Clarinblasen is a German word meaning, literally, “clear blowing”. By Clarinblasen we mean: The art of sounding a brass instrument from the eighth partial and upward – to the 32nd partial and beyond! Clarinblasen was a technique necessitated by the lack of valves.

The 20th century Clarinblasen player utilizes the modern, (four-foot) B-flat trumpet. This lead player, or jazz/commercial artist, playing in the 6th through 16th partials, has nurtured and developed his Clarinblasen skills as a way of life – expectation plays an important role. Since necessity is the mother of invention, the jazz/commercial player quickly becomes adept at figuring out how to play all-night-long. It is a matter of survival – and he doesn’t use a “capo” trumpet. How did we arrive at this convoluted state, where symphonic trumpeters use a two-foot instrument to perform music written for eight-foot instruments, while jazz artists use a four-foot instrument to play music which lies within the Clarinblasen octave? As you might guess, dear reader, this brings us to the crux of the matter which is the focus of this publication.

I have composed twenty-five etudes for the expressed purpose of highlighting the inherent difficulty of performing on the long trumpet. With the exception of Etude 25, all tones in the following exercises and etudes, I would like to stress, are available on the natural trumpet. Hand-stopping is certainly a viable means of altering pitch (only if you are able to reach the bell, obviously). Nonetheless, I urge you to work diligently at “bending” the pitch by means of the chops, for if you are correctly “buzzing” the well- tempered pitch, you can resist, to some degree, the “natural” (pun intended) tendencies of the instrument.

And finally, even if you never attempt a performance on the Natural Trumpet, I believe that you may greatly benefit from your attempts to tame the historical beast. Perhaps you will sense a greater ease of “picking out the partials” on your long B-flat trumpet, after experiencing the relatively close partials of the Natural Trumpet.

Check out some samples to the left, then grab an immediate PDF download above.