I wanted to make a trumpet exercise, Clarke Study #2, more interesting for trumpet students. So I created a play-along video with recorded accompaniment to complement it. I shared the play-along video on Facebook for other trumpet players to try, and to perhaps share it with brass students they may have. It seems to get steady traffic on YouTube for a video targeting a very specific and narrow demographic.



From a Band-in-a-Box standpoint, it's pretty simple... I cycled through a bunch of styles and key changes. And I synced the audio to a video that I made via MuseScore to display scrolling notation.

But things that I think make this play-along useful for trumpet students in isolation:

  • Exercise is ordered for "expanding range" based on the William Adam approach to Clarke studies. Video cycles through a variety of accompaniment styles, including funk groove, wistful modern jazz, rumba, tango, bossa, and others to make play-along more interesting than playing solo or with a metronome.
  • Tempo is set to 115 BPM to ensure students don't zip through the exercise too quickly. Arrangement includes the originally-published repeats and pauses (set at 1 bar rests) to deter taking short-cuts.
  • Opportunity for ear-tuning that comes from playing along with in-tune accompaniment.
  • Notes are displayed and highlighted on screen as the video plays, while a link is available for optionally downloading and printing the exercise.

I thought I'd share it here simply to show a way in which I've used BiaB for a non-standard purpose.

Last edited by satchmo67; 06/03/22 02:04 PM.
Gary Badger
Trumpet Player
http://garybadger.com