Release Review: How to Play High Notes with Chris Coletti

Dear trumpeters,

We were very happy to release Chris Coletti's How to Play High Notes course last month, and even more excited to see it become one of our most viewed lessons on the site. We’d love to hear your thoughts on it! 

 Click here to get to the lesson: https://app.tonebase.co/trumpet/home?tbModal=courseModal&tbModalSlug=tpt-chris-coletti-how-to-play-high-notes-the-physics-of-range

  • What did you enjoy most about the course?
  • Is there anything we could improve, whether in content or the recording?
  • Were there any aspects or topics you felt were missing?

Your feedback is invaluable to us as we strive to make each course better than the last. 

If you enjoyed this release, I'm excited to say there is still more from Chris on the way from that production. Stay tuned! 

Thank you for being part of our community and for helping us grow. We can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Best,
Ethan 

(Photo credit Daniel Kurganov)

9 replies

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    • Dave_Boa
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    Thank you Chris for this presentation. It was very interesting. Lots of great information. However (sorry!), I was interested about his idea that you shouldn’t be using your intercostal muscles to create compression to play in the upper register. Practically every great lead trumpeter says you need to create at least some compression from your intercostals when playing in the upper register. NB Bobby Shew’s ‘wedge breath’, Maynard’s ‘yoga breath’, etc…

    I’d be interested to hear his thoughts on this and whether Bobby, Maynard, Roger, Cat, Bill, Bud…etc, could play like they playe(d) without using their intercostals? 
    I did like what he said but have trouble with this one aspect. 
    Great work though!! Keep it up! Really enjoying tonebase. 
    Dave x

      • Ronald_Carson
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       I don't think Chris was addressing the extreme upper range used by lead trumpet players. Maybe my perception is incorrect. Chris plays mostly classical, especially baroque music.

    • Ronald_Carson
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    Well done! It helped to explain several confusing aspects. I believe the actual exercises to expand range are described elsewhere.

    This training A+!

    • Steve_Brecker
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    I thought that Chris provided a good technical explanation of what is physically happening with the embouchure muscles the aperture the air etc. and what these parts of the puzzle should be doing which is somewhat helpful if you're looking for an intellectual understanding of the moving parts. But to me it felt sort of academic.

     

    I  think his presentation would have been more helpful to me if it was structured and presented more like what you did on how to practice and improve the lip trill by the sharing of specific exercises to do and demonstrating how they should be done.

     

    My 2 cents.

     

    Steve

      • Trumpet Lead
      • Ethan
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Steve! Yes that's a nice idea. There's certainly a lot to do here in that regard. 

    • Alphorn Player, Course Instructor and Teacher
    • Christian_Gnos
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view
    • Fundamentally, I find this to be an exciting topic. I also appreciate that we can discuss it here in the forum.
    • Regarding recording techniques, I like the visual implementation in this video and generally on Tonebase: Beautiful locations, colors and bokeh.
    • I find the sound too reverberant. This reduces the intelligibility of the text.
    • Debunking the myths: air speed (7:10): I doubt whether only the air speed was changed in the demonstration and not also the air volume and aperture size.
    • Open question for me: Are there specific exercises to gain better control over the aperture size?

    You guys at Tonebase are doing a great job! Thank you!
    Christian

      • Trumpet Lead
      • Ethan
      • 2 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Christian! Yes the space was very wet, unfortunately, so this does at times make it harder to hear. We'll likely not shoot there again, despite how aesthetic it is :) As for your 7:10 question, I'm sure you're a bit right too. It's impossible to really know. But I'm sure you get his point! 

       

      Regarding exercises to gain better control over aperture size, the simplest is the use of straws! See Kayla Solomon's "Your First Lesson" around 8:30 in the video. 

      Ben Gunnarson's description of the Playing Mechanism is excellent. 

      Ryan Darke's Troubleshooting Common Problems covers aperture from many different angles, as well. 

      Once you have a deeper understanding of what's going on, then I'd check out Charlie Porter's Aperture lesson, which is a bit more advanced. 

    • Trumpet Lead
    • Ethan
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks everyone for their thoughtful responses to this thread! 

    • agudomorenomanuel
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Para los hispanohablantes es complicado de entender los videos sin una traducción, creo que es un buen material, pero se necesita dar oportunidad a todos. Los que no hablamos Inglés por desgracia nos resulta complejo a la hora de traducir, se necesita mucho tiempo de visionado de video para localizar las palabras. Sería de gran ayuda traducción al Español y otros idiomas, dicha comunidad llegaría a más sitios y más trompetistas. Creo que Tonebase  ofrece al trompetista muchísimas herramientas para el aprendizaje, pero carece de comunicación. Aún así, gran material. 

     

    Saludos desde España.

Content aside

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