Trumpet

[Crimson]

So, im into music.
11 years of Violin, 5 of piano, 5 of guitar (piano and guitar self taught with like 3 lessons) and an assortment of odd things like drums, harmonica, and i've been in musicals and sung for my whole life. (which, by the way, i have gotten more action out of then moutain biking or any other competitive sport i've been involved in.)

I wanna learn the trumpet, and tenor sax, and I have one, but don't really know where to begin. Im leaning twoart like 3 lessons and then on my own, but any advice would be great. BTW, which instrument is the best to get the ladies?

[edtost]

get a few lessons, practice a lot of scales/arpeggios/etudes/etc. there's a standard book of that type of stuff thats really thick (like > 2" iirc) .... haven't picked mine up since high school, so i don't remember the name of it.

practice is much more important than lessons once you get the fundamentals down, especially if you already know other instruments.

[turnipmonster]

with sax and guitar and piano you can get away with missing a day or two of practice and it's not a huge deal. no such luck with trumpet, if you want to maintain your chops you literally need to practice every day. playing a brass instrument is very physically challenging, this is not as true of other instruments.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
with sax and guitar and piano you can get away with missing a day or two of practice and it's not a huge deal. no such luck with trumpet, if you want to maintain your chops you literally need to practice every day. playing a brass instrument is very physically challenging, this is not as true of other instruments.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very true. Sax does require you to practice almost every day as well, but not to the same degree as trumpet. With trumpet you need to strengthen your mouth muscles (big steve knows what I'm talking about) to hit high notes and be able to play longer than 30 mins, but sax you need to build up a kind of calous (sp?) on the inside of your bottom lip. Otherwise you'll literally play until you start bleeding.

-SmileyEH

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
with sax and guitar and piano you can get away with missing a day or two of practice and it's not a huge deal. no such luck with trumpet, if you want to maintain your chops you literally need to practice every day. playing a brass instrument is very physically challenging, this is not as true of other instruments.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very true. Also, both of these instruments are quite a bit harder to self-teach than guitar or piano. If you're going to play them you should take some lessons and try to get in a group with someone else who knows brass/reeds.

In general you will get chops faster on sax, but I think the trumpet is a cooler instrument. I tried to teach myself alto sax but I can't do it, I'm going to have to get lessons. But voice lessons are first so that will have to wait. (BTW I'm also entirely self taught).

NT

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

guitar is so not sexy.

[12ozLongneck]

[ QUOTE ]
get a few lessons, practice a lot of scales/arpeggios/etudes/etc. there's a standard book of that type of stuff thats really thick (like > 2" iirc) .... haven't picked mine up since high school, so i don't remember the name of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Arban's. This is a must have if you are going to play trumpet.

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
guitar is so not sexy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bass. Bitches dig the bass.

Also, I just wanted to say that playing an instrument solely because you think it will get you laid is super lame. No wonder the most ass you've ever gotten was from being in musicals.

NT

[turnipmonster]

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BTW, which instrument is the best to get the ladies?

[/ QUOTE ]

tenor sax.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
BTW, which instrument is the best to get the ladies?

[/ QUOTE ]

tenor sax.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I did alto in h.s. Still pimp, but not up to the tenor.

-SmileyEH

[Crimson]

That is most definantly not the only reason i wanna learn another isntrument, its just an added bonus. Chicks in musicals are used to gay guys, they find out your straight, they are all over that.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

OK, normally I'd go with guitar on this, but I have it from a good source that a sax is a mighty sexy instrument, particularly when both the tenor and bass are played by the same musician at the same time. Dana Colley (of Morphine fame) can do that, and apparently, dexterity and breath control are two things some women find appealing in men. Who knew?