Chances are, if you’re already on this website, you have at least some experience with playing the trumpet. But regardless if you’re an absolute beginner or a slightly advanced player trying to get better, we’ve got you covered.
What follows is a list of the 5 best online resources and lessons for beginner trumpet players. (Pro tip, I’ve included some honorable mentions tips as well.)
1. Trumpet Lessons for Beginners by Udemy*
Udemy is a well-known company offering massive open online courses on a variety of topics, from piano, guitar or ukulele to programming, photography or marketing. They’ve been around for over a decade and have built an excellent reputation.
For trumpet players in particular, they offer a variety of courses for various skill levels, like:
- Learn to Play the Trumpet: Beginner to Pro Made the Easy Way*
- Master Trumpet Playing: Intermediate Instruction Made Simple*
- Advanced Trumpet Studies – Learn to Master the Trumpet*
Or see their full trumpet course line-up* if you want a bigger choice!
All their courses are exhaustive and detailed and offer several previews so you can get an idea of what you’re getting ahead of time. If you catch their courses on sale, you can get great value for a great price.
2. How to Play Trumpet Beginner Lessons by LearnItOnlineToday.com
Mr. Jody Marvin has been a kid’s entertainer doing magic shows and balloon twisting for a wide variety of events for over 25 years, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play the trumpet! In fact, he knows quite a lot about it, being a specialist in Gospel music and kid’s entertainment.
But that aside, Mr. Jody has a knack for delivering entertaining and useful trumpet lessons. They number 6 in total, and cover topics such as the basics of blowing and what is an embouchure, explanations about tone, lessons on the use of your tongue while playing the trumpet, using your notes, proper trumpet playing warm-up and practice, and last but not least, some practice songs. It’s a good, short course for you to practice playing the trumpet.
You can visit his YouTube channel for his trumpet lessons, or find the same videos on his website LearnItOnlineToday.com. Definitely good trumpet lessons that will make any beginner feel like a pro!
3. eTrumpet Lessons by Brett Manges
Hosted by Brett Manges, who’s played the trumpet since he was 11 years old, eTrumpet Lessons is a project (and service) aimed at trying to provide a trumpet teacher to all those who can’t afford to have one (or see their teacher regularly). By far, the most useful part of his project is the YouTube channel (of the same name), or more specifically, the eTrumpet Lessons YouTube playlist.
If you don’t want to spend money on a paid course, this is a good alternative for getting started. Click away, and spend many quality hours with Brett as he guides you from developing your beginning embouchure, practicing breathing, warm-ups and even learning to play by using the mirror. Besides offering these free video tutorials, Brett is also available for online one-to-one lessons.
4. The Free Trumpet Lessons for Beginners by LearnToPlayMusic.com
Self-styled as a “group of like-minded music and education professionals with a passion and goal to create the most effective music lessons we can” in order to “help you learn to play the music you love as quickly and easily as possible”, LearnToPlayMusic.com is definitely an intresting, well-resourced websites.
Boasting a world-wide delivery and presence in music schools, their website offers free registration, and an online store overflowing with eBooks, CDs, DVDs and sheet music for dozens of different instruments, and at different levels. Chances are, whatever you may need – you will most probably find it in their online store.
But, what’s most important to us and relevant to your trumpeting interests is, of course, their Free How to Play the Trumpet – Trumpet Lessons for Beginners playlist on YouTube. Take heed though, because it’s really basic and best used with some of their products from their shop, but if you’re also interested in learning how to play other instruments, no worries, because probably LearnToPlayMusic.com will have you covered. Just click on their LearnToPlayMusic.com YouTube channel and begin learning!
5. eHow on Playing the Trumpet
Chances are you are already familiar with eHow, the website bent on the herculean task of helping everyone learn everything. That being said, they do have an eHow on beginning with the trumpet, and to my surprise, the lessons are quite well. The website has hired John King, a professional trumpet player and music educator for several trumpet lessons, and it works nicely.
While eHow’s YouTube channel doesn’t provide an easy access to all of John’s very helpful trumpet lessons, a simple search gets (most of) the job done. But don’t worry, we’ve already done it for you, and you can find most of eHow’s trumpet lessons here (click).
Honorable Mentions:
The Trumpet Blog
This is seriously one of the best, and cutest trumpet blogs. While we’re not yet clear on the author’s identity, this blog offers a lot of relevant and insider-ish information on what being a trumpet player is like. Here, you’ll learn of many useful trumpet-hacks, simple tricks that help you improve your trumpeting technique, make you feel more rested or comfortable when playing the trumpet, or just having a good resource on most things trumpet related.
Beginning from August 2010, the Trumpet Blog covers a lot of interesting and ingenious secrets from the secret world of trumpet players. For example, did you know that a soda straw can improve your playing? No? Well visit the Trumpet Blog and find out!
Reddit’s r/trumpet
Pretty self-explanatory – the trumpeting section (or subreddit) of Reddit. With almost 300 million unique users, and half a billion visitors every month, Reddit is one of the best go-to places for any kind of advice or resource you need on a particular topic. If no one else knows the answer to your question, then chances are that someone on the 11th most visited site in the USA, and 25th worldwide, can help you. Without further ado, here’s where you need to go for quick… r/trumpet stuff.
The TrumpetJourney Blog
The world of trumpeting, but from a professional, academic perspective. Authored by Stanley Curtis, an accomplished arranger and composer, and awarded modern and historic trumpeter, the TrumpetJourney is a blog where you can find some more sophisticated information about trumpeting, as well as updates on Mr. Stanley’s trumpeting life, practicing tips, and many interviews with international trumpeters. The blog even has a helpful Trumpet History Timeline section, where you can learn about the history of trumpets at a glance.
The Trumpet Master Forums
As the name would tell you, these are perhaps one of the most active forums online dedicated to all-things trumpets. Registering is free, and it would be foolish not to use the opportunity to harness the power of the Trumpet Master’s hive mind. Plug in, and dive in!
Conclusion
That wraps up our overview on some of the most useful online lessons, and resources, for those beginning with trumpet playing. I hope it was useful to you, reader! Or should I say… trumpet player. If you already aren’t one, rest assured – the resources above will help you become one.
