How to Play the B Major Scale On Trumpet

Practicing and learning scales are two of the most important elements to learning to play the trumpet well. Practice is vital to retaining fingering and tonguing techniques and learning scales allows you to understand everything else that is being played around you.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Warm up your lip muscles before playing the scale. The B Major scale and other scales go from the lowest note in the scale to the highest so it's important that your lip and mouth muscles be properly warmed up and ready to go before beginning to play the scale. Blow into your mouthpiece and practice your buzzing before beginning to play.
2. Start with the lowest note of the scale. In the case of the B Major scale, the lowest note is a C so start with the low C and play notes in succession all the way up to the high C. Starting in the middle of the scale can confuse you and won't allow you to familiarize yourself with the sequential order of notes and fingerings.
3. Play each note for the same amount of time. Play the scale through slowly the first time, devoting about a second or a second and a half to each note of the scale. This allows you to become familiar with the tone of each note and to adjust mouth positioning to correct your pitch if necessary.
4. Proceed down the scale at the same rate of speed. Play the high note at the top of the scale for a double measure and then play the scale back down to the bottom note of the scale. This pattern will make the sequence of the notes in the scale familiar to you so that eventually playing the scales in sequence will come naturally to you.
5. Practice scales at varying rates of speed. After playing the B Major scale slowly the first time, increase the rate of speed at which you play the scale each time you play it. This increases your finger dexterity and continue to perfect your tone as you play.
6. Maintain even breathing while playing the scale. Make sure that you play each note for the same amount of time going up and down the scale, which makes practicing the scales a breathing exercise in addition to a fingering and playing exercise. When you're playing a full-length piece of music, you're in control of your breathing no matter how fast or slow you are required to play.