Learning to Play the Trumpet

Herbert L. Clarke was born in 1867 and is known as one of the best and most influential cornet players of his time. He started playing when he was thirteen and was largely self-taught.

When he was fourteen he desperately wanted his own cornet but couldn't afford to buy one. Whenever he wanted to practice he had to ask permission from his older brother to use his. He started doing all sorts of odd jobs to earn the money, including playing in bands. But he realized that even with all his efforts he wouldn't be able to buy one for several years.

His older brothers had been members of the Queen's Own Rifle Regimental Band and he knew he would be given a cornet if accepted to join the band. So he plotted, and succeeded in becoming a soldier at the age of fourteen in order to join the band and get his own instrument.

I'm using Herbert L. Clarke's Elementary Studies For the Trumpet. This book provides excellent exercises for building up the embouchure. The embouchure is the formation of the lips covered by the trumpet mouthpiece. The trumpet is like a megaphone that amplifies the vibration created in the lips when the player blows. The note sounded and quality of the tone depends on the air flow and the tension in the muscles around the lips.Herbert L. Clarke encouraged his students to play softly when they practiced so that they would build a strong embouchure without damaging the lips; he said that the more softly one plays the stronger the embouchure becomes. And by playing softly the lips don't become numb and damaged as can so often happen if playing forcefully. He also said that it was imperative to rest a few moments as soon as the lips become fatigued, even if this happened right at the beginning of a practice session.

There is a very sweet story about how he helped a new and young member, Frank Simon, of the Sousa band. Frank Simon tells how Herbert Clarke took care of him at the end of his third week with the Sousa band. His lips were swollen and he even had a callous on the inside of his lip. He was in tears over his failure and Sousa's apparent lack of sympathy for his plight. Clarke taught him how to play with very little pressure on the lip, and how to strengthen the muscles in the lip to strengthen the embouchure so that he could play for long periods. Later when Clarke retired, Simon took over Clarke's chair and responsibilities in the band.