Ingrid Jensen hosted a master class which was recorded on youtube.

Ingrid Jensen Master Class

In this class she covers a lot of interesting topics but the ones that leaped out for me are these two:

1. Step away from the page and learn it one chord at a time.
2. She would miss notes because her ears were not lining up in tune. She uses a drone tone to reference the tuning and help her ears hear the note.

To me these are so very important. Don’t depend on the page – use your ears.

I was welded to the page for years and years and I am only now starting to get free.

Use your ears – I thought of the trumpet as if it were a piano – push the right buttons and blow and the note will happen.

Why I thought of the second one the way I did is puzzling because my father always told me to hear the note in my head – my minds ear – and then play it. I never got it until recently and sadly my father passed away before I understood what he was telling me.

So if you hear a note that is slightly out of tune in your head and try to play it on your horn, your horn will respond. The trumpet will play any sound that you want to make. Some of them are good sounding and efficient and others are not. If you play halfway between C on the staff and C# on the staff, you can make that sound come out of your horn.

I am going to use the drone approach and will get back to this topic after some time practicing it.