Hi guys I'm new here so if i mistakenly made a new forum for something already posted I apologize in advance. OK so I'm a junior in high school and love band. I'm a drum major and play trumpet for the symphonic band at my school. I'm actually supposed to be in Wind Ensemble, BUT I have tennis first period so I had to opt for second band rather than first. Anyway so I have recently taken up horn for TMEA Solo and Ensemble for a horn quartet. So long story short all the other three members in my ensemble are in wind ensemble while I'm stuck in Symphonic band not being able to practice with them. My band director just gave me the option of playing trumpet for symphonic and horn for wind ensemble because apparently i sound really good on it and also because I need to stay on trumpet for Symphonic band because the other trumpets aren't very good.

So now to my real problem...if I play my horn and then my trumpet I experience not only tone issues but upper register issues on my trumpet. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can keep my embouchure for both because I am first chair trumpet and will be playing in the upper register a lot for symphonic band and I am playing Horn 1 for ensemble and will be in the upper register as well.

Thanks for the thoughts,
Reid

Unfortunately, in my personnel experience, the answer is to not play both. I am a horn player, but i have played both trumpet and fluglehorn in the past(still do occaisionally just for kicks). When i play trumpet my tone quality is very "airy" and i have difficulty in the upper registers and stamina. Even using BE hasnt helped me. Its great for my horn playing,range and endurance, but on trumpet the same ole problems. I love playing horn so I limit playing trumpet to almost never. I have heard of trumpet players who "double" on the horn, but at least in my opinion, not very well. I discussed this with a friend who plays trumpet professionally in LA and New Orleans. He played horn in college then made the switch. He only plays trumpet and flugle now as he suffered the same problems we have. Good Luck, hopefully someone out there has a solution for you. P.S. I haven't had any difficulty at all switching from horn to marching mellophone, as i find mello very easy to play.