Why do trumpet players have big egos

A lot of you kids are taking this post too seriously I feel. Your comment on Donna Lee was greatly appreciated! Trumpet is a dangerous to your health. This is also common with oboe and young flute players. You are correct with your suggestion. Dehydration can make you light headed. I am finding that to be true now that I have had two stints put in my heart area.

I think its important to know your limits when your playing and not try to hit the highest notes before you have warmed up. Interestingly enough, flute requires A LOT more air then trumpet when youre playing. My sisters had a masters in music education and as far as marching band goes, she says flutes are the people who usually pass out.

The reason some people pass out when playing, is because they have not warmed up properly. I think every musician can say that their particular instrument is the hardest — or none of us would have to practice for years! I only play a trumpet ,so I cannot really appreciate the difficulties others face, but all I can say about the trumpet is that some days it is the most contrary instrument to enforce your will on, other days it will play perfectly.

I think it all depends on my mood and attitude — sometimes I even think the thing can sense my mood! I think it is true that the trumpet is the one instrument that chooses its player not the other way around, then you have to find the perfect horn, mouthpiece etc. For a lot of people this can make them give up early, but like everything, perseverence can be bliss.

It comes with the territory. The horn has different challenges than the trumpet. One is the difficulty of hitting the correct harmonic on a single horn when playing C,D,and E in the staff- all the same fingering. That might just be me, though. Great list by the way, it seems like applies more to all brass instruments though, not just trumpet. Funny read! Horn was much harder to center the higher notes. Mouthpiece rims were always an issue.

Flute, french horn, clarinet, saxophone all are able to play higher octaves than trumpet. High notes are harder to play, being a brass instrument but its not a extremely hard instrument. All instruments take effort people! Also, being a trumpet player, three fingers… love it. I have never envied sax or flute for all the fingering they have.

Not to mention all the alternate fingering they have. Three valves is awesome! But i always salute people who want to play instruments like french horn, tuba, trombone, trumpet. We, violinists, think differently about these instruments. Thank you for your comments and in many ways I also feel that the nonfretted string instrument is also one of the most difficult instrument to play……. What a wonderful thread of comments and replies! I found your little list of 15 reasons very amusing. All of the contention about whose instrument is the most difficult to play reminds me of a movement some years ago in European orchestras to have the members paid based upon how many notes they play.

The reasoning was that some instruments usually have much thicker parts violins in particular than others trumpets for one and so they work that much harder. But if I got them wrong or fell asleep and missed my entrance, well …. We are a crazy bunch! One dollar for every helpful cue and one dollar less for poor taste. Thanks or your comment about musicians.

Lawyers get paid for practicing law, doctors get paid for practicing medicine but musicians……. I honestly have to disagree. I would have to say that the French Horn is much more difficult to play. All of the above reasons you stated also apply to French Horn. Plus, you need to have precise notes, and a good ear.

A C, D, and E all have the same fingering, which can often be mistaken for each other. In order to play French Horn, you need good music sense, and also the ability to blend with other instruments, not just be obnoxiously loud.

I played horn in our high school orchestra and know from playing both the trumpet and horn, the trumpet is more difficult. This is some really interesting insight about the trumpet and hoe difficult it is to play. And I definitely agree that the fingering is complicated, I am still not sure exactly what trumpet players are doing or how the heck they pull it off most of the time.

Thanks so much for writing! Funniest thing I read in a long time. Kudos to you sir, and keep in touch. Chess and trumpet. I visited your site and was very impressed. Stay well and live long my friend. He made the instrument sound sensual and authoritative. He possessed a 24K sound that made him one of the most sought after trumpet players. Few times do grateful students ever take the time to thank their mentors before they die.

I am 69 years old Doctor and contemplating learning an instrument. Good morning Dr. What would you recommend for gout in my right great toe? Just kidding……. This would be similar to prescribing a medication over the phone but first let me know the reasons you want to learn an instrument first. If you want to learn an instrument for your own enjoyment, which means playing by yourself for yourself, I would recommend a used fluglehorn. The reason for this is that the Flugle is much easier to play, has a beautifully mellow tone, does not require the high notes to sound good to the ear and sound great as a solo instrument if you decide to play in a church setting.

If you eventually intend to play with an organized ensemble such as a band, church orchestra or chamber ensemble I would suggest that you begin on a trumpet or cornet for that instrument will be welcomed into that kind of setting.

The cornet is a little easier to begin playing on because it is more forgiving than a trumpet and the tone is more gentile. I just ran a check on what is available on Graigs list and Ebay and the difference among the different offerings is mind blowing.

Recently we have had the market flooded with cheap imports from China which are for the most part, junk! Another possibility is to check with your local music store on their rental programs. All instruments are hard to play. They all require hard work and practice except for no brainers maybe, like cow bell, but that still requires beat keeping.

Every instrument is different and has pros and cons. Your sentences were beautifully constructed and you point was outstandingly presented!

And thank you for your thoughtful comments. My comments were directed at elements such as an exposed trumpet part as compared to a cow bell or bass drum. If a trumpet player misses a note everyone can hear it but if a bass drum comes in at the wrong time, it can many times be missed.

As a trumpet player in many ensembles having come back to the instrument decades after high school playing , I thought point 10 was laugh out loud funny because it is unquestionably true! Now, before you go ahead and say that the saxophone is extremely easy, let me remind you that it is only easy at the beginning; once you have been playing for a while, it starts to get harder, and the learning curve increases.

Now, tell me this; does it really matter if others can notice your mistake? All that matters is that you notice it, and set out to fix it by practicing. Complaining about having the melody and making mistakes instead of fixing them is utterly useless. This was a great post and all the comments from offended musicians and your earnest replies make it all the more hilarious! I found your site while surfing the net for advice on buying a trumpet. Oh, and the kid is into jazz. Have you seen anything like it in your travels?

Thank you for the laughs and the useful info! I stared learning piano at the age of ten and quit after two and a half years. Two reasons made me quit. Then I picked up the trumpet in my third year of junior high school, and played it until high school graduation in both the concert and marching band. The trumpet is extremely hard for beginners who has had no experience playing a wind instrument.

But then came a time period after you got comfortable with playing a stable and well sounding tone , the trumpet starts get become easy to play.

Things l8ke the mordentsame, trills and all that fun stuff. You will change your mind very quickly. It is an insanely difficult instrument to play. It's because we're better. Well, as long as you use the official trumpet player's handshake, you can call yourself a trumpet player.

You don't know the secret handshake? Well here's how it goes. Whenever greeting a fellow trumpet player, always extend your left hand since that is the strongest hand, you don't want to damage your right hand , thumb and fingers in a relaxed, almost straight position.

Make a firm grasp with the other trumpet player and before saying your name, say "Hello, I'm better than you are. Most of the jazz bands I've played in, the rest of the players listen to the bass for time and intonation and the lead trumpet for phrasing and mood. Setting that mood takes chutzpa.

Kevin Pfefferle Westerville North H. Bye Jim. Bob Happiness is to come home from work and see my beagle wag his tail all Well, that's obvious! There is also a jealousy factor.

Face it, there are two kinds of people in the world--those who play trumpet and those who wish they did! Obviously they're not sensitive to spelling Chip chip It may have something to to with having the necessary juevos to count however many measures rest, and come in on the screaming, sustained high-G that the woodwind player who wrote the chart just HAD to put there.

Trumpeter's ego is a function of: 1. The constant demands for that kind of extroversion, and 2. If a lead trumpet doesn't have roughly percent belief in his own precision, he's not a lead trumpet. View all Denis Wick Ambassadors. Trumpet players are notorious for large egos. An ego driven performer will scream confidence, but are they one and the same?

Spoiler alert… Absolutely not! Ego does scream confidence kind of like a model Ford Mustang looks just like a real Ford Mustang. I remember as a young trumpet player, I had natural talent.

I had a good ear and my face just seemed to follow whatever I needed to play. I was playing at the top of every section that I was in and I had everyone telling me I was a phenomenal trumpet player with a promising future.

However, I was not really progressing forward. When we say someone has a big ego, it generally is describing someone who is boastful, hard to work with, and a bit of a jerk.

I was a nice person and got along well with everyone, but I had a very inflated ego about my playing. I was getting relentlessly bullied by another musician. As I grew more and more stressed by this, I developed a debilitating chop injury. For one year I could not play any music outside of the middle staff. I lost my first chair ranking and moved to third, and pretty much thought my future career in trumpet playing was over.

The process of going through the bullying and my inability to find my way back to effortless playing was humiliating. By the following school year, though, through patient and wise counsel from a visiting professor, Ed Carroll, I found my way back.

What remained as I moved on from that horrible year were the things that I learned about my playing during the long trek back.