Learning to read and play – music and the trumpet
When I was much younger, I really wanted a trumpet. I saved up my hard-earned cash for a while until I could afford a basic trumpet and eventually bought a lump of correctly twisted brass.
Over the next year or so I had lessons through school, but was never disciplined enough to keep up the practice I should have done at home. The teacher soon disappeared, and I was left with a lack of motivation to play and noone to point me in the right direction.
Occasionally I would get my trumpet from its case, oil its valves and have a blow. I didn’t understand sheet music, and all the peices I played in my lessons had the notes pencilled in below them. However, I do have some basic sense of tune and so could work out the sequence of notes in songs that I was familiar with – mainly Christian worship songs. I would write the notes down on scraps of paper and leave them in my trumpet case.
Over time and occasional playing, my sense of tune became better, and I began to be able to play tunes I was familar with without having to write them down. Just thinking about the next note enabled me to start to ‘play by ear”: Is it higher or lower than the current one? is it a lot different? does it sound like a natural note in the current key?
I have by no means cracked playing by ear, but I am often able to run through a song that I am familar with and get the basic tune, so that anyone guessing would be able to tell what the song is.
When I first came to uni I decided that I wanted a keyboard. They looked easy to play – there is no blowing involved, its just like typing on a computer keyboard, right? My sister in law had just got a new one, and so I inherited an old Yamaha.
Like on the trumpet, I became familiar with the notes and could play melodies to lots of songs which would at least be recognisable, and then didn’t bother looking into it any further. Numerous times I have attemted to understand chords on the keyboard, but my left hand often doesn’t do as its told, and even if it did my brain would not know what to tell it to do.
After my trumpet has sat there for so long doing nothing, I have decided it is time for action – I have joined the beginners brass band at uni. Over the next few weeks hopefully I will remember how to blow through the mouthpeice and have some vauge recollection of the fingering.
