Lesson time: (3min 1sec)
Mike Lovatt works through the final two lines of the tune, using tonguing, rips and falls to keep the phrasing funky rather than sloppy.
This lesson is part of the course Play Authentic Rock Trumpet
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Let's take a look at the last two lines of this piece, including the pickup.
There's another opportunity to put a gap in between the dotted crotchet and the quaver tied to the crotchet. Let's hear what that sounds like without a gap first:
1, 2, 3, 4, 1.
So those two. Those last two notes are played together.
You notice that I completely connect the notes, but I don't let the valve do the work. I tongue every note.
Have a go now, after me, at playing those two notes, the D and the C natural, and tonguing them both.
If you make those notes run into each other just with the valve, it sounds kind of sloppy. And we don't want to sound sloppy. We want to sound funky and groovy on this piece.
So let's try and do that now in the whole phrase.
After me, I'll play first, and then you copy:
1, 2, 3, 4, 1.
One thing I didn't do there was put those drops in those falls down to those last two notes or down to the first of those last two notes. Let's just try that ending now, adding that.
So in the last phrase then, I was playing with what we call rips up to the notes in the first and second bar like this.
How do we do that?
Mike Lovatt studied at Trinity College of Music, where he was awarded the Jon Kelly Jazz Scholarship. He has performed and recorded across a huge range of styles with artists including Quincy Jones, Robbie Williams, Eric Clapton, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Buble, Oasis, Michel Legrand, Tony Bennett, Shirley Bassey and Danny Elfman, among many others. As Principal Trumpet in London's West End, Mike has performed in Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Producers, Billy Elliot, Guys and Dolls, Saturday Night Fever, My Fair Lady and Spamalot, amongst others. He has played on movie soundtracks including the James Bond films, Harry Potter with the London Symphony Orchestra, the award-winning Chicago, Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Madagascar and The Corpse Bride. He is featured on trumpet and cornet in George Fenton's Mrs Henderson Presents, and on trumpet in Looking for Eric. Mike is principal trumpet with the Grammy-nominated John Wilson Orchestra and has been featured in their celebrated BBC Promenade concerts and recordings. Mike is sought after as a teacher and clinician, and is a professor of trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. In April 2013 he was proud to be awarded the prestigious Derek Watkins' Chair of Trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music, London. In his MusicGurus courses, Mike shares the secrets behind his versatility, showing you how to nail authentic swing, rock and Latin trumpet styles so you can play any of them with confidence and the right feel. read more
