How to Play Trumpet Riffs

Trumpet riffs are featured in numerous popular songs.

The trumpet is a member of the brass family and is popular in many musical genres. You can hear the trumpet in songs every day on the radio. If you can play the trumpet reasonably well, you can learn to play along with these songs. With a little patience, you will be able to perform riffs, which are short horn passages in a song. One common method for learning riffs is repeated listening.

Things You'll Need

• Trumpet
• Recording of song

Instructions

1. Locate a recording of the song that has a riff you want to learn. It needs to be easy to rewind so you can listen to the riff repeatedly.

2. Listen to the riff a number of times until you know it by heart.

3. Sing the riff, and then immediately play it back on your trumpet until you can match each note.

4. Play the riff with the recording after you have transcribed it. This ensures you are matching the style of the original player on the recording.

Tips & Warnings

• Learning by ear can be time consuming at first, but the more you do it, the easier it will become.

• If you are using headphones, keep the volume at a safe level to avoid hearing loss.

References

• Jeff Helgeson's Jazz Trumpet Page: Effective Jazz Solo Transcription