My range is expanding! Since the last time I posted about trumpet ~4 months ago, I can now play comfortably through F5. G5 is also pretty comfortable, but not quite at the level that I’d say I’ve nailed it.

I can even (with effort and bad form) squeak out an A5 and an occasional Bb5.

I think I owe a lot of the progress to:

1. taking a few multi-day breaks to let my chops rest
2. getting out of the mindset of being afraid to attempt extending my range without “perfect form”
3. Trumpet Heroes Warm-ups

#2 might have been the biggest hurdle to clear. I feel like there’s contention between advice about not practicing improper form (because you’re just cementing bad technique) and the fact that developing proper form is really hard on trumpet. There aren’t a lot of isolated exercises you can do to practice one part of trumpet form and feel confident in it without the rest of the form. In that way, the best exercises are really just long tones and slurring, i.e. playing! Of course, there are ways to practice sub-optimally, but it was a real shift to focus more on consistent practice and listening to my own sound (even when it sounded bad) and de-emphasizing some hypothetical, perfect form.

I’m feeling uncharacteristically optimistic about trumpet. I always like playing, but I usually feel pretty bad about my skill. These days, I have the funny idea that one day I might actually be “good.”

Wish me luck!