Blowing Hot Air

Don’t worry, even though this newsletter is coming out on the day of the US election I’m not going to delve into that discussion. I’m far more interested in talking about trumpet players, more specifically, how to deal with an issue that impacts almost all ensembles: range. 

I’m definitely not new to the range party, in fact it took me a number of years to even think about what was reasonable for a student to play. I was spoiled at university with over 20 top quality lead trumpet players who could play almost anything I put in front of them. Definitely not an accurate representation of the average school trumpet player, and an experience which caused me to write some pretty difficult parts early on. 

Shortly after I returned back to Australia in 2016, I began writing for a number of different school  ensembles as well as my own youth program. It was apparent that my idea of what was playable for a school trumpeter was definitely off from reality once I stepped into any of the rehearsals. Looking back, I feel sorry for those students who had to endure that music simply because of my lack of knowledge. 

So what’s the solution when you’re on the opposite side and the students in your band can’t play the high notes on the page? Well in my case, any time I face a trumpet part or section which is too high I revoice it. This requires some level of knowledge in arranging but I’ll go over the basics here. Before doing so, be aware that by changing the trumpet note you may compromise the overall sound and you won't always be able to capture the same feeling with an alternative solution. However, if a musician can’t play the note to begin with, you won’t really be losing anything. 

There are varying degrees in which you can revoice a trumpet section. A quick fix may just be changing one particular voicing whereas a more intensive fix would be modulating an entire phrase over a number of bars. Let’s have a look at the quick option first.

To revoice the section you need to be aware of how to create a structurally stable trumpet voicing, as well as how those notes relate to the underlying chord. Typically in a school setting you are going to use triadic based voicings with a doubled note because they are easier to tune and the higher notes are more supported. The triad doesn’t have to be the root, 3rd, and 5th, it can be many other options as long as it is in some sort of triadic relationship. A great example would be on a chord such as Dom13#11 where the 9th, #11th, and 13th create a major triad. If the trumpets were built around that structure, it would be very colorful while also being very stable. The doubled note would simply be whatever the top note of the voicing is but dropped an octave, further reinforcing the lead player.

Now to apply this method to revoicing a problematic trumpet note. Here are the 2 options I commonly use:

1. Identify the relationship between the lead trumpet and the underlying harmony and use an inversion of the voicing if possible

2. If not, pick a new lead trumpet note (that the player can actually play) that is within the accompanying chord and create a new triadic voicing based off of the lead note

Ideally you would be able to have some level of color in the voicing from either an extension or alteration but that can be left out if it’s beyond your current harmonic understanding.

This approach can be done on the fly at a rehearsal and quickly get your trumpets back on track. However, sometimes more intensive techniques are needed such as when a whole shout section is too high. To deal with this, most of the time it’s better to modulate the entire section than simply revoice each note.

When modulating a whole section it will impact every instrument and is not nearly as quick as the first approach. First you need to find the desirable key where all of the lead trumpet notes are within a playable register. Then shift the entire section into that key and fix all of the new problems. The two most common being the transition in and out of the new key, and all of the instruments which are now too low. 

To unpack the techniques required to fix those issues would take a lot longer than this newsletter entry can afford but I am slowly adding more free resources to my website which will eventually cover those topics. This past week I added one about a technique to understand chord progressions through the lens of tension and resolution, and I am currently working on a follow up about harmony techniques that are often forgotten about.

Thanks again to everyone who replied to last week's newsletter, and I now have a considerable number of topics to cover for the future. If there’s something you would like me to discuss, reply to this email and I’ll make sure to get to it in a later post. Next week I’m going to tackle the rhythm section and the various ways you can use each instrument (as well as how to actually write for them). 

Thanks,

Toshi