet journey.
Breathing Concepts: Techniques and Tools
The trumpet first and foremost is a wind instrument, and the way we breathe is essential to creating a good sound. A lot of people have different approaches on how to take a good breath, but as Ben explains, most of what makes a good breath comes from removing the tension instead of changing what we already do.
The Playing Mechanism: Embouchure, Aperture, and more
Ben explains the difference between an active and a passive embouchure, defines buzzwords like "endurance" and "efficiency" and discusses topics like buzzing, warming up, flexibility, and range. The common thread? Our playing mechanism consists of many parts that must work together in highly coordinated ways, and Ben shares how we can develop each of them for a healthy embouchure.
Playing With a Good Sound
In this lesson, Ben discusses different strategies to develop a good tone as well as how a drone can be an eye-opening tool for improving your intonation.
Articulation and the Tongue
What does the tongue really do inside our mouth? Ben helps solve that mystery by talking about the position of the tongue as well as what it should be doing when we double and triple tongue.
Bai Lin Flexibility Exercises
Flexibility on the trumpet is less about touching our toes, and more about moving smoothly between the partials. Ben shares how he approaches flexibility through the Bai Lin Lip Flexibilities book, as well as how we can work on dynamic flexibility.
Flow, Lyricism, and Vibrato
When it comes down to it, flow means not adjusting how we play in the middle of a phrase. Ben sees flow as an essential part of flexibility that enhances our ability to play beautifully. Vibrato is also an important part of lyricism that we need to know how and when to use in our playing.
Dexterity and Finger Speed
Finger speed and dexterity is an often forgotten skill, but Ben breaks down exercises to use to bring your fingers up to speed.
Building a Warmup: Routines and Methods
How do you know what to include in your warm-up? While your warm-up should be personalized, you can start with an already established routine and adapt it or build one from scratch. Ben does a little of both and shares when and why to shift your warm-up as you grow as a musician.
Practice Habits: The Mental Game
Practicing can feel daunting when you don’t have a game plan or strategy. Ben uses an interval timer to organize his practice session and shares other strategies to get the most out of a practice session.
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Unlock Course →Ben Gunnarson is the Principal Trumpet of the Bay Philharmonic and is a member of the American Youth Symphony and the Disneyland Band.
read full bio →Preview our curated selection of courses below. With lessons covering fundamentals, technical training, style and interpretation, you won't find a more thorough and enriching learning experience anywhere else.
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