If you’re learning the trumpet, it’s important that you find some fun trumpet songs you can play as a beginner to get started. If you’re having fun while practicing, you’re a lot more likely to stick with the instrument in the long run than if you’re working on a song that’s beyond your capabilites. Here’s a list of some easy trumpet songs for you to start with.
“Summertime” by George Gershwin
Summertime is certainly a classic, and a fun piece to play if you’re looking for simple trumpet songs. You know the melody already, so it’s easy to visualize what sound you’re going for. Once you become more comfortable, you can try improvising a little, too.
Summertime also has a lot of different recordings, so listening to different renditions of the song is a good way to learn more about music in general. Is there a recording you like especially? What makes that one stand out? Exercises like these are a great way to practice trumpet when you don’t have your trumpet handy.
Try to follow along to Chet Baker’s performance here:
“Jurassic Park Theme” by John Williams
If you’re into film music, you’ll already know John Williams. He’s a real legend and responsible for some of the most well-known pieces of film music, including the Star Wars theme and the music from Jaws. The music for Jurassic Park is also very recognisable and fun to play.
Film music is a musical genre that often makes use of big orchestras and trumpets in particular and can be an interesting area to go in if you love the trumpet but tire of classical music easily. See if there’s a film music orchestra you can join.
See the score to play along here:
“The Force Theme” by John Williams
Speaking of John Williams, he also composed a lot of Star Wars music, like The Force Theme. The Trumpet Man on YouTube will walk you through it. It’s maybe a little more advanced and less well-known than Jurassic Park, but can also be fun to play if you put your mind to it. Check out the tutorial with sheet music here:
“Canon in D” by Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel was a 17th Century German composer, and if you like classical music, you should look into his Canon in D. It was not originally written for the trumpet, but it’s a beautiful piece that also came to be associated heavily with Christmas. Follow along to the music here:
“The Girl From Ipanema” by Antônio Carlos Jobim
One of the most popular bossa-nova songs ever is The Girl From Ipanema, which is not too hard to play on trumpet. It’s a beautiful piece no matter which instrument you’re playing it on.
“All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles
It’s obviously great for motivation to have a famous pop song to play along to, so it’s great that The Beatles had a penchant for the trumpet. All You Need Is Love is one of their well-known songs featuring a trumpet, and it’s not too difficult to play as a beginner.
Are you wondering who played the trumpet for The Beatles? It was David Mason, a trumpet player from West Sussex. He was born in 1926 and played in the British National Symphony Orchestra and later for the Royal Opera House and the Philharmonia. His collaboration with the Beatles began when Paul McCartney saw him playing the piccolo trumpet on television and he was invited to play on Penny Lane.
Later on he also played for the Beatles on All You Need Is Love, and so can you:
“Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma
Autumn Leaves is a jazz standard and a good song if you want to get started with some easy jazz pieces for the trumpet.
Check out Davide Severino’s YouTube channel, who plays the song along to the score. He also links to the sheet music as PDF on his website, like the sheet music to Autumn Leaves.
“Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple
This is another track that’s not originally for trumpet, but it’s very recognizable and fun to get into. The song is from 1972, but it’s a truly timeless piece which made it to the Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
Looking for a teacher?
Want to get lessons at the comfort of your own home? Check out the course Learn to Play the Trumpet: Beginner to Pro Made the Easy Way* on Udemy! (See their full trumpet course line-up here*!)
“Ode To Joy” by Ludwig van Beethoven
And lastly, here’s another song you can watch Davide Severino perform on his YouTube channel: Ode To Joy by Beethoven. For a piece so significant and ubiquitous, it’s really not that hard to play. Give it a go and play along to the video:
Final Thoughts On Easy Trumpet Songs
Beginner-friendly trumpet songs are a great way to keep up your motivation when you’re learning to play. You don’t even need to find the easiest trumpet song out there, as there are many beginner’s books that take more complicated songs and turn them into simpler songs that still sound nice.
The following books contain beginner-friendly trumpet pieces you can get started with:
- Ultimate Jazz Fake Book* with over 625 songs
(Also available at Barnes & Noble) - The Really Big Student Songbook by Eric Bolvin
You can find more books for self-study here.
So make use of the resources available – and have fun!
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