Learning the trumpet

[northwind]

Right, this is probably a daft idea, but I'm in the middle of selling some guitar stuff and spares and I've noticed a load of used trumpets on Gumtree... Fantastic sound, it's an instrument I've always been curious about but... Well, first question, is it at all possible to silence one while practicing (sort of like baffling a flute or recorder for quiet practice). Second question, is it realistically an instrument you can teach yourself? With guitars, you get the basics immediately, twang a string and it goes twang...

As a music teacher..

I think if you are starting on a completely different instrument you should have at least a few lessons if you seriously want to play it. Getting the embouchure takes a lot of practice- muscles you've never used before that have no stamina. I don't know much about trumpets, the only thing involving embouchure I play is wooden flute, but I know how hard it is to get it right all the time.

If however you are pretty bloody good at guitar, you could probably figure it out yourself.
I'm self taught on 5 instruments, only had lessons on my first til i was 13 The rest came easily enough, but I worked hard at them to do it (3 hours a day or more usually).

[northwind]

I'm reasonable at guitar, and I can play the recorder passing well... So it shouldn't be totally alien, but yep, it's exactly this sort of thing I'm wondering about, there's bound to be actual tecniques that need to be done right. Cheers for the help

[SoulKiss]

I learned the Coronet when I was at Secondary School - got picked for the school Brass Band while in my last year @ Primary School.

Similar instrument, wasn't that hard to pick up, but as said before, there are a few things that probably need to be taught before you could go off and teach yourself, including care of the instrument.

I was also learning to play a 2 keyboard and pedalboard organ at the time, so already could read music.

Also at that time I was doing competitive (as in local region) swimming, so my breath control was pretty good, as was my lung capacity.

Eventually moved onto the Trombone, before giving it all up when we moved to Aberdeen.

Got a Flute a couple of years ago, tried to self-teach, never really worked, must try and find a teacher I guess......

what u selling andy ,is it by any chance a marshall(not very likely ,but you dont ask ,you dont get)

[anna]

....... wouldnt want to be your neighbours .....

in respect to silencing them erm not sure this is possible i know you can get baffles to fit your trumpet to make them sound cool but it's not going to silence them. To get the embouchure right is just practice by taking the mouth peice of it and just practicing through the mouthpeice on its own.

I have grades sat at both Keyboard & Electronic Organ. Self taught to play the guitar but left that to go very rusty of late. Had one lesson on Violin (hated it) played Trumpet for around 6 months (parents couldnt stand the noise) and was forced into playing the Trombone for a few weeks by my music teacher

Trumpet is probably fairly easy to get around the basics however I wouldnt know about taking it further. Personally, I find the guitar a more versatile instrument

yes you can mute a trumpet, you can also get different mouth pieces which affect the volume it plays at. Practice mutes can be fairly expensive and dont let you get the tone correct. I have a really rather musical friend who taught himself to play the trombone having been a guitarist for a long time.

At the end of the day whats the worst that can happen? you buy a second hand one, dont like it and then sell it for what you bought it for.

[northwind]

Hmm, getting more tempted now, cheers folks. My neighbour is, fortunately, deaf

Originally Posted by jim@55

what u selling andy ,is it by any chance a marshall(not very likely ,but you dont ask ,you dont get)

Nah, bunch of pedals and parts Want a Boss TU-2 tuner? Or perhaps a Gibson 490T pickup? Half a Squier Stagemaster in red?