This is my interpretation of Stamp's most important ideas:
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. James Stamp's method focuses very heavily on the embouchure. Right after breathing, his method deals almost solely with the embouchure for the remaining twenty-nine pages. He believed that a strong and stable embouchure was the starting point that all other playing was built on. James Stamp Method The mouthpiece and trumpet are only the amplifier – the buzzing of the lips is where the sound is formed. It is extremely important to practice. Contents. Background Stamp was a professional musician from the age of 16, starting in the Mayo Clinic Band. James Stamp Method The mouthpiece and trumpet are only the amplifier – the buzzing of the lips is where the sound is formed. Most of us know James Stamp's method book. My hope is that the Stamp Strip could be useful to other players.
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.
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.
Trumpet Method Books Pdf
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:
James Stamp Trumpet Method Pdf
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!'
Getting the trumpet to consistently do what you want it to do is a lifelong process, and there are many legitimate ways to approach playing the horn. Like most trumpet players, I use concepts from several different schools of thought in my own playing, but one of the people from whom I've borrowed the most is James Stamp. I've recently developed a practice tool that has helped me do a better job of putting a couple of his ideas into practice, and I'd like to share it here (more on that in a minute).
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 seem to like Stamp.
Håkan Hardenberger is a fan, (see Mark Dulin's great January 2009 ITG Journal Interview), but so is Wayne Bergeron (see Derek Reaban's write up of a 2008 Bergeron masterclass). I don't know about you, but as a trumpet player who strives for proficiency in all types of playing, hearing two names as different as those attached to the same set of ideas perks my ears up.
Most of us know James Stamp's method book Warm-ups and Studies as well as the book's ubiquitous 'Basic Warm-up #3' (if you don't know 'Basic Warm-up #3,' ask my wife how it goes. It gets stuck in her head like a Disney song).
As I see it, the backbone of Stamp's philosophy to remain centered at all times, and the specific techniques in Warm-ups and Studies reinforce this philosophy, especially this one from page four:
Keep thinking down going up and thinking up going down.
I had an 'A-ha!' moment a couple of years ago while reading Craig Morris' excellent series of blog posts Stamping It Out. In particular, this excerpt caught my attention (from the second post in the series):
James Stamp Trumpet Method
Imagine that you are playing facing a tall brick wall (if you have an actual brick wall, that will be even better). Assign each brick its own unique note. The top brick on the wall is pedal C; the bottom brick is however high you are able to play; Bb, C, or A should be right in the middle. Before you play any note, find its location on the brick wall, and then place the note there when you play. Thinking in this manner improves three things: 1) As mentioned in the book, it helps to keep you from playing sharp in the upper register and flat in the lower register. 2) It keeps you balanced when you play, preventing you from puckering out too much when you are in the lower register, and from stretching too much when you are in the upper register. 3) It gives you a more concrete placement of each note before you play it. When playing the trumpet, we have almost no visual feedback or guidance. If you play the piano, you know where every note is; they are all laid out in front of you. The same thing is true of string instruments, albeit to a lesser degree. With the trumpet, however, we have almost no visual help. But if you visualize the place each note resides on your virtual (or hopefully real) brick wall, then it will reinforce to your body where each note goes, and what is involved in placing it there.
This made a lot of sense to me, and I started putting it into practice. I began thinking of high notes as lower on the imaginary brick wall and low notes as up near the ceiling. Like most players, I struggle with over-tightening in the upper register and over-loosening the chops below low C, so this approach was just what I needed.
I used this concept in the abstract until fairly recently, when I decided to experiment with an artificial 'brick wall,' so to speak. Meet my latest (and nerdiest) creation: the Stamp Strip!
The basic idea is similar to what Craig Morris outlines above, but I've given each 'brick' its own printed note name. While playing Stamp, scales, flow studies and the like, I associate each note I play with the printed note on the strip. Using this tool keep my high register feeling easier and more accessible and my low register less tubby. I've noticed a big improvement in ease of playing as well as smoothness of slurs.
My hope is that the Stamp Strip could be useful to other players, so I'm offering it as a free PDF download:
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.
Trumpet Method Books Pdf
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:
James Stamp Trumpet Method Pdf
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!'
Getting the trumpet to consistently do what you want it to do is a lifelong process, and there are many legitimate ways to approach playing the horn. Like most trumpet players, I use concepts from several different schools of thought in my own playing, but one of the people from whom I've borrowed the most is James Stamp. I've recently developed a practice tool that has helped me do a better job of putting a couple of his ideas into practice, and I'd like to share it here (more on that in a minute).
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 seem to like Stamp.
Håkan Hardenberger is a fan, (see Mark Dulin's great January 2009 ITG Journal Interview), but so is Wayne Bergeron (see Derek Reaban's write up of a 2008 Bergeron masterclass). I don't know about you, but as a trumpet player who strives for proficiency in all types of playing, hearing two names as different as those attached to the same set of ideas perks my ears up.
Most of us know James Stamp's method book Warm-ups and Studies as well as the book's ubiquitous 'Basic Warm-up #3' (if you don't know 'Basic Warm-up #3,' ask my wife how it goes. It gets stuck in her head like a Disney song).
As I see it, the backbone of Stamp's philosophy to remain centered at all times, and the specific techniques in Warm-ups and Studies reinforce this philosophy, especially this one from page four:
Keep thinking down going up and thinking up going down.
I had an 'A-ha!' moment a couple of years ago while reading Craig Morris' excellent series of blog posts Stamping It Out. In particular, this excerpt caught my attention (from the second post in the series):
James Stamp Trumpet Method
Imagine that you are playing facing a tall brick wall (if you have an actual brick wall, that will be even better). Assign each brick its own unique note. The top brick on the wall is pedal C; the bottom brick is however high you are able to play; Bb, C, or A should be right in the middle. Before you play any note, find its location on the brick wall, and then place the note there when you play. Thinking in this manner improves three things: 1) As mentioned in the book, it helps to keep you from playing sharp in the upper register and flat in the lower register. 2) It keeps you balanced when you play, preventing you from puckering out too much when you are in the lower register, and from stretching too much when you are in the upper register. 3) It gives you a more concrete placement of each note before you play it. When playing the trumpet, we have almost no visual feedback or guidance. If you play the piano, you know where every note is; they are all laid out in front of you. The same thing is true of string instruments, albeit to a lesser degree. With the trumpet, however, we have almost no visual help. But if you visualize the place each note resides on your virtual (or hopefully real) brick wall, then it will reinforce to your body where each note goes, and what is involved in placing it there.
This made a lot of sense to me, and I started putting it into practice. I began thinking of high notes as lower on the imaginary brick wall and low notes as up near the ceiling. Like most players, I struggle with over-tightening in the upper register and over-loosening the chops below low C, so this approach was just what I needed.
I used this concept in the abstract until fairly recently, when I decided to experiment with an artificial 'brick wall,' so to speak. Meet my latest (and nerdiest) creation: the Stamp Strip!
The basic idea is similar to what Craig Morris outlines above, but I've given each 'brick' its own printed note name. While playing Stamp, scales, flow studies and the like, I associate each note I play with the printed note on the strip. Using this tool keep my high register feeling easier and more accessible and my low register less tubby. I've noticed a big improvement in ease of playing as well as smoothness of slurs.
My hope is that the Stamp Strip could be useful to other players, so I'm offering it as a free PDF download:
Jimmy Stamp Trumpet Warm Up
Some assembly is required, but not much. Just cut along the dotted lines, tape the strips together (remember that pedal C is at the top and double C is at the bottom), and hang it wherever you practice the most. That's it!