The Week of the Virtuoso (Etudes & Exercises Vol.1)
Alexandre Petit's three-volume collection entitled "Etudes & Exercices" is a classic collection of preparatory studies for trumpet players. Each method book focuses on one aspect of playing, from grand characteristic studies, to finger patterns and scales, to artistic melodic studies. The Week of the Virtuoso consists of exercises to keep the lips supple, the tongue light, and the fingers precise, with two unique daily studies to rotated for each day of the week with Sunday as a rest day. The study of these exercises, which require only a few minutes a day, allows the musician to maintain all of their virtuosity. Translated for the first time into English by Chris Fenje, and only available at qPress. Each volume is available, here are their titles and where you can find them:
- Etudes & Exercices: The Week of the Virtuoso
- Etudes & Exercices: 15 Melodic & Technical Studies
- Etudes & Exercices: 12 Grande Etudes
Veldkamp Play-Along Bundle No.1
Erik Veldkamp's books are amongst the most popular on qPress. There are books written for players at all levels and in all styles, which means his catalogue is guaranteed to be a perfect match for almost anyone. You are viewing set one of Erik's Complete Play-Along books for trumpet. This set has play-alongs for players at all levels, in a wide variety of styles, and I have to say, there are no other books like these in the world. To the left you will see the cover of each book included, and below you will see the full list as well as some sample recordings. This 54% OFF purchase gets you every book, plus all recordings of both the play alongs and demos recorded by Erik himself. Included Play-Along Books
- Veldkamp, 12 Rhythm & Blues Play-Alongs
- Veldkamp, 12 Groovy Tunes for Trumpet
- Veldkamp, Viennese Dances for Trumpet
- Veldkamp, Your Daily Pentatonics
- Veldkamp, Groove Experiment
- Veldkamp, 17 Play-Alongs in Swing & Latin Style
- Veldkamp, 12 Musettes for Trumpet
Embouchure Enlightenment
This book was designed by Gene Young (Oberlin Conservatory) to help trumpet players overcome difficulties with embouchure, range, sound, articulation, and endurance. No attempt has been made to be scientific, as clinical descriptions are sometimes confusing to the non-anatomically oriented student. After reading them, the troubled player can become desperate and begin to grope for any method that claims to provide immediate help. Instead, this book offers detailed routines, procedures, and exercises constructed to solve specific problems. When used as a supplement to daily practice, the information, ideas, and techniques prescribed will be incredibly valuable to you, the player, as they have been to students worldwide. Gene Young, Associate Professor of Trumpet at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, was also a member of the New Orleans Philharmonic, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and the principal trumpet of the St. Louis Sinfonietta. He has also been principal trumpet of the Mobile, Alabama, Symphony Orchestra and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. To the left you can see some samples, and above you can grab an immediate digital download, a print copy, or both.
Trumpet Yoga
Behold, Trumpet Yoga: A Revolutionary Approach To Embouchure Development is back in circulation. Jerome Callet put it perfectly in his foreword:
My purpose in writing this book is to make available to players young and old, my way of playing. The "trumpet Yoga" Method has given me, for the first time in my life, freedom from physical worries about the trumpet. It was a great struggle to come to these ideas I have been working with. I vowed to myself if I could achieve this dream of mine, I would share it with all brass players.
Modern trumpet playing demands a great, powerful embouchure, range in excess of a piccolo trumpet, and brilliant tone. Many professionals play jobs they can just barely finish. Most trumpet teachers have no idea what their students have to play. These teachers cannot improve a weak embouchure with scales or slurs. You must change the way you hold your lips so that the lips are vibrant and never abused.
I have spent the last 23 years using my own embouchure as a lip laboratory. After ten years I could play loud double high Cs. I knew that my sound should be free and less strained. The lips would not take the air, and the real endurance was not there. In November of 1970, I began what I call "trumpet Yoga". The musical exercises are proof of what I practice. Also important is that my warm-up can be done on the bandstand to refresh your lips.
The most important result of "Trumpet Yoga" has been the steady improvement on a daily basis. Over the past year, I have not had one bad playing day. No trumpet teacher has ever told me how to do this. I believe the way you start your day, how you play in using your embouchure whether it be in performance or practice, will show your lip health. The whole story is how your lips feel; confidence, control, and power begin with feel.
There is not much more to say other than you need to dig into this method and system of playing to reap the rewards, and that one you do, you are going to be thrilled with your increased range and efficiency. Check out some samples to the left, then grab an immediate PDF download above. Endorsement from Dr. Charles Colin This is a mental approach to the phenomena of surmounting all obstacles and is proven by Mr. Callet' s unique personal demonstration, of the most expanded range ever played on a trumpet. His newly discovered formula is based on expanding and coordinating unlimited possibilities in exploring the extremities of one's physical resources. Mr. Callet has pioneered new advanced theories through means of his revolutionary discoveries of controlled acoustical sound production. His innovation is a fearless, ambitious approach to the extremity in both registers (High and Low) and can be applied to all cup mouthpieces.
20 Minute Warm-Up
Allen Ostrander's 20 Minute Warm-Up was developed rather than written. It contains material he used in his daily warm up, material he used with his students, and finger exercises he used when called upon to play baritone on short notice. A warm up should be a preparation for playing. It should contain exercises covering the fundamentals of playing and should be brief. It is impossible for a professional player faced with a ten o'clock rehearsal to commute to the hall and practice for an hour or so. This book is divided into ten sections with multiple choices of exercises in each section. It covers long tones, lip slurs, tonguing and position exercises for trombone and finger exercises for baritone. One exercises from each section should get a person ready for the usual playing and should not take more than 20 minutes to play. Have a look at a few free pages in the samples, then grab a PDF download above.
Complete Gekker Collection
If you have been following qPress for any length of time, you know that Chris Gekker is my favourite trumpet player anywhere. I have been playing from his books since the beginning, and I have been using them with my students for as long as I can remember. Today, for the first time ever, we are putting together the entire Gekker catalogue at a 55% discount, which includes every book he has ever written PLUS all of the books required to play his Summer Practice Routine. This collection truly is too good to be true. This price is not going to last, and if you want to complete collection, this really is the best way to do it. If you have these books already, then forward this on to your friends, they are going to be very glad you told them. Below you will find links to each book, to the left you will see the covers, and above you will find an immediate digital download. This collection includes every original Chris Gekker Method Book:
- Gekker, Trumpet Talk
- Gekker, Focal Point Exercises
- Gekker, Slow Practice
- Gekker, Gekker, 15 Studies for Piccolo Trumpet
- Gekker, Endurance Drills for Performance Skills
- Gekker, Gekker, 24 Etudes
- Gekker, Articulation Studies
- Gekker, Gekker, 44 Duos for Trumpet
- Schlossberg, Daily Drills and Technical Exercises for Trumpet
- Clarke, Technical Studies for the Cornet 1st Edition
- Arban, Complete Conservatory Method
- Sachse, 100 Studies
66 Etudes in all Major and Minor Keys for Trombone
Anton Slama’s 66 Etudes in all Major and Minor Keys for Trombone, Tuba, Bassoon, String Bass is at face value, like most major & minor key-based etude books: a variety of etudes progressively arranged by key from easier to more difficult. There certainly is no shortage of similar works. Indeed, most brass method / scale books take the student through a variety of scale-based exercises, often repeating the same pattern throughout all the key signatures with occasional adjustments made to allow for the range of the instrument. So why then should this 150-year-old trombone method book be a part of a low brass player’s library when so many books have seemingly already covered this? Slama’s 66 Etudes is distinctive for several reasons. First, each key signature is covered not just in a single etude but multiple times. This allows for greater depth of study within each key. Secondly, all of these etudes are quite brief. So often endurance impacts our sense of accomplishment when it isn’t the technical difficulty of the study, but physical stamina that holds us back. By having extremely short etudes, daily progress is much more evident. This brevity also permits multiple keys to be assigned without overwhelming a student. Also interesting is Slama’s use of very uncommon keys such as C# Major and A# minor (which are almost always written as Db Major and Bb minor). This develops the performer’s ability to read not only uncommon keys but to develop one’s ear. Lastly, these etudes have a strong sense of tonality. While some may find the circle of fifths or arpeggiated chord figures to be lacking in musical interest, this approach valuable in teaching students the tonality of a given key signature. It provides a means to begin explaining music theory to students. While shorter than most, these etudes are not easy! Intervals of an octave or more and an overall range of two octaves or greater are not uncommon. Neither is the book arranged from least difficult to most difficult. Even the studies in simpler keys make use of a two-octave range and often require managing sequential intervals of at least an octave. A table of contents is included to assist the instructor in making assignments or the student to track his/her progress--and to ensure no key signature is omitted! In general, the first etude of each new key signature is usually the easiest in terms of overall range, technical difficulty, time signature, etc. I sincerely hope that this new volume is of use to you in your individual practice and within your low brass studio. This edition corrects some of the note and rhythm errors from earlier editions. Additionally, articulations have been included for greater consistency within a given etude or to suggest a more stylistic way of performing it. Check out a selection of samples to the left, then grab an immediate PDF download above.
Complete Mancini Collection
Albert Mancini is responsible for some of the most utilized trumpet books in the HISTORY of our instrument. His Symphonic Quartets alone can be found in every serious trumpet studio in the world, and when you add in his study and technique books, you end up with a catalogue that rivals that of any other author in the trumpet canon. For the first time ever we are offering all of his books as part of one massive bundle. You get all 6 of his publications for 40% off, but you better hurry, this bundle won't last at this price for long. Below you see the full price with links, to the left you can see all the covers, and you can grab the full digital bundle at the link above.
- Mancini, Symphonic Quartets for Four Trumpets
- Mancini, Rhythm in Technique
- Mancini, Lip Breath and Sound Technique
- Mancini, Daily Studies
- Mancini, Divertissements for Trumpet
- Mancini, Highlights in Concertos
Trumpet Warm-Up Series (4 Books)
This four-book set of warm-ups by Harold Branch is the most no-nonsense, fundamentals-based approach to a daily warm-ups for the trumpet that I have ever seen. What I love about this set of books is that it is not just a warm-up for you chops (which it is), and not just a warm-up for your fingers (which it is, too), but it is also a warm up for your mind as it takes you though all tonalities in the Major and Minor keys, followed by Diatonic Chords & Inversions, followed by Chromatic Chords & Inversions. After all, what is the point of warming up your lips if you haven't also warmed up your mind? To the left I have dropped the first few pages of each 4 books so you can see what they look like. Give them a try, then grab the full 4 book set at a 45% discount over the individual volumes at the link above. Enjoy!
Veldkamp Play-Along Bundle No.3
Erik Veldkamp’s Play-Alongs are a true innovation in music pedagogy. Each title comes with an original book, high-quality backing tracks, and performance from Erik (an alumni of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and The Royal Concertgebouw) himself. From the comfort of your own home, not only can you play along with professional backing tracks, but you also get to listen to Erik’s incredible demos for each track. These are some of his most popular books, and some of the most popular books we have on the store - period. This collection focuses on jazz and contemporary music, everything from straight-ahead swing to dubstep! This bundle has everything you need to woodshed your improvisation and take your playing into the 21st century. Don’t miss out, we can’t offer stuff like this for 60% off too often! Click through the samples to the left, read through the write-ups provided below, and then click above for immediate PDF downloads of the entire bundle. Books included in this bundle:
- Veldkamp, 1,2,3 Blues (A 3-Book Course)
- Veldkamp, It Don’t Mean a Thing (20 Swinging Play-Alongs)
- Veldkamp, Daily Beats (A 1-Month Tour of Play-Alongs)
- Veldkamp, A Swingin' Christmas
- Veldkamp, Improvisation Big Book
- Veldkamp, Playbook for Improvisation
- Veldkamp, Patterns for Improvisation
