Arban's

Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet


For any serious aspiring trumpet player the Arban's book is essential for your library. Some call it the bible for trumpet players because it has everything you need to be a successful trumpet player (well almost...) I find that in my own practicing I keep coming back to many of the exercises. Since I'm primarily a classical trumpet player I spend a lot of time on p. 28-31 for working on getting a clean orchestral sounding articulation. This section can be practiced with varied dynamics and in different keys and on both b flat and c trumpets. Also I know Michael Sachs' book, Daily Fundamentals has a few of these exercises transcribed down the octave. All good stuff.

Once you get familiar with the book, I occasionally have practice sessions (usually when I have less strenuous performing weeks) where I'll try to hit a few exercises in each main section of the book, such as lip slurs, various articulation exercises, some arpeggio exercises and maybe a characteristic study. My teacher, Ray Mase, would refer to this as maintenance sessions. In other words, you want to make sure you can still do what you could do yesterday on the horn. When I'm practicing with this in mind, I won't spend too much time in any given section.

When I have these kinds of practice sessions, the key is to rest often and try to keep the session from 30 to 45 minutes. Sometimes I'll put on an egg timer or stopwatch. Rest is so important to productive practice habits. This is often overlooked with younger players. I also really like some of the songs in the back of Arban's for working on phrasing and musicality. L'Elisir d'Amore
is a great tune! Of course it's not like the real opera, but I like to think of these studies, more the way cornet soloists would play them and less like a powerhouse opera singer.