Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
If your sound becomes “less than” as you progress upwards, you want to do what’s needed in order to open it up.
Here are two things you can try:
1) Doing a lip vibrato.
Slightly open and close your lips - creating a lip vibrato. You create this oscillation where your sound is opening and closing. It almost sounds like “woa woa”.
Gradually slow down the oscillation and eventually stay where your sound is the most open.
When you find your most open sound, spend some time there to establish the sensation. Then repeat it over and over again until it becomes second nature.
2) Two-note trills, starting at a comfortable and resonant part of your range.
The key here is to start with your most resonant tone (which is at the bottom end of the pitch on the note), and then progressing one step at a time - aiming for the lowest part of each of the two-note trill. If you start with a more closed than your ideal sound, it’ll rarely open up during a phrase.
However, if you start with your most open, resonant tone and gradually progress into the “challenge one”, you can use repetition and a healthy dose of patience in order to open up your tone even there.
As always when it comes to developing skills on the trumpet - it takes time, attention and repetition to establish a new pattern.
Be kind and loving to yourself in the process ❤️🎺🎵
If your sound becomes “less than” as you progress upwards, you want to do what’s needed in order to open it up.
Here are two things you can try:
1) Doing a lip vibrato.
Slightly open and close your lips - creating a lip vibrato. You create this oscillation where your sound is opening and closing. It almost sounds like “woa woa”.
Gradually slow down the oscillation and eventually stay where your sound is the most open.
When you find your most open sound, spend some time there to establish the sensation. Then repeat it over and over again until it becomes second nature.
2) Two-note trills, starting at a comfortable and resonant part of your range.
The key here is to start with your most resonant tone (which is at the bottom end of the pitch on the note), and then progressing one step at a time - aiming for the lowest part of each of the two-note trill. If you start with a more closed than your ideal sound, it’ll rarely open up during a phrase.
However, if you start with your most open, resonant tone and gradually progress into the “challenge one”, you can use repetition and a healthy dose of patience in order to open up your tone even there.
As always when it comes to developing skills on the trumpet - it takes time, attention and repetition to establish a new pattern.
Be kind and loving to yourself in the process ❤️🎺🎵
