The fingering for low D is not 1-3

I’m thankful to have a had a caring and demanding teacher when I was young. Dr. Joyce Davis made me sound my best always (more about Dr. Davis in a later post). One of her demands has become a little more salient as I think through motor development: the use of the valve slides. I remember long sessions playing Clarke’s second study in low A major, kicking my 3rd valve slide out for the C#’s and the D’s (at differing lengths, of course). Since then, I’ve never struggled with slide use. In fact, I’ve gotten dinged in a few recording sessions where the rhythmic clanging of my slide being popped in and out has required extra takes (instead of losing socks in the dryer, I lose those little rubber ring things that go on the slides to dampen this sound…I think a ghoul takes them in the night).

The benefits of relying on the slides to tune problematic notes on the trumpet (primarily low D, low C#, first line E, and second space A) are clear. Using your hands to put those notes in tune allows the embouchure and the air to maintain relaxed, efficient motion. If a player needs to “lip down” each of those pitches, they’re working too hard. This complex coordinative effort will also lead to fatigue, inefficiency, and usually, more error. This is why sitting next to musicians that don’t tune well is difficult. Our faces tire trying to adjust. Because there is no danger of the hands ever getting too tired to pull slides out, delegating tuning work to them is a good idea.

The problem lies in how teachers usually introduce this concept. Almost universally*, young students are taught traditional fingerings to these problem notes, and later (usually once the students have developed the sort of perceptual acuity required to hear intonation discrepancies) taught to manipulate the slides.

This does make some sense. Why teach the specifics of slide techniques when the beginner student is not yet playing any note with consistency? Isn’t it simpler just to play D using the index and ring fingers with one hand, rather than adding in the left hand when even the idea of being sharp is beyond the listening skills of the student?

First, and simplest, it’s not hard to have students, even beginners, use the left hand to finger notes while blowing air through an embouchure. This may seem obvious, but if you need evidence, watch a young clarinet player learn to navigate through the throat tones into the clarion register. Watch a beginner oboist (with the option of a left F) navigate the puzzle that comes with the various F fingerings. Brass fingerings are not hard. Yes, there are many coordinative concerns with creating a relaxed, resonant brass tone. And yes, students can learn to incorporate some left-hand movement on top of that. If teachers don’t act as if it’s hard to move some fingers in the left hand, students won’t either. If you build it, they will come.

The second reason is both more important and a little more complex if you dig in: establishing an optimal behavior early in learning is easier than adapting that same behavior later. Further, the longer you wait to change that behavior, the tougher it is to adapt. The science behind this has to do with habit formation, automaticity, and motor programming (and even into deep complexity with dynamic systems analysis, non-linear topography, and attractor states within the movement state space), but is actually pretty easily intuited, as anyone who has undergone an embouchure change can attest.

Habits become habits over time and experience. As actions become associated with rewarding outcomes, they become more likely to happen whether we intend them to or not. This makes changing habits more complex than simply wanting to change habits or even knowing that the habit needs to be changed. If a high school student hasn’t created the habit of playing low D with the slide kicked, learning to create a new motor plan that now includes the left hand isn’t done simply by wanting to kick the slide or hearing that it sounds better when she does. It likely takes hours upon hours of practice (with lots of feedback from the environment and teachers) to create a new, better habit. The effort this takes is noticeably more than the effort it takes to teach a beginner that the fingering for D is 1-3 with the slide kicked out.

That is the fingering for D. 1-3 with the 3rd slide kicked. C# is 1-2-3 with the slide kicked.

For students who do not have instruments with working slides, this presents a more complicated problem about access and equity. Every student should have working instruments.

But for teachers just not accustomed to handling this level of detail early in music-making, start learning. Start trying this with your next class of beginners. Start to be more attentive to it. Be consistent with how you deliver the information and try to be more aware of when your students are using the fingering that will set them up for the most success in the long run, not just what is easiest now.

*there are a few early 20th century method books (like the Claude Gordon method) that teach E and A to be played primarily with the 3rd valve, which is much better for tone and intonation, but problematic for dexterity