I've been playing for 50 years. I must say your instruction have been of immense help. The Sigh breath has answered warm vs cold air what the difference is!!
I’m at 76-year-old come back trumpet player who’s been working really hard to get a beautiful tone. Without much results, I must say. The sigh technique and the low note warm-ups have given me a tone quality that is infinitely better than the one I was getting before and one of which I know I can be proud. Thank you so much for this valuable help.
Hi Bill, thank you so much for the feedback. I love working and experimenting with sound and spend a lot of time playing simple melodies and tunes. Pushing the lips forward (pouting) while playing gives a a darker sound because the inner lips vibrate together. Rolling the lips inward gives a brighter sound because the dry part of the lips vibrate together. Pulling in the lower lip will give a mix of the two (dry lower with inside upper). Also remember to experiment with the space between the lips. Allow the lips to come together to vibrate rather than be blown apart. All best, Paul
I have never heard of this method before and the proof is in your playing and hopefully later in mine. Taking the discomfort out of playing maybe a side effect but a very valuable one. Thanks Paul
Thank you for these videos Paul. i feel like you are helping me to not make more bad habits. Many times I do feel as if I am trying to blow with the lips especially at the end of phrases. My range is awful now. I had a mini stroke five years ago and it's like I forgot what to do. I don't feel damaged but somehow I did lose something. But I am slowly bringing it back and I still have the confidence that it is possible to improve. Now if this pesky bottom lip would just heal. There's a small and very painful abrasion.
Vocalizing, "sigh-breath," wow so interesting sir! I double on trumpet/flute and recently discovered a great flute-tone exercise using the same concept. Will try it on my failing trumpet-chops (flute-chops up/trumpet-chops down lately).
Hello mr Mayes, I’m new here but i have been playing trumpet for a bit, and let me tell you that your information is so great that changed my playing immediately ( for good of course) . Thanks
Thank you Paul, the sigh tip is great. It’s easy to adopt and it is really helping my sound and upper register. I have always overblown my high notes and this has taught me control. This may be the best single piece of advice l have ever received. I try now to play like I’m steaming up a piece of glass.
Hi David, that's great and thank you for letting me know. Your comments are a perfect summary of what this channel is all about. When you sigh be sure not to open your throat unnaturally. Paul
I thought you played the saxophone but it wasn't . I hope I could have a big lung like a baloon. I will try to do as you taught us. Thank you for your interesting lesson.
thanks.. that helps a lot.. i started blowing and singing a note at the same time to get a buzz.. i was hoping i wasnt doing something stupid.. but i couldnt buzz with out singing a note.. now after week im starting to buzz a little... the sigh technique is wonderful.. thank you so much... ive always wanted to play and never could figure it out.. its only taken me 50 years.. doc johnny nato sicily
Paul Mayes hits on a number of CRITICAL points, but there are to things he talks about that aren't conceptually strung together (some contained in his other video) but thought about differently can be immensely useful. The MOST important thing that he mentions around 1:00 is that *we tend to "blow fromt he lips"*. That is *our critical mistake*. We think about crashing our lips with air KEEPING THE AIR AHEAD (on the horn side) OF THE LIPS when in fact we need to build compression behind the lips to make them buzz. Trying to keep the air ahead of the lips causes or promotes overblowing- something that isn't fully understood by many if not most. What DIDN'T work for me is the concept of "sighing". But what works mentally for me is to "blow from the chest". Perhaps it's the same thing, as you're going to develop compression as long as the mouthpiece (and lips) obstruct the air flow. For whatever reason that takes the stress off the lips but maintains sufficient air compression to release the air (like a balloon). The other thing he mentioned in the other video is the tight stomach, then blowing from the chest. Now THAT works for me. Why? Because blowing fromt he chest is stronger and promotes more control (mentally and physically) of the compression. I've always been taught to blow from the stomach- but it never worked well in spite of decades of practicing that way. So, the "trumpet takeaway" that I see is that we have to get the focus off the lips and how you can develop the compression needed and sound into the horn without crashing the lips whether sighing or blowing "from the chest".
Hi and thanks for your comment. Trumpet Takeaway and The Trumpet Prof are aimed at different groups of player. TP is analytical and for LONG TERM progress. The exercises and tips will take time and are also part of a series of videos. TT is for quick fixes. The techniques work but they have limitations if you want to full realize your potential or set it higher. SO, yes they do and they will contradict one another. TP
Hi Poul. Thanksbfor all the videos...gives a lot of nice information. When I look at your muscles around the lips, there is a lot of activity. Are you holding the lips back so they do not protrude into the cup? There has to be some resistence somewhere or? Take care Erik Denmark
Excellent! For the first time in over 40 years playing I understand the warm air concept. Never understood what was meant by that. Sighing is soooo much clearer an image for me! It really opens up a new path for me. But having said that: I also saw your video on the 'bow and arrow' technique which is also new to me. My question is this: can you or do you sigh and use the bow and arrow at the same time? The sigh to me gives a lot of relaxed and focused air to play with, bow and arrow gives me something to push against, but I cannot do a combination. While doing the bow and arrow I cannot sigh in a relaxed way. Is this something to pursue, or are these techniques used in different moments? Anyway, keep 'm coming. Very interesting!
I'm very late to this video, but your advice is helping me tremendously, your whats that? instrument sounded like an f or b flat on a tuba. lol, really cool trick with the balloon.
Gracias . Tu ingenio ayuda..fuí autodidacta..perdí mucho tiempo...nadie me dijo no presionar la boquilla ..ahora me cuesta..se me hincha la punta del labio q entra en.la tasa...y .. laro no puedo tocar pasando el sol...????
Thanks for your videos I am going to be a fan! I m from France, I m not really comfortable with the difference between sighing and blowing.. Can we sigh using active muscle? Sighing doesn't mean you exhale passively? ( physiological when breathing) When I see you video the physiotherapist than I am translate as : use your profond abs (transverse abs) try it to be warm and don't use the intercostalis muscle from the chest or tension on the throat. Am I understand right?
Paul, thank you so much for the videos here and on the trumpet prof channel. Always interesting and inpiring. I played around with the sigh breath and I have the impression that this simple idea really can improve things ... to me, when practicing the sigh, it feels like I´m just passively letting the air flow. Passively is meant in a good sense here, meaning that all my concentration/focus can be on the tone producion because the air just flows without much involvement from me. The sensation is difficult to describe but this 100% focus on the tone production is a rather unique experience. I will keep on sighing for sure! However, I´m not quite sure how to combine this with the "bow and arrow" technique you presented in the first takeaway. There, is seems (and feels to me if I try it) is much more focus on the breathing itself, so somehow the two techniques seem to be mutually exclusive in a way. Is this really the case and you consider both techniques as separated to enhance our repertoire in breathing techniques? Or am I missing something here and both have more in common than I (currently) see/feel? Thanks again Martin
Hi Martin, great to know this is working for you and thanks for letting me know. You make an important point regarding the many techniques covered on the channel and if/how they combine and actually you're right on both counts! I'm sharing lots of techniques for players to experiment with, then decide for themselves whether to use them or not, so they can (as you say) build a repertoire of usable techniques. The B&A technique will however work with the sigh breath if you want to combine them (which I would certainly try). Just do the initial exercises again but tense your abs before you breathe. You won't "feel" as relaxed but the sigh is really more about delivering the air from the chest which you can still do with abs locked. The difference is you'll be using compressed air deliberately rather than relaxed air passively. Hope that makes sense. Keep in touch. Paul.
Thank you Paul, for the feedback. I guess I need to work a little more on the combination of the two techniques. And I will. Please keep on posting your videos.
I got a double lung transplant .I’m taking up trumpet again to work my lungs. Most people shallow breath and don’t use they’re diaphragm. I had to learn to breath properly .Is that a Getz trumpet?
Hi Paul, I've been playing trumpet since I was in the fifth grade and am now 71 and playing in a community band. I am finding the sigh method very helpful for relaxing my face and letting the sound happen rather than pressing the horn against my face to reach higher, which I know is counter productive, but I'm still finding that there seems to be a barrier as I play above the staff and the tone will jump (like a falsetto in the voice) rather than transition smoothly to the upper notes. I'm wondering what is the best way to work this out.
Hi Barry. Fantastic to know you've been playing for so long and that even after all that time, you are still finding techniques to help you improve. You are an inspiration and wonderful example to us all!! I've got some advice you and others might find surprising: Don't stop pressing the horn against your face to play high!! Don't press so hard it hurts or makes your lip swell, but a healthy pressure increase to play higher is actually a very efficient way to access the upper register in many cases. Experiment with it while using the sigh breath and keeping your face relaxed, which is key. The lips can withstand far more pressure than you think and the whole "non pressure" method to me makes no sense at all. Try tensing/flexing your bicep and press your thumb into it. You can't maintain that for very long. It soon starts to hurt. Then relax your bicep and push your thumb in again. You can hold it there for much longer without it bothering you. It's the same with the lips. The key is to relax. A useful practice technique for this particular problem is to practice from high to low rather than low to high. Try to enter on one of those notes above the staff you "jump" to, and then GRADUALLY let the note "sag" until it drops down one harmonic. Then sag again to the next harmonic and continue the pattern. Are you able to cover all the notes that way? Keep me posted. Paul
Hi Paul, I've made some progress based on your suggestions. My problem seems to be staying relaxed as I approach the upper register. Perhaps the increased tension when anticipating the higher note is affecting the ability of my lips to buzz properly. I've been trying to sag down from a higher note and sometimes it drops more than one harmonic but I'm going to keep working at it. Thanks for the advice.
.@@TrumpetTakeaway this is very interesting totally the opposite of what I have been told. I have been told that you do not need to press the instrument against the lips that you can do it by shape change of the aperture and tongue alone.
If you increase the volume of air and maintain the aperture exactly the same, shouldn't the pitch rise? When I try increasing the breath amount during the sigh breath on the mouthpiece, there is a noticeable pitch difference. To keep the pitch the same, I need to widen the aperture.
Hi - a few things to mention here. Ideally you want pitch to rise when you increase air speed but most players just get louder so keep doing what you're doing! If you initially do the exercise on a low note on the instrument you'll probably get louder unless you have by default a very narrow airstream. I'm not a believer in mouthpiece practice but it is likely you would ascend in pitch on it more than on the instrument. Thanks for the Q.
When I hit High C once, then after that note, I lose the tendency to pull such pressure again of playing high C consistently. What is the problem? could you make a video or your simply answer the question
I've been playing for 50 years. I must say your instruction have been of immense help. The Sigh breath has answered warm vs cold air what the difference is!!
Absolutely!
Great content! Thank you, professor! Can you do a video on intonation? I'd love to watch, very enlightening! Cheers
Osman
Fantastic. Just found out I was doing things correctly. Great teaching videos and tips. Thank you very much
Thank you. Your lessons are always interesting and instructive.
Thanks Paul for another inspiring video, I always learn something new from them.
I’m at 76-year-old come back trumpet player who’s been working really hard to get a beautiful tone. Without much results, I must say. The sigh technique and the low note warm-ups have given me a tone quality that is infinitely better than the one I was getting before and one of which I know I can be proud. Thank you so much for this valuable help.
Hi Bill, thank you so much for the feedback. I love working and experimenting with sound and spend a lot of time playing simple melodies and tunes. Pushing the lips forward (pouting) while playing gives a a darker sound because the inner lips vibrate together. Rolling the lips inward gives a brighter sound because the dry part of the lips vibrate together. Pulling in the lower lip will give a mix of the two (dry lower with inside upper). Also remember to experiment with the space between the lips. Allow the lips to come together to vibrate rather than be blown apart. All best, Paul
Great advise!!! It’s amazing how immediate the results were for me. Thank you so much for your wisdom!
I have never heard of this method before and the proof is in your playing and hopefully later in mine. Taking the discomfort out of playing maybe a side effect but a very valuable one. Thanks Paul
Thank you so much for your content here ! Illuminating !!!!
I stopped playing for 12 years and totally forgot I can humplay. Thanks for the reminder. Im going to have some fun today
Thanks for your advice! 🙏🏼
Ty. I’m a beginner female (60 yrs) and struggle with higher note (G) when playing from C-G.
Thank you for these videos Paul. i feel like you are helping me to not make more bad habits. Many times I do feel as if I am trying to blow with the lips especially at the end of phrases. My range is awful now. I had a mini stroke five years ago and it's like I forgot what to do. I don't feel damaged but somehow I did lose something. But I am slowly bringing it back and I still have the confidence that it is possible to improve. Now if this pesky bottom lip would just heal. There's a small and very painful abrasion.
Vocalizing, "sigh-breath," wow so interesting sir! I double on trumpet/flute and recently discovered a great flute-tone exercise using the same concept. Will try it on my failing trumpet-chops (flute-chops up/trumpet-chops down lately).
Thank you 🙏
Hello mr Mayes, I’m new here but i have been playing trumpet for a bit, and let me tell you that your information is so great that changed my playing immediately ( for good of course) . Thanks
Thank you Paul, the sigh tip is great. It’s easy to adopt and it is really helping my sound and upper register. I have always overblown my high notes and this has taught me control. This may be the best single piece of advice l have ever received. I try now to play like I’m steaming up a piece of glass.
Hi David, that's great and thank you for letting me know. Your comments are a perfect summary of what this channel is all about. When you sigh be sure not to open your throat unnaturally. Paul
I thought you played the saxophone but it wasn't . I hope I could have a big lung like a baloon.
I will try to do as you taught us. Thank you for your interesting lesson.
thaks for share your experience and take the time! sorry my english, regards from Argentina
thanks.. that helps a lot.. i started blowing and singing a note at the same time to get a buzz..
i was hoping i wasnt doing something stupid.. but i couldnt buzz with out singing a note.. now after week im starting to buzz a little... the sigh technique is wonderful..
thank you so much... ive always wanted to play and never could figure it out.. its only taken me 50 years..
doc johnny
nato sicily
Singing a note while playing is exactly how the "growl" in jazz is done. I learned this technique 50 years ago in high school.
Paul Mayes hits on a number of CRITICAL points, but there are to things he talks about that aren't conceptually strung together (some contained in his other video) but thought about differently can be immensely useful. The MOST important thing that he mentions around 1:00 is that *we tend to "blow fromt he lips"*. That is *our critical mistake*. We think about crashing our lips with air KEEPING THE AIR AHEAD (on the horn side) OF THE LIPS when in fact we need to build compression behind the lips to make them buzz. Trying to keep the air ahead of the lips causes or promotes overblowing- something that isn't fully understood by many if not most. What DIDN'T work for me is the concept of "sighing". But what works mentally for me is to "blow from the chest". Perhaps it's the same thing, as you're going to develop compression as long as the mouthpiece (and lips) obstruct the air flow. For whatever reason that takes the stress off the lips but maintains sufficient air compression to release the air (like a balloon). The other thing he mentioned in the other video is the tight stomach, then blowing from the chest. Now THAT works for me. Why? Because blowing fromt he chest is stronger and promotes more control (mentally and physically) of the compression. I've always been taught to blow from the stomach- but it never worked well in spite of decades of practicing that way. So, the "trumpet takeaway" that I see is that we have to get the focus off the lips and how you can develop the compression needed and sound into the horn without crashing the lips whether sighing or blowing "from the chest".
Hi and thanks for your comment.
Trumpet Takeaway and The Trumpet Prof are aimed at different groups of player. TP is analytical and for LONG TERM progress. The exercises and tips will take time and are also part of a series of videos. TT is for quick fixes. The techniques work but they have limitations if you want to full realize your potential or set it higher. SO, yes they do and they will contradict one another. TP
Hi Poul.
Thanksbfor all the videos...gives a lot of nice information.
When I look at your muscles around the lips, there is a lot of activity.
Are you holding the lips back so they do not protrude into the cup?
There has to be some resistence somewhere or?
Take care
Erik
Denmark
Excellent! For the first time in over 40 years playing I understand the warm air concept. Never understood what was meant by that. Sighing is soooo much clearer an image for me! It really opens up a new path for me. But having said that: I also saw your video on the 'bow and arrow' technique which is also new to me. My question is this: can you or do you sigh and use the bow and arrow at the same time? The sigh to me gives a lot of relaxed and focused air to play with, bow and arrow gives me something to push against, but I cannot do a combination. While doing the bow and arrow I cannot sigh in a relaxed way. Is this something to pursue, or are these techniques used in different moments? Anyway, keep 'm coming. Very interesting!
Thank you
Best Lesson
I'm very late to this video, but your advice is helping me tremendously, your whats that? instrument sounded like an f or b flat on a tuba. lol, really cool trick with the balloon.
Gracias . Tu ingenio ayuda..fuí autodidacta..perdí mucho tiempo...nadie me dijo no presionar la boquilla ..ahora me cuesta..se me hincha la punta del labio q entra en.la tasa...y .. laro no puedo tocar pasando el sol...????
Thanks for your videos I am going to be a fan! I m from France, I m not really comfortable with the difference between sighing and blowing..
Can we sigh using active muscle? Sighing doesn't mean you exhale passively? ( physiological when breathing)
When I see you video the physiotherapist than I am translate as : use your profond abs (transverse abs) try it to be warm and don't use the intercostalis muscle from the chest or tension on the throat. Am I understand right?
Certainly sounds fuller and shinier with warm air.
Paul, thank you so much for the videos here and on the trumpet prof channel. Always interesting and inpiring.
I played around with the sigh breath and I have the impression that this simple idea really can improve things ... to me, when practicing the sigh, it feels like I´m just passively letting the air flow. Passively is meant in a good sense here, meaning that all my concentration/focus can be on the tone producion because the air just flows without much involvement from me. The sensation is difficult to describe but this 100% focus on the tone production is a rather unique experience. I will keep on sighing for sure!
However, I´m not quite sure how to combine this with the "bow and arrow" technique you presented in the first takeaway. There, is seems (and feels to me if I try it) is much more focus on the breathing itself, so somehow the two techniques seem to be mutually exclusive in a way. Is this really the case and you consider both techniques as separated to enhance our repertoire in breathing techniques? Or am I missing something here and both have more in common than I (currently) see/feel?
Thanks again
Martin
Hi Martin, great to know this is working for you and thanks for letting me know. You make an important point regarding the many techniques covered on the channel and if/how they combine and actually you're right on both counts! I'm sharing lots of techniques for players to experiment with, then decide for themselves whether to use them or not, so they can (as you say) build a repertoire of usable techniques. The B&A technique will however work with the sigh breath if you want to combine them (which I would certainly try). Just do the initial exercises again but tense your abs before you breathe. You won't "feel" as relaxed but the sigh is really more about delivering the air from the chest which you can still do with abs locked. The difference is you'll be using compressed air deliberately rather than relaxed air passively. Hope that makes sense. Keep in touch. Paul.
Thank you Paul, for the feedback. I guess I need to work a little more on the combination of the two techniques. And I will.
Please keep on posting your videos.
I got a double lung transplant .I’m taking up trumpet again to work my lungs. Most people shallow breath and don’t use they’re diaphragm. I had to learn to breath properly .Is that a Getz trumpet?
Hi Paul,
I've been playing trumpet since I was in the fifth grade and am now 71 and playing in a community band.
I am finding the sigh method very helpful for relaxing my face and letting the sound happen rather than pressing the horn against my face to reach higher, which I know is counter productive, but I'm still finding that there seems to be a barrier as I play above the staff and the tone will jump (like a falsetto in the voice) rather than transition smoothly to the upper notes. I'm wondering what is the best way to work this out.
Hi Barry. Fantastic to know you've been playing for so long and that even after all that time, you are still finding techniques to help you improve. You are an inspiration and wonderful example to us all!! I've got some advice you and others might find surprising: Don't stop pressing the horn against your face to play high!! Don't press so hard it hurts or makes your lip swell, but a healthy pressure increase to play higher is actually a very efficient way to access the upper register in many cases. Experiment with it while using the sigh breath and keeping your face relaxed, which is key. The lips can withstand far more pressure than you think and the whole "non pressure" method to me makes no sense at all. Try tensing/flexing your bicep and press your thumb into it. You can't maintain that for very long. It soon starts to hurt. Then relax your bicep and push your thumb in again. You can hold it there for much longer without it bothering you. It's the same with the lips. The key is to relax. A useful practice technique for this particular problem is to practice from high to low rather than low to high. Try to enter on one of those notes above the staff you "jump" to, and then GRADUALLY let the note "sag" until it drops down one harmonic. Then sag again to the next harmonic and continue the pattern. Are you able to cover all the notes that way? Keep me posted. Paul
Hi Paul, I've made some progress based on your suggestions. My problem seems to be staying relaxed as I approach the upper register. Perhaps the increased tension when anticipating the higher note is affecting the ability of my lips to buzz properly. I've been trying to sag down from a higher note and sometimes it drops more than one harmonic but I'm going to keep working at it.
Thanks for the advice.
.@@TrumpetTakeaway this is very interesting totally the opposite of what I have been told. I have been told that you do not need to press the instrument against the lips that you can do it by shape change of the aperture and tongue alone.
Can that help play triple t
Why do you have so many channels?
If you increase the volume of air and maintain the aperture exactly the same, shouldn't the pitch rise? When I try increasing the breath amount during the sigh breath on the mouthpiece, there is a noticeable pitch difference. To keep the pitch the same, I need to widen the aperture.
Hi - a few things to mention here. Ideally you want pitch to rise when you increase air speed but most players just get louder so keep doing what you're doing! If you initially do the exercise on a low note on the instrument you'll probably get louder unless you have by default a very narrow airstream. I'm not a believer in mouthpiece practice but it is likely you would ascend in pitch on it more than on the instrument. Thanks for the Q.
When I hit High C once, then after that note, I lose the tendency to pull such pressure again of playing high C consistently. What is the problem? could you make a video or your simply answer the question
@@Bkdasher Thanks for your genuine reply sir
it made me dizzy