Q&A for How to Play the Trumpet

Locate the spit valve release lever or button at the end of your trumpet. Hold it down and give a strong blow through the mouthpiece, and it should come right out.

Usually, if your notes are flat, you have to adjust the trumpet's main slide. Use a tuner and adjust the slide until your note is no longer flat.

Keep your tongue pushed against the bottom of your mouth. The tip of your tongue should be touching the back of your bottom teeth. Make a buzzing noise.

Do you mean slurring? Simply move fingers/chops without tonguing. You shouldn't be breathing after every note anyway.

Although the sound are different, it's still the same note, so if you both play the same note at the same time and its different it might be cause one of you is too sharp, too flat. or need to open up your teeth.

You should tighten them more. Imagine drinking a cup of raw lemon juice. The face you make is the face you should be playing with. Now place the trumpet to your lips and push air through.

Yes. Blowing from the center of your mouth allows you to tighten your lips properly so you can play higher notes.

I've been playing the guitar and piano on and off for years, with no confusion (at this stage, anyway) over fingering. I would go by rote (natural memory) -- which means just keep practicing your instruments. It'll become second nature after awhile. Everything in time.

Keep you tongue down low in you mouth, touching the back of your lower front teeth, while the back of your tongue is up near the middle of your mouth. This directs your air straight into the mouthpiece.

Not really. It may be harder to play at first, but it doesn't matter how big or small your lips are.

Yes, as there are only 3 valves. On other instruments, such as flutes or clarinets, there are more keys, so each note has a higher chance of being a different fingering.

You don't. Instrument playing is done for enjoyment. If you don't want to play the trumpet, don't.

No. Tubas are very different from trumpets. Tubas are larger and produce a much deeper, resonating sound. Trumpets produce a higher, almost sharp sound. In terms of playing the instruments though, the style is very similar.

Probably, the real thing that makes the sound is your air stream and buzzing.

It is a matter of training your ear. This usually comes with practice, and knowing which notes tend to run sharp or flat.

Not every solution works for everyone. Make sure you aren't puffing out your cheeks, and tighten up your embouchure, that should help.

Too much pressure. You are likely jamming the horn into your face to hit high notes. Instead, use more air support, diaphragm, and lower lip. Back off with your right arm. And if possible, seek embouchure advice from a professional trumpet player and take lessons.

Tighten your embouchure (lips) and try to focus the air through tone point. You want to avoid moving the instrument closer to you

Pushing valves down shouldn't be a problem if you are holding your trumpet correctly. Your fingers should always go above the valves, and your fingertips should be pushing them down quickly; the slower you push them down, the slower they will rise back up (as there are springs in there). If your valves still won't move, then it is possible that they are dirty, so I would recommend cleaning your trumpet valves.

You need a lot of breath to play a good strong note on a trumpet. Some sheet music has apostrophes or ticks to show when to breathe; it is important to breathe in when you see one of them. You sometimes get breath marks in brackets, too; those are optional points to breathe. If you don't have any in your music, write some in wherever seems suitable, breathing in the rests is recommended.

You would press your middle finger down on the middle valve, and press your ring finger down on the valve farthest away from you. Buzz your lips into the trumpet, and you should get an E note out of your trumpet.

Only three answers have received more thumbs down than thumbs up, which is a minority. People probably simply didn't find those answers helpful, either because they were hard to understand or because they didn't really address their concern.

It's mostly muscle memory. I hadn't played since I was a teenager, and I still remembered the basic scale from C to C. You just need to practice often, and be sure to practice slowly. By that I mean hit each note and make sure it's got a good, clear tone. Then go to the next, same thing. Don't try to rush through the scale. Hit each note cleanly and go both up and back down the scale. Work on your scale. Memorize what each note in the scale is. Once your embouchure improves enough that you have no trouble hitting all the notes cleanly on the first breath, alternate and start doing thirds (e.g., from C to E, from D to F) and make those clean.

It takes a lot of practice to develop this technique. Keep at it, you'll catch on.

Trumpets are tuned to B-flat, so all of their notes will be a full step down from C-tuned instruments. All trumpet music is pre-transposed, so while a trumpeter plays an " F, he or she is really playing a concert G. Your best bet is to transpose your music a whole tone up.

It could be because your lips are either too loose or too tight. Try adjusting the tightness until you think it sounds right.

Check out the helpful tips in this article about how to develop embouchure on the trumpet on wikiHow.

Having a clear idea of what you are expecting the note to sound like helps. Make sure your lips are in the correct position and remember to blow your note out. It can sometimes be tempting, especially with higher notes, to squeeze the note out with your lips, or spit it out, but this won't create an even tone. It could also be sounding like that if you are playing a bit too loud or soft.

Pour water in the bell and press the valves several times. After that, empty the water from it and play. If it doesn't work then you have to take your trumpet in for repairs.

The most likely cause for this is that your valves are misaligned. You can take out each valve individually and make sure it is put in correctly so that the holes align with the holes properly. There will likely be a small incision on your instrument where the valves are put in, with a small part of the valve sticking out to fit in that small incision to show it's in the right way around. If it still isn't working and you are certain the vales are in correctly, or you don't know how to fix the valves, take your instrument to your instructor, if you have one, or an instrument shop.