Why Trumpet Method Books Alone Won’t Change Your Playing

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So, for 25 years, Mystery to Mastery has been helping brass musicians overcome playing ceilings. And that all came because I’d hit a wall with my own playing and I was so frustrated. It was going to be quit time. Okay. Literally, Greg, you sound great and I wanted to whack people with my trumpet because I could not get to the level where I want to get to. Now I find it curious that and I haven’t done the stats but I would suggest that I don’t know out

of all the trumpet players on the world in the world the smallest percentage make it to the top level most people never play a high C in their whole life. Why? We’ve all got the strength. We’ve all got the ability to do it. So what’s going on? So, as of this week, that T is going to change to a two cuz I feel like this is phase two. 25 years, two books, and I run an online academy on brass playing. And without fail, people go, “I’ve

never heard that before. Why didn’t I know that before?” Quite often when they first hear what I say, they go, “That can’t work.” Until they experience it. And that’s what this video is about. I’m going to cop a lot of grief for saying this, but gloves off. Mystery 2, Mastery, second iteration of what I do. You cannot learn trumpet from a book. And I’ve written two books. Okay? You can’t learn trumpet from a book. You cannot learn to play the trumpet from reading a book. And

everyone will be going, “Well, I did I did this book and did this book and did this book.” And I’ll go, “No, no, no, no. You didn’t learn from playing the book from you didn’t learn from reading the book.” The book is knowledge. It’s information. And unfortunately, there are a lot of methods with a lot of contradictory ideas. Is that to say there’s only one way to play the instrument? Well, kind of. Air through lips, right? But we’ve all got different anatomies, all got different lip

structures and teeth structures and whatever. But at the end of the day, there’s energy flow going through an opening and something vibrates. But that doesn’t mean anything because someone can read 10, 20, or 100 trumpet books. Think about this. You can read a 100 trumpet books. You’re not going to know how to play the trumpet. you’ve got some knowledge as to what you think the body needs to be able to do or what the instrument does maybe. Again, there’s a lot of contradictory ideas out there,

but you still don’t know how to play the trumpet. So, knowledge is the first start of the three sort of elements or pillars, whatever you want to call it, the three parts of learning. knowledge then there’s the integration then there’s the experience okay so let me explain the knowledge comes from obser observation from teachers all that sort of thing from watching people play so we know that we don’t pick it up and o [laughter] we don’t play like that we recognize that we’ve got to pick

the instrument of an upro in our mouth. All right. A 5-year-old kid down the street can figure that out. A 5-year-old kid down the street has the strength to play all over the instrument. Believe it or not, they might not have the conditioning to play a four set gig, but they’ve got the strength at the moment to do it. And this is where everyone comes unstuck. And I see it day in day out. And I’m motivated to do this video right here, right now. after doing

a session for a professional trumpet player in distress. It’s real life stuff. No opinions, no theories. It’s real life experience, research, and I spend my life doing it. So, the problem is breaking down on the gig. Can’t get through the gig. Why? Because we’re not using he’s not using the right muscles in the right way. The human instinct is to get the result at all cost. The number one thing is survival. The caveman doesn’t go, “Oh, what’s the most efficient way to throw the spear to

get the saber-tooth tiger?” He doesn’t get the job done. And unlike pilots, you don’t get a plane, read a couple of books, get in and try stuff, see how you go, and then learn from the crashes. [laughter] You can’t. You got to study. You got to know what exactly what to do. You use simulators and you do lots of training and you get lots of help. Trumpet players and golfers. I’m right into learning golf as well. Just you can go out and buy a trumpet. You

can go buy golf clubs. We should have golf golf club license. [laughter] You got to learn how to drive them first. And trumpet’s the same. You got to learn how to do it first before you’re allowed to put it on your mouth. But we don’t of course we don’t have that. I’m I’m being silly. In a way, we should be able to we should be [clears throat] given some instruction based on what really works so you don’t hit those plateaus. It’s like an organic plateau that

we hit because we learn organically. I don’t I teach proactively and I get people to learn proactively. I’m in charge of my learning. I’m not just going to pick up the trumpet day after day after day after day after day and hope for the best. We don’t do that, right? We’ve got the strength. It’s the sphincta. It’s the avicularis orus. It works in a particular way. And the way that we’re being taught traditionally is the opposite of what it needs to be doing. And I can

explain that. I’m not turning this into a lesson. If you’re interested, come and do. We got a free trial and we’re putting together a little micro course that you can get all this information real quick. Send me an email. Gregmistomastery.com. I’m curious about what you’re saying. Please explain. And I get called snake salesman all the time. Brass playing’s no harder than humming, talking, and singing. You’re gaslighting us. You’re a snake or salesman. Okay. If you’re happy with your playing, having no problems, and you’ve got unlimited

endurance and chops that you want, you play the music that you want, that’s fine. Or you can be a keyboard warrior and get good at that. If you want to be a better trumpet player, you got to understand like a consistent trumpet player, brass player, you need to know what you’re doing. You need to know where you’re breaking down. If you’re breaking down, it’s really simple. So knowledge isn’t the way to learn. Ultimately, the brain learns from the feeling, the experience. It doesn’t know something until

it’s experienced it. Brass playing is no harder than than humming. Okay? Everyone can do it. Then I can hum actively so I can use more energy and I can use the right muscles in the right way to play all over the horn and do it all day long. Most people don’t play like this. So that’s why I spend my time now running the academy doing my [clears throat] uh online material to try and help people overcome the flaws in traditional teaching. I just spoke at the

International Trumpet Guild conference. Why? Because they’re curious. Oh, that sounds interesting. That sounds different. That makes sense. Logic brain goes, “Ah, that makes sense. Hadn’t thought about that before. And this is the biggest stage in the world. I’m going to Rochester next year to talk about this.” We’ve got the knowledge first, which is the big one, where people have resistance. They can’t play the way that they want to, but when I say something, it’s a bit of different contradicting knowledge to what they understand. the defensive

brain kicks into uh the gaslighting snake or salesman thing. That’s okay. Once you get past that and go, “Okay, well, I’m not getting the results that I want. Therefore, I probably need to change my understanding because I know that I’ve got the strength to play what I want to be able to play.” Then it’s the integration of the information that I give. and from running my academy the last few weeks on my Sunday sessions and teaching Tuesdays, people have been in the course for a couple

of years and still not doing it right because I’m not there the whole time and I that’s why I do the Sunday sessions to go right let’s make sure that you’re getting it right. Do you 100% guarantee that you’re doing the process correctly because if you do it correctly it can’t not work and everyone can do it. So now people are after me really hooking in going illusion of competence. Have you got the illusion of competence or are you doing it correctly? If you’re doing it

correctly, you will get the right result. Right? So this integration of correct knowledge, impatience, illusion of competence, all these things I I I yeah, I’m doing it right. until we sit down and do a session, you go, “Ah, I’m not even close to doing it right.” And again, two people last week, and I hear it all the time. Greg, I went back to the LGO stage. I didn’t realize that I’d skipped through so fast and was making so many errors. That’s okay. That’s how we learn.

So, you go back and you do it again and do it again. Do it again. Now, I’ve had this YouTube channel for, you know, 20 years or something. one of the first people ever to put a a uh trumpet educational thing on YouTube. One of the first. And now 20 years later, I’m keener than ever because there’s so much information now. Everyone’s online. That’s fine. What I do is different to every single one of those guys. I guarantee it. And it’s proactive learning, not just picking

up books and playing. Remember, you can’t learn to play trumpet from reading a book or playing an exercise. It’s the experience of the result. The brain learns from the feeling. We should be teaching the feeling of what it feels like to play efficiently from the start, not trying to create the sound from the start. And I know I’m going to make enemies from saying that as well. We don’t learn from the sound. We attach a feeling to the sound and the brain learns the feeling, right?

we can hear it and it can trigger things to go, I know what that note is and there I know the feeling of playing that note. Okay. But if we’re if we’re getting the result and you see it a lot, some great players, very inefficient, but they can make it work. Great. If you’re happy, terrific. You don’t need to change anything. But a lot of pro players, and they’re the ones that I deal with a lot of of the time, is I’m getting the job done,

but I want to kill someone because it’s so hard work. I’m full of doubt, fear, and confusion. I’m not confident. How confident are you that what you want to come out of here is going to come out when you go to play? That’s my question. How confident are you of your intention coming out through the bell? It should be 100%. With the fact, well, 99%. We’re humans. We’re going to But we can’t have doubt about it, fear about it. I never I used to walk on

stage going are the notes going to be there? Am I ready? I don’t know whether I’m going to be able to play this. That’s horrible. Versus put it in front of me. I know what I can play. I’ll sit on stand on stage and do it. Okay. So, we’ve got knowledge. We’ve got the integration where everyone’s impatient or thinking they’re doing it right. They’re not. Then it’s the experience. And when I give you the knowledge, we do the drills and the integration drills to show the

brain the feeling. And then we go from the feeling of the drills to the feeling of the notes. You will either recognize a point of difference or you will do things differently. So that’s the point of difference. and you’ll go, “Oh, I’m I’m overactive when I’m playing.” Versus the drills are very passive at the start and they feel great. Or you’ll play notes that are the best sounding, easiest notes you’ve ever played. I guarantee it. If you’re playing a brass instrument, you haven’t done the MTM,

soon to be M2M because I again it’s it’s the second iteration of it because I’m coming out really calling the flaws in the traditional teaching and the traditional learning processes. I work with people with musicians donia. I work with people that have got motion uh uh issues with their body. I’ve worked with people with Bell’s palsy. It’s sensationbased, knowledgebased feeling to change the brain. And we can get super duper fast results. So you get to the end of the gig and you’re not completely stuffed. You’re

not going to split notes. You’re going to know your music. You’re going to be confident because if you’ve got performance anxiety, that’s doubt. That’s confusion. So we got to show the brain the feeling of not having doubt and confusion. I bet you don’t get nervous when you’re practicing at home in your practice room. So, it’s not a chops issue. It’s not a playing issue. It’s a psychology issue about how to get on the stage. That’s all done by visualization and feeling. Not just visualization, not just

feeling. It’s the visualization of what you’re trying to achieve and the feeling attached to it. The awareness of what you do want and what you don’t want. Last time I got really nervous. Did that feel good? No. Do you want to feel confident? Yes. What does confidence feel like? I don’t know. Well, let’s find out in the practice room and then visualize oursel being on stage and take that feeling onto stage. And if you’ve done your work, you know your material, you play it on at

home, play it on stage. I can’t wait to get on stage. I love my sound. I love the feeling of playing. I love music. I can’t wait for them to hear it. Have you ever said that to yourself before you go into a gig? I cannot wait for them to hear it. Very few people do. The psychology is I hope I don’t this up. No, don’t do that. I love music. I love playing. I love my sound. I can’t wait for people to hear it. So,

if you want to get better at brass, you’re stuck, or you just want to make sure that you’re doing things the best way, visit Mr. mastery.com. Send me an email, greg mysterymastery.com. I know there’s a lot of information out there. A lot of con contradictory conflicting information out there. If you’re still watching now, it means that you want to improve. So, let’s do it. Send me an email. Come across. Check out the website. Now, at the moment, everyone feels like they got to sign up for

a course because we’ve got a three-day trial. I don’t care if you stay for the course or not. I want you to have this information. I want you to do our 10step tuneup. Uh then if you stay, great. I will guide you. Make sure there’s no illusion of competence in 12 months time. You’ll be far better player than what you are now. But I got to make sure you’re doing it right. Integration. But we’re also coming up with a mini course soon. So come in, do

the 7-day trial, see if you like it. If you want to stay, great. If not, you can hang out for the for the miniourse. Uh and buy one of the books, whatever you like. But don’t forget, see my books have videos attached to it and it’s all about the feeling. So, I’m teaching you the feeling by showing you videos and you’re working through the book. But don’t forget, the ink itself, the book itself, isn’t the answer. If you don’t like practicing and watching videos, well, I’m

not for you at all. If you think you know how to play, but you’re not getting the results that you want, you got to be open-minded and prepared to rethink because the feeling’s going to be different, and that is not a pleasant feeling for the brain. So, it takes courage to go, I could possibly be doing things better. I had to think completely differently because I wanted to quit playing. I was over it. I was done. And you ask anyone in Melbourne, uh, when I made

the changes to my plane and the study and the research into the acoustics and the physics, the physiology, the neurology, uh, they’ll tell you that I was at wits end. I was getting the gigs. Greg, you sound great. Hated it. Television, theater, commercials, you name it. Hated it. Done. So, I’m going to shut up now. Come and check out mrdemastery.com. Get through the nonsense. see through. I know there’s a lot of great players putting content on. They’re inspiring. It’s terrific. There’s a lot of ideas about

playing that are just wrong out there. Great players are saying bad things, right, at times. So, be inspired by the players and know that you’re capable of getting the results that you want. You can do it. You just have to figure out if the all strength traditional approach of buzz your lips and blow hard isn’t working. You’ve got to actually figure out how the instrument works, what you need to do. Uh, and if you’re still here watching, that means that you are prepared to learn something

new. So, if you haven’t checked out the MR to mastery approach, I don’t know why [laughter] because it’s different, but you’ll really enjoy it. You’ll feel the difference. You will feel the difference. everyone that I talk to, and I’m talking big-time pros. I’ve never heard that before. That’s the opposite I was ever taught. Yeah. Terrific. Great. Let’s get into it. So, Greg atmaster.com. Goodbye. Have a great day. Happy playing. And [clears throat] if you want some snake oil, [laughter] send me an email. I don’t have

any, but I’ll try and get some made up. Hilarious. All right, guys. Um, happy playing. All I’m trying to do is help people get better at their instruments. Okay. All the best. Take care.