My lovely 9 year old daughter has recently started learning the trumpet. Two lessons so far, through the local music service and held at school. I went to the first lesson to meet the teacher and to have a general nosey.

Anyway, today I was reading this http://www.abrsm.org/en/newsArticles/item.html?nid=838 which I picked up from my twitter feed. I was interested to see that under the paragraph "is this a G?" that it can take longer for brass players to progress initially than, say, someone learning the flute.

I have absolutely no idea about brass playing - I've piano, strings and woodwind experience but not brass. Is this really the case that it can up to six months to learn consistent notes up to a fifth in tone? I'd not be surprised if so, as over the last two weeks it has sounded like someone has left an elephant in the room and it is very distressed!

At the moment, every sound coming from the trumpet sounds on the same pitch, even when using the valves. I haven't managed to speak to the teacher since the first lesson but my daughter assures me she's playing Hot Cross Buns. Not entirely convinced myself but she is very enthusiastic about it.

Can someone give a few hints to help me help her practise effectively, without stepping on the toes of her teacher!

Is your child having group or one to one lessons?

At the moment one to one for 20 minutes, but there is a slighter more experienced trombone player beginning soon, or so I'm told.

I suspect that like other instruments there can be considerable variation in how long it takes to 'get it'.
For wind and brass it can take tine to sort out the mechanics of getting a reliable sound or it can happen quite quickly.
When I decided to play cornet at school age 14 I took one home at lunch time and could get the notes of a one octave C major scale by the time I returned to school.

Yes! Look at it this way: some Grade 1 pieces have a range of only a sixth, from C up to A, and the entire span of the Grade 1 scales is a tenth.

Make sure she's doing all the exercises and warm-ups she's being taught, rather than jumping straight into pieces - these are likely to involve things such as buzzing the mouthpiece by itself, playing single long notes, etc.

I don't think you can generalise really, as it all depends on the individual child. My son has played the trumpet since age about 8 and he learned about 3 notes in the first couple of weeks. Only quite slowly was the range expanded, and it would take him several weeks to reliably add another note at the top of his range. I have known young woodwind players take a term to manage 5 notes.

I wouldn't be too concerned at this stage - the important thing is that your daughter is enjoying playing and getting her trumpet out and having a go at home. Even if she can't make different pitches yet, she will be practising blowing, building some stamina and so on, so go with it!

I lstarted learning tenor horn at 13 and it definitely took me weeks to be able to play 5 notes!

Yes we are doing the warm-ups etc and also working on breathing support - as a flute teacher I'm assuming the mechanics of providing support from the diaphragm is the same for brass playing so we are doing blowing long notes and buzzing through the mouth piece along with tonguing exercises.



She is enjoying playing which is lovely. Neither of my children had an early enthusiasm for learning to play an instrument and I've never pushed them to do so. My older son had a brief time of keyboard learning when he was 8 or 9 but then went off the boil. However once he hit secondary school he really got enthusiastic about the guitar and now he's rarely off the instrument - no problems practising for him now!

I'm just really hoping that the early difficult stages of getting recognisable sounds from the instrument won't put her off. There is no pressure from me at all. I'd much rather she played because she enjoyed it rather than because it is something she "should" do.

In my experience, the first octave should take about a year if it is to be attained in the correct and balanced way. I have taken over pupils in the past who have been rushed on in the early stages and as a result struggle with range, stamina and excessive mouthpiece pressure later on.