Old man trumpet player here. I found that playing octave jumps helps me maintain the same embouchure between high and low notes. Nothing worse than having to reposition your lips on the mouthpiece depending on range. I usually do short notes, starting from middle staff G to top of the staff G and ascending chromatically to what is comfortable.

As an 8th grade trumpet player who wants to make trumpet my career, I needed this.

Why am I here?! I play quads😭😭

Gigging Lead tpt here:

While I dont do much of the physical analysis, I think these ideas may be able to help you and others out.
As you said, the tone is always #1! Know what you want to sound like and try your best to imitate that sound. The music you listen to will mold you as a player. You're not going to sound like Maynard if you've never listened to him!
Relaxation is key. I find my range tighten as I tense up, and relaxed playing helps me maintain both a good sound, an even breath, and keep the energy going for longer.
Everything on the tpt is backward! If you want to improve your high register, practice your low register. Before going into Grad school, I couldn't play well below a C. I began practicing pedal tones (with proper technique!) and my upper register got more solidified as well as expanding some. Practice going from low register (chromatically) to high maintaining a good sound. As you're going up, think down. While going down, think up. Helps land on the high notes and encourages support as you go down.

Hope this helps!

I am 70 years old and played trumpet since age 10. Always keep a handle on your sound quality. Your logic and approach seem solid, but we must remember every trumpet players face is different.  Muscles, pallet, teeth, tongue and throat are all different. Taking your time with careful analysis is critical. As George Vosburgh says, if it sounds bad it is bad! If that sound goes down in quality, stop immediately and make a careful timely analysis. Don't rush, figure it out. Keep up the good work! 🎺💪

I’m not a trumpet player but I am an aspiring music teacher and I have to say this video is perfect. It’s weird to think that singing helps your playing but it’s so perfect for playing high on trumpet. I wish everyone knew this

Trombonist and Brass Teacher here. The main thing I would say about playing high is working at the extremes of the register. It's worth playing pedal tones and false tones along with high notes. The way to link this can be as simple as going down chromatically on long notes as low as you can go. Then do the same starting with a C (third space on the stave) moving chromatically upwards. Attempt the highest or lowest note three times before ending the exercise. Rest 15 minutes between both.

That's lesson 1 from a systematic approach to daily practice by Claude Gordon.

The other things to focus on is tone and opening up the aperture in the embouchure. This will reduce range initially but result in better range and a bigger sound overall.

The end goal is to ensure that you're playing on the same embouchure through the entire range of the instrument.

The mouthpiece shifting is a normal thing! That’s the whole meaning behind the Reinhardt system which simply addresses people’s track (direction that your mouthpiece shifts). Your mouthpiece and aperture slide as a unit to change notes. I shift my mouthpiece to the left and slightly down to access my upper register. Everyone has a track and it will not look the same because everyone’s dental structure is different. Again, everyone’s track is different and everyone has one!

Edit: Whenever you were moving your horn angle up (which is also normal… watch any trumpet player playing wide intervals), you were also moving your aperture within the mouthpiece. If you read James Stamp’s book by Roy Poper (Pg 16) he talks about the horn angle changes as you ascend and descend.

The trumpet is a physical instrument. You need mental preparation, but you also need to know about the mechanics of playing trumpet and be aware of the physical movements that happen for you to coordinate when you’re playing the horn. It doesn’t mean get fixated on them, but it also doesn’t mean completely ignore and not even address them.

Thank you for such a great explanation!

I can't even get a G, my best is F on a good day 😭😭😭

Literally the perfect video for me, I've been struggling with range for a minute and while I came to the same conclusions you did, through trial and error, you perfectly summed up and condensed the information into a digestible way for almost anyone.

You confirmed that I truly am on the right track and after combinging all of the elements in the video I can play from a high c to high F/E !! It's now just working on mastering it now !

While this is very personal to you, unintentionally I think you cover so many of the golden pieces of advice surrounding modern range development in a really convincing way. You mentioned singing and keeping vowel shape, which helps to keep the tongue out of the way, something I’ve heard from the Arnold Jacob school of thought. You mentioned having to make small changes in horn angle which goes hand in hand with Paul Mayes’ holistic approach. You cover vocal cords’ similarities to facial muscles which Kristian Steenstrup has been a big advocator of. And you really paraphrase Chris Coletti’s video extremely well. Max, I’ve said it before, but I seriously think you’re going to make a kickass trumpet professor because of your commitment to improvement and willingness to share. Keep it up brother!

Hi I am a freshman trumpet player here although it is not my main instrument (I play alto sax as my main) I am looking to play trumpet for jazz and ur videos have helped lean away from using a lot of pressure on my higher notes and making my aperture so small that when I go to play even just a D above the staff that it was fading and not getting a full sound. Instead after seeing some of ur videos and getting to have Jacob Hamlin help with my mellophone marching camp I starter experimenting and ur videos just cleared it all up for me a lot. My range and exploded since I saw ur videos. I went from barely getting a C above the staff to being able to get up around a F or a double G with double Bb as my highest note. (I’ve only been playing for about 9-10 months)

I’m a freshmen looking to get GOATED at trumpet, and I’ve been watching your videos for a while and wanted to say thank you for this helpful video. I’m terrible with high notes, so this will help me a lot.

That high C is slightly more attainable now. I need to keep working on it but I’ve gotten so much further. Thank you.

I don‘t even play the trumpet. Why am I watching this as a Violinist?

I’m a trumpet player and professional singer and really love the linking back to how the voice works. It’s literally designed to work that way. Love this video!

This helped me so much that I can now play comfortably. Thank you so much.

I only dabble in trumpet a little bit for fun, am a clarinet player by trade, but this was one of the best and most honest videos of someone sharing their techniques and aha-moments on an instrument I've seen on YouTube yet.

Amazing work and thanks, on behalf of myself and any other brass players out there! :)

Thanks Max for the useful explanations. I'm a trombone player. Could you please talk some minutes about the movement of the abdominal region when you get higher in your range?