BRASS
Paul Baron is one of today’s most highly respected lead and commercial trumpet players. His sound is distinctly bright and powerful and carries with it
decades of experience in a wide range of musical styles from jazz to rock, big band to musical theatre, and TV jingles to movie soundtracks.
As well as being a performing artist for Jupiter Instruments and Pickett Brass with his signature line of mouthpieces, Paul is also an author, educator,
and clinician. www.paulbaron.net
By Paul Baron
Target Note Exercise
Part 2
I
n the March/April 2017 issue, I described
my methodology for practicing Target
Note exercises and how I approach the
target note.
For the sake of simplicity, I have written
these exercises an octave lower in pitch. If
playing these up an octave from the written
pitch is too challenging for now, just play them
in a lower key. Just work on the part of your
range you want to expand.
The methodology and the point of these
exercises are not necessarily building up to
the double G right away. If high D is where
you top out, or the A below it, that is totally
fine. Play the exercises up a second or a fifth
from where they are written, starting in the
key of A or D. It does not matter where you
start, as long as you start somewhere with a
goal in mind.
In Ex. 1, you can see the target note G is
approached from an octave below with a glis-
sando. Do not think of tightening up your lips
more for the higher note, but think of com-
pressing the air more in your abs and pushing
a faster, more intensive stream of air.
You will need to support the chops as the
air speed increases. Do not think of this as clos-
ing the aperture diameter, but rather holding it
firmer against the increasing air speed. This will
keep your sound big and resonant even as you
ascend to the upper register.
By Ex. 4, you can see that you are ap-
proaching the G first from a semitone below
with the F#, and then coming down onto
the G from the A a whole step above. Even
though the A might not come out, still make
the attempt. This will keep your mind on a
higher goal.
In Ex. 5, you are approaching the G in a
similar way but bypassing the G going from
F# to E to G and then coming down and
opening up from the A down onto the G.
Ex. 6 is written in the key of F to totally
30 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
skip the G for now by a whole step on either
side, and in Ex. 7, you’re playing two Gs going
up and past it, and then back down. By Ex.
9, you are approaching the G from a minor
third below and increasing the descending
intervals from thirds to fourths.
These exercises are just examples of how I
approach the target note so feel free to come
up with more. I use this approach for variety
in practice, but also to really solidify the note
in my ears and chops. I need to be able to hit
those notes any way they are thrown at me.
Have fun with these exercises.
This is an excerpt from
Paul’s new book, Trumpet
Voluntarily – A Holistic
Guide to Maximizing
Practice Through
Efficiency, containing
more expanded informa-
tion on this subject as
well as 19 chapters with
music examples and exercises. The book serves as
a guide to teach the player how, what, and when
to practice. It is available now through
BuglesMedia.com.