Playing the trumpet in tune: use the slides, but it starts with your ears

The trumpet does not play in tune on its own, the slides fix some of it, and the rest comes from your ears.

The hardest thing about the trumpet

A player asked me whether some trumpet players just play each note where the horn puts it and don't hear the pitch. That is the whole problem. It is the hardest thing about playing the trumpet. You have to somehow get the instrument to play in tune while it still sounds resonant.

It is why brass players, and I'm sorry to say amateur brass players in particular, tend to play out of tune. You can't really be a professional if you play out of tune.

It is an awareness issue. It is always an awareness issue.

What the slides are for

A newer player asked me what the valve slides are for, and whether it is better not to use them. You can muscle any note into tune with your lips. But a low C sharp that has been muscled into tune sounds terrible. With the slide out, you can play in the middle of the note and it is in tune.

These are the general rules.

• The third valve slide is for low C sharp and D. The D needs about half as much as the C sharp.
• The first valve slide is for A and E. They need very little. About a millimetre for the A and about two for the E.
• A lot of people use the first slide for a C sharp or a D as well, or both slides together. Experiment with what works for you.

Here is a case where the choice matters. If I have to go from C sharp to D sharp and back, over and over, and I use the third slide for the C sharp, the D sharp comes out really flat. So I use the first slide. It only affects the first valve, so the D sharp is left alone.

Every note has its own dartboard

Sometimes I hear a good player where all the notes I would expect to be flat on the trumpet are a little flat, and all the notes I would expect to be sharp are a little sharp. The notes are where the horn wants them to be. But they are not ringing in a musical way.

I can play any note sharp. I can play it flat. Somewhere in between is right. Every note has its own dartboard, and you need to be accurate about where each one is going.

When a note sits in the right place it is more in tune, and it is also richer, deeper and wider. It is so subtle, but it is the difference between sounding good and sounding expensive.

Use a tuner to train your ear

I don't usually suggest a tuner, because I get nervous about people becoming obsessed with them. But it can be worth putting one out and working slowly through a piece. Get familiar with how out of tune some of the notes on the trumpet are, and work out how to make the best sound in tune.

Don't go crazy with it and start changing everything. Use the tuner to help train your ear.

Before you start practising, give yourself some musical context. Play with a drone, and check the drone is in tune. Some of the ones on YouTube are not. Or listen to some acoustic music before you pick the trumpet up. We all need to warm our ears up. You are more likely to play in tune if you have that reference point.

Play with other people

I am very grateful that I grew up playing with other people, a lot. Asking questions online is fine, but you have to get out and play in bands. I would even encourage you to do sectionals and really work on the tuning.

At the camp in Spain, the first thing we do is long tones. I call out triads and chords for the players to play, and we try to get them in tune. It sounds like a silly little thing. But it is so important to wake the ears up.

The ear is the only thing that allows you to play in tune. That, and your confidence. What happens at the chops is always a reaction to what your ears are hearing. If you are doing it without ears, you are not really playing the trumpet. You are operating a piece of plumbing.

One thing to try this week

Before you practise, listen to some acoustic music or put on a drone that you have checked is in tune. Then take one phrase and work through it slowly with a tuner, finding where each note sounds best and in tune.

More trumpet advice

• How to choose a trumpet mouthpiece: it should feel better straight away
• Learning music by ear on the trumpet: sing it before you play it
• The truth about high notes on the trumpet: it is not your physiology