Learning music by ear on the trumpet: sing it before you play it

To learn something by ear, sing the next few notes until you really know them, then put them on the trumpet, and don't write anything down until you can play it.

Imitation comes first

When I say transcription, I'm not that interested in whether you write it down. The word I would use is imitation.

Imitation is the thing I know every one of the best players in the world has done, without fail, and a significant amount of it. It could be sitting next to someone who is better than you. It could be listening to your favourite player all the time.

Sing the next few notes

Sing what you are trying to learn. If you are going to learn the next 15 notes and you can't sing those 15 notes, it doesn't matter if you can play them.

You need to get it about 80% close in your mind. You would be surprised how approximate we all choose to be. I say choose, because it is a choice. I would slow the recording right down, listen to every single note and know exactly what the sound was.

You don't need to do a whole chorus this way before you pick the trumpet up. Just the next 10 or 15 notes. But I wouldn't try to get them onto the horn until you can hear them. You can, but it is a guessing game. You are teaching yourself the pattern of the valves, and you are not teaching yourself the right thing. Singing first also saves your chops.

It is slow at first

When you first do this you will feel so slow, and it is horrible. It is a bit of mud, and you have to go through it.

Then you start picking up little patterns. That was the same thing he did eight bars ago. This trumpet player plays the same phrase as that trumpet player, but up a minor third. It gets faster and faster. But most people are not willing to go through the first bit of mud.

Don't turn it into numbers

A player asked me whether it helps to work out the degrees of the scale before playing a phrase. It is a great tool for analysis. Why does this work over this chord? Where else could I use it?

But every step we add takes us further away from getting the thing into our voice. If you are thinking five, seven, two, three, you are thinking. I don't want you thinking. I want you singing.

What I am asking you to do is go back to being a child learning to speak. There is no filter in my children. If I swear, they say it straight back to me. For the same reason, it is worth learning the other player's mistakes too.

If I play something I have learned this way, I don't know what notes I am playing. I am just hearing it and singing it. That is how I want it to be.

Don't write it down first

Don't write it down. If you do write it down, write it from memory once you can play it. Do it by hand and not on the computer. That is for your records, and it will make you a better sight reader.

The worst thing you can do is download someone else's transcription, play along and say you have done it. All of the hard work is in acquiring it.

It is not only for jazz

People seem to think this is only for jazz. When we did a two week challenge on this in the Academy, I did Wynton's Carnival of Venice. I got about 80% of the way through. I listened to exactly how he played it on cornet and tried to replicate that sound. It taught me so much about my playing.

There are solos I learned this way at college, over ten years ago, that I can still play now. They are so deeply rooted that I couldn't make them go away if I tried.

Why trumpet players can't skip this

I think there are three really hard things on the trumpet. For a classical player it is transposition. For a jazz player it is transcription and improvisation. For a commercial lead player it is playing music in the upper register. All three need the same thing, which is ears.

The trumpet is abstract. The notes are not laid out in front of you. I think that is the beauty of it. The trumpet challenges you to actually learn this skill, because you can't get away without it. So wade through the mud for a little bit. I promise it gets faster.

One thing to try this week

Pick a recording you love and take the next ten notes. Slow it down. Sing them until you know exactly what each one is, then find them on the trumpet. Don't write anything down.

More trumpet advice

• The truth about high notes on the trumpet: it is not your physiology
• Practise high notes in short sprints, on fresh chops
• Performance nerves: play to an audience of one