A trumpet cannot make the upper register easier

Do you know how many times I have heard people tell me that the design of a trumpet cannot improve the upper register? Take a guess. Ten times? A hundred times? I've heard this thousands of times. 

This past weekend, I spent several hours working with a prominent Colorado trumpet performing artist. He is a retired Army musician who has performed with all of the Army's top ensembles including the Field Band, Army Blues, and Pershing's Own. Needless to say, he is a great musician and knows his way around the trumpet in every key. I'll leave his name out of this blog entry to focus on the topic at hand. 

He had borrowed a Harrelson trumpet from a mutual friend and discovered that he really liked what he was feeling and hearing. But he had some concerns and called me to discuss his experiences to see where it could go. Upon hearing his first few notes, it was apparent that there was an impedance mismatch. He sounded great, but I suspected he could sound much better with a few simple adjustments. 

I asked him how the trumpet felt in terms of air flow and he let me know that it felt too tight. Too tight in the upper register or in all registers? He confirmed it was too tight everywhere. I removed the receiver on the Harrelson Bravura trumpet he was borrowing from our mutual friend and exchanged the VGR insert with an insert measuring two sizes larger. Then he played again and immediately noticed it felt like a completely different trumpet. After 10 seconds of scales, his eyes widened and he explained that everything felt much better. 

This was the beginning of a 30-minute journey exploring various inserts to find the best impedance match to his oral cavity and the internal geometry of his personal mouthpiece to feel the most comfortable in all registers. In that short period of time, we found an insert that made his upper register easier than ever. And another insert that gave him the confidence and security to play better in all registers.

Then we compared this setup to his trusted axe, a Bach 37 that he had played for decades. All three of us could clearly hear the difference. While his Bach is a nice trumpet and he is a great musician, the results were night and day obvious. The Bravura that had been impedance matched to his preferences gave him clean, solid, confident results in all registers. What sounded easy on the Bravura was clearly much more difficult on the Bach. 

Now I have endured a lot of criticism over the past 30+ years for statements like the one above. Comparing my [insert model] trumpet with a [insert model] factory-built trumpet is a very controversial subject. Why? Because trumpet players often believe that trumpet builders are not a part of this kind of conversation. I say this is ridiculous. If I cannot be integral to the comparison conversation, then why would you ever seek out my expertise and pay me to help improve your performance?

Many liken this supposed conflict to some form of unfair capitalism. Well, let's be clear. I design and build trumpets for thousands of the best trumpet players in the world and thousands more who play for fun. And I do it for several reasons. I love working with trumpet players from all walks of life. I learn just as much as they do in the process of discovering what does and does not work for their individual goals. I enjoy solving problems as much as getting to know each and every person. And I enjoy being paid money. Yes, I said it. I do this for a living. This is how I pay myself, my team members, rent, expenses, and this how I invest in new technologies and processes that further my research and innovation. 

I will not apologize for inserting myself into the conversation of comparing what works and what does not work. Years ago, I published a comparison of mouthpiece gap results with various mouthpiece brands, including my own. I pointed out that none of our mouthpieces produced a physically acceptable gap range on every instrument. And in the following months, I pressed the industry to adopt a standard of measurement for mouthpiece shank taper and length to improve consistency and give the consumer (you) a better chance of finding what works for each performance situation. 

This was the first time I had received angry phone calls from other manufacturers. I was accused of attacking individuals and belittling their names and brands. This blog entry remains on my website here. You can read for yourself exactly what I explored and how I measured the results. In the end, every single manufacturer's mouthpiece exhibited the exact same problem, it produced an inconsistent amount of gap. And I included my own mouthpieces in the comparison which measured an unacceptable range from .060" to .118" in gap. All of these measurements were performed with the exact same trumpet receiver. And remember, this was published before I had finalized the Venturi Gap Receiver (VGR) solution. 

If I had been a trumpet player and not a trumpet/mouthpiece builder, it is unlikely I would have received so much negative feedback. And I do understand that most people do not want to make waves in our industry. But asking these kinds of questions is the only way we can shift the paradigm and move forward. This is exactly how my trumpet students discover major breakthrough events. By asking "why?" we discover opportunities that were always there, hidden in plain sight. I encourage every single person reading this to reexamine what you think you know and ask questions where you only see truth. 

I recall another time a simple post on Facebook lead to industry-wide outrage and resulted in an angry European manufacturer calling to tell me I had crossed the line. What did I post that led to many dismissing me forever? A photo of a one-year-old high-end custom trumpet sent to my shop for a VGR (adjustable gap receiver system) installation. The trumpet was brought to me by a customer who was experiencing serious slotting issues with this trumpet that was custom built for him. When I pulled the original receiver off of the leadpipe, I discovered that there was one small patch of solder holding it in place with an air gap between the receiver, a crudely made shim made of sheet metal, and the leadpipe. I posted this as a general FYI since I had seen this problem from multiple manufacturers for decades.

The shim technique is a cheap way to make parts kind of fit when they really shouldn't be soldered together in the first place. I argued that a high-end trumpet should be machined in such a way that the receiver and leadpipe fit each other properly. After all, this is the standard requirement on all solder joints in a brass instrument. And this requirement is widely accepted by all reputable manufacturers. It seems that since I was performing so many receiver replacements, I was the only person to have this problem come across my bench so very often. Ironically, taking short cuts to assemble this specific trumpet with a shim is what caused the original slotting problem with my customer who requested a VGR upgrade. 

The fallout from the above experience was interesting. I had hundreds of people say they would never do business with me again. And hundreds more who thanked me for being honest. At the end of the day, I would do it again only because I hold myself accountable to the exact same standards that I find so critical in the design and manufacture of high-end musical instruments. I'm a perfectionist in this part of my life, which has resulted in a lot of criticism within all tribes of the trumpet world. My goal is not to be liked by everyone, but to shed light on the shadows and raise the bar for everyone peddling what may or may not live up to the hype. 

Anyone can sell you what is temporarily believed to be a major improvement. Yet very few will build what you think you are buying. And most of you will never know the difference. And that difference is taking the time to do it right the first time. That difference is asking why something isn't right and spending years working with the best musicians to find the answers. That difference is INTEGRITY. That difference is doing what is right even if it means more time, more energy, less profit, and delays. Doing what is right is why I can sleep soundly at night. And this is also why I am not a millionaire, but rather a man on our journey to achieve great things with you rather than alone. 

Getting back to impedance matching, which seems to be the most controversial subject in the trumpet world, we need to get this right. Everything in this blog post is about impedance variables. The receiver with the cheap shim affects impedance. The mouthpiece shank survey that produced inconsistent gap results is about impedance. And the accomplished trumpet player who found the best VGR insert setting that made him feel like a better player? Impedance. 

An easier upper register does not happen by accident. You can practice smarter and get results. You can practice longer and get results. And what do you do when you've practiced smarter and longer and have landed on a plateau? You turn to the scientific process and experience a major breakthrough by way of adjusting the physical reality of your physics "experiment". This is how I have made my living for my entire career and I will not apologize for pushing forward in pursuit of making great music with less effort. 

Feel free to share your thoughts!

- Jason 

---