Might be learning trumpet soon...

[BlueNote]

Will practicing a brass instrument like trumpet daily, in addition to the saxophone (as is the plan) ruin my saxophone embouchure?

[gary]

No.

[BlueNote]

Ok, thanks Gary.

[BariSkaJazz]

Sorry, but being the inquisitve young man I am, why doesn't playing trumpet ruin a saxophone embrochure?

Every time i so much look at a trumpet my band teacher tells me to get the thought out of my head.

[Brian The Hornman]

I've actually heard from a couple brass-playing friends that playing sax/clarinet messed up their brass chops. One was a horn player and one was a trombonist. I don't know why this would be, but I (attempt to) play the tuba sometimes and it doesn't seem to affect my sax chops.

[Martin Williams]

They get that from their teachers who allow them to have the mental opinion that it will change, and so they oversompensate for the 'change' that doesnt actually happen. I play both, no adverse effects on either embrochure

[Razzy]

Only thing trumpet ever messed up for me was flute. It might affect your ability to feel things a bit coming back to sax, but no more than sax affects your ability to feel the flute embouchure, for example.

[gary]

Only thing trumpet ever messed up for me was flute. It might affect your ability to feel things a bit coming back to sax, but no more than sax affects your ability to feel the flute embouchure, for example.My experience exactly. If I've laid off the flute for a while, when I come back to it, expecially after about the first 30 minutes, if I'm not concentrating, I catch myself tightening my embouchure a bit on the high notes, sometimes even buzzing the lips.

Sorry, but being the inquisitve young man I am, why doesn't playing trumpet ruin a saxophone embrochure?
Prove that it doesn't? It's a little like snapping your fingers to keep elephants away and when asked if it works you say "Do you see and elephants?" :D
Tell us why it "should" effect it and then we can say what's wrong with that.

Every time i so much look at a trumpet my band teacher tells me to get the thought out of my head.Maybe your band teacher is reacting to other personality traits of yours and not necessarily limited to the trumpet messing with your sax playing.

[Tom Goodrick]

I think that band teachers are often the single largest impediment to an individual's accomplishment as an instrumentalist. Many band teachers are only interested in how their band sounds. They want certain people in certain sections to help the overall sound of the band. This situation almost ruined my interest in music except my dad was a pro musician so I new there was life after high school band. It did, in fact, ruin my younger son's interest in music although now, at 38, he does play acoustic guitar rather well. In my case I refused to march with an instrument. I was accomplished in military drill as a cadet in the CAP. I knew that trying to do that while playing an instrument did justice to neither. So I refused to play in the band. The orchestra teacher was a tough old pro who put up with the tirades from the band teacher and let me play my trombone in his orchestra. It was a very good experience. But without special people around, I would have quit all together. My son liked playing the alto sax and had just bought a new one when he went into the senior high band. He also did not march but in his case it was okay because he was a star football player. Unfortunately he was also slightly larger than most kids so his band teacher forced him to play baritone sax rather than the alto. He grew to hate all saxes and bands.

When you are young and in school, you should expend a certain amount of effort to leraning one horn. BUT it is also a good time to switch horns if you think another one would be more interesting to you. You will practice and become good only if you are interested in the horn. People in education should put the student first and allow them to switch if they want to. Parents should support their kids.

I now play the horns listed below my name all the time, often switching between them in the same session. Playing the different horns HELPS me play all both from a point of understanding music better and from developing common skills. I recently noticed I could play high notes easier on the trombone since learning to play the soprano sax. i see no way learning sax could damage your chops for any other horn. It can only help by increasing your muscle strength and dexterity.

An important aspect of music is your brain. If you have one instrument on which you excel and can do many great things, it will spread to the other instruments simply because your brain knows the music it wants to hear and will find a way to do it on the other instruments. For that reason, learning a second or third instrument is much easier than the first.

Have fun. That's what life is all about anyway! We don't need artificial barriers to fun erected because "sombody said that somebody said ...."

[usda]

Wow! Good stuff. Used to play the coronet in elementry then went for tenor sax in high school. Can't remember either very well. But recently (3 years ago) got a sax and started out again with a 40 year break. Yet ever time I walk by a trumpet...it yanks my string.

Getting the sax chops back was a bear...I can only imagine what adding a trumpet would do?

I met an old dude (relatively) who plays a Chet Baker trumpet...I mean sound and it messed with my brain.

I'll need to live to 160 to bring all my musical dreams to fruitation. Could it be that this is the next 'thing' for longetivity? After living passed all the drugs and dying from dissapointment with the human race...and AM/FM radio?

[Tom Goodrick]

For those who have not gotten very deeply into music in the past, I always recommend a keyboard rather than a horn. the idea is that you can easily play a trumpet, trombone, any of the saxes, flute, violin and many instruments that have not yet been invented by simply playing keys with one hand on the keyboard. There are several now in the range of $200 to $400 that come with very realistic instrument sounds built in plus great rythms and easy accompaniment.

My synth is great but is not made any more. With it I have made my own versions of many of the real instruments. Like many other keyboards available today, it has a sequencer so you can build up an instrumental arrangement one track at a time. This is great fun and a great way to experience putting various instrument sounds together.

It is far easier to push a key down than to make a buzz into a mouthpiece. Within a few days you can be playing songs that sound pretty good - one hand at a time.

[usda]

"I always recommend a keyboard rather than a horn."

I found a first class old jazzer pianoist to give lessons for my son who is a guitar fanatic. He really put up some resistance and we gave it a rest for a few months, then went back. The results is his key board playing is sailing along, he understands music, which I wish I did, and he says it has helped his guitar immensily.

Needing lessons myself, I am going with the same old jazzer on piano. Another dozen or so lessons on the horn wouldn't hurt and I plan to do just that when my retirement check gets here this summer. But will do the piano and theory with the old dude who just amazes me as I listen to him do song after song with great chord inovations.

He seems, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and others...all rolled into one.

He is also an *******...but so am I...it should be interesting.

[jaysne]

Sorry, but being the inquisitve young man I am, why doesn't playing trumpet ruin a saxophone embrochure?

Every time i so much look at a trumpet my band teacher tells me to get the thought out of my head.

You're using the same muscles in different ways. Think about running: just because you specialize in sprinting doesn't mean that doing a long distance run will be bad for you. And if you're a marathoner, you're not going to hurt yourself by running a wind sprint.

The real question is, Why would playing trumpet ruin a sax embochure? The answer is, it doesn't.

[koteris]

You live in the land of Jay Thomas. I think you probably know he plays trumpet, sax and flute. He sounds great on all of them and has for years.

http://jaythomasjazz.com/main.html

Not only is he proof that one does not ruin the other, he lives in your city, posts his contact info on his site, and is available for lessons. Call him up!