Course Syllabus

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.