James Stamp Trumpet Method

This is my interpretation of Stamp’s most important ideas:

“Hold the mouthpiece with the thumb and index finger of your left hand” was one of the first things I heard from a short stocky man with a gentle voice. The year was 1965. The place was Hollywood, California. James Stamp was not an obscure teacher even back then.
James Stamp Method The mouthpiece and trumpet are only the amplifier – the buzzing of the lips is where the sound is formed. Daily Drills and Technical Studies for Trumpet James Stamp, Warm-Ups + Studies Etudes.Small. Anthony Plog - Method for Trumpet - Book 6, Low, High, Power & Strength Exercises & Etudes. James Stamp: Warm up.
James Stamp Trumpet Method; James Stamp Trumpet Method Pdf; Many of my colleagues, and indeed trumpeters the world over, swear by the practice routines of James Stamp. I hear lots of players warming up to these exercises and repeating them all through the day.

Stamp Concept #1: Each and every pitch must be perfectly centered

The trumpet is bound to the overtone series, and the lips must buzz/vibrate the air column at the right frequency to match the length of tubing. For instance, on a perfectly tuned C trumpet, to play middle C (open) the lips must vibrate exactly at 256 Hertz. This is the true Center of Pitch. At this frequency the tone will be full and resonant and the instrument will respond easily. But if the air column vibrates too slowly or too quickly, say, at 248 or at 262 Hertz, the tone and response will suffer. Further bending of the pitch will threaten to cause such a deterioration of response that the tone will fail altogether, a product of the physics of acoustics.

James Stamp was one of the most influential brass teachers of the 20th century, and his approach to the trumpet has only become more popular since his passing in 1985. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a trumpet player who uses a Stamp exercise or idea in their playing, and what’s really interesting to me is that players of every stripe.

Most often, players tend to push the intonation in the direction of the melodic line: playing sharper when ascending and flatter when descending. Players also tend to stretch intervals, playing the upper note sharper and the lower note flatter. Over the course of a lengthy musical passage, missing the true centers of many pitches (in addition to sounding out-of-tune) compels the player to force; i. e., to over-blow, using excessive pressure and stretching the lips and/or bunching up the chin in an ultimately futile effort to keep the tone from failing. Eventually, the lips tire and swell and further playing becomes impossible.

Stamp Concept #2: Tempo must be perfectly maintained at all times and every note must be placed precisely in rhythm

Stamp understood that, in their anxiety to get to the high note (or the low note, or through the challenging passage), players tend to rush ahead of the beat. Rushing, in addition to being unmusical, de-synchronizes the embouchure, tongue, fingers and the control of airflow; the embouchure tends to contract or relax too soon, resulting in generally poor response and missed notes. Thus, rushing goes hand-in-hand with missing pitch centers; almost all missed notes result from playing off the true center of pitch and ahead of the beat.

Stamp Concept #3: Breaths must be taken in-tempo

Stamp insisted that, for the initial attack, the tempo must be set in advance and the initial breath must be taken in-tempo, usually in a single beat before the first note is sounded. If the tempo is especially quick, the breath may be taken over two beats; if the tempo is especially slow, the breath may be taken in a half-beat.

Stamp Concept #4: Abdominal support must be supplied first and maintained throughout short rests and breaths

Stamp maintained that the abdominal muscles that exert pressure on the diaphragm must be contracted before the first breath is taken. Stamp likened this to bracing in anticipation of a fist striking the belly. He also suggested practicing while standing on tiptoes, which firms the muscles in precisely the correct manner. The breath support may be relaxed only during extended rests (of at least a few bars).

Stamp Concept #5: The mouthpiece should be sealed against the lips after the breath is taken

Stamp considered this to be perhaps his most important concept. The pressure of the mouthpiece sealing against the lips must be applied only in the last instant after the breath taken and before the first note has sounded. The precise timing of this sequence (breath-seal-blow) is crucial to achieving clean attacks and effortless response.

Trumpeters traveled from around the world to learn from Stamp and fix long-standing problems. He almost always got good results, with players who ranged from beginners to veteran virtuosi, the latter including commercial lead players, jazz soloists and symphony musicians. Yet, although Stamp was considered to be a great “chops guru,” he never changed an embouchure. Stamp told me that, even for players with the most stretched, stressed lips, once he got them centering the pitch, playing good rhythm and supporting-breathing-sealing-blowing in-time and in proper sequence, the embouchure problems simply disappeared!

Thus, Stamp turned conventional wisdom on its head. To him, bad embouchures resulted from bad playing, not the other way around. Students expecting a more mechanistic approach were disappointed — at least, until Stamp’s gentle insistence broke through their resistance. Since so much of Stamp’s teaching focussed on basic musicianship (intonation, tempo, rhythm), his students naturally became more artistic even while working with him purely on the physicality of trumpet playing.

My lessons with Stamp always began with breathing exercises: breaths taken slowly or quickly and exhaled slowly or quickly, but always timed to a moderate tempo. This helped relax the body and prepare the mind. Next would come buzzing the lips only: simple diatonic patterns, always with piano accompaniment, to keep pitch and rhythm steady and warm up the embouchure. After only a minute or two we would proceed to playing on the mouthpiece alone, again, accompanied by the piano to maintain consistency of pitch and rhythm. Stamp did not make a religion of mouthpiece buzzing. But he did find it very helpful in focussing the student’s attention on precision of pitch and rhythm. He felt that, if the student could learn to synchronize breathing, center the intonation and play in-tempo on the mouthpiece alone, trumpet playing would become much easier. Once I was buzzing the mouthpiece consistently and correctly, I would be allowed to move on to the trumpet.

Many of Stamp’s exercises feature pedal tones: pitches below the trumpet’s normal range. He taught his students to descend to these low notes and then ascend to the middle and high registers cleanly and without pausing to reset the embouchure. The pedal notes served as a test: if the student could play down to the pedals and then back into the higher ranges, that was a clear indication that airflow, pitch and rhythm were in perfect sync. With any slight rushing or missed pitch center on the way down, the pedal note would not sound. With any slight rushing or missed pitch center on the way back up, the high note would be missed.

Similar in some ways to vocal studies, Stamp’s exercises, like the man himself, are both ingenious and deceptively simple. They are highly efficient at identifying inconsistencies in pitch and rhythm. Stamp did not set impossible goals. But he did make it nearly impossible for the student to ignore key musical fundamentals. Unlike many trumpet studies, which simply are difficult for the sake of being difficult, Stamp’s are quite easy to play if one centers every pitch and plays with an absolutely steady beat. But if one misses pitch centers or rushes even slightly, the exercises become unforgiving. In this respect, Stamp’s method is truly unique.

Think about it: if the note is played precisely in-tune and precisely in time, it cannot be missed.

Although Jimmie has been gone for many years, his legacy lives on, in his many students and in the many more students of his students. I also firmly believe that his influence extends far beyond those who are directly connected to him in some way or even to those who practice his exercises. Trumpeters around the world have better intonation and rhythm than did players of previous generations. They play according to the Stamp method even if they never heard of him. An anecdote illustrates this point:

Long ago, the late, great Maurice André, was touring in Los Angeles and asked local trumpeters to introduce him to Stamp. Both dubious and curious, André had heard great things about Stamp’s teaching. After listening to Stamp for a while and playing some of the exercises, André exclaimed, “Of course! This is the way I play all the time!”

Many of my colleagues, and indeed trumpeters the world over, swear by the practice routines of James Stamp. I hear lots of players warming up to these exercises and repeating them all through the day.

Personally, I don’t like to get tied to any particular list of exercises, the reasons have been stated many times in other posts on this blog. I bought the Editions BIM Stamp book when I was at school at fifteen years old. I tried it for a while but didn’t stick with it. I revisited it at college for a few months and several times over the years for extended periods. I also bought Roy Poper’s excellent book explaining the studies more fully.

Schlossberg, Max – Daily Drills and Technical Studies for Trumpet Stamp, James – Warm-Ups and Studies (Editions BIM). *Resist the urge to practice during the warm up--if you make a mistake, move on. If you make consistent mistakes, choose easier material or slow the tempo down. Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method Book 1. Uploader avatar Harlan Almeida. 111336753 James Stamp Warm Ups. Uploader avatar.

Some trumpeter colleagues of mine went over to Loa Angeles to study with the widely respected pedagog Boyde Hood, himself a student of Stamp. Boyde’s routine is said to be written with Stamp at the end of James Stamp’s life and are considered by many to be Stamp’s definitive routine. I copied the routine for myself, including the extensive mouthpiece routines. I haven’t included the mouthpiece studies here, but would willingly post them if requested.

This time, I stuck with the routine for ages. I gave up on the mouthpiece routines first. I realised that for me, and I do a little mouthpiece playing at the onset of my playing day (and a little throughout the day’s work), I would rather play mouthpiece studies of a more musical nature. I do a little mouthpiece ‘solfeg’ out of the Kodaly book or I may play some hymns or anything really. This works better for me.

The full Stamp routine, pictured in full at the end of this post, simply took me too long and even after a year or two my chops were quite stiff, sore and my mouthpiece never felt good on my chops etc. Things really improved when I gave up the routine altogether. I also began to be ‘addicted’ to the routine and would struggle to play unless I had laboriously gone through all the pages!

For me, the full routine has too many pedal tones, covers too much range unnecessarily in each exercise, and the studies aren’t especially musical. So I stopped! From time to time I do a much shortened version just to get my chops going – I do this as a change so that I don’t do the same exercises every day and get stuck in a rut. I only go down to low F sharp and as high as top C. no pedal tones! Then I get straight to the music; maybe a solo piece, then I work on what I have to learn for work. I am fully aware of the many top players whop do the full routine every day. It just doesn’t work for me. Here is my short version followed by Boyde Hood’s full routine…

Stamp?Hood Full Routine

Stamp, James

Warm-Ups & Studies, w/MP3 Download

Modern classic study book used by collegiate level trumpeters worldwide. Includes sections on breathing, a variety of warm-ups, slurs, trills, bending, octaves, scales, arpeggios and more. Piano accompaniments available for the exercises as a download direct from the publisher. 34 pages. -cdp

James Stamp Trumpet Method

The Stamp exercises, perhaps more than other brass methods, emphasize musical principles as much as physical concepts to accomplish the desired technical results. Perhaps the most famous Stamp aphorism was that if it sounded correct (i.e. «in-tune») thenone was doing it correctly. Or, conversely, if one did not play correctly it would not sound correct. Indeed, everything that has been said or written about Mr. Stamp and his teaching/playing concepts reinforces this basic idea.

To implement his concepts, James Stamp would play the Warm-Ups/ Exercises on the piano keyboard while the students would simultaneously play them on the mouthpiece or the instrument. This method imposed a certain discipline and minimized the need for an inordinate amount of verbal instructions and analyses since any problems would become known almost immediately and consequently could be addressed early in the training process. -the publisher

James Stamp Trumpet Method

James Stamp Trumpet Method Pdf Free

Accompaniments, formerly included on CD, are now available as a free MP3 download for Bb or C trumpet.

James Stamp Trumpet Method Pdf

(Breathing)
(Preliminary Warm-Ups)
(Basic Warm-Up)
(Slur Exercises)
(Scale Velocity)
(Three for Stamp)
(Bb Trumpet Accompaniments)
(C Trumpet Accompaniments)