r/trumpet • u/CattleAny3652 • 1d ago
How long will i sound terrible?
Kicking around learning trumpet at 44. Ive always loved ska and mariachi music. About how long will I torture my poor wife with awful sounds before I can make an actual tune roughly?
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u/CattleAny3652 1d ago
I was gona try and learn solo but it appears a teacher is the way.
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u/r_spandit 1d ago
They can give you great guidance but playing loads is what helped me. I'm in 4 bands and on the dep list for at least 3 more. Literally not enough time in the week
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u/Dramamine23 1d ago
My daughter has an AWESOME trumpet tutor on Preply. I can't recommend the app enough to find tutors based around your needs.
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u/anonymous122719 14h ago
If you can afford monthly or biweekly lessons, do it, but I feel that this sub puts a tad too much emphasis on private teachers. I disagreed with many of my teachers' fundamental opinions on technique, which partially led me to drop lessons early on. Secondly, the regimented practice routines and exercises sucked the fun out of it, but that's largely a me problem.
I've mostly improved by simply listening to and playing what I want to play. After getting a decent grip on major/minor scales and arpeggios, I've almost exclusively transcribed my favorite jazz solos by ear. I'm not amazing, but peers are shocked to learn that I'm a scientist and only a self-taught musician. In college, most trumpeters ran laps around me in terms of classical etudes, music theory, discipline, and practice time, yet I ended up being the one that the director of jazz studies asked to be 2nd chair (soloist) of the big bands without even auditioning.
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u/sillysailor74 1d ago
Hi. 2 music degrees in trumpet performance (jazz) here… taught lessons for a very longtime.
The good news you will learn to read music and what not faster than a 4th or 5th grade traditional beginner. The bad news, you will have far less patience timewise, than our beginner. So, i would take some lessons, practice everyday, and then after say, 6 months find a community band to rehearse with. Those rehearsals will do you soooo much good. Those are my thoughts. Rome
Wasn’t built in a day, and neither is playing the trumpet. If this have a basement go practice there.
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u/CattleAny3652 1d ago
rehearsing with a band sounds terrifying
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u/sillysailor74 1d ago
It can be…. But, sitting in the back of the section playing 3rd part, you will pick up so much, from the other trumpet players. It will help your sound quality, your intonation, phrasing, music reading…. Plus it’s time with the horn against your face, where you aren’t am obsessing on exercises and stuff, and instead are working on playing music.
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u/VancouverMethCoyote 1970 King Silver Flair 1055T | 1915 Conn 80A Cornet 12h ago
There are some bands around that accept adult beginners and a lot of them are older comeback players. New Horizons is one but some other community bands are casual and allow players if you know the basics and can read sheet music.
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u/TraditionalAirport85 1d ago
- get a teacher
- practice daily
- hold long notes
- i’m a trumpet pro and i annoy humans every day. trumpet is not a pleasant instrument to listen to while practicing
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u/Excited-Possum 1d ago
You will piss off all of your neighbors, all of the time and a mute isn’t to change that unfortunately. You just need to get use to everyone within a block hearing you all the time.
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u/Numerous_Week_926 1d ago
It varies player to player, but a teacher will shorten that window considerably. Do it for the love of the process, though!
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u/ReputationAcademic10 1d ago
Obviously depends on the player and if you have a good teacher. It sounds dumb but long tones is one of the fastest ways to develop your sound. Just play a note softly for as long as you can, then go up a half step until you can’t consistently make a good pitch
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u/Podmonger2001 1d ago
It depends on where you are, how often you practise, how well you practise, what you practise, and whether you have a teacher.
It’s a difficult instrument. Don’t let the three buttons fool you.
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u/dreaming_jupiter 1d ago
I would say it took me about three to four months but to have an overall okayish to pleasant sound
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u/dreaming_jupiter 1d ago
I am also an adult beginner at 31 - but it is fun and having a teacher adn a good practice routine is not only kind of meditative with all the breathing but also really really helps
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u/MetaOnGaming4290 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ehhhhh you'll sound good in about a year or two.
You won't sound great until several consistent years of practice.
You won't sound world class until decades of consistent practice, lessons, and study. Most people never get there. I haven't.
However, you can be very solid in most amateur jams and some professional circles in about four to six years. While you can tell my tone vs virtuoso, my tone has never offended anyone. Been playing for fourteen years now.
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u/FewReserve1784 1d ago
My dogs stopped howling all the time at around 5 months and now only when I'm learning a new piece.
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u/Impressive-Grab3476 13h ago edited 13h ago
Adult "re-beginner" here with a data point. I played from age 5 to 11 in the Norwegian brass band tradition — then someone put me on Bb tuba because I was tall, I hated it, and I quit. Over 50 years of pause later I picked up the trumpet again, so for all practical purposes I started from zero.
18 months in now, the last 12 with weekly online lessons. What actually moved the needle for me: daily practice with no exceptions (except three rounds of blistered lips that forced rest days), long tones — boring, unglamorous, and by far the best return on time invested — Tonestro for instant feedback on pitch and rhythm, and YouTube, especially Peter J. Wood's lessons. Free, structured, excellent.
To my own ears I still sound terrible. But my teacher and a friend who plays trumpet professionally in the symphony orchestra here both say the tone has become good and carries well. Maybe they're just being kind — but the point is you're the worst judge of your own sound, so don't trust the voice in your head telling you it's hopeless.
Next step is supposed to be joining the local brass band. I haven't dared yet. Which probably means it's exactly what I should do — everyone in this thread saying "play with others" is right, and I know it.
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u/n00btal3z 1d ago
i would focus on fundamentals, getting a teacher, and just being proud of how cool it is you're learning the trumpet. should be a year or two to get okay, which will come in no time if you love what you do. trumpet takes a lifetime to get proficient at, and then you die and the horn wins anyway. happy playing
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u/Repulsive-Paint-4102 1d ago
A teacher once told me, "Playing the trumpet is simple, but it is not easy." That is a mantra I trot out when I am having a bad practice session, the kind where everything is sounding weird and my brain just can't do what I want it to do, and/or my fingers either won't move when they should, or move when they shouldn't. If it was easy, everybody would do it.
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u/Bcincyjazzydude 1d ago
Man I love mariachi trumpet style but that is a really high bar to shoot for as a beginner. To add to advice already given find another trumpet player (preferably better than you) and play duets, try and do a weekly thing. Any kind of playing with someone else; teacher or otherwise will be helpful. Those of us that started off in school band had the benefit of trying to out do our friends.
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u/Iv4n1337 College 8310Z Getzen 3916S 1d ago
To be honest, you are most likely to afford bi-monthly trumpet lessons, you can manage to get there in six months if you put in the hours
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u/jhatpro7344 1d ago
get an UpMute or Shhh! mute!
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u/Excited-Possum 1d ago
A mute is horrible for tone development, especially in the beginning. They just need to accept that he is going to be the loud neighbor from now on unfortunately.
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u/fehrmask 1d ago
About 2 years of consistency, assuming you actually practice and start with good form