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A comprehensive study of modern jazz trumpet playing by renowned jazz musician John McNeil. Contains a personal history of jazz trumpet, articulation, valve technique, and alternate fingerings. This complete edition combines and updates the earlier works and includes a CD as a practice aid.
The jazz technique book for trumpet.Reviewed by Jarrett T. Ellis, 2010-01-26
I received this book not long ago, and as an experienced jazz and
classical player, it fulfilled the purpose I purchased it for. That
is, it's a technical method book for jazz. It won't give you any
new ideas *probably* and it certainly doesn't have a lot of
"patterns" to transpose or advanced jazz theory and such, but what
it does well is that it focuses on the most common "problem" areas
for jazz technique. That is, articulation, finger dexterity, and
key familiarity. There is also a section on "wide intervals" for
jazz, but IMHO this was a nice addition, but not as important (to
me) as the other sections. I consider myself to be a strong player
(don't we all) and I thought this book did a good job of zeroing in
on my weak areas, and providing practical, tough exercises to
improve them.
Don't think of this book as an endall "how to" to play jazz anymore
than you would consider any single classical method the "endall" to
classical music. Jazz is a language to be learned by listening and
playing, this is a book to improve your facility with jazz to make
your final goal easier. A method book in the truest sense.
I'd recommend the use of this book in conjunction with ear training
or playalongs ie... Aebersold.
The art of BEBOP trumpetReviewed by Brandon Murphy, 2010-01-05
This book does has some interesting biographies in it, but that is not the purpose behind this book. I bought this expecting a book that would give me some ideas on improvisation and jazz style. All this book delivers is some ideas that pertain strictly to Bebop. If you like playing that side of the horn then this is a good book, but it certainly is not advertised as such. It does; however provide some challenging sight reading material, but again, that is not what this book is advertised to be. The exercises are not in the least bit hip, and all in all this was just a poor investment. The author even advises to steer away from wide intervals, calling them "unpractical", which is absolute nonsense! Maybe if you only have a two octave range as the authors playing on the CD suggests, but for those of us with a good solid three or more octaves wide intervals are effective and quite practical. Do yourself a favor, and invest in an Arban's Book, Clarke Book, The Jazz Theory Book, and LOTS of Basie, Armstrong, Maynard Ferguson CDs. I especially recommend, Count Basie - Basie In Europe and Buddy Rich - Rich in London.
Required reading for jazz trumpetersReviewed by Beagle, 2008-05-29
It is important to realise that unlike many other jazz books this
book does not set out to try to teach you how to improvise, nor is
it a jazz theory book. You would benefit from at least some working
knowledge of both these topics before you embark on this book (I
would recommend something like Levine's The Jazz Theory Book if you
need more background). Instead it helps you to develop the more
technical aspects of jazz trumpet playing through exercises, etudes
and well-written text.
The first part of the book covers the history of jazz trumpet from
about the bebop era onwards, through some discussions of the
musical styles of a number of key players and some musical
examples.
The hard work starts with a large section on jazz articulation, in
which you learn to control your placement of accents on different
notes in a phrase and develop a polyrhythmic feel. He provides
exercises for wide interval playing - something that is quite hard
on trumpet compared to an instrument like the saxophone. Alternate
fingerings are covered along with some exercises. He also discusses
doodle tonguing made famous by especially by Clark Terry. This is
the jazz player's way of tonguing fast passage as opposed to the
multiple tonguing used by classical players. He has a useful
section on tricky fingering studies which you can even practise
without blowing into the horn (useful when the chops are
tired).
Although I said that he doesn't try to teach you how to improvise,
there are a few useful ideas scattered through the text. For
example, after his first articulation study, he gives an example of
how you might shift sections of it up or down a semitone at random
when you are playing to get an "out" feeling. Putting some
randomness into a fixed exercise helps you to exercise the parts of
your brain that are needed for improvising without throwing you
completely in the deep end. Another exercise he mentions is to play
a 1235 or 1535 pattern around the cycle, alternating at random
between 1235 and 1535 at random. McNeil describes this particular
exercise in more detail in a 2002 journal article for the
International Trumpet Guild entitled "Creative Pattern Practice"
which is worth scouring the web for - it will give you a good taste
of his writing style and his way of thinking about
improvisation.
The book also comes with a CD demonstrating some of the exercises
and etudes so you can hear what they sound like when performed
correctly.
John McNeil is a highly respected Jazz trumpeter and his book is a
classic that every aspiring jazz trumpet player should own. I love
this book and use it often.
GreatReviewed by K. Eikrem, 2008-05-18
This book is great! The articulation studies are hip and tricky, and you can actually use them in a "real life situation". There are also some interesting articles on various jazz trumpeters. I highly recommend this book.
The most important book for any jazz trumpet player.Reviewed by Walter Simonsen, 2008-03-24
Without a doubt, John McNeil has done something with this book that
has long been overdue. With the advent of jazz education, so much
focus has been put on what to play, rather than on how to play it.
McNeil presents exercises that go beyond the simple articulation of
scales and puts them in real world situations. Furthermore, the
author addresses technique issues that most other jazz trumpet
books fail to even acknowledge exist. The section on alternate
fingerings and different ways of tonging, that are so important to
today's jazz improviser, are throughly covered through simple
explanation and execution. Not to mention, the accompanying CD has
several examples being performed by astute trumpet players who play
through them with the ease of a basic stamp warm-up routine.
Quite possibly, the most important part of the book is the section
on finger technique. With three pages full of finger twisters for
the jazz trumpet player to navigate, the trumpet player will find
more fluidity in their performance, resulting in better solos and
overall better trumpet facility. This book should be required to be
used by every trumpet player, commercial or not. The result will be
a much more technically proficient musician, no longer hindered by
a lack of technique, but rather, aided by a plethora of it.
